Zeitguest: ‘Keeping Students On Task Online’ by Marina Salsbury

Here is another fantastic guest post from Marina Salsbury, her second for my blog,in which she investigates how to effectively use online tasks.

 

More schools and teachers are recognizing the Internet and other new technologies are wonderful educational resources and using them increasingly in classrooms from PhD programs to elementary schools, and of course this is true in ELT programs as much as anywhere. Unfortunately, along with the great resources available online there is also a lot of unreliable information and distractions. Teachers are faced with the challenge of allowing students to use these great tools while making sure they stay on task.

Software

Despite wanting to take advantage of all the Internet has to offer, schools often rely on filtering software to prevent students from accessing websites that might contain adult content or otherwise be inappropriate. However, there are flaws to filtering systems. School administrators and teachers must keep in mind filters aren’t perfect and will not keep students away from all inappropriate content out there. Perhaps more importantly, they can’t ensure students are on task while working online. No software can take the place of proper supervision and pedagogical guidance.

Teacher Training

Teachers must be trained to employ web-based tools and resources in the classroom and how to properly guide students in using them appropriately. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, teachers receiving training and support will be more likely to take advantage of technology when planning lessons and assignments. These teachers will also be better equipped to keep students on task and learning. Training is especially valuable to English language teachers because of the huge abundance of English learning exercises, games, and other tools online. Some guidance and preparation in seeking and identifying useful English resources is key to ensuring students will actually use them.

Planning

Knowing what exactly the class is going to be doing online is pretty important for students and teachers both. For English language classes in particular, guidance and clear direction is critical to the usefulness of web-based activities, especially with students whose English isn’t yet fluent enough to make sense of tasks on their own. Whatever the lesson or activity, carefully planning and preparing clear instructions will help keep students on task whenever they’re online in class.

While Students are Working

It’s important for students to learn how to work independently and conduct their own research, but teachers must remain available to supervise, regularly check students’ progress, and offer help. Managing student workflow goes a long way toward keeping online time productive. Teachers can keep students busy and working by providing a timeline for separate tasks in the project.

For instance, if English language students to spend an hour choosing and researching a topic for a research paper, they might be required to choose a topic within twenty minutes, find at least two useful and reliable sources within the following twenty minutes, and take the last third of the hour to plan how they’ll incorporate relevant parts of their English study into the writing process. Breaking up projects and online research into a timeline with tasks that must be completed in a certain amount of time will keep students focused and on task during web research time and during other online activities.

Teachers are faced with a sometimes difficult job in helping students learn to conduct reliable research online and keeping students focused while using the Internet generally. At home, students probably use the Web mostly for recreation, so it’s important to set a much different tone in an educational environment, for English learners or anyone else.

 

About the author

Marina Salsbury planned on becoming a teacher since high school, but found her way instead into online writing after college. She writes around the Web about everything from education to exercise.