ELT Tech Tools Blog: Blendspace

Blended Learning

Source: www.Pinterest.com

What is it about?

The tool discussed in this post is supporting "blended learning" so it is worthy to talk about it before we look at Blendspace. To 'blend', in general English, is to mix or to combine. When it comes to ELT, there were lots of debates about what it means. Some discussed it can refer to three concepts (Sharma; 2010) : 1) a mixture of teaching methodologies e.g. communicative approach, Task-Based Learning (TBL), Total Physical Response (TPR), etc. 2) a mixture of face-to-face and online deliverables and 3) a mixture of technologies used to mediate interactions between a tutor and a learner. It is clear that technology is involved in two of the definitions so the widespread thought when we talk about blended learning goes in favour of the second definition and this is what I am dealing with here.

 As Whittaker (2013) indicated, blended learning is any combination of face-to-face and online deliverables and their share (the extent to which they contribute) of the course does not exclude them from the category. Thus if, for example, a teacher uses an online platform such as the Moodle to share a handout that students must read before coming to classroom, it is considered a blended course.

Blendspace

Blendspace is a website where you can design online lessons/activities. The website gives you a variety of resources such as youtube, images and other online materials. You can also type a text that suits the level of your students as well as using your own resources. To create a lesson, follow these steps:

- Go to https://www.tes.com/lessons and register an account or use your Gmail details to login.

- Click on New Lesson on the top left. You will then be able to see the following page.

- Start designing you lesson by simply dragging and dropping files from your device. You can add a document, a PDF file, an image or you can type a text and edit it.

- For online resources, you can use the search box on the top right hand side. Alternatively, you can use the vertical column on the right to search on YouTube, Google, Flickr, Gooru, or to insert a webpage or a file from your device or from Dropbox.

- If you are satisfied with you lesson, click on share and get the link to the lesson. You can share it on social media websites such as Facebook or you can embed it. Or if you want to share it with a specific group you can adjust the privacy settings.

What can I do with Blendspace?

There are lots of interesting activities you can do with this tool. For example, you can embed other educational webpages into  the slides and integrate them in your lesson. Similarly, you can make a video-based lesson where you address listening then make a multiple choice test to assess your learners' understanding and progress. You can see a simple lesson I have designed for A1-A2 students by clicking here.

Hopefully, not only beginners can benefit from the website, but also advanced learners as well. In my context, I teach university students who are eager to learn. Now I can use Blendspace as a platform where I can provide sub reading materials with a quiz. This works well in contexts where Moodle, or any other platforms, are not used or their access is challenging to some students.

Teachers can use Blendspace to evaluate their students because  they can see how well their students are doing. Teachers will also get useful feedback on their own material writing skills through the comments their audience use. Finally, the lessons are online and creative teachers can share their lessons to help any learner in the world. There are some examples of these teachers on the websites and their lessons are given the title "Featured Lessons".

Limitations of Blendspace

Having mentioned all the brilliant things you can do with Blendspace, there is another side that we must consider before using it. Learners need to have access to the internet in order to use the website. This can create inequality if some of the learners have and others don't. In addition, Blendspace supports receptive skills (reading and listening) but it can do nothing about productive skills (writing and speaking) except the comments part where there is some kind of interaction. Some students would prefer to work with their peers to learn, for those learners Blendspace offers nothing and collaborative learning  cannot take place.