A few months ago, I posted a lesson plan called Do and Make collocations. The activity involves using Google to investigate frequencies of collocation pairs - this sort of thing:
The use of search engines to investigate English is a quite a well-established practice. Google, for example, is often consulted for quick reference by the the writers at Language Log. In this article, Michael Rundell refers to the search engine as the Biggest Corpus of All. And for anyone interested in more ideas, here is an article I wrote a while back called Google Fighting in the Classroom.
But of course, as with any resource, technique or tool that we use in the classroom, student enthusiasm will be divided: Some will like it. Others won’t.
Anyway, it was very interesting to hear from a fellow teacher who seems to have lost his job after a discussion on the merits of Google fights. He wrote:
Hello Jamie
I’m not sure if I should mention this to you but I have a pretty funny story about one of your lesson plans. I used the Do and make collocations lesson plan recently. Personally, I think that the idea of using Google to investigate English is very valid. In fact, my Spanish girlfriend, who is an English learner, often uses it when she has any doubts. But I was using the lesson with the German boss at my school. He hated the idea and said that it had no value. Being that he prides his school on progressiveness, I told him that I thought he was wrong. Well, as you can imagine he hasn’t renewed my contract this year.
What amazes me is the boss is constantly babbling on about innovation in learning and they drilled this into me at the interview stage. It does raise some interesting questions regarding innovation and technology in teaching:
Does having a projector in a room make for cutting edge teaching if you’re just going to look at the BBC website? It’s exactly the same as a handout.
It’s obvious that companies like that are just using tech as window dressing to get the students in, then not bothering to at least to experiment or have an open mind. Or, they’ve just completely missed the point themselves.
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If anyone else has been fired as a result of one of my lesson plans, I would love to hear about it.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Sabridv // Oct 15, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I haven’t been fired but I think that the question posed in the email gives a lot of food for thought “Does having a projector in a room make for cutting edge teaching if you’re just going to look at the BBC website? It’s exactly the same as a handout.” Sometimes innovation in education takes place with just a few elements. I live in Argentina and we don’t have a lot of money in our budget for getting resources and sometimes the lack of resources sparks our imagination and we do innovative things to compensate our lack. I love using technology in the classroom but I know that not in all the settings where I teach I have the latest resources. In public schools sometimes I have access to only one computer and it is extremely slow. In spite of that, I try to do my lessons as innovative as possible. Sometimes not having the cutting edge technology, makes the lessons more creative and innovative ( a paradox really). I don’t know if I’ve been clear enough… let’s hope yes.
2 admin // Oct 15, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Makes perfect sense to me Sabrina
I am absolutely with you. A lack of resources can certainly bring out innovation and creativity in the classroom.
And like you (I think), I also get very inspired by online materials, resources, communication channels and the possibilities that they offer in the classroom when we are lucky enough to have them.
Most of all, I like a combination of the two.
I wonder what you think of he term ‘cutting edge’. I couldn’t imagine any good teacher who uses technology well describing his/her approach as being ‘cutting edge’. It’s a bit of a marketer’s term I suppose. And it leaves me cold (I think the same applies to D - the teacher who wrote the above email to me).
The Internet is not cutting edge. It’s not even new technology - not if you are 16 years old that is. Perhaps that is what D’s boss had a problem with. Perhaps he thought that using Google to investigate language is a passé approach.
3 Sabridv // Oct 15, 2009 at 4:28 pm
You are right Jamie. I haven’t thought about the term but now that you mention it you are right. Using new technologies to teach is not cutting edge at all. The internet has been with us for a long time. Our students in general know a lot about these so called “new” technologies and sometimes they know even more than us. That’s why it is sometimes said that we are in a flat classroom. But that’s another story. I think that the main point is that our lessons should be interesting and effective for the students we teach. Technology is just another tool that we can use, a great one! but not the only one we have.
4 admin // Oct 15, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Course books can be Cutting Edge too, let’s not forget!
=)
5 Neal Chambers // Oct 16, 2009 at 2:17 am
I agree with the use of technology in the classroom. Sometimes teachers can get a little over enthusiastic about the use of technology. And sometimes tech can be used ‘just for show’ like the case of having a projector to just show the BBC website. However, the base level of technology is slowly rising, what I mean is that the level of technology that everyone knows and needs to know is slowly rising over time.
