Centro de Estudios de Postgrado

Centro de Estudios de Postgrado UNIVERSIDAD DE JAÉN

Centro de Estudios de Posgrado

Trabajo Fin de Máster

TEACHING ENGLISH
Trabajo Fin de Máster
IN
TIMES OF LOCKDOWN:
DISTANCE LEARNING
TOOLS

TEACHING ENGLISH
Alumna: Muñoz Victoria, Manuela María
IN
TIMES OF LOCKDOWN:
Tutor: Prof. D. Luciano García García
DISTANCE
Dpto:
LEARNING
Filología Inglesa

TOOLS
[1]

Junio, 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 4
2. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: let there be digital technologies ............................ 5
3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: the lesson must go on .......................................... 6
4. LITERATURE REVIEW: the teacher as a learner ...................................................... 7
4.1 Traditional considerations of ICTs in teaching ESL ......................................... 9
4.2 From ICT to LKT: the power of three letters ................................................. 10
4.3 Understanding distance learning: disrupted classes, undisrupted learning 12
4.3.1 Side effects of distance learning: isolation, demotivation and workload….16
4.4 Digital education policies: hello “new normal” ............................................ 18
4.5 Digital divide and digital literacy ................................................................... 21
5. TOOLS AND RESOURCES: beyond the Power Point presentation ......................... 23
6. LESSON PLAN ..................................................................................................... 32
6.1 Introduction and justification ....................................................................... 32
6.2 Contextualization .......................................................................................... 32
6.3 Legal Framework ........................................................................................... 34
6.4 Objectives and key competences ................................................................. 35
6.5 Cross-curricular issues and interdisciplinary................................................. 36
6.6 Contents ........................................................................................................ 36
6.7 Tools and resources ...................................................................................... 38
6.8 Methodology ................................................................................................. 39
6.9 Lesson plan outline: How Does Mona Lisa Feel? .......................................... 40
6.10 Step by step explanation of the lesson plan ............................................... 43
6.11 Evaluation.................................................................................................... 55
7. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................... 55
8. REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 57
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1. Categorization of challenges impeding technology adoption ............................ 8

Table 2. Readiness for distance learning ........................................................................ 14
Table 3. Good practices in distance learning and implications ...................................... 15
Figure 1. Evolution of the techno-social and knowledge environment ......................... 11
Figure 2. TPACK Model ................................................................................................... 12
Figure 3. Digital Intelligence (DQ) Framework ............................................................... 22

[2]
ABSTRACT
The suspension of face-to-face lessons due to the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 has
revealed the need for educational institutions and educators to find alternatives to
effectively teach and assess the curriculum of secondary school students in emergency
situations, where factors like teachers’ training and students’ socio-economic level play
a determining role. In this context, this Master’s Dissertation aims to define concepts
and strategies designed to recognise the level of integration of digital technologies in
schools, to reduce the digital divide and to improve teachers and students’ digital
literacy and competency. Challenges are many, so it only is after describing the
theoretical framework that this dissertation dares to collect ICT/LKT tools that can be
useful to palliate the educational shock caused by the school closures. The resulting
distance learning-ready lesson plan aims to reinforce English skills through a cross-
curricular approach that promotes the use of ICT tools and the interaction with art.
Keywords: COVID-19, curricula, emergency situations, digital technologies, digital
divide, digital literacy, training, resources, ICT, LKT, lesson plan
RESUMEN
La suspensión de las clases presenciales provocada por la crisis del COVID-19 ha revelado
la necesidad de encontrar alternativas para enseñar y evaluar el currículo de los alumnos
de Educación Secundaria en situaciones de emergencia, en las que factores como la
formación del profesorado y el nivel socioeconómico de los alumnos son clave. Así, este
Trabajo de Fin de Máster recoge conceptos y estrategias útiles para reconocer el nivel
de integración de las tecnologías digitales en la educación, reducir la brecha digital y
mejorar la alfabetización digital. Son tantos los desafíos que, solo después de describir
el marco teórico, se proponen herramientas TIC/TAC que bien pueden servir para paliar
el impacto educacional provocado por el cierre de los colegios. La unidad didáctica
resultante pretende continuar la enseñanza a distancia de la lengua inglesa a través de
un enfoque transversal que promueve el desarrollo de la competencia digital y la
interacción con el arte.
Palabras clave: COVID-19, currículo, situaciones de emergencia, tecnologías digitales,
brecha digital, competencia digital, formación, recursos, TIC, TAC, unidad didáctica

[3]
 In dealing with the future, […] it is more important to be imaginative and insightful
than to be one hundred percent “right” (Toffler, 1970)

1. INTRODUCTION
“
T here was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” Jane Eyre’s opening line
takes on a different meaning when we read it today. Ten words that
summarized Jane’s world. Ten words that captured the reader. Ten words that shake
our world today, rushing us to accept new challenges we did not ask for.
When a typhus epidemic reached Lowood, the charity school Jane had been
consigned to, her life changed: “classes were broken up, rules relaxed.” Brontë’s words
held lessons on social distancing more than one hundred years ago. As it did back then,
today’s pandemic also brings, amid crisis and disruption, the impossibility of traditional
face-to-face lessons. Amid crisis and disruption, the English Teacher of secondary school
in times of lockdown.
In this context, even when it seems clear that the marriage between formal
education and Internet technology becomes as inevitable as the marriage between Jane
Eyre and Mr Rochester, a question arises: do English teachers know or have enough
resources to deal with this unprecedented situation? This master’s dissertation, which I
am writing under a stay-at-home order, aims to collect, categorise and analyse tools and
resources for teaching and learning the English language in front of a screen.
But first, let me start from the beginning of the story.

[4]
2. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: let there be digital technologies
[…] a book and a pen are technologies which are so normalized in education,
invisible, yet essential, that we cease even to think of them as technologies […]
(Bax, 2011a)
The exponential growth experienced by digital technologies within the last two
decades is ever more clear, as it was the generation gap that growth exposed between
teachers and students at the beginning of the century. The term “digital natives”, coined
back then by Prensky (2001), was useful, in the context of education, to understand the
disposition of those students, who were growing up with digital technology, towards
rapid media switching, multitasking and processing, handling and craving great amounts
of information and stimuli; a disposition that their teachers did not have to the same
extent, or not at all.
Teachers, who following Prensky’s (2001) terminology would be considered
“digital immigrants”, not only had to understand and develop an appreciation for the
so-called natives’ new skills but had to be one step ahead of them. It could be argued
that digital technology is not an educational or cultural asset by itself, but not giving the
students the tools to become digitally literates would leave them drowning in a flood of
information and empty instant gratifications, or even worse, it would be denying
teachers’ responsibility to educate students for the real world and therefore to reflect
the ways we recognise, analyse and interact with what is around us. The role of the
teachers, as well as the contents and methods used by them, needed to be tested and
redefined. The educational challenges that digital technology brought with it were and
have proven to be unstoppable. The seed of change was planted.
While Prensky’s terms were once valuable in order to conceptualize the initial
scenario, they are becoming less and less relevant today, urging us to reject the
simplistic assumptions this distinction could arise, especially as we move further into
this century. In other words, as authors like Bax (2011a) have argued, a naïve and
decontextualized use of these terms would suggest that teachers were simply outdated
in comparison with digital native students and, as a consequence, the key for a
successful digital education is reduced to the idea that teachers need to accommodate
to their learners’ new skills and behaviours and act as mere “facilitators”. Would that
not be assuming that providing digital resources to the students would be enough to
promote learning? Would that not mean, in the context of distance teaching, that the
teachers’ role would be deemed to be redundant in the eyes of the students?
In the light of all this, the concept of “normalization”, as Bax (2011b) explains,
would be key to answer the questions above. Thus, the normalized use of a certain

[5]
technology on a daily basis (social media, instant messaging services, multimedia
platforms, online games…) does not imply the normalized, effective and integrated
application of any of those technologies, or others, in education: tools and resources
can either succeed or fail in becoming valuable for teaching and learning purposes.
This realization gives a strong impetus to the pedagogical ideas behind the
application of technology in the classroom and helps the educational community to
knock digital technology off its pedestal. There is not such a thing as an almighty
computer technology. No investment in educational software/hardware will be fruitful
if expectations are unrealistic, and even less so when training for teachers, integration
into the students’ curriculum or the academic support is not enough or nearly non-
existent. Only when the educator is aware of this, the catalyst agents of a digitalized
English education (e.g. Information and Communication Technologies [ICT], Computer
Assisted Language Learning [CALL], Learning and Knowledge Technologies [LKT]…) can
be harnessed to support and achieve the goals set by the formal learning syllabus.
In short, this introduction outlines the background of digital technologies in
language teaching to help us accept both: their incredible potential and the obstacles
that are yet to be overcome in this field. In this way, it is easier to approach the problem
that justifies our study: how mandatory distance learning in formal education can be
effective.
3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: the lesson must go on
How it is we have so much information but know so little? (Noam Chomsky)
It is not uncommon to approach the use of ICT in secondary school education in
an endeavour to improve an existing educational context, but not many times it is
addressed in an effort to design new contexts or strategies – to do something we were
not doing before. In other words: only by opening new teaching paths, educators will be
ready for those circumstances where more than that little extra is needed.
Accordingly, the justification for this work finds its foundations in the context of
the recent outbreak of the COVID-19, which has revealed the need for the educational
institutions to find alternatives to teach and assess effectively the curricula of secondary
school students in emergency situations.
That said, and regarding English teaching in secondary schools, the next
questions arise:
Where does the use of digital technology in education stand today?
What ICT/LKT tools and resources can be implemented to create an effective
learning environment within the parameters of the Spanish Educational Law?
[6]
 How to tackle the issues of the digital divide and attention to diversity?
On the basis of the questions posed above and in order to answer them, it
appears appropriate to formulate the following objectives, all of them within the
common goal of using online and offline digital tools to serve educational purposes:
To provide useful and suitable resources to access relevant information and
effectively connect teachers and students with each other when in different
locations.
To promote strategies to reduce the technological gap and to respond to the
individual differences of the students.
To support English teachers’ training in applying digital resources for teaching
in secondary schools.

 The present work will address these objectives from a theoretical and a practical
point of view. The theoretical framework will undertake a literature review to define key
concepts that will then facilitate the search and categorization of resources.

 Once the catalogue of digital resources is compiled, it will be used to design a

comprehensive lesson plan to be implemented and tested in a given context.
Ultimately, the lesson plan has to prove its suitability not only by itself but as part of the
course syllabus, which will also be taken into account.
4. LITERATURE REVIEW: the teacher as a learner
Teachers may have always felt the pressure of keeping up-to-date in their field, but it is
a profound change that both the learner and the ‘teacher’ have identical access to the
same vast set of information (Wellburn, 2010)
Teaching does not just happen; it takes planning, organization, methodology and
implementation, but more importantly it takes learning. The educator learns before,
during and after teaching. The knowledge, attitudes, abilities, motivations and beliefs of
the educator will define, to a large extent, their teaching. A clear example of this is the
application of one or another methodology in the teaching of English, which does not
always just respond to an accurate consideration of what the student really needs, but
it is also a reflection of the teacher’s views and previous education – i.e., the use of the
Grammar-Translation method would suggest that the teacher’s idea of English as a
“know-ledge” prevails over the consideration of it being a “skill”, in which case the use
of communicative methods would be assumed.
In a similar way, some studies carried out at the beginning of the century (Cox,
1999; Jones, 2004) revealed that the integration of ICT is influenced by the teacher’s

[7]
positive inclination towards the use of ICT, that is, by their personality traits, their beliefs
about the value of ICT and the control they have over their professional practice. More
specifically, Jones (2004) identifies different obstacles that the educators face when
integrating ICT into their lessons, which include: lack of confidence, lack of effective
training, lack of access to resources and technical problems.
More recent studies (Williams, 2016) show that there are still significant barriers
when integrating ICT, despite the generalized positive perception of the teachers about
the potential of ICT in education. One of the main difficulties is their previous experience
and their training.

