Emerging Technology That Supports Creativity and Production - Blog #8

Joy Egbert’s chapter on Supporting Student Production in her text, Supporting Learning with Technology, provides some excellent guidelines on this type of project-based learning. Specifically, Egbert distinguishes between very structured projects with carefully defined outcomes, and more loosely controlled projects and outcomes (Egbert, p. 183). I can imagine that the type of students you have would, to some extent, have an impact on which kind of project you undertake. Many of the students at our school appear to be somewhat unmotivated, partly due to the frustrations of struggling with language and cultural barriers. I’ve discovered that when I do lessons with them, I have to be very specific regarding my expectations. Yet, Egbert also discusses the fact that production can be very beneficial to English language learners by allowing them to communicate in various ways and to learn the content in ways that appeal to them, such as listening and watching videos (Egbert, p. 185). Production supports different learning styles, as well as providing the opportunity for students to produce the outcomes in a style that is interesting and motivating to them. Egbert also stipulates that ELL students can more readily participate in group projects because they can engage in tasks that are appropriate for their learning styles and language ability (Egbert, p. 185).

Another point Egbert makes that would help in working with ELL students is addressed in guideline #5, “Scaffold experiences for all learners” (Egbert, p. 189). Egbert stresses how important scaffolding is for such students because they may need more time, modeling, and assistance in completing production projects. Yet, the variety and flexibility of production projects would also allow ELL students to choose topics that are more meaningful to them, such as topics that highlight their culture and backgrounds. Our students also perform better when in-depth projects are divided into chunks, and this strategy lends itself well to scaffolding because teachers can more methodically guide the students through the project. I believe production projects would be very well received by our ELL students because some of the rigidity that seems to frustrate them would be alleviated, allowing them to work in an environment that gives them the freedom to determine their strengths and to build confidence in those areas.

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: Essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.