Research into Action

Have you read those PLN promotion blogs? You know, the one where a science teacher whose students are learning about the atmosphere talks about how easy it is to reach out to her PLN to find an astronaut who can answer her students’ questions (LIVE!)  about her last trip to outer space?

Man, did those blogs ever make me overconfident, reaching out to a savvy crew of bloggers who have recently published articles about google hangouts in the classroom to see if they’d like to hang out with ME to talk some more about it… I didn’t hear back from anyone!

I’m happy to say that while my attempts at google hangouts have had mixed results (on a positive note – thanks to last night’s flipped learning crew who checked in about their action plans!) my students are participating in a greater variety of oral communication activities both in class and at home, through the use of the iPad, voicethread and audacity for oral production activities. I haven’t set up as many spontaneous oral communication opportunities outside of class, where google hangouts would be a natural fit. I didn’t want to use google hangout just for the sake of using google hangout, as per Garth’s advice. As mentioned in my last post, there are some amazing opportunities to connect students’ in-class learning with the outside world (i.e. the Centre Pompidou during our Modern Art unit, a volunteer translator who assists doctors with Médecins Sans Frontières to highlight global challenges), and now it’s a matter of setting up those opportunities in my future planning, when this is a great opportunity to enhance learning.

I’ve concluded that students need to feel comfortable using technology to facilitate spontaneous conversations in class before I send them off to use it on their own. So far, other forms of technology trump google hangouts to serve this purpose. For example, in my Grade 11 class students are in the assessment for learning stage of preparing for a final task which involves giving tours of nearby Toronto neighbourhoods to new francophone Canadians (and their classmates).

Students gave mini-tours of a specific part of the school campus, and I recorded them using an iPad and played some back for the class to review what their presentations sounded like with no, little or considerable preparation.

To research what an ideal tour of a Canadian city involves and practice spontaneous communication at the same time, I had students think of questions and participate in a live online chat with an operator from Bonjour Québec, a free online travel information service. First, a student volunteer typed their questions about visiting Montreal, which appeared on the Smartboard for the class to see, along with instant replies from an operator. Then, an even braver student volunteer called 1-877-BONJOUR to speak live with a representative about an ideal day in Québec City.

Eventually, I’d love to do a live stream of our Toronto tours (or have links to youTube videos of the tours) to increase our audience outreach, such as e-pal connections or other students from French-speaking countries. It would also be great to partner up with CIS language classes outside of Toronto who might enjoy collaborating on a community profile project. This is the kind of moonshot thinking I was hoping to achieve this year but feel I’m falling too far behind to implement something in a well thought-out, organized manner. I’m also worried that privacy concerns might limit my capacity in this regard.

Do you have any ideas about how a class outreach activity might help my students prepare for or de-brief their neighbourhood tours and/or make cultural comparisons using google hangouts or something similar to facilitate this collaboration? It would be great to hear someone else’s perspective!