TESOL Discussion Padlet

The following is a link to a discussion board on Padlet that I have been working on to assist my TESOL students (Padlet, 2019). The course referred to is the Certificate IV in TESOL and the Diploma of TESOL delivered by The Foundation for English Language Teaching t/a QIE Queensland Institute of English (RTO 41553) (TGA, 2019).

The Padlet’s gives the trainee teachers an overview of the entire course with useful links to each of their units. I like to use the idea mapping styled format option called “canvas” on the Padlet a la Tony Buzan who was the innovator of the “mind map” and utilised the technique as a study and mnemonic facilitator (Buzan, 2019). Although the Padlet is by no means as rigorous as mind mapping, it still allows the student to get an overview of the course with hyperlinks to information and their relevant assessments via a link to their Moodle-Based Learner Management System (Moodle, 2019).

Students can publish their questions/research and benefit from the exchange and/or get involved in the conversation therefore, becoming a community of practice (Lave, 1991).  Howell also notes the original description of this form of collaboration, that is a ‘community of practice’ and summarises it as “a process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in a subject or area collaborate over an extended period of time, sharing ideas and strategies, determining solutions and building innovations” (Howell, 2013, pp. 33-34). The advantage of technology is that the TESOL students, who are situated all over Australia and in numerous foreign countries, can use the Padlet as a discussion board as an Online Community of Practice, or virtual community of practice into their learning program.

The following video by Jamie Keet of Teacher’s Tech gives a great overview of how to use Padlet in the virtual class=sroom (Keet, 2016).

References:

Buzan, T. (2019). Tony Buzan – Inventor of Mind Mapping. Retrieved from https://www.tonybuzan.com/

Howell, J. (2013). Teaching with ict : Digital pedagogies for collaboration and creativity. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Keet, J. [Teacher’s Tech]. (2016, July, 16). How to Use Padlet. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBnwPqaIjA.

Lave, J. (1991). Situating learning in communities of practice. Perspectives on socially shared cognition, 2, 63-82. Retrieved From http://lagim.blogs.brynmawr.edu/files/2015/03/Situating-learning-in-CoPs.pdf

Moodle. (2019) Moodle – About. Retrieved from https://moodle.com/about/

Padlet. (2019), Padlet – About. Retrieved from https://padlet.com/about

TGA (2018). Retrieved from https://training.gov.au/Organisation/Details/41553

Image by Manfred Steger from Pixabay