How do you have lessons?
Face-to-face input in the traditional offline classrooms?
Why not try blended teaching?
Shirin Ghahari (2014) used an experiment to reveal that:
Employing a blended teaching method can create a more desirable condition to enhance the EFL learners writing performance and doing research in this field can be a promising area for those interested.
As a student, I once experienced flipped lessons in one of my TESOL courses. We needed to accomplish the tasks in advance, like watching the video or reading some essays, before we went to our offline classroom. These tasks are presented on the MOODLE, a teaching platform. I really enjoyed such a learning form, since I can learn the lesson in advance at my own pace. Besides, the blended mode provides rich teaching materials. This is extremely beneficial for students who want to learn more than textbooks. I also felt that I could grasp the focus of the offline classes since I had ideas of what we were going to learn. Although I haven't used blended teaching in my past teaching days, I think this form can prevent teachers from telling the same context thousands of times and save more time for further explanations. Thus, blended teaching can optimize class time and boost teaching efficiency.
So, how to design interactive materials for part of the blended teaching? I once tried H5P in the ICT class. However, I noticed that I can't present the final outcome, since the product can only be presented via a platform, like MOODLE.
Here, I want to show you another one, Simpleshow (Link: https://simpleshow.com/).
(website screenshot of Simpleshow)
After you log in, you can start your own video! Don't worry! Every step will be accompanied by an instruction video to tell you how to do it.
(website screenshot of Simpleshow)
Then, write your script. You can also ask AI writing to make one for you. Here, I ask ChatGPT to write a story 'a day in London'.
(website screenshot of Simpleshow)
(website screenshot of Simpleshow)
After that, you can choose the animation mode. The interesting part that I enjoy most is I can decide which picture will be shown in the video. You can also add your voice as the commentary. It is simple but I can realize my dream to be a filmmaker to make original videos through this software!
(website screenshot of Simpleshow)
Finally, you can also add some questions at the end of the film. Anyway, it is designed for English learning!
(website screenshot of Simpleshow)
Generally, I really like this software mainly because I like art! I can produce my own teaching materials in such a creative way! I hope you can also enjoy it!
A little bit flaw in this software is that templates and features are limited unless you are Less critical about the aesthetics of the video. 😉One more thing should remind you of is that you should also consider your students' conditions when using blended teaching. If your students lack a sense of self-discipline, face-to-face teaching might be the best teaching mode for them.
If you want to know more, here is the video:
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