Popplet: Beyond Mind Mapping.

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.

    Use this embedded material to produce a final essay on the subject matter 

Promoting Interactivity in & out of the classroom. Testing Tricider.

    In a nutshell, Tricider belongs to the category of what I like to call "open ended" tools. The main reason for that is that its use is limited only by the users imagination. As an EFL Teacher who has set out to further my understanding in how ICT tools can help modern day ELT, I really do believe that (provided with an internet access and a terminal - laptop, PC or a tablet) this tool presents a plethora of advantages with "the sky being the limit".

    But before I attempt any such analysis lets just quickly go through what Tricider is and what main features does it have. Tricider is a simplified on-line questionnaire where teachers can actually:

1) Write a question and then decide whether:

        A. they want to proceed in turning it into a classroom activity or
        B. with a push of one button, generate a link, which they can then forward to students via email or embed it into a classroom blog, Facebook page etc.

 
    And yes, a lot of you might rush to say: "what's the novelty in this?" when indeed there is a vast array of online tools that can do the same job with some of them even being admittedly faster. Well my answer is that the real novelty lies in the details. More specifically, it is the straightforward interface which incorporates positive and negative argumentative speech, ultimately promoting "mind mapping" that seems to make all the difference. In simpler terms, learners can write an argument, comment on other students arguments but more importantly with a push of a button decide whether to classify it as positive, negative or just vote.
    

   After this initial introduction it is quite easy to see why this tool is relevant to Language Acquisition. If used with consideration, this type of corrective feedback can take the game of peer assisted learning in a whole new level. Collaborative learning isn't a new idea however implementing and monitoring the procedure has always been the "Achilles' heel" for any teacher. A look back into my own teaching context reveals that learners always enjoy and find motivating a bit of "banter" that can abundantly derive from a pre-lesson or post-lesson Tricider activity. The added value is located in effectively promoting argumentative speech in a highly contextual environment but at the same time and even more importantly it manages to assist a balanced approach into presenting the various advantages and disadvantages. More specifically, this environment seems to favour simple, short and to the point statements that can be used as a initial brainstorming and classification activity. Going deep and narrow, is not a bad thing, especially when learners have to then explain and further elaborate on their statements or receive comments on them. 

    When writing a for/against essay in an IELTS exam, learners have to:

1. Identify all of the advantages and disadvantages then
2. Proceed in "weighting" them or determine their specific value and validity then
3. Based on this outline proceed in choosing which ones to use and finish off with
4. A concluding remark stating their general position/stance on the subject matter.
   
   Subsequently, learners that use Tricider can effectively develop their writing skills and more specifically amongst other things their critical reasoning, data classification and the ability to form a well structured and supported argumentative speech. So provided with the right question, Teachers that use this interface can effectively transform the whole classroom into a debate team.
    Following my last argument, I strongly believe that Tricider can be used just as effectively as a post lesson-consolidation activity or even during a lesson. In the latter case, learners are asked to form 2 groups (the advantages and disadvantages group) and then act out a lively debate providing declarative statements, supporting statements, examples and conclusions following the outline of a model paragraph formation. Other collaborative tools such as Google docs can be used to produce final written collaborative texts. As a variation of the aforementioned, learners can be allocated with an individual number (1's and 2's) and then be asked to mingle with an opposite number and try to act out a full argumentative dialogue using the prompts on the projector screen. As a post lesson activity learners can be asked to produce a 250 words for/against essay trying to incorporate the best arguments of today's lesson.
    I could probably go on writing about the possible different classroom applications that this tool has ending up in abusing my word limit for this blog. Instead, I will choose to focus in one last point which is of the utmost importance for my teaching practice.
   Tricider can effectively foster and promote interactivity in an IWB classroom setting (Armstrong, 2005). This means that teachers using this tool can unlock the full potential of their IWB software bypassing the traditional static "heads up" approach into teaching that the aforementioned system admittedly promotes. During my Action Research on the capabilities of IWB's, I found that tools like this complemented my efforts to re-arrange the classroom in an desperate effort to promote interactivity(Burns, 2010). More specifically, by allocating a computer screen to each pair of learners that was connected to the main screen and my administrative PC, I was able to present the learners with the question and then allow them time for cognitive response. Learner pairs proceeded in collaboratively negotiating the meaning of the main question and then proceeded in presenting the class with one argument. Upon completion all the arguments were presented in the main screen using Tricider. Learner pairs were then asked to produce at least one comment in each category:

 A. agreeing on an argument being an advantage
 B. agreeing on an argument being a disadvantage  or
 C. disagreeing on an argument being an advantage
 D. disagreeing on an argument being a disadvantage.

