Inter-subjectivity, linear and non linear representation of ideas, concepts and projects.
Popplet is basically a mind mapping tool that teachers can use to effectively implement a Task-Based Approach into second language acquisition. The novelty however is that teachers can embed a plethora of materials that range from simple images, links and drawings to videos from YouTube and Vimeo. And provided that you are content with producing 5 Popplets a month it is completely free.
A few more of the features that make Popplet stand out from other mind mapping tools are that:
1. You can insert images directly from your Google Drive account.
2. It has an amazing user-friendly interface that allows for real time manipulation of data, images and drawings with all of this achieved through the use of a mouse with no added technical skills required.
3. It has a simple but effective tutorial which in reality allowed me to rapidly go through all of the functions which at no point seemed to be overwhelming. In fact, I was able to reach a final mind-mapping activity in less than 3 minutes.
But perhaps the real added value that makes this tool extremely relevant to my teaching context can be located in the following:
1. Learners can proceed in synchronous and asynchronous editing. This can be easily achieved through the push of a button located in the upper right corner as I will demonstrate later on. This procedure resembles the way Google docs are shared and/or manipulated. In practice, this collaborative tool can be used to activate schemata or in any stage of the lesson (pre-lesson, during a lesson or post lesson activity) but even more importantly it can easily follow a Tricider activity. More specifically, Popplet can complement Triciders' inability to place arguments in a more coherent order and assist learners in either of the following:
a. Produce a full written text by following the mind mapping activity which can better illustrate the gravity or origin of each advantage or disadvantage
b. Assist learners to make a transition from a "bullet-point" presentation and "positive-negative" classification to a more coherent, seamless production of speech and/or written patterns that follows a logical order. This function moves well beyond Triciders' "drop-down menu" approach which only manages to identify and classify positive and negative argumentative speech in an admittedly initial "raw" display of data.
However, the synchronous and asynchronous nature of Popplet is complemented by the sharing function that it incorporates. A closer look reveals that this tool has a built-in function that allows easy sharing via embedding the link into a blog, web site, wiki, Facebook account or other educational platforms such as Moodle, Edmondo etc.
For the purpose of illustrating all of the aforementioned advantages that Popplet has, I devised a complete task which can be seen in the following image. This is an IELTS writing task 2 assignment and the question used is:"There is a growing number of people who think that animals should have the same rights as humans do while an equally large number believe that animals exist to serve human needs. To what extent to you agree or disagree with these statements.Give examples"
As discussed above, in a "flipped classroom", a Tricider link (or "tricision") containing an initial brainstorming activity would have been already send to all of the students. Ideally then, this initial brainstorming product would allow the teacher to bypass the traditional bottom-up approach and move towards a top-down approach where he would enable learners to negotiate the content of the given task, initially in pairs and later in groups. This pre-lesson activity would allow for considerable more student involvement but even more so it would provide the "ground" for the following Popplet activity.
This scaffolding activity is perhaps one of the very best ways to teach learners how to avoid "jumping in" to writing an essay without having done any brainstorming and data classification activities first. According to my experience the absence of such skills often result in "dead locks" with students typically under performing in the IELTS writing part due to lack of time. More specifically, learners that neglect to brainstorm, classify and transform their data into basic arguments, almost always, find themselves in a position where they have to multi-task. In other words, these students, in their effort to save time, end up having to do the following things at the same time with often very poor results:
1.think of ideas-arguments (brainstorm),
2.evaluate their relevance and validity.
3.provide a basic taxonomy (classify them as positive or negative)
4.provide evidence of understanding or provide real-life examples.
5.provide evidence that they can achieve a balance of arguments which demonstrates ability to approach a subject "spherically" and finally
6.state their opinions based on those facts.
If we take into serious consideration that learners have around 25 minutes to produce a full 250 word essay, then we can easily reach the conclusion that the aforementioned preparatory steps must be over in less than 5 minutes. Popplet can assist learners develop these "good practices" especially in my teaching context where learners have 2 to 3 months to prepare to sit their IELTS exams. However, by defocusing from IELTS and honing in Young Learners and Second Language Acquisition, I was able to clearly see that Popplet can be classified as a collaborative tool for scaffold learning that really gives meaning to Vygotsky's theory of Zone of Proximal Development.
To sum up, the added value that Popplet has is located in the fact that it can effectively assist learners place into a logical order, raw data that either comes from a text, a listening activity, a group activity, the teacher or ideally themselves. The result is that it empowers learners to easily sharpen their logical, critical reasoning and sequencing skills by better understanding the value of steps, processes and procedures. It is my firm belief that this tool manages to effectively promote rapport and give learner feedback promoting better teacher evaluation processes through visually linking student learning outcomes to the outlined objectives and ultimately means improved Continuous Professional Development and Action Research attempts for my teaching practice.
