Ted Ed

What is it?

Having spawned from the hugely popular TED which is based on innovation and spreading ideas, Ted Ed is an education platform which enables teachers to amplify and expand their thoughts on a global scale. It contains 5 stages called Watch, Think, Dig Deeper, Discuss and Finally, which can be implemented or ignored at the teachers’ convenience. Here's some I made earlier:

How?

As a teacher wanting to incorporate Ted Ed into your classroom, you have two options: to use a video stored on the sites archives, or create your own lesson.

With reference to the former, there are thousands of ready-made, useful, and engaging lessons for teachers to utilise and search for at their perusal. There is a wide range of levels covering primary up to University, and subjects ranging from Psychology to Social Studies.

As for the latter, it really is easy as pie to create your own Ted Ed lesson. This video shows how to do it:

Why?

• Basing a lesson around a video (whether you’ve uploaded it from Youtube, or created one yourself) will engage students from the outset, and contain a context which will hopefully induce learning.

• You can log in through Facebook, or set up a TED account in minutes. Oh and by the way, it’s free!

• It’s exceedingly simple, straightforward and manageable for students of all ages and levels.

• For the teacher, it isn’t very time consuming to make and it’s stored permanently in your area.

• You can give instant feedback to your students on the multiple choice questions in the Think section, and review their work in other parts, therefore as a teacher you can keep tabs on student progress. There is also a space for students to respond to this feedback if they require more clarification, or if they just want to contest it!

• The Discuss section allows the teacher to create discussions based on the lesson focus, aims and objectives. They can be guided or open, which doesn't only aid teachers and students but helps to connect the vast community to each other.

Why not?

• You can’t embed other tools into Ted Ed (such as Kahoot which was reviewed in January on this blog).

• The Think section only allows you to use 2 types of question (multiple choice or open).

• There is only one framework available which could potentially lead to de-motivation or complacency if overused.

Teaching context?

• Could be used as part of a flipped classroom, with the video being viewed before class then the activities done in-class. For example, the Dig Deeper questions could be used to tie in the external, online work back into the classroom. 

• Or alternatively a Ted Ed could be the whole focus of the lesson in a face to face environment. By putting students into groups, teachers would be encouraging collaborative and cooperative learning.

• It could also be set as homework, which would most definitely aid the quieter students in the class as it’d enable them to work at their own pace.

• You could hand over autonomy to your students by asking them to create their own video/lesson, and asking other students to complete it. This would actually be a really innovative and hugely powerful way of encouraging your students to become proactive outside the classroom, as well encouraging them to gain presentation literacy prowess.

Final thought

Here is a webinar I presented about Ted Ed (from 30 minutes – 60minutes) so feel free to check it out:

http://bit.ly/1M2rW1q

Introducing WebQuests

A Complete Overview – The 5W’s and 1H

What

A WebQuest (WQ) is drawn from the internet, which is designed by teachers before a lesson, and it asks students to show high level thinking, progress their understanding and transform ideas in order to complete a task. They’re created using a number of different programmes such as Microsoft office which includes links to various websites online.

The structure of a WQ can differ due to time constraints, teaching context, culture, or one’s own individualism, yet the general consensus on QuestGarden seems to imply that a WQ contains 6 essential stages:

• Introduction – A brief presentation of the focus/task

• Task – A full and formal outline of what the students will be doing

• Process – A step by step break down of what the students are expected to perform, with examples and demonstrations, if necessary, to consolidate or clarify understanding

• Evaluation – A systematic model of assessment criteria

• Conclusion – Reflection, and possibly further discussion of extension activities

• Credits – Acknowledgements, author biography and permissions

A task focus can range from writing persuasive messages to policy briefings, or from creating travel plans to implementing genre analysis. Therefore the teacher can be as zany or wacky as they wish, but like any other task, they should always keep in mind lesson objectives and student goals.

An Example

There is already a wealth of resources on the web for teachers to use and modify. It's fine to adapt WQ's, but you should always recognise the original author/creator at the top of the page.

In terms of making WQ's, become a member and follow the on screen instructions. There is a really useful rubric which tells you exactly what you have to do, every step of the way. And it even stops you at different intervals in the creation process by asking if you're sticking to your aims and objectives...

Where

This a classroom-based concept, which is carried out online. However, as it's all online you could encourage students to proceed with their WQ at home, or during their own time for homework.

Who

Students are expected to show high order thinking when faced with WQ’s. Bloom's taxonomy (Krathwohl,2002,p.212) probably best describes who such a task is aimed at and what it requires – the upper levels (analysis, synthesis and evaluation) should all be shown – therefore huge emphasis is put on students being critical, analytical and hopefully creative! Most tasks predominantly involve group work, with various roles being split between members. If you have multi-levelled classes then it is probably best to team up the weaker students with stronger students to encourage peer learning, and collaboration.

Why

There are many reasons why teachers should incorporate WQ’s into their classrooms:

• It gets students engaged in notions and concepts which require higher level thinking. This criticality and analytical cognitive processing helps progress language learning.

• The resources are given to students therefore this avoids them searching for information online; where they could quite easily copy and paste useless information and not internalise the required aims.

• Authentic, genuine, and every day topics of focus are usually designed by teachers to avoid tasks being artificial, like so many mundane classroom activities…

• Giving students roles will help them to personalise and really embrace the activity. If there were weaker students in the class, you could assign the less taxing roles to those students. 

• Can be used to introduce, conclude or consolidate a topic/unit.

• Motivation tool to encourage independent reasoning and autonomy.

• Makes students more aware of, and to intensify their use of, technology in the classroom. Ultimately this will give them a very real and practical advantage over others.

• Encourages cooperative and collaborative learning through group projects. Getting students to co-construct knowledge and negotiate meaning are key pillars of language learning.

• Once groups have finished their WQ's you could get them to present what they've discovered to the group. Not only does this build confidence, but reflects everyday authenticity which is linked to the outside world.

• Offers students inspiration to go and create their own WQ’s, and be autonomous.

Why not?

• Clearly WQ's rely on the internet so make sure you have a secure connection.

• Not everyone is ICT savvy so training and patience is required.

• They’re not appropriate for every learning aim, so they could potentially be used sparingly to keep it fresh and novel.

• They necessitate competent reading skills so possibly not suitable for young/lower level learners, but teachers can simplify concepts and grade language to fit their students’ needs

How?

Get yourself to QuestGarden!

Check out the resources, examples and tutorials on their website. They offer a free 30-day trial, and once you're hooked you can sign up to a 2-year subscription for only $20. Watch the first video here, and the proceeding three for further information.

When?

Now! Create a WQ and send your students on a quest of the web that they’ll never forget.