The Summary of iTell Conference 2018: Call & Mall to Enhance Thinking Skill

iTell Conference 2018

"CALL& MALL to Enhance Thinking Skills"

Surakarta, March13th-14th, 2018

A. KEYNOTE SPEAKER

1. “CALL & MALL to Enhance The Thinking Process”

The keynote speaker of the conference is Dr. Gumawang Jati, M.A from ITB Bandung. His interest in applying technology tools for language learning indeed motivated the participants to be more technological literate, and engage with the millennial students. This is essential since the way teacher teaches in classroom influence students’ interest and motivation in learning. For example, students can practice listening not only from the recording in CD-RW but also other ways such as using smart phone applications, such as iTunes. It is more effective and efficient.

To improve students’ skills teacher also can look at teaching and learning resources from other tools instead of only books, for example, www.elllo.org, www.youtube.com, www.hotpotatoes.com,  www.breakingnewenglish.com, www.teachingkidsnews.com, www.learningenglishteens.britishcouncil.com, etc. In addition, there are some authoring tools we can use for interactive learning such as www.kahoot.com, www.edpuzzle.com, www.onlinequizcreator.com,  etc., and the creation tools for thinking skills such as www.padlet.com, www.writereadthink.org, www.canva.com, www.screencast-o-matic.com etc.

Learning through media can also enhance students’ critical thinking and creativity. They can develop their interest and talent not just limited in classroom activities. It helps students’ get the better understanding about the materials. But still, such webs are just tools for improving students’ skills, and it is suggested that such tools are used at home not in classroom since they spend much time, and they cannot substitute the role of teacher in the classroom.

Talking about the technology for learning there is Artificial Intelligence (AI). This can help us do our work easily, for example, www.integralcalculator.com, Siri (IOS), Robin(android), Orai, www.analyze.academichelp.net, www.essay-grader.com, www.lessonwriter.com, etc. However, we cannot fully hand the responsibility over them. Teachers’ role in the classroom must be bigger than them. 

The speaker really amazed me. He delivered the material casually but easy to understand. In his age, he is aware of technology more than most participants younger than him. His eager to always learn new things opened my mind to always follow the technological development.

B. PLENARY SPEAKERS

1. “TPACK, The Concept and Practice in the Classroom”

Dr. Nur Arifah Drajati, or I, her student, call her Ma’am Arifah, is another inspiring presenter who made me realized that technology can help us in teaching learning process. From her, I know about TPACK (Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge). This is the new thing that I am interested in. 

TPACK is a framework for teacher to conduct the class in more effective way. TPACK is the newest version after PCK in which it is expected that teachers are not only aware of what they know about the materials and the way they teach in classroom, but also how technology is used to help students’ reach their learning objectives.

Applying ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in the classroom is one way to engage with students of 21^st century who are familiar with technology in their everyday life. They may feel bored and less interested in the material if the class is conducted in traditional way. Here, technology has the strong influence in helping teachers develop the teaching tools. For example, in teaching writing teachers ask students to watch a video on Youtube about a topic. Then, students research the web, create concept maps, and create digital stories. The activity is effective and can improve students’ critical think and creativity without limit. TPACK is beneficial for both students and teachers since it promotes the active, authentic, and collaborative learning. This also supports teachers to have varieties in using technology in classroom.

In talking about TPACK, Ma’am Arifah made me realize that I am as a teacher will be must be aware of TPACK in teaching students of 21^st century since this kind of framework is suitable for todays' learning.

2. Cyber Bullying & Child Protection

The second plenary speaker is Riezky Novyana. He is from British Council. The presentation was talking about the impacts of internet use. Nowadays the internet rapidly grows in all aspects of life, and the user is almost all ages from the children to the adult. Even it is predicted that in 2020 the number of internet connected devices is bigger than the population. The power of internet massively gives impacts for its users, and it created the digital footprint (a trail of data we create while using the internet), so every kind of our activity in the internet recorded well, and the data is forever and cannot be deleted. Therefore, we must be wise in using the internet since the poor digital footprint will be impacting on some aspects like not being able to work in some professions, unable to obtain travel visa to some countries, and being known to the police. 

The unwise use of internet also faces by children. They, who are lack of parents’ caretaking, sometimes use the internet freely. One of activities in the internet is social media. Actually they want to have self-actualization, self-esteem, love and belonging, safety needs, and physiological needs from family. It is apprehensive that they use social media takes their time more than having direct interaction with people in society. through social media, they can communicate with everyone all around the world. It is feared that such things will endanger their safety. Due to the activity, some crime happens such as kidnapping, sexual abuse, fraud, and others. The most popular problem is about cyber bullying. This case seems to be trivial but it can destroy children's self-confidence and even lead them to do bad thing such as suicide because what users post in the internet everyone as their follower can take it, and it cannot be deleted if they have downloaded it, so they can share the photo or info to everyone. It can improve the social abuse and other crimes, so parents must be aware of children using their own gadget.