CATEGORIZATION OF CHALLENGES IMPEDING TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN

EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS

SOLVABLE CHALLENGES DIFFICULT CHALLENGES WICKED CHALLENGES

Those that we understand Those that we understand Those that are complex to
and know how to solve but for which solutions are even define, much less
elusive address

Improving digital fluency Bridging the achievement Advancing digital equity

gap Rethinking the practice of
teaching
Table 1. Categorization of challenges impeding technology adoption1
All that becomes even more obvious in a lockdown situation that forces the
teacher (and the student) to adopt distance learning strategies and, therefore, to learn
how to do it efficiently and how to ensure the continuation of the curriculum.
However, in the context of our study, it is imperative to acknowledge that the
teachers’ personal digital skills are not enough to lead a change in the educational
system and, even less, to face the challenges of the sudden shift caused by the closure
of schools. It is the task of the institutions to orchestrate the curricular changes, to
reduce the digital divide and to provide the teachers with the right training.
In light of the above, it is relevant to explore some basic concepts on which to
build the foundations of successful English lessons based on digital technologies.

1
Adapted from EDUCAUSE Horizon Report, 2019

[8]
 4.1 Traditional considerations of ICTs in teaching ESL
[…] if English is imposing the world on our students, we can enable them,
through English, to impose their voices on the world (Warschauer, 2000)
Think about Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as extensions of
human organs and systems. That metaphor is used in the UNESCO’s ICTs Handbook for
Teachers (Semenov, 2005) to define in a comprehensive way how digital tools function:
“these extensions” work in coordination with our body, senses and mind to improve our
capabilities of managing time and space and perceiving the outer world. To put it in
simple terms, ICT tools work as eyeglasses, cutlery, furniture or other objects designed
to meet human needs in a modern world.
A more traditional definition from Asabere and Enguah (2012) states that ICT are
tools, processes and equipment (hardware, software and information systems) that
provide a specific environment with the services and the infrastructure needed in order
to generate, transmit, process, store and distribute information in all forms. More than
a few researchers have claimed the transformational role that ICT tools play in the
methods and styles of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). Foreign language
teachers and learners have both taken advantage of these technologies to improve their
writing, reading, listening and speaking skills.

ICTs and the four basic language skills

LISTENING: multimedia contents (podcasts, online video platforms, mp3
tracks…) provide English learners with great amounts of authentic language
input at the same that allow them to regulate how (pace, frequency) and
when that input is going to happen.
READING: searching for online content that is interesting for the student
easily makes the task of reading much more enjoyable. Thus, apart from
being a useful tool to improve literacy skills, the internet gives the learner
the opportunity to interact with other readers.
E-books and their features, such as dictionaries, annotation tools or the
possibility of changing the size of the font, can also help the student to
understand a text better, and this would then lead to a more engaging
reading practice.
WRITING: secondary school students are normally very familiar with social
media apps like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook… which connect them very
literally with the rest of the world. They build community bonds by sharing
content, thoughts and interests beyond frontiers, helping them engage
with the use of English, given its position as lingua franca.

[9]
 SPEAKING: the development of online courses, video chat services and
applications enables stress-free environments that encourage the
participation and interaction of language learners, who normally find these
synchronous and real chat experiences more motivating.

Despite its conceptual advantages, the educator must guide and control the
application of ICTs for achieving a meaningful learning and for avoiding the students’
lackadaisical attitude towards the course.

4.2 From ICT to LKT: the power of three letters

One technology doesn't replace another, it complements. Books are no more
threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators (Stephen Fry, 2009)
It is now undeniable that the development of new ICT made more valuable and
innovative ESL approaches possible. It is from this union between ICT and language
teaching that CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) and TELL (Technology
Enhanced Language Learning) – among other concepts – were born, and with them the
epiphany of the ESL teacher: The English learner shall not live on paper worksheets
alone.
CALL’s prophet, Levy (1997), defined it briefly as an “approach in ILT (Information
and Language Technology) to language teaching and learning in which the computer is
used as a substantial interactive aid for reinforcement and assessment in application for
language teaching and learning.” Many authors have refined and reflected on this
definition during the years, introducing more complex pedagogical insights to the
acronym (Egbert, 2005). However, others agree that the success of the integration of
CALL lies within the concept of “normalization” (Bax, 2003), already mentioned at the
beginning of this work: only when educators and learners are ready to accept computers
as just another learning tool, the definition and concept of CALL will become irrelevant.
Normalisation is therefore the stage when a technology is invisible, hardly even
recognised as a technology, taken for granted in everyday life. CALL has not
reached this stage, as evidenced by the use of the very acronym ‘CALL’— we do
not speak of PALL (Pen Assisted Language Learning) or of BALL (Book Assisted
Language Learning) because those two technologies are completely integrated
into education. (Bax, 2003)
The challenge of scaling up and establishing distance learning methods, in
response to the unpredictable closure of schools, may be a good opportunity for
institutions and ESL teachers to plan a successful normalization of CALL – although not

[10]
necessarily aiming to make the acronym invisible or irrelevant (Kessler, 2016) – and to
transform traditional teaching models.

Has the perfect time for Learning and Knowledge Technologies (LKT) arrived?
When the educational community was just starting to grow accustomed to using
the term ICT, some researchers and theorists in this field realized that the term, although
essential, was not enough when talking about teaching and learning processes. As stated
previously, it is crucial to move away from the idea that the connection of “digital
natives” with certain ICTs automatically translates in their understanding and good use
of technologies for learning.
In a sense, ICTs can be a double-edged sword, a Trojan horse, when used loosely
in educational environments: in the blink of an eye, ICTs may swing from promoting the
creation of enabling educational environments to overloading the educator/learner
with distractions that would take them out of those environments.
It is not about technifying the school, but about schooling the technology.
(González, 2014).
On this basis, Dolors Reig (2012) expresses the need of moving from ICT towards
LKT, and even towards EPT (Empowerment and Participation Technologies):

EVOLUTION OF THE TECHNO-

SOCIAL AND KNOWLEDGE
ENVIRONMENT
ICT LKT EPT
Information and Learning and Empowerment and
Communication Knowledge Participation
Technologies Technologies Technologies

GOOGLE MOOC EPT-LEARNING

PERSONAL PERSONAL PERSONAL

LEARNING/ LEARNING LEARNING AND
COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT PARTICIPATION
NETWORK ENVIRONMENT

Expansion of the zone of proximal development PROCESSES

Greater empowerment
From interaction to participation
Curation of contents vs. Personalized curation of contents

Figure 1. Evolution of the techno-social and knowledge environment2

2
Translated and adapted from Dolors Reig, 2012 (www.dreig.eu/caparazon/)

[11]
 LKT and EPT tools and resources shape ICTs for pedagogical use. In a sense, they
go further to explore how technologies work when put in service of a learning project.
Welcoming this breakthrough opens up new prospects for educational systems in
dealing with the great obstacles and implications caused by the implementation of
distance learning.
Although this is not an easy transition, not turning ICT tools into LKT tools would
prevent us from making full use of relevant and valuable resources and would even be
detrimental to the quality of our teaching.
At this point, it is clear that beyond acknowledging the significance of this
transition, educators need to adopt a broader training model so the integration of
technology in their teaching is both possible and effective. In this direction, Punya
Mishra and Matthew J. Koehler (2006, 2011) updated the Pedagogical Content
Knowledge (Shulman, 1985) proposals and
developed the applauded TPACK framework
(Technological Pedagogical Content
Knowledge) that, in words of its authors,
identifies “the nature of knowledge required
by teachers for technology integration in their
teaching, while addressing the complex,
multifaceted and situated nature of teacher
knowledge.”
All in all, LKT and EPT tools, if applied
properly, are able to provide support for the
development of new distance learning
strategies and of curriculum reforms from a
Figure 2. TPACK Model
realistic standpoint. In short, the main focus
(http://tpack.org)
should be to build open, flexible, participative
and inclusive distance learning plans to address this situation, not to become the new
Isaac Asimov.
4.3 Understanding distance learning: disrupted classes, undisrupted learning
Anticipating the future is human nature. As anyone who has tried meditation
knows, staying in the present is surprisingly difficult because our minds spend so much
time reflecting on the past or anticipating the future (Brown, et al., 2020)
“A Changed World with Unchanged Classrooms” is the appropriate heading of
one of the sections of an Oxford University report on ICT, that reads:

[12]
 If you compared our world today with the world one hundred years ago, you
would encounter amazing advances in science, commerce, health care,
transportation and countless other factors. But if you were to compare the
classroom of a hundred years ago with an average classroom today, you would
recognise it immediately. (Hawkins, 2002)
Online learning is not something new or experimental nowadays, but it is beyond
question that well-planned and freely chosen online learning experiences are
significantly different from educational programs offered online in emergency
situations. In this sense, Hawkins’ wise words are not only as true today as they were
when he wrote them, but they are also key to recognize the unreadiness of many formal
education institutions when on March 2020 they were told that their classrooms were
not going to open their doors, until further notice, to stop the spread of the COVID-19.
After that overnight transformation happened in our country, many educational
communities suddenly shifted to distance learning as a response to the quarantine
situation. From “chalk-and-talk” to “click-and-type” in twenty-four hours: has this
pandemic acted as the miracle pill the education institutions needed to use digital
technologies effectively? I would not go quite that far. As a matter of fact, the adoption
of distance learning, especially in primary and secondary schools, is far from plain sailing.
The phrase “disrupted classes, undisrupted learning” (Huang, 2020) is a bold
declaration of intent, almost a slogan, a catchphrase for tech gadget enthusiasts; but
first, what does distance learning mean? In the context of the COVID-19 education
response, the UNESCO (2020b) defines it in a broad sense as:
[…] a term often used synonymously with online learning, e-learning, distance
education, correspondence education, external studies, flexible learning, and
massive open online courses (MOOCs). Common features of any form of distance
learning are: the teacher-learner separation by space or time, or both, and the
use of media and technology to enable communication and exchange during the
learning process despite this separation. (UNESCO, 2020b)
Based on this definition, it is evident that embracing distance learning paradigms
demands a meticulous analysis of the equipment that educators and learners need, as
well as a conscientious evaluation about whether the teaching style used in the
traditional classroom can be effectively moved to a technological device.
As if all that were not challenging enough for achieving our digital learning
dreams, reality brings us back down to earth with a bump: this outbreak and the
consequent imposition of distance learning reveal greater inequalities.

[13]
 We are entering uncharted territory and working with countries to find
hi-tech, low-tech and no-tech solutions to assure the continuity of
learning. (Audrey Azoulay, 2020, as cited in Huang, 2020).
In view of the foregoing, and referring to the issue notes on Distance learning
strategies in response to COVID-19 school closures, recently published by the UNESCO
(2020b), there is a term that is gaining more and importance; that term is readiness.
To put it in a nutshell, the success of distance learning plans will be determined
by its level of readiness. The following chart summarizes the different approaches in this
matter:

READINESS FOR DISTANCE LEARNING

TECHNOLOGICAL READINESS
 Are there digital platforms/devices/systems able to provide courses
remotely?
 Do teachers and learners have access to those?

CONTENT READINESS
 Are teaching and learning curricular contents accessible or adaptable?

PEDAGOGICAL AND HOME-BASED LEARNING SUPPORT READINESS

 Are teachers prepared to design and facilitate online teaching?
 Are families ready to monitor the home-based learning of their children?

