ABSTRACT - Universitas Brawijayafib.ub.ac.id/iconlaterals/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Ida-Puji-Lestari.pdf · Ida Puji Lestari Universitas Brawijaya, Faculty of Cultural Studies Malang,

Proceedings of International Conference on Language, Literary and Cultural Studies (ICON LATERALS) 2016

Widyaloka Auditorium, Universitas Brawijaya, Jl. Veteran, Malang, 29 October 2016

361

DOI:10.217716/ub.icon_laterals.2016.001.1.23

Introducing Blendspace for English Language Teaching (ELT)

Ida Puji Lestari

Universitas Brawijaya, Faculty of Cultural Studies

Malang, East Java, Indonesia

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Teaching and learning is part of educational process in getting information and

knowledge. It can be done formal and informal way. Since the traditional method used

in teaching, sometimes, makes students and learners feel bored, many teachers and

lecturers attempt to find solution to cope with this situation, especially in ELT. The

role of teachers and lecturers as facilitators and educators encourage them to create

two ways communication in teaching languages. They try to integrate the use of

technology with the materials for ELT to make the teaching and learning process

becomes more interesting and interactive. Based on the review of literature, a

workshop for English teachers and lecturers was undertaken. The workshop involved

11 Postgraduate students who have already become English lecturers in their

institutions. The presenter spent one hour presentation to introduce blendspace and

asked them to connect their laptops with internet during workshop. Then, the presenter

gave models or examples of two lessons presented by using blendspace. After

workshop, the presenter assigned them individually to make their lesson by using

blendspace application.

KEYWORD: Teaching, learning, blendspace, workshop,

In fact, technology becomes more and more popular in our daily lives. We

cannot avoid the use of technology in modern era because its role influence our way

of thinking and support the information that is rapidly growth day by day, especially

in education field. It has been stated in the textbooks (e.g., Arnó Macià, E 2012;

Alvine, 2000; Bates, 2005; Dudeney 2012) that technology,education, and language

are interlinked one to another. Related to innovation to learn technology in ELT, one

of theEnglish textbook writers states that “In this early part of the 21st century the

mailto:[email protected]



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range of technologies available for use in language learning and teaching has become

very diverse and the ways that they are being used in classrooms all over the world

have become central to language practice,” (Moterram, 2013: 5).

It is also supported by the study that is conducted by Sabzian and Gilakjani

(2013). They reveal the benefits of the incorporation of technology into the classroom,

elaborate successful technology integration into the classroom, discuss factors

contributing to teachers use of technology, teachers use of learning theories, examine

constructivist perspective, and investigate constructivism as a structure of educational

technology. In conclusion, the technology utilized in the classrooms based on the

constructivist method, students are engaged in activities that they can structure the

instruction to satisfy various levels and methods of learning. They also can extend the

variety of resources which are presented to students. This allows the technology to be

more than one method of offering information. Technology then becomes the method

through which information is depicted and realized.

Other research done in ICT that is connected with language teaching(e.g.,

Judson, E. 2006; Liu, M., & Huo, H. (2007); Bates, 2005; Sabzian, Fauziah and

Gilakjani, A.P. 2013), they state the beneficial impact of using technology in language

teaching classroom towards students. Therefore, the writer or the preseant researcher

attempt to insert the use of ICT in English Language Teaching as the solution in

creating an interesting situation because some students feel bored with traditional or

conventional teaching method.

A lot of applications in internet that can help teachers in finding alternative

media to deliver the lessons for their students. One of the alternatives is Blendspace.

It is an internet-based technology application and it is an easy-to-use platform for

creating multimedia lessons that kids can access online by using a drag-and-drop



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interface. We can organize videos, text, links, images, and quizzes into cubes, then

organize them to create lessons, or "canvases, " for our students to complete

independently. Content can be pulled from YouTube, Google, Flickr, and other online

sources, as well as your own computer, Dropbox, or Google Drive.

In other words, Blenspace is a tool which purpose is to facilitate the creation

of classroom meterial in a digital way, in case your school has all the facilities to use

technological devices this can be a new way of making more interesting class, and in

case the school do not have the facilities then we can apply our idea by using Facebook

to distribute the links which later can be used for our studnets as a guide at the time of

evaluating them.

Based on the review of literature, a workshop for English teachers and lecturers

was undertaken. The workshop involved 11 Postgraduate students who have already

become English lecturers in their institutions. The presenter spent one hour

presentation to introduce blendspace and asked them to connect their laptops with

internet during workshop. Then, the presenter gave models or examples of two lessons

presented by using blendspace. After workshop, the presenter assigned them

individually to make their lesson by using blendspace application.