C. WORKSHOP

1. Kahoot: Bring the Fun into the Classroom

The first workshop I followed was delivered by Grace Nathalia Clara Sabandar & Yessy Zakaria. They introduced a game-based learning platform, Kahoot, used as educational technology in classrooms and other learning institutions. The company was launched in August 2013 in Norway. The game platform can be used to review students knowledge, for formative assessment or as a break from traditional classroom activities.

Teachers should develop the technological skill since there is age gap between them and students. In addition, students nowadays need learning activities which increase their fun, challenge, fantasy, and curiosity, so Kahoot here is highly recommended. 

2.      A Small Step to Unpacking Students’ Design Thinking Skill in Language Classes

The second workshop is delivered by Mr. Gumawang Jati and Ms. Finita dewi. The amazing presenters that have many ideas about technology for learning. In their workshop, they explained and practiced unpacking thinking skills with partcipants as students. in designing thinking skill, the first step they did is playing the video about a topic, asking the participants to brainstorm the ideas in group (make a tagline and some information about it), create the draft, post the result on Padlet, make the design of poster, share and get feedback from other group, and present the digital poster. Along with the technological use, we were asked to create the poster using the www.canva.com. This made us easy to make the design and share to others.

D.      Parallel Session

1.      Paulus Widiatmoko

“EFL Teacher’ Cognition on ICT: Relevance for Training and Professional Development”

This first presentation on iTell 2018 is super good in which the presenter told so many applications and websites for supporting learning activities. He stated that learning English should not always in the lab room. We can use mobile phone everywhere everytime through some free applications. Through such way, students can also take some benefits like improve their learning interest, creativity, etc.

2.      Ayu Astriani

“Integrating Video Blog in EFL Class for Teaching Speaking”

The presenter conducted research using blended learning in 4 weeks, 1 meeting for each week, so there were 4 meetings. After each meeting students are asked to make a video blog about the material they got or activity they did. The presenter found that students' fluency in speaking was improves through this technique. It indeed brought change to their speaking ability especially the fluency.

3.         Eny Kusumawati

“The Effect of Watching English Movies with Subtitles on ESP Students’ Content and Vocabulary Comprehension. A Study Conducted at an Indonesian Polytechnic Engineering”

In the paper, the presenter conducted a research in Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya with the sample of students as many as 56 students of 5^th semester in intermediate English proficiency level divided into 2 groups, experimental and control group. The data were collected through questionnaire to check students’ attitude toward the method, and quiz to check their English comprehension. There is pre-test and post-test for both groups. Both groups showed enthusiastic comprehension about the movie as their media for vocabulary comprehension. Both groups have significant development on movies’ vocabulary. But unfortunately, it did not follow with the comprehension, according to the statistical calculation, it proofed that the students’ comprehension did not develop as the other variables.

E. Conclusion

The conference is totally great. It greatly opened my mind to be the real millennial and to be able to use technology for learning tools. 21^st century students need such things so they are not only comprehend in English as material taught but also have other skills needed in 21^st century such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. The use of ICT in classroom still have less attention of teachers of ELT who are still using the traditional method, so it needs to be popularize so that English can be a joyful subject for students.

F. Documentation

The City Magazine

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the City

Digital Technologies for English Language Teaching

Today's era, technology is a very important thing. Almost all areas of life using technologies, such as in education, politics, economics, and more. In world trade, for example, sellers can sell their merchandise through the online shop. In the world of transportation, we can book train tickets, bus, plane through the online system. This has been clear that the technology makes people  easy in all fields. Therefore,  as a teacher, I suggest that we should take advantage of this situation that benefits technology can be a tool in the learning process, especially for English teachers.
Technology can be a great asset for teachers in ESL classes since it offers the authentic writing activities and resources on an endless grammar instruction, lesson plans, and other topics. This facility is balanced with the ability of teachers and students to use computers, tablets and other gadgets. It also can interact and motivate student activities and also make lessons more interesting and attractive. Teachers can use this application to support their teaching process.
1. Film and video,
2. Application in iPad,
3. Travel Sector Digital> or virtual field trips are guided through the exploration world wide web web page that organizes a collection of pre-screened, thematically based into structured online learning experience.
4. Podcasts> podcast is a form of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, digital radio, PDF or ePub files subscribed to and automatically downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device.
5. Pen Pal> are the people who regularly write to each other, especially through the mail.
6. Web Quests> A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all of the information that learners work with comes from the web. It can be made using a variety of programs, including a simple word processing document that includes a link to the website.
7. Game online,
8. Blogging,
9. Skype> Skype is an application that provides video chat and voice calling services.
and other sources

Instructions with Technologies for Middle School Classrooms

Technology is very much part of language learning throughout the world at all different levels. It is very useful to the primary sector as much as in adult education. In middle classroom, technologies are ideally placed to help teachers working with learners, and learners working independently, to do the necessary ‘languaging’ that makes their language development possible. By technology, students are able to go through a process of creating and re-creating text until it is fully comprehensible to others and is accurate. Students can also create a draft, show it to others and, based on feedback, can make changes to improve the text. The tools can also help students by showing that the spelling or grammar needs work, too. Technology makes this much easier, and makes it more likely that learners will engage with the editing process to produce the highest-quality text that they can. This writing can then be displayed for others to look at and comment on.