MONITORING AND EVALUATION READINESS

 Are educational institutions and educators capable of: checking distance
learning processes, controlling access and engagement levels, evaluating
curricular contents and sustaining immediate responses in the long run?

Table 2. Readiness for distance learning3

If there is a lesson that educators in Spain have already learnt from the
uncertainty of this situation, that is the need to stay prepared; the need of planning
ahead to avoid confusions, major disruptions and other difficulties that come from
improvising a sudden shift in teaching-learning processes.
This is a lesson to be transmitted to institutions, schools, students and families
(or households) so they all count on the support and the required know-how to assume

3
Inspired by UNESCO’s Distance learning strategies in response to COVID-19 school closures issue note
(2020b)

[14]
new distance learning routines. Therefore, the planning of distance learning strategies
should seek to achieve long-term goals, instead of just mitigating the immediate needs
of the current crisis.
In this regard, the aforementioned issue notes by the UNESCO (2020b) also
explain different actions that can be taken to achieve fruitful results:

GOOD PRACTICES IN DISTANCE LEARNING AND IMPLICATIONS

Managing the distance of new learning Physical and psychological separation =

+ learner’s autonomy
settings and provide remote supervision
- teacher’s control

Adjusting formative assessment to

improve remote monitoring of learning Regular formative assessments =
+ effective monitoring
processes

Preparing teachers for pedagogical Training and collaboration =

shifts and facilitate collaboration among + support for teachers
teachers - workload

Equality policies =
Supporting disadvantaged groups - digital gap
+ attention to diversity
+ gender equality

Learning platforms managed by

Boosting the technological capacities of governmental institutions =
national distance learning platforms + adjustability of contents
+ inclusive accessibility

Table 3. Good practices in distance learning and implications4

In recent years, even before the COVID-19 crisis, the educational community has
been focused on preparing teachers and students for the “unknown unknowns” of the
future (social unrest, environmental crisis, technological revolutions…). As Hughes
(2020) points out, it is a must to equip students with skills that are future-ready. The
COVID-19 outbreak makes these ambitions even more necessary to resolve the present
crisis challenges.

4
Inspired by UNESCO’s Distance learning strategies in response to COVID-19 school closures issue
note (2020b)

[15]
 In any case, as things stand, it is essential, whatever the innovative attitudes and
strategies are adopted now, that the response is human-centered, so that it supports
the well-being of teachers and students and sustains the connections between them.
Are we ready?
4.3.1 Side effects of distance learning: isolation, demotivation and workload
Schools are more than learning places. They are places of social interaction, self-
fulfilment and even places of safety for many, without forgetting that they are also
workplaces. The impact of school closures goes far beyond the educational sphere into
psychosocial fields that many times constitute an even greater challenge for teachers,
learners and their families.
This crisis is an eye-opener. Education is about relation, presence, well-being.
(Costa J., 2020, as cited in OECD Education, 2020)
Whereas the integration of a remote education strategy is proving to be effective
in containing the spread of the pandemic, this remedy does not come without
undesirable side effects. Although many different factors, including personal
circumstances, socioeconomic level or mental state, will determine the seriousness of
these side effects, almost every student and teacher, to a greater or lesser extent, will
be affected by at least one of them.
Some of these possible adverse consequences of school closures, apart from the
obvious interrupted learning, have already been disclosed by UNESCO (2020c, 2020d,
2020e) in different reports and issue notes:

 Stress, work overload and confusion for teachers

 Educational responsibility overload for parents
 High economic costs for the education system and families
 Increased dropout rates
 Increased exposure to violence for students
 Digital dependency and “screen addiction”
 Disrupted access to food and poor nutrition
 Physical inactivity
 Anxiety, feelings of isolation, depression and other mental health issues
[…] when we are under chronically difficult conditions, it is very helpful to divide
the problem into two categories: things I can do something about, and then
things I can do nothing about. (Damour, 2020).

[16]
 With things as they are, taking a second look at the aforementioned negative
effects raises two key questions: what are the problems we can do something about?
And what is it that we can do about them?
Even if right now some of the solutions that give answer to those questions are
more conceptual than measurable, it seems appropriate to address briefly those
provisions and considerations that are advantageous in approaching the main
drawbacks of the physical separation of the teacher and the student, and between
students themselves, which are: lack of motivation and feelings of isolation.
Both teachers and students will find it difficult to maintain momentum and
interest in teaching/learning remotely if those resources at their disposal fail to promote
collaborative learning approaches or are not capable of encouraging students’
interaction. At the same time, if that interaction is not regulated (when/how is the
interaction going to happen) by the teacher or the school, it can lead to an excessive
workload for all the parts involved, and therefore to a generalized feeling of a constant
state of alertness, attrition, burnout and a poorer teaching quality. In many cases, this
distressful situation can be especially hard to deal with for families and caregivers who
do not always have the resources, the time or the education to facilitate the learning of
the children at home.
Now more than ever, school leadership needs to be about empathy. (Hughes,
2020)
Even in more stable contexts, rushing towards the use of digital technologies,
regardless of the red flags derived from distance learning, will prevent the development
of social and emotional competences able to motivate and contribute to a positive
learning experience. The UNESCO’s issue notes about health during home learning
(2020c) and about the social and emotional wellbeing during crises (2020d) give us an
insight into some actions to help families, students, teachers and government
institutions to palliate some of those issues:

 Provide all members of the educational community with reliable, information

about the pandemic crisis and understand emerging educational issues related
to it.
 Promote healthy lifestyles and diet.
 Recognise the link between health and learning.
 Manage expectations on families and help them maintain a normal routine.
 Link families to external support.
 Support teachers' well-being and resilience before, during, and after the crisis.

[17]
  Prioritize teachers’ training on social and emotional learning.
 Encourage games and audio resources for learning.
 Encourage social and emotional learning skills to develop a better and healthier
relationships and to improve academic performance.
 Encourage communication and networking.
 Encourage health-promoting, mindfulness and kindness practices.
To sum up, it seems clear that any effort aimed to ensure the more or less
successful continuity of learning needs to acknowledge that greater support for
teachers, students and families’ well-being should be encouraged, as should the
development of social-emotional competences, non-cognitive skills and new pertinent
policies.
4.4 Digital education policies: hello “new normal”
I have no idea what’s awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends (Albert
Camus, 1947)
In line with the previous considerations, far from experimental recipes, there is
one old axiom which might well be pertinent for the positive development of
educational policies and practices: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
As pointed out above, although it is true that the unprecedented school closures
have involved a radical change in our educational model, compelling competent
institutions to activate untested learning strategies, there is no excuse for not
implementing actions and policies able to ensure a successful transition to a (possible)
short, medium or long-term distance learning model.
Decisions that in normal times could take years of deliberation are passed in a
matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are pressed into
service, because the risks of doing nothing are bigger. (Harari, 2020)
In this connection, one of the real risks here is that rushed government measures
might not always be effective in avoiding the perpetuation of the socioeconomic gap
between students; unless these measures come accompanied by remedial actions.
On the bright side, despite the short notice with which the new educational
machinery has been put into motion, the intervention of and collaboration between
different actors and the already existing policies have made possible the setting up of
what has been referred to as a “real-life laboratory” (UNESCO, 2020).
In normal times, governments, businesses and educational boards would never
agree to conduct such experiments. But these aren’t normal times. (Harari, 2020)

[18]
 In this regard, the European Schoolnet Report on ICT in Education in Spain
(Medina, 2018) takes account of some of those key actors and policies. This document
recalls the educational framework established by the Spanish Organic Law on the
Improvement of the Quality of Education (LOMCE), which contains crucial aspects about
the implantation of ICT in education, such as the inclusion of the digital competence in
the minimum contents for all the educational stages, the extension of the concept of
classroom over time and space (Virtual Learning Environments) and the promotion of
access to quality digital resources and platforms for students and teachers.
It is this same National Educational Law the one that serves as a framework for
the digital education programmes promoted by different institutions. In that regard, the
National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Development (INTEF) is the
reference entity for the implementation of national ICT plans for schools, in coordination
with the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT).
Among the main actions developed by INTEF, before the current crisis, is the
National Plan for Digital Culture in Schools (Plan de Cultura Digital en la Escuela),
launched in 2013 and reinforced in 2018 by the Transformation Plan for Digital
Education (Plan de Transformación Digital Educativa).
As summed up in the Education Policy Outlook by the OECD (Pont, 2019), four of
the main lines of action of that new plan are:
1) Promoting methodological transformation in the classroom
2) Improving the learning spaces and technological infrastructure in schools
3) Developing digital competences in the education system
4) Leveraging teacher training to improve practice
Digital competence involves the confident and critical use of Information Society
Technologies (IST) for work, leisure and communication. It is underpinned by
basic skills in ICT: the use of computers to retrieve, assess, store, produce,
present and exchange information, and to communicate and participate in
collaborative networks via the Internet. (European Parliament and the Council,
2006).
Aligned with the National Plan for Digital Culture in Schools, INTEF and the
Ministry of Education developed the Common Digital Competence Framework for
Teachers, a document that, according to its preface (2017), represents a key tool to
identify “teachers’ training needs regarding their Digital Competence.” This Digital
Competence was mentioned for the first time in the Organic Law of Education (LOE,

[19]
2006) and was recognized as one of the eight key competences to be developed at all
compulsory education stages in the LOMCE.
Not surprisingly, the disruption of face-to-face lessons have kick-started several
initiatives coming from the collaboration between INTEF and the Ministry of Education.
Among these initiatives is Aprendo en casa (2020), which can serve as a good example
of the direction and thoughts behind governmental interventions in the context of an
emergency situation. This platform, that was set up in less than two weeks, provides
teachers, students and families with varied and high-quality educational resources: a
well-organized and flexible web portal ready to be updated and adapted as new needs
in the context of distance learning arise. About this action, it is particularly relevant its
collaboration agreement with the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation that gives
students without internet connection an alternative to keep learning.
The success of actions like this one is based on different key points which are
explained on an OECD document on this matter (Encinas-Martin, 2020): it is suitable at
a national level, caters for all compulsory levels, brings together curated resources and
tools, targets special needs, cooperates with different educational agents and
encourages a better and sustained collaboration among teachers. Moreover, together
with the development of policies and actions and the adaption of those to new general
parameters, the educational institutions need to establish the possible contexts where
the different actions would take place.
Thus, entities like COTEC (2020), a non-profit organization focused on promoting
innovation, analyses our country’s present uncertain climate and establishes different
possible scenarios according to when and how (in what terms) schools will reopen, as
well as whether that reopening is going to be temporal or not.
Depending on the scenario/s the educational institutions face, COTEC (2020)
proposes six aspects that would need to be dealt with: curriculum proposals;
evaluation; specific programmes; adjustments to the school calendar; resource
provision and preventive sanitary and educational measures.
Although the current educational law emphasized the importance of the digital
competence development and understands the connections between the teachers’
training and the efficiency of their teaching even before the school closures happened,
governmental actions now demand short, medium and long-term policy interventions
guided by cautious planning, curricular redefinitions and inclusive strategies.
In the short-term, ensure coordinated planning across sectors, government, and
humanitarian and development partners to effectively respond to the crisis.

