ADMINISTRATORS

Administrators play an important role not only in the technology integration educational programs, but also in the provision and knowledge about how to make technology a valuable learning resource in the development of second language learning processes. Technology has brought many advantages to all those who try constantly to interact with the world today. In the educational field, technology is seen as a rich and effective tool for communication which demands language competence development. By using technology administrators can enhance such language communicative competence. Therefore, bilingual schools administrators must consider and be aware of the importance of integrating technology in the educational programs; technology management and digital skills should be part of the curriculums of basic education. Pais and Nogués (2017) emphasize on the constructivism paradigm ‘learning by doing’; that is, administrators will better retain learning by experiencing; thus, making the learning process more meaningful. This is an effective way in which the learning process can be modified. Besides, this learning experience will help administrators to be aware of the inclusion of technology in the curriculum design to fulfill the demands of developing communicative competence in society today. Administrators of schools with bilingual programs have the responsibility for contributing to digital skill development and the creation of Cooperative Learning environments that can provide rich support to ELLs. The massive use of technology and all its devices that used to surf the Internet; besides that, the distinctive features of society today seem to be the scenario in which new generations have to shape their processes of learning and knowledge access. Furthermore, digital skills appear as a necessary pedagogical component for educating new generations, and even more necessary to all whose goal is to learn a second language. According to Perez-Escoda, Castro and Zubizarreta (2016), the Z generation is integrated by many subgroups of new generations that share a common feature: Technophilia. These authors provide digital skills definition which is taken from Order ACD/65/2015: “digital skills are those that encompass creative, critical, and safe use of ICTs to reach the goals related to work, employability, knowledge, use of free time, inclusion, and participation in society. These skills assume, in addition to an ease in adjustment to changes introduced by new technologies in literacy, reading, and writing, the capacity to adapt to a new set of knowledge, abilities and attitudes that are necessary in this day and age to be competent in a digital environment”. (Perez_Escoda, Castro and Zubizarreta, 2016 ,p.72). Consequently, it is necessary to implement constructivist scenarios in order to design lessons providing step by step Negotiation for Meanings (NM) in the digital skills development. Palma (2014) conducted a study in which he applied a mixed-method research that integrated 10 Mexican participants who were upper-intermediates at the Universidad Autonoma de Puebla. This study was mainly focused on what would be the best way to create environments for learning and consequently to propitiate NM and interactional adjustment. The study revealed the importance of grammatical awareness and its role in verbs morphological inflection, just in the specific situation of third singular person in present tense. The study as well shows that learners can be manipulated for NM that encompasses verb tense matters; however, a limitation of this study does not account for the task features, specifically, that can determine a detailed influence on the performance. The NM for the analysis implemented in this study was based on the model proposed by Doughty and Pica (1986) and the one used by Foster (1988). Doughty and Pica`s model accounted with four negotiation sequences which are mentioned, but not enough explained specifically. This model consists of adding a trigger, a signal, a response, and a reaction. The direct and indirect responses were considered as part of the negotiation processes too. In regard to Long’s model, comprehension checks, clarification requests, and confirmation checks were used. In comparison with the rest of studies mentioned in the present work, this study supports the assertion that NM is a generator or trigger issue in acquisition of both, SL and FL. According to Gonzalez-Espada (2014), for many decades the role of social media has been considered a good pedagogical tool to learn English. In addition, Berk (2014) states that including technology in the English language learning process represents a more meaningful, nonthreatening and successful experience for ELLs. In addition, Nel and Muller (2010), state that using ICT to learn English can also maximize students’ potential and give them the opportunity to interact with authentic target language communication through negotiation of meanings. • Goal: Administrators will learn how to incorporate technology in the English Language Learning programs to benefit the academic achievement of ELLs. • Objective 1: Administrators will develop basic computer literacy skills to navigate the Internet by using cell phones, Apps, Tablets, IPads, and/or PC to help ELLs in their second language learning process. • Objective 2: Principals and coordinators will learn different forms of social media, applications and software for interactions such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Prezzi, or Kahoot. Activities: Objective 1: Administrators will develop basic computer literacy skills to navigate the Internet by using cell phones, Apps, Tablets, IPads, and/or PC to help ELLs in their second language learning process. Activity 1: a) The trainer will present to administrators the basics of the Internet along with useful concepts to navigate the social nets. b) Administrators will be organized in Cooperative Learning Groups (CLG) to