Abstract (100 words): Data gathered on courses to exploit the individual laptop environment for students in the UAE navy college showed high satisfaction with this approach. Training for teachers in the tools and rationale used was organized in a blended environment with 20 steps to be completed emulating the way classes had been conducted at the navy college. As they completed each step, trainees tracked their progress in a shared GoogleDoc while a wiki gave links to what the teachers accomplished as they tackled their 20 tasks. The presentation concludes with teacher reaction to the blended environment used for their training. Summary: The author designed courses to exploit the individual laptop environment for students in the UAE navy college using Web 2.0 tools such as GoogleDocs, Prezi, Blogger, SurveyMonkey, and Jing. When data gathered from students found high satisfaction with this approach, the presenter was transferred to the aviation college to train teachers there in the tools and rationale used with the navy cadets. Training was organized in a blended environment with a blog portal outlining 20 steps emulating the way classes had been conducted at the navy college, where students were set tasks in the class wiki portal, shown in class how to master the language and software needed, and then guided in completing the tasks and projects. As they completed each step, teachers tracked their progress in an online spreadsheet, and wrote the URLs of online artifacts created in a shared GoogleDocs spreadsheet. Tabs in the blog pointed the trainees to a model wiki portal providing links to student artifacts online. Similarly in the sidebar of the training wiki there emerged links to what the teachers accomplished as they tackled their 20 tasks. This paper concludes with how the teachers responded to the blended environment used for their training. Draft write-up: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VZkB_MQltwzGFyv7KSM5lloxqZ7uFc69NaX71ci_p0o/edit?usp=sharing

1. Updated April 7, 2013
Thinking SMALL: Training Teachers
in Web2.0 Tools for
Teaching and Learning EFL
Vance Stevens, UAE: HCT / PACE
TESOL in Dallas, Texas, March eLearning in Action
22, 2013 Conference
CALL-IS & Elementary April 2, 2013
Education InterSection Session
HCT Sharjah Women’s College
New Tools/Techniques in CALL

2. You don’t need to take notes!
All my slides are online: http://slideshare.net/vances
Recordings of the version of this talk given during CALL-IS & Elementary
Education InterSection Session: New Tools/Techniques in CALL panel
presentation at TESOL Dallas, March 22, 2013
• Bb Collaborate / Elluminate recording of entire panel:
https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-03-
22.1054.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75
• Mp3 of just my talk:
http://vance_stevens.podomatic.com/entry/2013-04-02T11_58_03-07_00
A write-up of this presentation will appear in the proceedings of the 2013
eLearning in Action conference, April 2 in Sharjah, UAE
• Sneak preview: http://tinyurl.com/sharjah2013stevens
SMALL is Social Media Assisted Language Learning
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

3. Tale of three challenges
• Challenge 1
Engage students in one-to-one laptop context in
task-based / projects-based curricula in their
classrooms
• Challenge 2
Design and implement a blended program of
training teachers to do the same in another
context
• Challenge 3
To assess results in terms of teachers ability to
grasp the rationale and its relevance to them
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

4. Challenges 1 and 2
Students and Teachers
• Challenge 1 with students at navy college
– To engage students who were abusing one-to-one
laptop access
– To get these students work on projects using Web 2.0
tools and task-based approach
• Challenge 2 with teachers at aviation college
– To implement similar courses to that accomplished at
navy college
– To train teachers THROUGH blending learning to set
up such courses by setting up their own blended
environments
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

5. Challenge 3: Training goals
• When master learners (Warlick, 2010)
– working as teachers
– find time to learn what affordances of technology
work best with novice learners,
– and can direct these affordances to outcomes
targeted at curriculum goals,
• then powerful, some would say
transformational, learning can result
From the paper in the proceedings (Stevens, 2013, forthcoming)
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

6. Dave Warlick addressing Challenge 3
• “A connected teacher connects learners to
each other through their accomplishments …
through their success”
From Dave Warlick’s keynote speech online at the Learning 2.0
Conference 2012 http://www.classroom20.com/page/learning-2-0-
keynote-speakers
Recording: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-08-
21.0647.M.D4D806A15860351B259A585F17EC47.vcr&sid=2008350
• What training is about :
– Knowing not just what tools there are
– But knowing what to do with them
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

7. Challenge 1
Design task-based project components
1. Textbook Present yourself2: Viewpoints by Steven Gershon
2. Students created Prezis on mottos/slogans for the environment
a) Link to student Prezis at wiki portal
http://acommunication.pbworks.com
http://acommunication.pbworks.com/w/page/52696874/earthday22april#SeewhatyourfellowstudentsaredoingforEarthDay
b) Earth Day connection, April 22, 2012
http://www.tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej61/int.pdf
3. Teacher modeled use of SurveyMonkey to poll reactions to Prezi
http://vancestevens.posterous.com/a-small-research-project-on-student-attitudes
4. Students created surveys using SurveyMonkey
http://acommunication.pbworks.com/w/page/55088316/Weeks16-19#HerearesomeSTUDENTsurveysyoucantakeinSURVEYMONKEY
a) Captured charts using Jing
b) Preview them in Google Docs, say what they mean, explain them to
class
c) Create PPT presentations, upload them to Slideshare, present
results formally
TESL-EJ: Stevens, V. (2012). Web 2.0 Toolkit for Teaching and Learning EFL Presentation Skill.
TESL-EJ, Volume 16, Number 2, pp. 1-11: http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej62/int.pdf
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