    Keeping in mind that there is a wealth of possible answers and comments on the answers which reveals the "open-ended" nature of this activity and the fact that it can be used as a pre-lesson or post-lesson activity we can easily assert that Tricider is by rights a tool which can be used in :

A. Flipping the Classroom (without having a flip due to the semi-controlled interactive environment) where learners have to respond to the link and provide sufficient arguments before the class begins and in

B.  Project-Based and Task-Based Learning approaches with the distinct characteristics easily being spotted.
        1. Incremental approach into negotiating the meaning, form and function of newly acquired language
           2. Peer-assisted, collaborative learning techniques
           3. Increased levels of interactivity and finally
      4. Open ended semi controlled drilling activities that eventually lead to or begin with the production of argumentative speech (top-down or bottom-up approach).
  
    As before an end activitie would either include:

A. a classroom discussion with two big groups presenting the advantages and disadvantages in the classroom or mingling activities (1's and 2's) or

B. learners using Tricider to “scroll back” and “tap into” the lessons' outcomes in order to be able to produce a final essay on the subject matter as homework.

    Last but not least if embedded into a class blog Tricider can be used as an on-line library offering quick and easy access to previous essay plans and thus effectively assist in providing consolidation, revision, quick reference to materials, outcomes, model sentences and rationales. On the down side, a "Tricision" lasts 15 days so that means that learners can result to considerable procrastination when accessing the link and seeing the "15 days to expire" notice on the upper right corner. Another disadvantage would be that Teachers need to be very careful when choosing a question especially when a little bit of "banter" can easily develop into a fierce classroom conflict.  
    To sum up, the epitome of the “interactive” and "multi-modal" potential that Tricider has on modern day ELT can be located in its parallel use with other technologies such as IWB software (Anderson, 2007) and other ICT tools such us "My Brainshark" "My Padlet" or Google docs. Directly linked to the aforementioned, Tricider can effectively assist teachers shift the weight of the room achieving the status of a true "facilitator" empowering learners to produce final collaborative texts. In this way, individual or pair work always results in group activities and rapid consolidation practices that manage to practice all four skills. (Jewitt, 2007). Learners are left capable to work individually, as a pair or as a group to achieve an outcome often without having to leave their seats. Even more so, learners are left free to negotiate the content and meaning through a vast array of materials and links which are embedded in their interactive notebooks (Golonka, 2012).
     This is why I really think that applications like Tricider can effectively empower teachers like me to surpass the “one size fits all” approach that many IWB systems promote nowadays (Haldane, 2007).

Many thanks for reading.

    Please feel free to use the following interface commenting and giving your own arguments on the main question. (and while you're at it why not take 2 seconds to answer this small question which is located on your right hand side and it's about the use of ICT in the classroom).

    Last but not least, for a complete video tutorial on how to use Tricider, I recommend Russell Stannard's Teacher Training Videos  

 

List of References

Anderson, S. H. (2007). Teaching and learning with an interactive whiteboard: a teacher’s journey. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 271-282.

Armstrong, V. B. (2005). Collaborative research methodology for investigating teaching and learning: the use of interactive whiteboard technology. Educational Review, 57(4), 457–469.

Burns, A. (2010). What is action research? In A. Burns, Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching. A Guide for Practitioners. (pp. 1 -22.). New York: Routledge.

Jewitt, G. M. (2007). Pace, interactivity and multimodality in teachers’ design of texts for interactive whiteboards in the secondary school classroom. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 303-317. 

Golonka, E. (2012). Technologies for foreign language learning: a review of technology types and their effectiveness. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 27(1), 70-105.

Haldane, M. (2007). Interactivity and the digital whiteboard: weaving the fabric of learning. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 257-270.