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"Digitally rewired" teens

Submitted by Anna_Leshchenko on 25 January, 2012 - 23:18

I came across "The Secret Powers of Time" (http://youtu.be/A3oIiH7BLmg) by Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor at Stanford University, some time ago. The first thing that drew my attention, from a teaching perspective, was the idea that teens who play Warcraft, whose brains are "digitally rewired", live in a world they create, and therefore educational process looks boring because the traditional classroom is "analogue". They don't fit in.

I’ve worked a lot with teens and see that those who play strategic games, those who are used to creating, get bored the moment they see the Student’s book. According to Prof. Zimbardo, they need to be in a situation when they control something, and the school says “you control nothing”, moreover adults do not realise that kids are totally different than their parents are… and teachers.

There is no doubt that these teens would be more interested in projects, as these are connected with creation. But how many projects could we invent and incorporate in learning process? Not many, really.

How can we help them get motivated to do their homework?

We can ask them to design a crossword puzzle with the new words. If they are very keen on computers they can build it with Excel. I knew about this strategy as it was used at my history lessons when I was a teenager. I tried to apply it in my English class some years ago. The next lesson my students were begging for a traditional list of words to learn as that task appeared to be too time-consuming (btw, those learners hadn’t play computer games, as far as I can recall).

After seeing that video, I decided to ‘reanimate’ the method. I have a pupil whose granny would come up to me and complain of his addiction to pc games. So now he builds these crosswords and doesn’t complain of the time spent on it. And he does remember the words!

Do you know any other methods for teaching vocabulary that could motivate creative teens?

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Comments

Victoria Kamchatka

Teaching Vocab

Submitted on 26 January, 2012 - 04:02

Hi Anna,

I think teaching vocabulary must be integrated with the other skills. It can't be isolated and without the meaningful context. Teaching text vocab and daily used vocab is really helpful for learners. We should also know their level and which words can be more useful for them (at their level or CFR level). I love to adhere to lexicogrammatical approach because vocab and grammatical structures can disappear unless they are recycled and reinforced through the meaningful exercises. As my Ss are fond of songs, I choose grammar songs: Past Simple (Yesterday, Last Kiss, Skater Boy, Because you loved me), the 2nd Conditional (If I were a boy...), Wish statements (Wishlist by Pearl Jim), etc. We sing songs and make up our own retaining grammar structures and vocabulary. Thus, we learn grammar and vocabulary.

New immigrant

Lol, you're right

Submitted on 26 January, 2012 - 08:45

Lol, you're right. I turned round yesterday to find my one and a half year old sat on a kitchen chair, typing a way on the laptop. My husband and I were in hysterics (couldn't find the camera). My kids take their play telephone and pretend to flip through pictures with their thumb. It's a new generation. I think though, that a lot of my highschool kids aren't there yet. Many don't have internet at home and can't use email or search engines. I'm afraid they'll be left behind. Apparently, we'll all get smartboards in every classroom. We're still waiting!!!

annFor
TE Team

If it's good for granny....

Submitted on 26 January, 2012 - 09:36

Hi Anna,

Hi,

Enjoyed your post and thought it something it brought up ideas that other teachers would be interested in too, so I've just posted a link to this on the TeachingEnglish facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TeachingEnglish.BritishCouncil/posts/2875757279.... if you'd like to check there for comments.

Please feel free to post on the page whenever you have anything you'd like to share.

Best,

Ann

Anna_Leshchenko

creation-centred activities

Submitted on 26 January, 2012 - 23:17

Hi Victoria,

Thank you for all of your comments. Sorry, I haven't had enough time to read your blog entries and to comment so far. I do hope to catch up next week.

I'm looking for creative tasks. I will really appreciate it if you share how we could use songs in a creative way.

I've also found out that most video games feature obstacles to overcome. I’m thinking about designing a labyrinth-like game, in which the learner could find his way if he spotted words that were spelt correctly.

The task I've described in the post has worked so far, but I'm desperately looking for some new creation-centred activities to avoid routine.

Anna_Leshchenko

Hi, New immigrant, I see your

Submitted on 26 January, 2012 - 23:24

Hi, New immigrant,

I see your point, and I think this can vary from one city to another, from one school to another. As for Moscow, kids usually teach their parents and grandparents to use pc, and I see teenagers with tablets and iPads at schools. Just imagine kids take photos of their course books and upload them to tablets not to carry heavy books! I was conducting a seminar at university last year, and I realised that all the students were sitting with laptops.

Teens who play computer games are not the majority, of course. But I see that those who play pc games tend to be isolated (or kids who tend to be isolated tent to play pc games), so we can easily find them in class. When we are aware of the fact that some students need creative tasks we can ask them to think of exercises for other students :)

Smartboards work miracles ;)

Anna_Leshchenko

Thanks!

Submitted on 26 January, 2012 - 23:25

Thank you for sharing the link. I wonder how many teachers are participating in this year's Blogathon :)

AnnaTsv

I actually know people who

Submitted on 30 January, 2012 - 22:29

I actually know people who learned English thanks to strategic games at times when the latter were only available in English. My nephew, a complete PC geek and Warcraft addict, has learnt his first English phrases thanks to the English version of the MS Office :)

My dream is that one day we areable to give this kind of students a task: "Get from level 1 to level 2 of the game, please, Vasya."

Also, just yesterday, I was talking to my parents and my father said: "These computer games shoudl pause ever five minutes and make the kids complete some tasks from homework in order to continue".

Meanwhile, has there been any research on how to incorporate computer games into the English language learning? Or board games, for that matter?

Anna_Leshchenko

@AnnaTsv

Submitted on 31 January, 2012 - 21:18

I learned a great deal of words when icq, hotmail, etc. were only available in English :) And there are plenty of Russians who learnt this way or with pc games. I encourage my students to change the operating language of their phones, games and icq. This shift to English makes them study such words as "message", "send" and "reply" once and for all.

"has there been any research on how to incorporate computer games into the English language learning? Or board games, for that matter?"

I have only heard about researches on teaching with video. But I know Cambridge has made a great game "English with Toby" as a support to their course book "Join Us for English" ("Cool English"). I used it in class, and I see that those who created thought a lot. the 3rd edition of R. Murphy's bestsellers also include a CD with games.

I was talking to my parents and my father said: "These computer games should pause ever five minutes and make the kids complete some tasks from homework in order to continue"

I've heard that playing games is better than watching TV, as TV with their constant commercial breaks train people to maintain their concentration for 10 to 15 minutes, while children who play pc games are not interrupted and are able to concentrate completely on the task for longer periods of time. You know, Dmitry Bykov says he plays a video game just before he starts writing.