Tech can be used in the classroom without computers and actual electronics being present. You (the teacher) can use the internet to do research on your own, connect with others and work collaboratively on the projects. I teach with absolutely no tech in the classroom, but the internet is invaluable because of all the ideas I can get from other bloggers and teachers.
6 anne // Oct 16, 2009 at 6:38 am
I’d like to ask the email writer what his boss took issue to exactly. I’m not sure I understand: Was it the quality of results Google provides as opposed, say, to corpus linguistics? Or was he less than thrilled that they were “surfing”? It would be interesting to hear what the boss considers progressive teaching methodology, to assess his learning/teaching style. These are indeed important issues to get straight with an employer. We all gotta work
7 Daniel Beizsley // Oct 16, 2009 at 10:22 am
Hi guys…
It was me that sent the original email to Jamie and I guess I ought to wade in…
Sabridy - The class that I referred to is pretty much the only class where I have been given a computer, a projector and been told to use them in every class. 99% of my classes involve some students, a whiteboard and myself.
I really like your paradox and I think it’s completely true. In fact, when I go to language classes this is the way I personally prefer to learn. As someone said, we have to work and pay the rent so it’s useful to be able to swap from one to other depending on where employment is. It’s very precarious work.
Anne -
What my boss couldn’t get his head around was how to interpret the numbers. For example, If i did a search for “do a wish” and “make a wish” I would find that there would be 500 for “do” and over 5 million for “make.” To me that is pretty conclusive evidence but my boss didn’t undestand where the 500 “do a wish” came from.
To me, using this sort of data is not about absolutes, there needs to be an interpretation from the user aswell.
The boss like the idea of computers (he paid the money to put them there) but what he really liked was reading the Financial Times and marvelling at his second rate bedroom projector. Hahah, does that sound bitter?!?
I was told when I started working in the centre, that there was to be a strict plan for each 1.5 hour session. First half an hour was review the day’s news (with the projector!) then continue working from Market Leader for the remainder. What is obvious is that the boss grew tired of his OWN methodology.
I think that’s enough for now…
8 anne // Oct 17, 2009 at 2:59 am
Unbelievable. OK, that nails it. There’s plenty of ignorance in the world, and if we can’t love ‘em, we have to leave ‘em. Daniel, there are lots of fish in the sea for a teacher like you. Keep on truckin’!
9 Sabridv // Oct 18, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Neal you are totally right. I haven’t thought about that “part” of using technology. I love learning from my PLN, I have got plenty of ideas. Thanks for reminding me.
Anne you are right too. There’s plenty of ignorance in the world, and the worst part is that all the “ignorant” ones believe they have “the truth revealed”
Very interesting discussion, thanks Jamie for starting it.
10 admin // Oct 19, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Thanks everyone for the comments and thanks Daniel for the story.
Daniel tells me that he had no problem finding a new job so at least I can relax (my lesson plan started it, don’t forget!)
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12 Joe // Nov 20, 2009 at 4:25 am
I have no problem with this kind of lesson plan once in a while, but I can see why Daniel’s boss might not be in favor of it. First, teaching discrete language points is the approach so often used in traditional grammar-based classes. Second, students can search for collocations on their own. Why spend class time on such an activity?
Many teachers, myself included, prefer to teach “whole language”, such as that found in the Financial Times or the BBC. Of course, how we use that language is important. If we simply turn on a video at the beginning of the class and turn it off at the end, there’s little value, but if we initiate discussion or debate using video or news, or have students work out the meaning of vocabulary using various strategies we’ve learned in previous classes, then something like the BBC is FAR better than a handout.
13 admin // Nov 22, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Hello Joe
Your thoughts are compatible with mine.
The lesson plan mentioned above *is* intended as a ‘once in while’ activity.
Importantly, when I use it, my aim is to demonstrate the technique of using the Internet for linguistic investigation to my students. This in turn equips them with a powerful tool. Then they can search for collocations on their own, in their own time.
Jamie
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