1. You can insert images directly from your Google Drive account.
2. It has an amazing user-friendly interface that allows for real time manipulation of data, images and drawings with all of this achieved through the use of a mouse with no added technical skills required.
3. It has a simple but effective tutorial which in reality allowed me to rapidly go through all of the functions which at no point seemed to be overwhelming. In fact, I was able to reach a final mind-mapping activity in less than 3 minutes.
But perhaps the real added value that makes this tool extremely relevant to my teaching context can be located in the following:
1. Learners can proceed in synchronous and asynchronous editing. This can be easily achieved through the push of a button located in the upper right corner as I will demonstrate later on. This procedure resembles the way Google docs are shared and/or manipulated. In practice, this collaborative tool can be used to activate schemata or in any stage of the lesson (pre-lesson, during a lesson or post lesson activity) but even more importantly it can easily follow a Tricider activity. More specifically, Popplet can complement Triciders' inability to place arguments in a more coherent order and assist learners in either of the following:
a. Produce a full written text by following the mind mapping activity which can better illustrate the gravity or origin of each advantage or disadvantage
b. Assist learners to make a transition from a "bullet-point" presentation and "positive-negative" classification to a more coherent, seamless production of speech and/or written patterns that follows a logical order. This function moves well beyond Triciders' "drop-down menu" approach which only manages to identify and classify positive and negative argumentative speech in an admittedly initial "raw" display of data.
However, the synchronous and asynchronous nature of Popplet is complemented by the sharing function that it incorporates. A closer look reveals that this tool has a built-in function that allows easy sharing via embedding the link into a blog, web site, wiki, Facebook account or other educational platforms such as Moodle, Edmondo etc.
For the purpose of illustrating all of the aforementioned advantages that Popplet has, I devised a complete task which can be seen in the following image. This is an IELTS writing task 2 assignment and the question used is:"There is a growing number of people who think that animals should have the same rights as humans do while an equally large number believe that animals exist to serve human needs. To what extent to you agree or disagree with these statements.Give examples"
As discussed above, in a "flipped classroom", a Tricider link (or "tricision") containing an initial brainstorming activity would have been already send to all of the students. Ideally then, this initial brainstorming product would allow the teacher to bypass the traditional bottom-up approach and move towards a top-down approach where he would enable learners to negotiate the content of the given task, initially in pairs and later in groups. This pre-lesson activity would allow for considerable more student involvement but even more so it would provide the "ground" for the following Popplet activity.
This scaffolding activity is perhaps one of the very best ways to teach learners how to avoid "jumping in" to writing an essay without having done any brainstorming and data classification activities first. According to my experience the absence of such skills often result in "dead locks" with students typically under performing in the IELTS writing part due to lack of time. More specifically, learners that neglect to brainstorm, classify and transform their data into basic arguments, almost always, find themselves in a position where they have to multi-task. In other words, these students, in their effort to save time, end up having to do the following things at the same time with often very poor results:
1.think of ideas-arguments (brainstorm),
2.evaluate their relevance and validity.
3.provide a basic taxonomy (classify them as positive or negative)
4.provide evidence of understanding or provide real-life examples.
5.provide evidence that they can achieve a balance of arguments which demonstrates ability to approach a subject "spherically" and finally
6.state their opinions based on those facts.
If we take into serious consideration that learners have around 25 minutes to produce a full 250 word essay, then we can easily reach the conclusion that the aforementioned preparatory steps must be over in less than 5 minutes. Popplet can assist learners develop these "good practices" especially in my teaching context where learners have 2 to 3 months to prepare to sit their IELTS exams. However, by defocusing from IELTS and honing in Young Learners and Second Language Acquisition, I was able to clearly see that Popplet can be classified as a collaborative tool for scaffold learning that really gives meaning to Vygotsky's theory of Zone of Proximal Development.
To sum up, the added value that Popplet has is located in the fact that it can effectively assist learners place into a logical order, raw data that either comes from a text, a listening activity, a group activity, the teacher or ideally themselves. The result is that it empowers learners to easily sharpen their logical, critical reasoning and sequencing skills by better understanding the value of steps, processes and procedures. It is my firm belief that this tool manages to effectively promote rapport and give learner feedback promoting better teacher evaluation processes through visually linking student learning outcomes to the outlined objectives and ultimately means improved Continuous Professional Development and Action Research attempts for my teaching practice.
Use this embedded material to produce a final essay on the subject matter
This seems to be a very interesting tool, Tasos. Thanks for sharing it
ReplyDeleteThanks for reviewing my blog post Natalia. I am glad that you found it interesting.
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