[20]
 In the medium to long-term, institutionalize crisis risk reduction and
management within the education sector. Specifically, MoEs at national and sub
national levels can prevent, prepare for and mitigate crisis […] (UNESCO, 2020a)
In short, as alluded earlier, those measures promoted from the government are
the key to reduce the negative impact of school closures/reopening on teachers,
students and their families. What is more, mitigating that impact will demand a greater
attention to students at risk and with special needs, particularly to those who were
already vulnerable before the crisis.
4.5 Digital divide and digital literacy
Technology is only meaningful when it enhances humanity. A horse is faster
than a human. But we don’t compete against a horse. We ride a horse. We should
focus on how to ride and drive AI and technology, not to run against it (Park, 2018)
Distance education requires a higher level of commitment from teachers,
students and families. However, commitment is not just a matter of intrinsic motivation
or divine inspiration: commitment is also a matter of a favourable socioeconomic
context. In simpler words, distance learning works as a block-stacking game of Jenga,
where the lack of access to digital platforms and physical networks undermines the
efforts to keep commitment and discipline intact, thereby making academic
achievement fall. The result, together with the obvious prevalence and worsening of
socio-economic inequalities, is a greater digital divide.
Although the risks of the digital divide in education are not new, its implications
are undoubtedly more severe after the sudden shift to virtual lessons, that caught most
institutions unprepared despite the policies that were already put in place in our
country. In this sense, authors like Fernández Enguita (2013) points out that Spanish
schools have been working towards offering digital devices and access to technology to
students, but this was still a work in progress when the state of emergency was declared.
Because of that, among other reasons, some reports on this issue highlight the need for
a future individual monitoring of the consequent educational gap (COTEC, 2020).
With things as they are, Enguita (2013) also talks about a secondary digital divide
where not only gender, age and socioeconomic factors play a role (primary digital divide:
access to and use of technology), but where the cultural dimension is fundamental
(quality of the use of technology).
That secondary digital divide is an issue for educational institutions to tackle. It
seems clear that an infrastructural development is needed to support a digital
transformation in education, but not without the promotion of digital skills and digital

[21]
literacy. This brings back some of the reflections already mentioned in this work: being
digital literate implies being digitally competent. In other words, it implies having the
knowledge, the skills, the values and the attitudes.
At European level, the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (Carretero et
al., 2017), the reference document for Spanish educational laws in this matter, classifies
the main components of digital competence in five areas, which are:
information and data literacy; communication and collaboration; digital content
creation; safety and problem solving
What is clear is that digital literacy has become an essential requirement in the
development of citizens of a technology-oriented society; to the point of being defined
by the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education as a life skill (Karpati,
2011). The question now is: how far are we to become digitally fluent?
In learning a foreign language, a literate person can read, speak, and listen for
understanding in the new language. A fluent person can create something in the
language: a story, a poem, a play, or a conversation. Similarly, digital literacy is
an understanding of how to use the tools; digital fluency is the ability to create
something new with those tools. (Sparrow, 2018)
In the meantime, it is important not to forget that modern life skills are a complex
system of knowledge, abilities, capabilities, collaboration and motivations that needs to
be promoted, encouraged and developed at different levels.

Figure 3. Digital Intelligence (DQ) Framework (https://www.dqinstitute.org/)

[22]
5. TOOLS AND RESOURCES: beyond the Power Point presentation
[…] we are still at or around the “Wow” stage, still enthralled by and in thrall to the
glitter of the new technologies, but not yet at the stage where we have fully integrated
their potentialities into the service of real learning (Bax, 2011a)
A recent blog entry in the UNESCO Institute of Statistics website (Capilla et al.,
2020) about the lessons learnt from past emergency situations recalls the learning
challenges and changes forced by different crises throughout history. For example, the
Black Death in the fourteenth century promoted the use of other languages other than
Latin in science. Today’s pandemic has also compelled the development of new ways of
teaching. The biggest difference is that today, for the first time, developed societies can
count on the technology and the resources to effectively palliate the educational shock.
In this respect, it seems appropriate to collect some of the ICT tools and
resources that can serve teachers, students and families to respond in a creative,
collaborative and thoughtful way to the new reality of distance learning.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Edmodo: classroom management tool that supports teachers’ tasks (share

class material, send messages…) and involves students in the learning
process.

Google Classroom: popular management tool to create classes, organize

assignments, send feedback, boost communication and track students’
progress.

Moodle: the most popular course management platform that allows the
creation of online learning sites adapted to different environments.

LIVE-VIDEO COMMUNICATION AND INSTANT MESSAGING

Meet: video conferencing platform. Accessible for schools through G Suite,

it allows the scheduling and recording of the sessions.

Remind: known as the “WhatsApp for teachers”, Remind is a

communication platform specially designed for educational environments.

[23]
 Skype: a well-known video-call tool that can be adapted for remote
learning. The teacher can control who joins the call and who can present
and share content.

Zoom: platform for video communication. Some of its most useful features
are content sharing, co-annotation, digital whiteboard and session
recording.

INTERACTIVE AND COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL LEARNING

Aula21. 1, 2, 3 Your Webquest for Free: webquest generator to create

inquiry-oriented lesson activities. Its usual format includes: introduction,
task, process, resources, evaluation and conclusion.

Blogger: platform to create blogs. Free blogspot.com domain and easy-to-

use templates.

Class Dojo: social and emotional learning management system designed to

foster a positive classroom culture. It connects teachers with students and
families.

Classkick: interactive tool to track students’ progress as they work. The

teacher creates content and interacts with the students to give them help
and feedback when they need it.

Edublogs: free to use blogging tool especially geared for education. It has
class management tools to monitor students and give them feedback.

Edpuzzle: online platform that allows the teacher to transform a video into
a lesson by cropping and customizing any video. Linkable to Google
Classroom.

Google Drive: free cloud storage service to access and share files (docs,
slides, forms, spreadsheets…) anytime, anywhere.

Google Forms: Google feature that allows the creation of personalized

tests, quizzes and surveys to collect information.

Google Groups: Google feature that allows the creation and participation
in online forums, email-based groups…

[24]
 Google Sites Google tool to create sites (wikis, web pages…) in a
collaborative and engaging way.

Jamboard: collaborative boards (jams) ready to be integrated with Google

Classroom. Teachers and students can sketch ideas, drop images and add
notes.

Linoit: in a similar way to Padlet, Lino is a canvas where to share digital

sticky notes and pictures.

Mentimeter: very versatile tool to create interactive presentations with

live surveys, quizzes and polls. Students’ results can be exported and
shared.

Padlet: “sticky notes” board where teachers and students can share and
discuss content, collaborate and interact.

Socrative: comprehensive tool designed to improve classroom

engagement through effective planning, assessing, reporting and instant
feedback.

Whiteboard.fi: digital whiteboard for everybody. By simply creating a

classroom and letting students join, everyone gets a whiteboard.

YouTube Live: YouTube features broadcasting options that enable the

hosting of free webinars. It is also easy to set up.

CREATIVE MULTIMEDIA

Achor: free all-in-one platform to create and distribute podcasts. Among its
many uses, teachers can share informative podcasts for students and
families.

Animoto: online tool to create videos easily by choosing a template and

adding video clips and photos to it. Videos can be customized and shared.

Artsteps: editor to create virtual exhibitions where to interact, chat and

share art, stories… It doesn’t require 3D design skills.

[25]
Bensound: royalty-free music library that can be used in educational
multimedia projects such as videos or presentations.

Dictation.io: speech recognition tool able to accurately transcribe a speech

into text in real time.

Floating Player: Google Chrome extension that allows the viewer to keep a
video on view while browsing the internet.

Fobi.io chatbots: platform that creates simple scripted chatbots using

Google Forms. A very interesting tool to encourage interaction and
challenge students.

Moises.ai: online platform that separates vocals and instruments in song

tracks. It works with different file formats and YouTube URL links.

Pixton: intuitive tool that allows the creation of amazing comics and avatars
online (characters, dynamic scenarios, speech bubbles…)

Screencast-o-Matic: fast screen recorder. It allows the addition of a

webcam and the use of narration. Other features are: video editor and
cloud hosting.

Stories Freepik: online site that offers free graphic resources (illustrations,
icons, photos, presentation templates). In addition, many resources are
editable.

Videvo: stock video footage (motion graphics, sound effects, music

tracks…). Although there are some premium resources, there are plenty of
free ones.

Vocaroo: easy to use online tool to record, send and download voice
messages. It can be accessed without signing-up or logging into an account.

Voki: collection of speaking avatars that teachers and students can

customize and use to enhance engagement and content comprehension.

The QR code generator: online generator of two-dimensional barcodes

readable by smartphones. It can be used to display text to the user, to open
a URL…

[26]
PLAYING TO LEARN AND GAMIFICATION

Cerebrity: collaborative platform designed to implement gamification in

class. It allows teachers and students to find and create games easily and
fast.

Educaplay: gamification tool where to find and create educational games,

and manage student groups. Linkable to Google Classroom.

Gimkit: remote learning tool that boosts students’ engagement. Its game
show interface rewards correct answer with “cash” that can be reinvested
in upgrades.

Jeopardy Labs: website to find and easily create Jeopardy-like games

online. No registration is needed.

Kahoot! game-based learning platform to create quizzes easily. Kahoots

can be displayed on a share screen or be sent to players to complete them
at their pace.

Quizizz: gamified quizzes to conduct student-paced assessments in a fun

way. Newly created or public quizzes can be played from any kind of device.

RollTheDice: dice roller online tool. There are many different types of dices
to choose from.

Team Generator: team generator site that assigns people randomly to

teams after entering a list of names and the number of teams you need.

Wheel Decide: user-friendly tool that allows anybody to create customized

spinning wheels to make decisions on any topic.

VISUAL CONTENT AND PRESENTATIONS

Adobe Spark: complete tool for making reports, presentation, posters…

Teachers and students can use it to boost learning engagement and
creativity.

[27]
 Beautiful.ai: presentation software to create beautiful presentations in
minutes. Its automated design adapts the content to the slides to simplify
the process.

Canva: simplified graphic design platform where to create varied visual

content, such as infographics, presentations, posters…

Emaze: educational technology platform with hundreds of templates and

an easy to use editor to create interactive presentations with video, audio
and text.

Genially: user-friendly site to create interactive contents (presentations,

dossiers, horizontal and vertical infographics, guides, interactive images…)

ThingLink: digital tool that allows the user to easily turn any image into an
interactive graphic.

EVALUATION

Additio: teachers’ gradebook that allows real-time monitoring (it manages

grades, calculates averages, creates rubrics, evaluates competences, tracks
attendance…)

European Language Portfolio: according to the CoE, one of the main aims
of the ELP is to self-assess the linguistic/cultural skills someone has
acquired.

ForAllRubrics: as its name suggests, this is a platform to create rubrics, but

not only. Its features also include checklists, badges, reports…

iDoceo: in a similar way to Addition, iDoceo works as a teacher’s gradebook

for teachers that work with tablets. Only available for iPad.

Kaizena: feedback tool to review Google Docs work with voice comments.
It also allows the teacher to complete rubrics and track students’ skills.

Rubistar: free tool that helps teachers prepare rubrics using templates, so
the teacher does not have to create them from scratch.

[28]
 SELFIE (Self-reflection on Effective Learning by Fostering the use of
Innovative Educational Technologies): a tool based on a European
Commission initiative to help schools embed digital technologies into
teaching, learning and student assessment.

SAFE BROWSERS FOR EDUCATION

Google Scholar: search engine that provides a simple way to find relevant
work across different disciplines and sources.

Mix: with the motto “why search when you can explore”, Mix is a discovery
platform that browses the internet to find personalized and curated
contents.

STUDY TOOLS AND SELF-DIRECTED ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING

BBC Learning English: website with free audio, video and text materials for
English learners.

British Council LearnEnglish: online site where to find high-quality

resources to help English learners to improve their skills.

British Council LearnEnglish Teens: website that helps young learners

improve their English with reading, writing and listening practice, games,
exams tips…

British Council TeachingEgnlish: free website where teachers can find

many resources to help them plan their lessons and engage their students.

