“Increasing Learners’ Engagement”
An ETF Funded OTLA Digital Project
Transforming Teaching & Learning Through The Use of Popular Social Media Platfoms/A collaboration between Lambeth College and Morley College
This innovative project aims to explore and address the question: ‘would using social media improve learner engagement?’ Our exciting experiment will involve eight teachers across Lambeth and Morley Colleges. It is a collaborative effort that seeks to address and resolve the lack of learner engagement through the utilisation of social media platforms inside and outside the classroom. To that end we will explore innovative ways of using (Snapchat, Twitter and Padlet) and applications which can be used in creative and innovative ways to enthuse, motivate and engage learners, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Clearly, the majority of 16-18 year old learners have poor engagement in English and maths. They are withdrawn, unmotivated and uninterested. This has a detrimental impact on learner achievement. From our experience, learners use social media on a daily basis as opposed to VLE platforms that hold learner resources that are very alien to our youngsters. There is a glaring opportunity to engage young learners using familiar digital technology. They are confident and competent with their own social media applications. By utilising platforms that learners already use, we hope to secure more buy-in from our learners and potentially increase their overall achievement.
For adult learners at Morley College, this may not be the case, particularly for those who have been out of education for a period of time, but it would certainly be interesting to find out if the project will develop independence and autonomy and engage those who seem to be ' in the dark’ with regards to these applications.
This is our goal. This is our idea.
What we've done so far!
Planning meeting:
Monday, May 14 at 2pm - 6 of us got together to agree an action plan
Training:
Our main training session was held on Thursday, June 7 at Lambeth College . 12 people from both colleges were in attendance and training was delivered on how to use Snapchat, Twitter and Padlet for learning in a fun and friendly atmosphere.
Padlet Training
Twitter training
Snapchat Training
A student from Lambeth College talks to teachers on the project about Snapchat and shows them how to use it.
Teachers had some fun with using some of the features.