Distance Learning Tools in My Teaching Practice

One of the most common small talk topics that emerge during my conversations with other teachers is: “Do you prefer distant or in-person instruction?” I always actively support such discussions as I have experience teaching both online and face-to-face.

In Canada, I started working as an online substitute ESL instructor in 2022, and I was also teaching a part-time online CLB 1/2 class throughout 2023. During that time, I used lots of distant learning tools that helped me deliver educational content to my students in an easy and engaging way. Before I get into more detail about my favourite digital resources, I would like to focus on positive and negatives sides of online education.

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Distant Learning

Jingshu Gu points out three main benefits of distance learning activities:

• two-way interaction between the resources and users – students can reach out to the instructors at any stage of their assignment and receive timely support or feedback;
• rich multimedia content – the number and capacity of digital resources is tremendous and ever-growing;
• individualized teaching – digital tools allow educators to tailor the instruction to every student (for example, I sometimes assign individual tasks to my students using various online platforms).

I personally would also add that distance learning has opened an infinite number of doors to learners. Thanks to the internet, you can now study from literally anywhere, and we as educators can easily utilize tools and activities created by our colleagues from all over the world.

However, as Kavya, Gurjinder, and Prabhdeep stressed during their insightful presentation, not everyone is able to benefit from distant learning. Online learning often requires a substantial financial contribution, starting from paying for the internet access and purchasing expensive electronic devices and ending with using paid educational software. Moreover, developing online tools for a large number of learners may lead to the standardization and homogenization of the resources. That makes it even more important for teachers to review and adapt digital materials before introducing them to their students.

 

The TPACK Model

According to Jingshu Gu, it is a responsibility of a teacher to create a productive learning environment to encourage their students’ learning. As Gu mentioned in their work and Kavya, Gurjinder, and Prabhdeep described in their presentation, a TPACK model, or Technical Pedagogical Content Knowledge model, was proposed by American researchers Koehler and Mishra. TPACK distinguishes three types of knowledge an instructor brings when integrating technology into their class: content, technical, and pedagogical knowledge (Townsend, 2024). It is crucial for educators to remember that the healthy balance of these knowledge components is absolutely necessary for effective online instruction. The content of an online lesson should be useful and informative, delivered to students using up-to-date pedagogical approaches; and for the lesson to be overall successful, the teacher and the learners must possess certain technical skills.

 

Digital Tools in My Pedagogical Practice

Now it is time for me to share some of the digital resources I found useful when I was teaching online. I still keep using some of them when teaching in-person, as digital tools can make face-to-face instruction more dynamic and interactive.

Miro

Miro is a digital collaboration platform that plays a role of an infinite e-whiteboard. When I taught online and did not have access to an actual physical board, that was a life-saver for me. I could display my materials on Miro, accompany them with bright images and colourful text, and make adjustments in real time together with my students.

Wordwall

The name of this resource speaks for itself – the website allows teachers to create fascinating word games in just a couple of clicks. It is somewhat similar to Quizlet (see more: 10 Distance Learning Tools in Under 10 minutes), which I have also tried out, but I am a bigger fan of Wordwall as it provides an enormous variety of game types and designs for the same wordlists. I could share a Wordwall game as homework or ask my students to complete it during class.

Ellii

Ellii is a platform that contains multiple ESL lessons of different levels and themes. Ellii is aimed at developing all of the essential language skills – listening, reading, writing and even speaking. What’s more, Ellii is being regularly updated – so if you enjoy discussing current affairs and breaking news with your students, Ellii will have a bunch of ready-made lessons for you!

Ellii also has a wonderful feature called Ellii Polls. Students are invited to scan a QR code to join a poll on their device, while the teacher displays the results of the “vote” on the shared screen. It’s a great way to start a conversation and encourage learners to express their opinions.

Tutela

Tutela is an online community for Canadian ESL/FSL instructors. It’s a safe space for Canadian educators to contribute their resources, get peer feedback, and borrow materials for their own classrooms. Some of the activities on Tutela are specifically designed for digital learning. My absolute favourite part of Tutela is the collection of multi-level CCLB modules which are created specifically for learners residing in Canada.

Raz-Kids

Although I teach adult learners, kids’ books work as an amazing activity for low-level ESL students. And who doesn’t like simple and clear stories with beautiful vibrant pictures? Raz-Kids is extremely easy to use – learners read and/or listen to the book of their choice and complete a comprehension quiz at the end. While reading, students can also click individual words and listen to the pronunciation. Raz Kids works great both for home and in-class digital assignments.

YouTube

As Kavya, Gurjinder, and Prabhdeep mentioned, YouTube engages learners with various learning styles and enhances classes with multimedia content. I can totally agree with their statement based on my own experience – I have always used YouTube to help my ESL students improve their listening skills. I often have my students watch a YouTube video and complete a comprehension task that I designed myself or with the help of the Twee AI tool.

Zoom

Kavya, Gurjinder, and Prabhdeep talked about such tools as Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom, which allow teachers to conduct virtual lessons. Though we sometimes use Teams at my workplace, online classes mostly take place on Zoom. The feature of Zoom that I like the most is breakout rooms as it makes pair and group work possible for distant learners.

 

Distance Learning Tools I Would Like to Explore in the Future

The 10 Distance Learning Tools in Under 10 minutes video has opened my eyes to more digital resources I would like to explore and maybe even implement in the future. Some of them are:

• Voicethread – promotes visual interaction with educational materials;
• Peergrade – allows students to read each other’s works and leave anonymous feedback;
• Socrative – effectively tracks students’ progress (for now, my co-workers and I use shared OneDrive spreadsheets for this purpose);
• Microsoft Forms – allows educators to create forms and quizzes;
• Newsela – provides plenty of news articles adapted for various grades and levels.

I would also like to add CanAvenue to the list. Last week, I attended a conference organized by Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (ATESL). CanAvenue was one of the resources that was introduced there, and it caught my attention as it contains lots of ESL activities that students can do independently or with the teacher’s support. I am planning to look into this platform and later introduce it to my students.

 

With the new distance learning technologies emerging almost daily, educators should do their best to keep pace with them. That is why it is so vital for us to stay open-minded and continuously try out new tools and resources. If we want or students to make progress, we have to grow as well!