Duolingo: online platform to learn and practice English with short game-
like lessons.

LyricsTraining: website where English learners can improve their skills

through music videos and lyrics.

Newsela: authentic content collection from trusted providers ready to be

transformed into learning materials.

Ororo.tv: website to learn English by watching TV shows and other video

content. Its features include English subtitles, translator and dictionary.

[29]
 Oxford Online Learning Zone: online graded activities. Grammar,
vocabulary, webquests, videos, dialogues…

Quizlet: free website that provides learning tools (flashcards, study and
game mode…). Among other features, it allows users to create materials
and tests.

Tiny Cards: Duolingo’s online game that helps language learners to study
and memorize varied contents using card decks in bite-sized lessons.

YouTube channels: EnglishClass101, Easy Languages, Speak English with

Mr. Duncan, Learn English with TV series, Learn English with Cambridge

MIND-MAPS

Coggle: collaborative mind-maps and flow charts that help the user to
organize and share complex ideas in a clear way.

Popplet: mind-mapping application designed to help students to learn by

connecting and visualizing relationships between ideas, facts…

Wise Mapping: free and collaborative online mind-mapping editor. With

this tool, mind maps can be exported, imported and embedded in
webpages.

ORGANIZATION AND FOCUS

Family Link: free parental control app by Google that helps create healthy
digital habits. It allows setting screen time limits and it monitors online
activity.

Forest: productivity app designed to help its users focus by keeping them
away from using the phone. Premium users can spend their credits to plant
real trees.

Google Calendar: app to manage event schedules. Due dates for school
assignments will be automatically added when using Google Classroom.

Symbaloo: easily accessible online site where to store, organize and

manage bookmarks and websites.

[30]
 Trello: collaborative tool that uses boards to organize and prioritize work.

ACCESSIBILITY ATTENTION TO DIVERSITY AND OFFLINE LEARNING

G Suite accessibility tools: user guide to accessibility in G Suite tools (Drive,

Classroom, Calendar, Meet, Forms, Sites, Groups, Chats…)

Zoom accessibility: Zoom’s video conferring platform offers different

accessibility features (automated transcript after sessions, screen reader
support…)

Kolibri Learning Equality: free to download platform that makes

educational technology available to low-resource communities with no
internet access.

Kiwix: this platform provides the user with access to free knowledge, even
offline. Any website or Wikipedia content can be stored on the user’s
device.

Picto4me: simple web app to create, share and chat with ACC pictograph
boards.

INTEF Attention to diversity resources: catalogue with educational

resources for students with special needs.

OTHER EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CATALOGUES AND MOOCS FOR TEACHERS

Procomún: open educational resource network. Resources, articles, users

and communities are organized by knowledge area and learning context.

INTEF Educational Resources: comprehensive repository of educational

resources with useful materials for digital learning.

Aprendo en casa: website that offers teachers, students and families tools
and resources to deal with the learning disruption due to the COVID-19
crisis.

EAprendizaje: catalogue of digital educational resources organized by

stages and collected by the Regional Government of Andalusia

[31]
 Canvas: catalogue of open and online courses developed by experts and
institutions worldwide for educators.

MOOC List: directory of Massive Open Online Courses and free online
courses from different providers.

6. LESSON PLAN
There's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst
(Stephen King, 1982)
6.1 Introduction and justification
Under the title of “How does Mona Lisa feel?”, this lesson plan aims to develop
and reinforce English language skills through the interaction with art and the use of ICT
tools in a distance learning-based environment.
In addition to allowing the preferable interdisciplinary approach according to the
Royal Decree 463/2020 (Article 9), the cross-curricular contents chosen for this unit
intend to boost students’ creative and critical thinking, collaborative work and
emotional competences. Thus, students will improve their language skills by connecting
the understanding of art with the exploration and identification of their own and others’
feelings and emotions.
Moreover, the use of ICT tools, based on the nature of the imposed distance
learning method, contemplates, as well as the improvement of their digital competence
beyond the basic digital literacy skills, the development of new habits, self-discipline and
efficient autonomous work.
In short, today’s unprecedented situation and its consequent effects on
education might well serve as the justification of the present lesson plan, its contents,
its methods and its implications.
6.2 Contextualization
Article 9 of Royal Decree 463/2020, on COVID-19 containment measures in
education, establishes the suspension of classroom based education.
If there is no place from where to see, there is no view. Context is that place; it
is the answer to the whos, wheres, whens and whys of a teaching-learning situation.
With that in mind, it is easier to identify the different places from where to frame this
lesson plan: contextualization of the school, contextualization of the classroom and its
participants and contextualization of the time and methods.

[32]
 Although it may seem that the geographical location of the school is not relevant
in a context where students are learning from home, it is still a key factor when
describing their socio-economic situation. The secondary school where this didactic unit
would take place is the C.D.P. Escuelas Profesionales de la Sagrada Familia (SAFA), a
multi-level educational institution located at the eastern tip of the town of Úbeda (Jaén,
Andalusia). Its proximity to a high commercial activity area, to cultural venues and to
means of transport also provides insight into the sociocultural and economic level of the
students and their families, which in general would be considered average or slightly
above average.
According to its annual plan, the main objectives of the school are to offer:
 a quality and inclusive education based on solidarity and diversity values
 educational success under the guidance of the school community
 education of excellence (knowledge, values, skills, spirituality…)
Among the plans and actions to achieve those objectives we find an Attention to
Diversity Plan, a Tutoring Plan, a Teacher Training Plan, Strategic Plans…
Online presence: https://ubeda.safa.edu/
Regarding the context of the classroom, the participants for this lesson plan are
a group of 21 students (13 girls and 8 boys) in the 4th year of Compulsory Secondary
Education (CSE), aged between 15 and 16. Although heterogeneous, the characteristics
of the group, such as age, surmised relationship with new technologies, curricular
objectives and competences of the English subject (as stated in the Order 14th July 2016),
anticipate great opportunities for the teacher to learn about the present and future
applications of distance learning methods. It is expected for this group to
comfortably work with activities which require an A2-B1 level (CEFRL).
One of the students in the group doesn’t have a computer at home, so the school
will provide him with one of its computers (section 3 (d) of the Order EFP/365/2020).
Another student, who suffers from phonological dyslexia, will be encouraged to use the
written chat during the video sessions, as well as being assisted by the teacher or other
classmates and having extra time for the completion of oral activities if needed.
Digital gap and diversity outreach: in accordance with the provisions in section 4 (letter
h) of the Order EFP/365/2020, schools will organize their support resources to offer the
adequate attention to students with special educational needs, promoting the access to
the syllabus through the adaption of instruments, temporalizations and support
measures.

[33]
 6.3 Legal Framework

BASIC LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

Organic Law 8/2013, 9th of December, on the Improvement of the Quality of

Education. LOMCE (BOE Ley Orgánica 8/2013)
Royal Decree 1105/2014, 26th of December, which establishes the basic
NATIONAL LEVEL

curriculum for Compulsory Secondary Education and Non-Compulsory

Secondary Education (BOE R.D. 1105/14)
Order ECD/65/2015, 21st of January, which describes the relationships between
competences, contents and evaluation criteria of Primary, Compulsory
Secondary and Non-Compulsory Secondary Education (BOE Orden
ECD/65/2015)

Decree 111/2016, 14th of June, which establishes the organization and

REGIONAL LEVEL

curriculum of Compulsory Secondary Education in Andalusia (BOJA Decreto

111/2016)
Order of 14th July 2016, which develops the curriculum, diversity issues and
assessment criteria for Secondary Education in Andalusia. (BOJA Orden de 14 de
julio de 2016)
LEVEL

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)

EU

LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR EDUCATIONAL PLANNING DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS

Royal Decree 463/2020, 14th of March, which declares the state of alarm for the
GENERAL

management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19 (BOE R.D.

463/2020)

Order EFP/365/2020, 22nd of April, which establishes the framework and

guidelines for action for the third quarter of the 2019-2020 academic year and
the start of the 2020-2021 academic year, in the face of the crisis situation
EDUCATION

caused by COVID19 (BOE Orden EFP/365/2020)

Resolution. 13th of April 2020, which publishes the collaboration agreement
between the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation, S.M.E. and the Ministry
of Education and Professional Training, for the production of the container
programme "Aprendo en casa" (BOE Resolución de 13 de abril de 2020)

[34]
 6.4 Objectives and key competences
In section 4 of its annex II, the Order EFP/365/2020 recognizes the exceptional
circumstances in the development of the 2019-20 academic year, establishing the need
for Educational Administrations, schools and teachers to prioritize their students well-
being by focusing on essential competences and by readjusting the objectives that were
set at the beginning of the year.
In line with the new legal dispositions, it is still necessary to determine the
objectives and competences governing a teaching plan. However, at least while the
educational disruption lasts, those objectives and competences need to be based on the
fundamentals of flexible learning.

FIRST FOREING LANGUAGE OBJECTIVES IN 4º YEAR OF CSE

Objectives of Stage: a, b, d, e, I and j (according to Decree 111/2016)

FL Objectives 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 (according to Order of 14th July 2016)

Didactic objectives

 To understand oral and written information about the topic of the

lesson.
 To understand, express and share experiences and emotions using
correct grammar structures in oral and written forms (debate, give
opinions, analyse, listen to other students’ ideas...).
 To use the grammatical structures revised in the unit.
 To learn new vocabulary about emotions and use it appropriately.
 To interact with art and learn about it through relevant linguistic
contents.
 To analyse and recognize emotions and develop empathic behaviours.

KEY COMPETENCES (according to Order ECD/65/2015)

 Competence in Linguistic Communication (CLC)

 Digital Competence (DC)
 Learning to Learn (L2L)
 Social and Civic Competences (SCC)
 Cultural Awareness and Expression (CAE)

[35]
 6.5 Cross-curricular issues and interdisciplinary
In section 4 of its annex II, the Order EFP/365/2020 recommends the design of
interdisciplinary activities to promote the collaborative work between the teaching staff
from different areas, subjects and stages.

CROSS-CURRICULAR ISSUES

*Emotional education aims at the acquisition of

 Cultural awareness
emotional skills, which are of particular relevance in the
 Use of ICT tools
context of distance learning. Students’ well-being and
 Oral and written
comprehension and mental health in this context are strongly linked with their
expression ability to identify, understand and manage theirs and
 Emotional education* others’ feelings of sadness, isolation or demotivation that
may result from this learning method.

INTERDISCIPLINARY

*Art is a means of expression. It is also a means of

knowledge by which culture and history can be learnt.
 Information and
Interacting with art gives the students the opportunity to
Communication
Technology (ICT) learn about the world they live in and also to express ideas
 Arts*/History and feelings concisely and effectively. The introduction of
art at this level can also be useful in helping the students
choose the NCSE itinerary.

6.6 Contents
LESSON PLAN OUTLINE
Title of the lesson plan: How does Mona Lisa feel?
Level: 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) / A2-B1 (CEFR)
Sequencing: 3rd term (during the suspension of face-to-face lessons)
Number of sessions and temporalization:
6 sessions (2 per week). The temporalization of the sessions will be determined by the
estimated time for the completion of the synchronous and asynchronous activities.
Temporalization is planned according to section 4, annex II, of the Order EFP/365/2020,
that seeks to reduce students’ workload to ensure the adaptation to the new situation.
Final task: Creation of a virtual gallery.

[36]
CONTENTS

Block 1: Oral texts comprehension - Listening and understanding

audio-visual contents related to the topic.
Block 2: Oral production: expression and interaction - Producing
Comprehension and understanding utterances related to the contents of the
and production sessions.
strategies Block 3: Written comprehension - Skimming and scanning
written online content about grammar and art.
Block 4: Written Production - Writing about experiences, ideas,
thoughts, emotions and answering comprehension questions.