elaborate a crossword puzzle on the Internet basic concepts using their cellphones, tablet, and/or PCs. c) Administrators will use the following link for directions to create a crossword puzzle: https://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/make-your-own/corssword/lang-es/ d) Administrators will interchange their crosswords and answer their partners’ e) Administrators will share and discuss their answers with their partners in the workshop. f) Each administrator will write a reflective report, discuss and receive feedback from the other participants in the training. Activity 2: a) Administrators will be organized in pairs. As a first step, they will fill in the “squid-tech” activity in which they will fill in all the steps they experience in this process. They will take into account that the central concepts is: word scramble. b) Administrators will access to: www.proprofs.com/games/ and they will create a “word scramble” activity by using the glossary that the trainer will provide. • Administrators will give a name to the activity and describe it. • Administrators will include a hint per each word. • Once administrators include all the words, they will click on “Create my aim” button and copy the activity link for providing it to their classmates. • Administrators will access to their partners activity and solve it. • Administrators will post their certificate of achievement in their blog. • At the time administrators post their certificates, they will post comments about what difficulties they got for creating the activity. They will post two positive comments about their partners’ activities and two comments about what their partners have to improve. • Finally, they have to narrate the process that they experience by using “squid-tech” worksheet and they will post their narratives on the padlet. Administrators will read two narratives and post a feedback for each of the readings. Resources: Cell phones, PCs, laptops, and Facebook. Personnel involved: Administrators, principals, coordinators, external agency in charge of conducting the training Evaluation activities: Crossword puzzle, crossword puzzle rubric, crossword puzzle solution, class discussion rubric, written report rubric. squid worksheet. Outcomes: Crosswords, Discussion groups on the Facebook academic group, reflective discussion, Feedback. Timeline: A total of 8 hours in September Activities: Objective 2: Principals and coordinators will learn different forms of social media, applications and softwares for interactions such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Prezzi, or Kahoot. Activity 1 a) Principals and Coordinators will create learning communities to inform and help the academic development of ELLs. b) Principals and Coordinators will create a Facebook academic group. c) Principals and Coordinators will design a sample academic activity and post it for ELLs d) The sample activity must fulfill the following characteristics: • Content review (video, web page, textbook, Prezi or Power Point Presentation). This must include a worksheet as an outcome of the activity. The worksheet must include a guided process by which the principals and coordinators will analyze the content review. • Principals and Coordinators will conduct a content socialization by posting a trigger or provocative question derived from the content review. All of the participants will share their observations on the previous activity. • Principals and Coordinators will design an interactive activity including the content that they reviewed previously. They have to use the following link: https://www.proprofs.com. Once they have their activity done, they have to post the activity on the Facebook academic group. Activity 2: a) Administrators will be organized in Cooperative learning groups (CLG). b) Administrators will read the article “Interaction” (183-197.) Theories in second Language Acquisition. c) Administrators will work on “Eiciquious” worksheet. On section one, administrators will fill in by scanning the text provided by the trainer. Administrators will incorporate the key sentences picked from the text. d) Administrators will create a Facebook Academic Group (FAG) post for the “Eiciquius activity” in which they will provide a title for the post: “Eiciquius activity interaction approach”. They will include a trigger question for the other members of the CLG to post a respond to such questions. They will do the same for others’ posts on the FAG. e) Administrators will elaborate a PPT about the article content and post it in their blogs. They will post a window two positive comments and two things to be improved on the FAG per each of the participants. f) Administrators will work on the “Eiciquios second section worksheet” by means of listing down the difficulties that they found experiencing this activity. g) Administrators will open a second posts on their FAG and name it “Unknown facts”. They will post the requested data in others’ comments. h) After reading others’ posts, administrators will fill in the third “Eiciquios” worksheet. They will post their inferences on a third FAG post and title it as Inferences. Principals and Coordinators will post a reflective note on this activity on the Facebook academic group. i) Finally, administrators will write an essay about what they learned, how they learned, and how this knowledge will be useful for them in the future. Resources: Cell phones, PCs, laptops, and Facebook. Personnel involved: Principals, coordinators and an external agency in charge of conducting the training. Evaluation activities: Facebook group creation rubric, lesson activity format, worksheet for video review, video review activity rubric, interactive activity in the web rubrics, and Eiciquious activity worksheet. Outcomes: Ten Facebook academic groups, video worksheet, trigger or provocative questions posts, interactive activity in www.porprofs.com, and reflective notes. Timeline: A total of 8 hours in October 2018.