8. Results: Students liked Prezi
and thought it was easy to learn
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

9. They favored
the mind-map approach
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

10. They’d use Prezi again and think
we should teach it to others
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

11. Their blog posts show
appreciation for Prezi and other tools
All student blogs:
http://acommunication.pbworks.com/w/page/53399451/week8#Seewhatblogsyourfellows
This blog:
http://nc13striver.blogspot.com/2012/05/during-my-school-time-i-did-many.html
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

12. Challenge 1 went well!
Students liked the project based
approach and felt they benefited from
using Web 2.0 tools in their learning

13. Challenge 2: Training teachers
Designing a blended environment
Portal with rationale, explanation of tools, example wikis to organize classes
http://toolkit4learning.blogspot.ae/2012/09/introduction.html
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

14. 20-Step Checklist
20 steps to be checked off in a Google Docs spreadsheet when completed
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

15. The 20 steps
http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/906483-engaging-students-with-technology-in-web-2-0-english-classes
1. Create a Google Account
2. View an introductory video on what the course was about at
http://toolkit4learning.blogspot.com/2012/09/introduction.html
3. Explore the wikis already being used with students
4. Watch online Prezi tutorial videos
5. Complete online worksheets on their understanding of those videos
6. Create a first Prezi
7. Contribute to an existing Google Doc
8. Create a blog in Blogger
9. Make a post with a link to a Prezi and a reflection on learning
10. Add blog and Prezi links to a shared Google Doc (from which the teacher gets the link to put in the wiki sidebar
to model how students might learn from each other’s work)
11. Brainstorm a survey topic and questions to address it using a Google Doc
12. Create a short survey in Survey Monkey
13. Publish the survey link in their blog, articulate its purpose, and invite others to take it
14. Download and install a screen capture tool such as Jing
15. Capture the Survey Monkey chart data using the screen capture tool
16. Embed the charts in PowerPoint, Prezi, or blog post
17. Use guidelines and an animation video tutorial to make a PowerPoint presentation to specified standards
18. Upload the PPT to Slideshare.net
19. Start a wiki portal they might use with students using PBWorks, Wikispaces, or Google Drive
20. Create a blog post discussing and linking to URLs created during the course, to serve as an ePortfolio
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

16. Tracking progress in Google Docs
This is the Google Docs spreadsheet where teachers tracked progress (no names)
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

17. Challenge 2 appeared to be
going well
The training program was designed
and implemented on short notice
The blended environment worked!
(Teachers were able to figure it out
and function in it)

18. But! EdTech culture differed
in the two settings
Navy ( context for challenge 1) Aviation (context for challenge 2)
• Students had their own • Students had access to
individual laptops computers only occasionally
• Students could do own • Public access computers
installations of software locked down
• All classrooms had • No whiteboards in public
whiteboards so teachers access computer labs –
could guide students difficult to guide students
• Navy cadets relatively • Pilot cadets can dismiss
amenable to teacher teacher instructions without
instructions consequence
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

19. And - presentation course cancelled
• Change in curriculum …
– Discontinuation of EFL presentation course the
training was designed to help the teachers to
teach
• Chronology
– The TRAINING was done while course was
planned
– The SURVEY was done after the course had been
cancelled
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

20. Challenge 3: How did teachers
perceive the training?
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

21. This is revealing:
What kind of PD do teaches like?
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

22. Results from Data
• Challenge 1
The students appear to have appreciated learning
about and what to do with the new tools
• Challenge 2
A blended program of training for teachers was
designed and implemented
• Challenge 3
The training met with only limited success due to
– Changes in institution focus
– Differences in context for students and teachers
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

23. Dan Pink’s two books …
• A Whole New Mind
– Left brained tasks, anything algorithmic, such as
programming or troubleshooting, can done faster,
cheaper, by computer
– Right brained humanistic qualities of
inventiveness, empathy, meaning will
predominate in the future
• To Sell is Human
– Every silver lining has a cloud
– Problem finders trump problem solvers
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

24. Discussion of findings
• Teachers surveyed on impact of training
– Results show how perceptions of relevance of training
relate to teachers’ short-term teaching expectations
– Preferred didactic modes of PD to blended ones
– Personal evidence from
• AAMC PD sessions yesterday (2 live participants vs. 6 online)
• GLD online conference – 6 in auditorium, 60 in online audience
• Results show success w/technology is dependent on
conditions at the place where it is implemented
– When attempting to graft same technology from one
context to another – expect different results
Vance Stevens - eLearning in Action -
Sharjah 2013

25. My conclusions
I believe that blended training
of this nature has validity despite
shortcomings noted in this small survey
Examination of real outcomes gives insights into
complex nature of variables impacting TPD
(teacher professional development)