Recognizing conditional structures.

Communicative
Describing the result of a certain condition.
functions
Expressing and understanding feelings and emotions.

 Revising the types of conditional.

Linguistic
Learning vocabulary related to the topic of art and emotions.
exponents
Creating vocabulary by blending words (portmanteaus).

Sociocultural Interacting with others according to one’s personal ideas.

and Discovering artwork and identifying the meaning and value of
sociolinguistic artistic messages.
aspects
Connecting knowledge and skills through digital means.
ATTENTION TO DIVERSITY: the following resources aim, on one side, to help
students that need extra support and, on the other, to encourage fast-finishers or more
advanced students to expand their English language knowledge and skills.
REINFORCEMENT RESOURCES (REMEDIAL WORK)

 Oxford Online Learning Zone: graded online grammar, vocabulary, web quests…
 ISL Collective: collection of worksheets organized by content, level and type.
 LearnTeens British Council (also applicable for extension work): graded resources

EXTENSION RESOURCES

 The Big Challenge: online English contest for schools

 Oxford Graded Readers


[37]
 6.7 Tools and resources
Institutions and educators are responsible for providing students with quality,
interactive, relevant, adaptable and suitable resources and tools.

Classroom  Google Classroom According to UNESCO’s Handbook on

management Facilitating Flexible Learning during
educational disruption (Huang, 2020),
Live-video
 Zoom educational resources should be
communication
selected on several criteria:
 Edpuzzple
 Accuracy/quality of content: use of
Interactive and  Google Docs
reliable digital resources and
 Google Drive
collaborative platforms.
 Google Drawings
digital learning
 Jamboard
 Padlet  Interactivity: use of interactive
learning resources which can help
Creative  Artsteps increase students’ engagement and
multimedia  Voki motivation.

 British council websites  Ease of adaptability: use of
and apps resources which are easy to adapt in
 Online Thesaurus their context.
Self-directed
 Portmanteau creator
learning
 Louvre Chatbot Guide app  Cultural relevance & sensitivity: use
 Google Arts and Culture of resources that do not report any
app offensive information to any given
 race or culture.
 Canva
Visual content  Art museum websites  Suitable learning resources also
 include the following criteria:
 Quizizz suitability of the content, of
Playing to learn  Roll the Dice difficulty, of organization and of
and  Wheel decide media.
gamification Lyrics Training
 Online team generator
Devices and connections:
Computer / Smartphone / Tablet with internet connection

[38]
 6.8 Methodology
Article 9 of Royal Decree 463/2020 establishes that, whenever it is possible,
educational activities will be maintained through distance and online modalities during
the suspension of face-to-face lessons.
The methodologies followed in this lesson plan are determined by the
exceptional nature of the distance learning modality itself.
The complex tapestry of distance learning is a reflection of the aforementioned
measures, solutions and implications that schools and teachers need to organize and be
ready for. In this connection, this lesson plan embeds a holistic approach, intended to
develop students’ creative and critical thinking, and selects learning contents that allow
a cross-curricular approach and give teachers of different areas (arts, history of art, ICT,
English) the opportunity to co-teach and blend knowledge and skills to promote the
students’ simultaneous learning in different subjects.
At the same time, this methodology highlights the importance of collaborative
and interactive learning environments to motivate and engage students while they
develop English communicative skills and other key competences, such as the digital
one.
Moreover, the use of ICT tools and the implementation of the asynchronous
learning mode encourage learners’ autonomy and have the potential of improving self-
confidence and discipline, provided that the teacher is able to effectively guide the
student through this process.
It is also noteworthy that by using ICT tools to create the task-based and project-
based activities, the present lesson plan promotes higher cognitive process according to
the digital Bloom’s taxonomy classification, prioritizing complex skills that involve
conceptualizing, evaluating, creating and sharing.
In short, the proposed methodology in this lesson plan would be characterized
by:

 Implementation of cross-curricular contents

 Advocacy of collaborative and cooperative work
 Development of task-based and project-based activities
 Promotion of digital literacy
 Improvement of students’ autonomy and discipline

[39]
 6.9 Lesson plan outline: How Does Mona Lisa Feel?
Grouping (G): IW (Individual Work); PW (Pair Work); GW (Group Work); WC (Whole Class)
Duration (D): Self-paced within a due date (Self-paced)
Distance learning mode (DLM): Synchronous (SYNC); Asynchronous (ASYNC)
ACTIVITIES G D DLM RESOURCES

Introduction and warm-up activity: IF WE KNEW WHAT MONA LISA IS

IW- 15 Zoom
THINKING… SYNC
WC mins. Google Classroom
Survey and discussions about Mona Lisa’s facial expression.
Zoom
Activity 1: MORE THAN HAPPY IW- 15. Online thesaurus
SYNC
Using an online thesaurus to find synonyms and antonyms. GW mins. Google Drive
Google Classroom
Activity 2: ONE ARTWORK, MANY FEELINGS IW- Self-
ASYNC Padlet
Connecting pieces of art with emotions and interacting on a virtual board. GW paced
SESSION 1

Extra activity: CHATBOTS KNOW ABOUT ART Louvre Chatbot Guide

ASYNC
Learning about art by interacting with a bot. app

Introduction and warm-up activity 10

WC SYNC Zoom
Discussion about the Padlet board. mins.

Activity 1 – Part 1: IF PAINTINGS HAD FEELINGS

IW- 20 Zoom
Using an online spinning wheel to assign the emotions that the students are SYNC
WC mins. Wheel Decide
going to work with.

[40]
 Activity 1 – Part 2: IF PAINTINGS HAD FEELINGS Google Classroom
Finding a work of art that represents the emotion given by the spinning wheel. Self- Google Docs
IW ASYNC
The paintings chosen by the students will be part of the classroom’s virtual paced Art museum
gallery. websites/Instagram

Activity 1 – Part 3: IF PAINTINGS HAD FEELINGS

Self- Google Classroom
Making a poster and preparing a two minutes’ presentation with the IW ASYNC
paced Canva
information collected on the second part of the activity.
SESSION 2

Extra activity: WHAT ARTWORK DO YOU LOOK LIKE?

Google Arts and
Exploring Google Arts and Culture app and discover which artwork you look like with the tool ASYNC
Culture app
ART SELFIE.
Activity 1: POSTART IW- 25
SYNC Zoom
Presentation of the posters prepared by the first group of students. WC mins.

Activity 2: IF I SEE THE MORNING SUN GW- 25

SYNC Jamboard
Explanation of conditional structures through an interactive board and art. IW mins.
Activity 3: ARE YOU ANGRY WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY? Self- Google Classroom
IW ASYNC
EdPuzzle video with open and multiple-choice questions paced EdPuzzle
Activity 4: PORTMANTEAUS FACTORY Self- Portmanteau creator
IW ASYNC
Creation of words mixing different emotions. paced website
SESSION 3

Extra activity: SINGING UN-CONDITIONALLY

ASYNC Lyrics training website
Using songs to review conditional structures and learn vocabulary.

[41]
 Introduction and warm-up activity: IW- 20
SYNC Zoom
Presentation of posters and review of grammar contents. WC mins.
Activity 1: THE VOICES OF OUR GALLERY
Self-
Creation of a virtual avatar that will accompany the paintings in the virtual IW ASYNC Voki
paced
gallery.
Activity 2: THE DICE CHOOSES YOU! 20 Zoom
WC SYNC
Conversation activity to practice conditional structures. mins. Roll the dice website
SESSION 4

Extra activity: IF YOU PRACTICE, YOU’LL GET BETTER British council websites
ASYNC
Recommendation of websites and apps to review grammar and vocabulary contents. and apps
Warm-up activity: DO YOU RECOGNISE THESE FEELINGS? WC - 10 Zoom
SYNC
Vocabulary game to review the words learnt in the didactic unit. GW mins. Online team generator
Activity 1: LET’S GO TO THE MUSEUM
20 Zoom
Tour in a virtual museum. The group who won the previous game will decide WC SYNC
mins. Virtual museum site
the museum that the whole class will visit.
Activity 2: THE EMO-TIONAL QUIZ Self- Google Classroom
IW ASYNC
Quizizz test on the vocabulary and grammar of the didactic unit. paced Quizizz
SESSION 6 SESSION 5

Extra activity: MEMES FOR THE SAKE OF MEMES Google Classroom

ASYNC
Exploring and generating memes to have fun. Google Drawings

SHOW YOUR EMOTIONS 30 Zoom

WC SYNC
Inauguration of the virtual exhibition. mins. Artsteps site

[42]
6.10 Step by step explanation of the lesson plan

[43]
 SESSION 1
INTRODUCTION AND WARM-UP ACTIVITY:
IF WE KNEW WHAT MONA LISA IS THINKING…

(IW-WC) The teacher programs a Zoom meeting on Google Classroom for all
the students of the class. The idea is to introduce the topic of our lesson plan (feelings)
by sharing with the students the painting of the Mona Lisa on the screen.
The teacher will use the Zoom’s polling feature to pose the students a question
about the facial expression of the Mona Lisa. The teacher will guide a discussion about
the results and will give the students some information to reflect on the students’
opinions, which will lead the rest of the meeting. The teacher will also explain the
main project of this didactic unit: the creation of a virtual gallery.

Survey question: How do you think is Mona Lisa feeling?

https://www.wikiart.org/en

HAPPY ?%
ANGRY ?%
FEARFUL ?%
Source:

DISGUSTED ?%
Did you know: According to the University of Amsterdam's "emotion
recognition" software, Mona Lisa feelings are: 83% happy, 9% disgusted,
6% fearful, and 2% angry
ACTIVITY 1: MORE THAN HAPPY

(IW-GW) During the same Zoom meeting, and while sharing the screen, the
teacher will open a blank Google Drive Docs document and will ask the students to
use an online thesaurus, such as https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus or
https://www.thesaurus.com/, to find synonyms and antonyms for the four words
that appeared in the previous exercise. The students will have 5 minutes to do their
search before sharing some of the words they have found. The teacher will write
some of them (those that better adapt to the level and the purposes of the lesson)
on the Google Drive document. The teacher will then post the document on Google
Classroom allowing the students to make changes on it, so they can all create a
vocabulary list with the words they are going to learn in the different sessions of the
unit.
HAPPY Cheerful Ecstatic Elated Glad FEARFUL Afraid Anxious Frightened
Some
examples DISGUSTED Unhappy Appalled ANGRY Annoyed Furious Irritated

[44]
 SESSION 1 ACTIVITY 2: ONE ARTWORK, MANY FEELINGS

(IW-GW) The Zoom lesson will end after the teacher’s instructions for the
second task (the task and its instructions will also be posted on Google Classroom for
the students’ reference). This activity will consist of the following: the teacher will
create a Padlet board where famous paintings are going to be pinned. The students
will add “sticky notes” and write the feelings and emotions that those paintings
generate for them. They will use the connection feature to link the notes with one or
more of the paintings. They can also react to their classmates’ notes and interact with
them through comments. The teacher will be able to approve the comments before
they are posted and to see who wrote them.
The task will be carried out autonomously after the Zoom lesson. The students
will be provided with the Padlet board link and will sign up into the platform using
their academic email address. If the students have questions about the activity, they
can ask the teacher in the assigned task in Google Classroom.

Source: https://es.padlet.com/

EXTRA ACTIVITY: CHATBOTS KNOW ABOUT ART

(IW) As an extra task, the teacher will recommend the students the app
Louvre Chatbot Guide, where the students will be able to learn more about the Mona
Lisa and the mystery of her expression by interacting in English with a chatbot.