Another area that technology supports very effectively is project work. Getting learners to do work about topics that are of interest to them, or topics that are taught in other parts of the curriculum is a great way to improve their skills. Technology makes this possible wherever you are in the world. Teachers and learners can go online to read or listen to material about different areas of interest, and can then write or speak about what they have discovered, telling others in the class or other classes elsewhere in the world.

Online Social Media Applications for Language Teaching and Learning

Online Social Media Application in Language Teaching

Recently, the use of online social media application for language teaching and learning has increase rapidly. Social Media, the so-called Social Network as referred to in the relationship among users, are growing types of digital media. They emerge in various forms that bring people together as communities. The Social Media have played vital role for decades. The statistics show that about 20.6 million out of 66.7 million the Social Media has already been integrated into an informal education system.

Social media applications create a new community where teachers and students do not have to communicate by means of the traditional face-to-face classroom environment. The brand-new changing way of teaching-learning environment definitely brings many impacts. Obviously, in terms of language learning, online classrooms have a single most important benefit over the traditional ones: native instructors. Though grammatical rules and basic vocabulary can be learnt from a non-native speaker very well, for natural speaking skills, presence of a native instructor is a most valuable thing.

As real-life communication is largely different from what students see in books, the online space and real foreign people can actually do much for student’s language proficiency improvement. Constant availability of social and language networks, as well as their general efficiency, drive learners into their simple web interfaces where there’s always somebody waiting to meet a new friend. 

Personally, I have used facebook and edmodo as online media in learning. They are very useful, especially to submit and check students’ work when learning process can not conduct in face-to-face. By those online media, teacher can not only check students’ assignment but also give them feedback directly. They are really helpful.

Blended Learning

Blended Learning

Blended learning is a learning methodology that using the way e-learning is being combined with traditional classroom methods and independent study to create a new, integrative teaching methodology. In other words, blended learning is a learning method which mix the traditional and online method. It has three primary components:

• In-person classroom activities facilitated by a trained educator.
• Online learning materials, often including pre-recorded lectures.
• Structured independent study time guided by the material in the lectures and skills developed during the classroom experience.

In traditional education, teacher gives material by the way of a lecture, while in a blended learning model lectures can be videotaped ahead of time, so the student can watch on their own time. The classroom time is more likely to be for structured exercises that emphasize the application of the curriculum to solve problems or work through tasks.

In blended learning, teacher acts as facilitator while students are more active because they can control over time, place, path, or pace. The facilitator support students with the skills and knowledge required to make the most of the online material and independent study time, guiding students toward the most meaningful experience possible. Facilitators focus on four key areas:

• Development of online and offline course content.
• Facilitation of communication with and among students, including the pedagogy of communicating content online without the contextual clues students would get in person.
• Guiding the learning experience of individual students, and customizing material wherever possible to strengthen the learning experience.
• Assessment and grading, not unlike the expectations for teachers within the traditional framework.

Blended learning can be grouped into six models:

1.      Face-to-face driver

Here, teacher delivers most of the curriculum. A physical teacher employs online learning in a technology lab or the back of the classroom.

2.      Online lab

In a brick-and-mortar location, an online platform delivers the entire course. Often, students who participate in an online lab program also take traditional courses.

3.      Rotation

In learning process, when students are given a course, they rotate on a fixed schedule between self-paced online learning and sitting in a classroom with face-to-face teacher.

4.      Self-blend

Here, students independently choose to take remote online courses to support their school’s traditional curriculum.

5.      Flex

In small group session, teacher provides on-site, as-needed support through in-person tutoring. An online platform delivers most of the curriculum.

6.      Online driver

Students work remotely and face-to-face check-in are either available or mandatory.

There are some advantages of applying Blended Learning in classroom because it provides:

1.      Integrated system

2.      High-quality dynamic content

3.      Analytics

4.      Automation

5.      Application that enhance students’ motivation

Global Education Network

Globalization era in the 21st century requires people to connect globally. The most effective and efficient way to be connected with people around the world is using technology. Technology has important roles in all fields including economic, political, social, and even education. In education, technology which is applied correctly will be very helpful because of advances in technology provide opportunities for people lives in remote areas in order to obtain the information, knowledge, and well-connected with people around the world.

Technology has big contributions in education development through the global education system. New technologies provide ways to overcome the traditional barriers to global education and language learning. In global education system, teachers are using technology in their instruction to address global and multicultural education. Technology also can be instrumental in creating a global learning experiences because technology has the power to breakdown geographical, economical, language, and time-zone barriers. With technology, the learning process can be conducted everywhere, for example, we can gather around a screen in a small town and connect with a classroom in other city. It is quite effective and efficient. Moreover, a significant benefit to instant global communications is that students can improve their language skills through student-to-student conversations regardless of where they live. Therefore, teachers should technological literacy and creative in utilizing technological advances, in addition to supporting students' learning process, as well as to expand its relationship with people all over the world.