WORKSHOP PROCEDURE

The project was aimed to provide teachers with the importance of the

blendspace as internet-based media. The workshop was developed by using five

stages. They are Begin with the End in Mind, Craft the Driving Question, Plan the

Assessment, Map the Project and Manage the Process.

Begin with the End in Mind

The project was intended to make available materials that can be used to teach

English by using blendspace.



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Craft the Driving Question

The driving questions that were used to guide the implementation of the

material development project were stated as folows:

1) What is Blendspace?

2) How can English be taught by using blendspace?

Plan the Assessment

The aim of the materials development project was informed to the assessment.

The assessment was determined on the basis of the completion of the individual project

conducted by each of the students. Each of students had to do a worksheet related on

blendspace and submit their report via online on www.blendspace.com.

Map the Project

To ensure that the project can be achieved, the project was divided into smaller

tasks, which include:

1) Conducting workshop to see demo on how to use blendspace

2) Doing worksheet on Blendspace

3) Determining the titles of the individual project;

4) Planning the individual project in the form of outline;

5) Writing a lesson plan before teaching and setting the time allotment

6) Practicing by using blendspace

7) Presenting the result in front of the class and submit

Manage the Process

In order to achieve the aim, the project assignment was managed a fully-

controlled fashion:

First of all, in one of the class sessions, the group of S3 English teachers were

given explanation about the workshop and have account to get internet access.

http://www.blendspace/



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When the titles were confirmed, the teachers were ask to develop course outline

or lesson plan of what they are going to teacher, e.g. poetry, drama, or other lesson.

The participants of the workshop o Blendspace were asked to do worksheet.

Then, the teachers were asked to develop practice their lesson plan by using

blendspace as the medium in teaching their lessons.

Asking the teacher to have presentation in front of the class as a kind of micro

teaching. The final product of a lesson can be seen online on

www.blendspace.com.

CONCLUSION

The workshop equips English teachers with another internet-based application

for the teaching of EFL by using blendspace. It is very easy internet-based application

to teach English in several minutes without having some difficult preparations.

However, these teachers may get some insight from the workshop and how materials

are developed and presenting by using ICT media as the alternative ways in delivering

their lessons so that they can prepare their own materials which conform to the needs

of the group of students. It is expected that both English teachers and EFL students can

take the advantage of using the internet-based application for indoor or outdoor

teaching learning activity, so that thay can learning English more effectively.

REFERENCES

Alvine, L. (2000). A 20th century English teacher educator enters the 21st century: A

response to Pope and Golub. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher

Education, 1(1), 102-106.

Arnó Macià, E (2012) The Role of Technology in Teaching Languages for Specific

Purposes Courses. The Modern Language Journal 96 s1: 89–104.

Arnó Macià, E, Soler Cervera, A and Rueda Ramos, C (eds) (2006) Information

technology in languages for specific purposes: Issues and prospects. New

York: Springer

Bates, AW (2005) Technology, e-learning and distance education. London:

Routledge.



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Dudeney, G (2000 and 2007) The Internet and the language classroom. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Dudeney, G and Hockly, N (2012) ICT in ELT: how did we get here and where are

we going? English Language Teaching Journal 66/4: 533–542.

Dudeney, G., & Hockly, N. (2007). How to teach English with technology? Harlow:

Pearson Education Limited

Judson, E. (2006). How teachers integrate technology and their beliefs about

learning: Is there a connection? Journal of Technology & Teacher Education,

(14)3, 581-597

Liu, M., & Huo, H. (2007). Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in

China: Some common concerns. US-China Foreign Language, 5(1), 52-58.

Motteram, Gary. 2013. Innovations in learning technologies for English language

teaching. ISBN 978-0-86355-713-2 © British Council 2013 Brand and

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Motteram, G and Sharma, P (2009) Blending learning in a web 2.0 world.

InternationalJournal of Emerging Technologies & Society 7/2: 83 – 96.

Sabzian, Fauziah and Gilakjani, A.P. 2013. Use of Technology in Classroom for

Professional Development. ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching

and Research, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 684-692, July 2013 © 2013 ACADEMY

PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/jltr.4.4.684-692

Documents

ABSTRACT - Universitas Brawijayafib.ub.ac.id/iconlaterals/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Ida-Puji-Lestari.pdf · Ida Puji Lestari Universitas Brawijaya, Faculty of Cultural Studies Malang,