Louvre Chatbot Guide

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wavemining.louvre&hl=en

[45]
 SESSION 2
INTRODUCTION AND WARM-UP ACTIVITY

(WC) The students join a Zoom lesson previously programmed on Google

Classroom. The teacher will start the lesson sharing the Padlet with the whole class
and commenting on the students’ input. The students will be asked to add the
emotions on their “post-its” to the Google Drive document shared in the first session.

ACTIVITY 1 – PART 1: IF PAINTINGS HAD FEELINGS

(IW-WC) The final project of this didactic unit will be the creation of a virtual
gallery; how is the class going to choose the artwork for the gallery? During the Zoom
session, the teacher will share the screen with the students, showing them a spin
wheel previously created on the web portal Wheel Decide. The wheel, showing
different feelings and emotions, will be span once for each student. The teacher will
explain the meaning of the new words by giving the students situations that would
imply that particular feeling. Preferably, the teacher will use conditional structures,
since that grammatical point will be also used in this didactic unit (If you are anxious,
you are worried or nervous; if you were feeling isolated you should have called a
friend).

WHAT ARTWORK WOULD YOU

BE IF YOU WERE FEELING _____?
https://wheeldecide.com/

ACTIVITY 1 – PART 2

(IW) Once each student has been assigned with an emotion, the second part
will consist of answering the question posed above: What artwork would you be if
you were feeling _____? To do that, the students will be asked to find a work of art
that, for them, represents that feeling. Then, they will have to fill a Google Docs
template that the teacher will send the students after the Zoom session.
This task will also be created in Google Classroom so the students can check
the instructions if needed and can send the completed task, within the due date, to
the teacher. The teacher will answer any question about this part via that platform.

[46]
 SESSION 2

EMOTION: ____________

WHY DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL THAT WAY (colours,

expressions, scene, shapes…)?

ABOUT THE PAINTING (date, what can you see in the

painting…):

Source of the image and the information:

To help the students find a piece of art for this part of the activity, the teacher
will share selected art museum websites on Google Classroom.
If considered appropriate for the group, the teacher can also recommend the
Instagram accounts of different museums (TATE, The National Gallery, Museo del
Prado…), so the experience is more appealing for young learners.

ACTIVITY 1 – PART 3

(IW) The teacher will send the students’ work back to them once it has been
corrected. Then, they will be asked to create a poster with the information from their
template using Canva. The students will have to present their posters in the following
Zoom sessions. The presentations will last a maximum of 2 minutes. In our case, the
teacher will divide the classroom into two groups to assign the day when they will
have to present their work.

EXTRA ACTIVITY: WHAT ARTWORK DO YOU LOOK LIKE?

(IW) The extra activity for this lesson aims to encourage students to explore
the Google Arts and Culture App. The teacher will recommend to navigate the app
and use some of its fun features, such as ART SELFIE, that will tell you which artwork
looks like you, or ART TRANSFER, that will transform your photos using famous
artists’ work. Relevant art collections and interesting content in English for the
students to discover.

Google Arts and Culture:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.andr
oid.apps.cultural&hl=es

[47]
 Source: https://www.canva.com/
SESSION 3
ACTIVITY 1: POSTART

(IW-WC) As anticipated in the previous

session, the third Zoom class will start with the
presentation of the students’ posters made in
Canva (the students can use other programs or
platforms to make their posters if the teacher
approves it). The teacher will interact with the
students by asking them questions about other
WHAT ARTWORK WOULD YOU BE IF YOU
posters.
WERE FEELING _____?

Other possible questions for the students: What other emotions would you use to
describe that painting, if you had to choose a different one?
ACTIVITY 2: IF I SEE THE MORNING SUN

(GW-IW) The teacher will use the structure of the previous questions to
introduce the grammar revision of the conditionals in English. The presentation will
be created on Jamboard. The teacher presents a picture and imagines what is
possibly happening there using conditionals. The presentation will be shared during
the Zoom meeting with the students, who will also be able to edit it. There will be
two more slides with paintings. It will be the students’ turn to create “conditional
post-its” as in the example. They will work individually adding at least two conditional
sentences per each picture. They will also add their names to the sticky note. Guided
by the teacher, the students can comment on the funniest and most original notes.
If there are mistakes, the teacher will correct them. The Zoom video call will end here.

Source: https://jamboard.google.com/

[48]
 ACTIVITY 3: ARE YOU ANGRY WHEN YOU ARE
SESSION 3
HUNGRY?

(IW) The last activity of the session will be created in EdPuzzle and linked to
Google Classroom. The teacher will upload a customized short video that talks about
the portmanteau “hangry”, which describes the mixed emotion of feeling angry
because you are hungry. The teacher will assign the EdPuzzle to her/his class on
Google Classroom and will ask the students to watch the video, to learn the new
vocabulary and to answer the questions inserted in the video.

https://edpuzzle.com/media/5ecfd12b9bf0443f11949673

ACTIVITY 4: PORTMANTEAUS FACTORY

(IW) The second part of the activity will propose the creation of portmanteaus
to express a mixed mood or emotion. This task, also posted on Google Classroom,
will ask each student to write at least five portmanteaus and their definitions using a
conditional structure. They will use a Google Docs document to complete the task.
For example: If you are hangry you are angry because you are hungry. If needed, the
teacher can provide the students with portmanteaus creator websites, such as:
https://www.portmanteaur.com/

[49]
 SESSION 3 EXTRA ACTIVITY: SINGING UN-CONDITIONALLY

(IW) In this extra activity, the students will be encouraged to practice the
conditional structures on the website LyricsTraining. This platform will ask the
students to complete the lyrics of a chosen song while the music video is playing. The
teacher will propose different songs (for example: If I were a boy, Time after time…)
https://es.lyricstraining.com/en

Source: https://lyricstraining.com/

SESSION 4 INTRODUCTION AND WARM-UP ACTIVITY:

POSTART (second group)

(IW-WC) This Zoom lesson will start with a review of the grammar content
introduced in the previous session. Students will also be able to ask their question on
this respect. After that, those students who hadn’t done their presentation yet will
proceed to show their posters.

ACTIVITY 1: THE VOICES OF OUR GALLERY

(IW) The last step that the students will have to follow for the preparation of
the virtual gallery will be the creation of a talking avatar that will accompany each
piece of art, so the visitors can learn about it. The educational tool the students will
use to do that will be Voki. The students will record the script (the text in the poster)
and will choose a character from the Voki’s catalogue. The teacher will show the
students the necessary directions to create their customized characters during the
Zoom session.

[50]
 SESSION 4

The instructions for creating the character

will be recorded and uploaded to Google Classroom,
so the students can access them if needed, since
they will complete this activity after the Zoom call.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/yc96mosr

ACTIVITY 2: THE DICE CHOOSES YOU!

(WC) The lesson will end with a conversation activity. The teacher will present
the screen with a list of general questions using conditionals.
By rolling a virtual dice (rollthedice), the teacher will decide who is going to
ask the question. The designed student will then roll the online dice again to choose
who is going to answer the question.

1. How would you feel if you had an argument with your

friend?
Source: https://www.wikiart.org/en

2. What would you do if you were feeling nervous and you

needed to relax?
3. If someone tells you that he/she is sad, what advice will you
give to him/her?
4. If you were given three wishes, what would you wish?
…
EXTRA ACTIVITY: IF YOU PRACTICE, YOU’LL GET BETTER

(IW) The teacher will show the students different platforms and apps where
they can practice the contents of this lesson.
Especially useful will be the website/applications developed by the British
Council, where they can find videos, activities and games to practice the four skills.
These are a couple of links that could be very useful for this didactic unit:

Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing':

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/beginner-to-pre-intermediate/adjectives-
ending-in-ed-and-ing

Conditionals https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar/intermediate-
grammar/conditionals

[51]
 WARM-UP ACTIVITY: DO YOU
SESSION 5
RECOGNISE THESE FEELINGS?

(WC - GW) The fifth Zoom session will start with a game in which the students
will have to complete different sentences with the emotions studied in class. The class
will be divided into three teams (an online team generator will be used for this). The
teacher will read a sentence where there is an emotion missing. The student who first
types correctly the missing word in the Zoom’s chat wins a point for her/his team. To
make it more fun, the teacher can include some of the portmanteaus created by the
students in a previous session. The teacher can also decide whether synonyms are
accepted. The winning team will choose which virtual museum the class is going to
visit in the next activity. See below some definitions that the teacher could use for
this exercise by excluding the highlighted word:

If you are bored, you feel tired because you have nothing to do.
If you feel curious about something, you want to know more about it.
If you are excited, you are so happy that you cannot relax.
If you are stressed, you feel tense and anxious because of difficulties in your life.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/

Source: https://www.wikiart.org/en ACTIVITY 1: LET’S GO TO THE MUSEUM

(WC) The teacher will propose a list of museums that offer virtual tours and
will explain what kind of art can be found there.
British Museum https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
Vatican Museums http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en
/collezioni/musei/tour-virtuali-elenco.html
Picasso Museum http://courtyard.museupicassobcn.org/virtual-tour
Once the students from the winning team decide which museum they want to
visit, the teacher will guide them using her/his shared screen.

[52]
 SESSION 5
ACTIVITY 2: THE EMO-TIONAL QUIZ

(IW-WC) The teacher will design a quiz about the content of the previous
sessions (emotions + conditionals) on Quizizz. Using a Quizizz’s feature, the teacher
will program the test and will link it and assign it to the class on Google Classroom.
That way, the students can access the quiz from their devices and the teacher will be
able to see their results. To help the students prepare for the quiz, the teacher will
upload revision materials to the Google Classroom platform. The students will also
study the vocabulary list they have been working on from session one.
Source: https://www.wikiart.org/en

EXTRA ACTIVITY: MEMES FOR THE SAKE OF MEMES

The teacher will collect funny classic art memes and will challenge the
students to create their own. The teacher will provide the students with a Google
Drawing template to generate them. They could also be part of the virtual gallery and
be shared with the rest of the class on Google Classroom.

[53]
 Source: https://www.wikiart.org/en
SESSION 6

VIRTUAL EXHIBITION LAUNCH

SHOW YOUR EMOTIONS
(WC) In the last session, the teacher will reveal the virtual gallery where all the
pieces of art and virtual guides, selected and created by the students, are exhibited.
The teacher will create the gallery using the website artsteps that allows not only to
create virtual reality spaces but also to share them. During the zoom session, the
teacher will guide the students and explain how the virtual space works. Then, the
link to the gallery will be shared with the students so they can explore it at their own
pace. The students will discuss their views about the gallery with the teacher and with
the rest of their classmates. The gallery could also be shared with the rest of the
school.

&

Source: https://www.artsteps.com/

[54]
 6.11 Evaluation
In section 5 of its annex II, the Order EFP/365/2020 states that the evaluation of
the last term of the school year will be determined by the previous terms and will be
focused on assessing key competences. As a general rule, students in the 4th year of CSE
will be deemed to have passed the course.

 ASSESSABLE LEARNING STANDARDS (in accordance with royal decree 1105/2014)

Block 1. LISTENING
1.3 (CLC, SCC). Recognises and identifies the cultural aspects dealt with.
1.7 (CLC, DC). Understands global sense of discourse-video.
Block 2. SPEAKING
2.1 (CLC, SCC). Makes oral presentations and maintains simple conversations.
2.3/2.4 (CLC). Takes part in conversations, gives and shares opinions.
Block 3. READING
3.5 (CLC, L2L, CEA). Understands and recognises the basic patterns of conditionals.
3.6 (CLC, SCC, DC). Understands information and instructions for later work.
Block 4. WRITING
4.5/4.6 (CLC, L2L, DC). Writes about own experiences.
4.4 (CLC, L2L, DC). Writes comments and opinions, able to complete a written test.

 EVALUATION CRITERIA: Whether or not students achieve the didactic objectives stated
above (in accordance with Order 14th July 2016)
 INSTRUMENTS OF EVALUATION
 Attendance and participation (40%) participation in online sessions and interest shown.
 Formative evaluation (50%): completion of activities and presentations.
 Summative evaluation of this didactic unit (10%): grammar and vocabulary test
 ASSESMENT TOOLS: rubrics, checklists, rating scales, feedback and progress reports
7. CONCLUSIONS
There is still a lot to be written and said about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis
on education. There will be many the implications and consequences to be ready for.
Although the flood of information, recommendations, numbers and graphics seem
endless every day that goes by, it is not always easy to find (or to know which are) the
right answers to the questions that the rapid closure of schools has brought with it. In

[55]
this sense, I am aware that the present work, focused on an ongoing global crisis, would
have been different if it had been proposed at a later date when the conceptual
solutions and distance learning strategies mentioned could have been more accurately
measured and tested.
In any case, the information, resources and reflections modestly collected to
prepare this Master’s Dissertation demonstrate the potentials of the distance learning
modalities in emergency situations. It could even be said that this link is almost
unbreakable. It is precisely for this reason that it is essential to understand and take
action to tackle the issues involved in the adaptation of these new strategies, in our case
applied to Compulsory Secondary Education levels. As mentioned through this work, it
is time for institutions and governmental policies to get ready and to address the main
underlying problems of the current educational response (digital divide, poor digital
competence, inadequate teachers’ training…). Without that, even with the best of the
intentions of the teachers, the disruption of face-to-face lessons will always mean a
severe disruption of learning for many. This work has also revealed the emotional impact
of the crisis on students, teachers and families and how the new methods adopted need
to, as far as possible, promote the interaction and the collaboration between the
participants of the educational community.
In other words, the only way in which institutions can guarantee a milder
disruption for teachers and students in emergency situations is to advocate for future-
ready and human-centred educational actions.
If we understand that education should work as the backbone of a contemporary
society, it is then binding that institutions and educators work together to provide the
innovative, effective, collaborative and thoughtful solutions that would allow us to open
the window of new learning opportunities and look out to see a successful future in
education.
Maybe, once again, we could use Jane Eyre’s words to motivate and help
teachers and students to get through the uncertain times of lockdowns and masks:
“I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes
and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth
into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.”

[56]
 8. REFERENCES
Alexander, B., Ashford-Rowe, K., Barajas-Murphy, N., Dobbin, G., Knott, J., McCormack
M.,… Weber, N. (2019). Educause Horizon Report: 2019 Higher Education
edition. Retrieved from Educause: https://library.educause.edu/resources/201
9/4/2019-horizon-report
Asabere, N. Y., & Enguah, S. E. (2012). Integration of expert systems in mobile learning.
International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Research.
2(1), 55–61.
Bax, S. (2003). CALL - past, present and future. System, 31(1), 13-28. doi: 10.1016/s034
6-251x(02)00071-4
Bax, S. (2011a). Digital education: beyond the 'wow' factor in digital education. In M.
Thomas (Ed.), Digital education: opportunities for social collaboration (pp. 239-
256). New York: Palgrave Macmillian.
Bax, S. (2011b). Normalisation Revisited: The Effective Use of Technology in Language
Education. Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach, 1(2), 1-15.
Brontë, C. (1999). Jane Eyre. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press.
Brown, M., McCormack, M., Reeves, J., Brooks, C., & Grajek S. (2020). Educause Horizon
Report: Teaching and Learning Edition. Retrieved from Educause: https://library
.educause.edu/resources/2020/3/2020-educause-horizon-report-teaching-and-
learning-edition
Camus, A. (1948). The plague. London: Hamilton.
Capilla, A., Sainz, J., IPR, & Sanz, I. (2020). Rethinking Education Post-Coronavirus:
Lessons from Spain to Avoid Widening the Socioeconomic Achievement
Gap. Retrieved from http://uis.unesco.org/en/blog/rethinking-education-post-
coronavirus-lessons-spain-avoid-widening-socioeconomic-achievement
Carretero, S.; Vuorikari, R. and Punie, Y. (2017). DigComp 2.1: The Digital Competence
Framework for Citizens with eight proficiency levels and examples of use.
Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union. doi: 10.2760/38842
Conrad, H. (2020). The Universal Learning Programme: educating future-ready citizens.
In-Progress Reflection on Current and Critical Issues in Curriculum, Learning and
Assessment, 34. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf000
0372613

[57]
COTEC. (2020). COVID-19 y educación I: problemas, respuestas y escenarios. Retrieved
from https://cotec.es/proyecto/educacion-y-covid-19/
Cox, M., Preston, C., & Cox, K. (1999). What Motivates Teachers to use ICT? Paper
Presented at the British Educational Research Association Conference. Retrieved
from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00001329.htm
Damour, L. (2020). How teenagers can protect their mental health during coronavirus
(COVID-19). Retrieved from UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/azerbaijan/stories
/how-teenagers-can-protect-their-mental-health-during-coronavirus-covid-19
DQ Institute, & Park, Y. (2019). DQ Global Standards Report 2019 Common Framework
for Digital Literacy, Skills and Readiness. Retrieved from https://www.dqinstitut
e.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DQGlobalStandardsReport2019.pdf
Egbert, J. L. (2005). Conducting Research on Call. In J. L. Egbert, & G. M. Petrie, Call
Research Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
Encinas-Martin, M. (2020). Education continuity during the Coronavirus crisis. Spain:
Aprendo en casa. Retrieved from OECD: https://oecdedutoday.com/wp-conten
t/uploads/2020/05/Spain-Aprendo-en-casa.pdf
European Parliament and the Council (2006). Recommendation 2006/962/CE of the
European Parliament and the Council of 18 December 2006 on Key Competences
for Lifelong Learning. Official Journal of the European Union, 30.12.2006, L
394/10, 10 18. Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ
.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:394:0010:0018:en:PDF
Fernández Enguita, M. (2013). La brecha digital terciaria. El desfase de la institución
escolar ante las desigualdades económicas y culturales en el entorno digital.
Retrieved from https://www.ucm.es/data/cont/docs/1010-2015-05-24-La%20b
recha%20digital%20terciaria.pdf
Fry Stephen [stephenfry]. (2009, March 11) This is the point. One technology doesn't
replace another, it complements. Books are no more threatened by Kindle than
stairs by elevators x [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/stephenfry/st
atus/1312682218
Harari, Y. N. (2020). The world after coronavirus. Financial Times. Retrieved from https:
//www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75
Hawkins, R. J. (2002). Ten Lessons for ICT and Education in the Developing World. In
Kirkman, G. (Ed.), The Global Information Technology Report. Readiness for the
Networked World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[58]
Huang, R., Liu, D., Tlili, A., Yang, J., & Wang, H.(2020). Handbook on Facilitating Flexible
Learning During Educational Disruption: The Chinese Experience in Maintaining
Undisrupted Learning in COVID-19 Outbreak. Beijing: Smart Learning Institute
of Beijing Normal University.
INTEF. (2017). Common Digital Competence Framework for Teachers. Madrid:
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte & Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías
Educativas de Formación del Profesorado.
Jones, A. (2004). A Review of the Research Literature on Barriers to the Uptake of ICT by
Teachers. London: British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.
Karpati, A. (2011). Digital Literacy in Education. Moscow: UNESCO Institute for
Information Technologies in Education.
Kessler, G. (2016). Technology standards for language teacher preparation. In L. Murray
& F. Farr (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language Learning and Technology.
New York: Routledge.
King, S. (1983). Different seasons. New York: Signet.
Koehler, M. J. (2012). TPACK Explained. Retrieved from TPACK org: http://www.tpack.o
rg/
Medina, C. J. (2018). Country Report on ICT in Education. Retrieved from European
Schoolnet: http://www.eun.org
Mendoza, A. (2014, 21st July). El momento de la educación. Cinco Días. El País. Retrieved
from https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2014/07/18/economia/140570227
7_392434.html
OECD Education [OECDEduSkills]. (2020, May 19) This crisis is an eye-opener. Education
is about relation, presence, well-being. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.
com/OECDEduSkills/status/1262650378295939072
Pont, B., Toledo Figueroa, D., Albiser, E., et al. (2019). Education Policy Outlook
Highlights: Spain. Retrieved from OECD: http://www.oecd.org/education/highli
ghtsspain.htm
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).
Reig, D. (2012). Aprendizaje y evolución de lo tecnosocial. Retrieved from https://www
.dreig.eu/caparazon/aprendizaje-tecnosocial/

[59]
Semenov, A. (2005). Information and Communication Technologies in Schools. A
Handbook for Teachers. Retrieved from UNESCO: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/a
rk:/48223/pf0000139028
Sparrow, J. (2018). Digital Fluency: Preparing Students to Create Big, Bold Problems.
New Horizons. The Technologies Ahead. Retrieved from https://er.educause.ed
u/-/media/files/articles/2018/3/er182107.pdf
Toffler, A. 1970. Future Shock. New York: Random House.
UNESCO. (2020a). Crisis-Sensitive Educational Planning. UNESCO COVID-19 education
response: Education Sector issue notes, 2.4. Retrieved from UNESCO: https://un
esdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373272
UNESCO. (2020b). Distance learning strategies in response to COVID-19 school closures.
UNESCO COVID-19 education response: Education Sector issue notes, 2.1.
Retrieved from UNESCO: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf000037330
5
UNESCO. (2020c). Health & nutrition during home learning. UNESCO COVID-19
education response: Education Sector issue notes, 1.1. Retrieved from UNESCO:
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373277
UNESCO. (2020d). Nurturing the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young
people during crises. UNESCO COVID-19 education response: Education Sector
issue notes, 1.2. Retrieved from UNESCO: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/482
23/pf0000373271
UNESCO. (2020e). Supporting teachers and education personnel during times of crisis.
UNESCO COVID-19 education response: Education Sector issue notes, 2.2.
Retrieved from UNESCO: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf000037333
8
Warschauer, M. (2000). The changing global economy and the future of English teaching.
TESOL Quarterly, 34(3), 511. doi: 10.2307/3587741
Wellburn, E., & Eib, B. (2010). Imagining Multi-Roles in Web 2.0 Distance Education. In
G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emerging Technologies. Edmonton: AU Press.
Williams, P. J., & Otrel-Cass, K. (2016). Teacher and student reflections on ICT-rich
science inquiry. Research in Science & Technological Education, 35(1), 88–107.
doi: 10.1080/02635143.2016.1248928
Class Notes

[60]
 Legal References
Decree 111/2016, 14th of June, which establishes the organization and curriculum of
Compulsory Secondary Education in Andalusia.
Order 14th July 2016, which develops the curriculum for Secondary Education in
Andalusia, diversity and assessment.
Order ECD/65/2015, 21st of January, which describes the relationships between
competences, contents and evaluation criteria of Primary, Compulsory
Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
Order EFP/365/2020, 22nd of April, which establishes the framework and guidelines for
action for the third quarter of the 2019-2020 academic year and the start of the
2020-2021 academic year, in the face of the crisis situation caused by COVID19.
Organic Law 8/2013, 9th of December, on the Improvement of the Quality of Education.
Resolution. 13th of April 2020, which publishes the collaboration agreement between
the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation, S.M.E. and the Ministry of
Education and Professional Training, for the production of the container
programme "Aprendo en casa".
Royal Decree 1105/2014, 26th of December, which establishes the basic curriculum for
Compulsory Secondary Education and Higher Secondary Education.
Royal Decree 463/2020, 14th of March, which declares the state of alarm for the
management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19.

[61]