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Podcast in, podcast out

     

        When I know podcast from the video, I find out quite surprisingly that I've been using podcast from many years. There is Chinese English learning website called putclub.com, which it repost podcasts from foreign podcast websites and many Chinese English learners are downloading these podcasts and fill in their portables gadgets. I was one of them. When I was preparing the TOEFL test, I learned that there was a very effective way to improve English, that is to listen a lot extensively, and listen (do dictation) intensively. I carried on using this method for several months, it really worked! I improved my TOEFL quite significantly. That's my experience with podcast. Also, there is a website called 51voa provides voice of America podcasts and news and sometimes have Chinese translations.

         I find the website is eslpod.com is a wonderful site for English learners. I tried English Café episode 448, which talks about the famous song Que Sera, Sera, in a very slow and clear voice and with illustrations to difficult words.

        If let me use podcasts in future classrooms, I would use them for two purposes. First is to increase students' fluency. This goal is done by doing extensive listenings. This way can make students learn with interest. Second is to increase students' accuracy. This goal is done by doing  intensive listenings. For example, they write down a short podcast, a short piece of slowed down news and then correct with real transcripts and in this way accuracy can be improved.

       Apart from in class use of podcasts. I will assign students listen to one podcast (whatever the theme they are interested). Then in class, they should do a class report. In this way, students can learn how to summarize and organize their speaking. Also, it is very possible that the students may create their own podcast one day!

Folklorist Challenge: Discover From Near

The first project is 2014 Junior Folklorist Challenge. It is a project that encourages students to discover traditions in their own culture and share to the world. In order to complete this task kids can use the following four general steps. 

1. Research: a. identify a tradition; b. find a tradition bearer; c. develop your interview questions. 
2. Document: interview the tradition bearer and document the experience. 
3. Interpret: a. review all of your notes, audio, video and photos. Decide how you shape your story to share the tradition. b. create and polish your presentation as a video, a slide show or a podcast. 
4. Presentation: share on the ePals website. 

In my opinion, this project is good in many ways. 

First, it can help kids know the ways of discovering new things from every aspect of society. The first step, discover the tradition, gives lots of aspects for students to consider when they try to find a tradition to work. It can make kids more sensitive to culture features in society and lead them think more about that. 

Second, it can promote the speaking ability of students in their own language and extend their ability of language using. Because what kids do in school is mostly receptive and this project can let kids be the seeker of information. In this way, kids becomes initiator of their own knowledge and they try to find out better ways to get the information they need for their project. 

Third, the project is about history. It can not only help them understand the culture they're investigating, but also by comparison and contrast, they can understand the other cultures better. 

Fourth, students are not  alone in completing their projects. They can work with their parents, neighbors, communities, etc. They can also find useful information on the website and also get help from the teacher. Also, they can learn a lot from their peers worldwide. 

For classroom use of this project, I think it can be a 4-week project. Each week bears one step and students can communicate with their classmates during class and raise questions to their teachers. For ESL/EFL students, this may be an investigation to their own culture and prevention in English. To lower the difficulty, ESL/EFL students can be worked as groups of 2 or 3 people. It can help ESL/EFL students in many ways. The most important is to organize their language when communicating. Second, students have lots of topics to choose and these are open and easy to find in their own culture. Third, reviewing others' project can help enhance their reading and comprehensive ability. 

All in all, this online community can be good in sharing and learning and collaborating. It is helpful and fills the gaps of school and society.

Comic Strip Generators: Picture-to-Text Exchanges

GoAnimate is a great site. I created one dialogue in a living room situation but I cannot save it. It seems that I used some features that needs to be purchased. So I tried again it works finally. 

Here is my video Don't Worry About Your Lessons. I used text-to-voice to make it sound and saves me lots of trouble. 

Comic strip generators are ideal tool for students watch and do some quizzes or answer some questions after watching it. It is good for listening practice. Also, it is good for students to process language from the listening to understanding. It is also good idea to give students this assignment. By giving them dialogue texts, teacher can let students do one animation by themselves. This two-way practice can help students greatly and give them more chance to practice their language abilities. 

Comic strips are both good for practicing listening and writing skills. Also, it can help check students' understanding of certain texts and situations. 

Photo Stories: Share Cooking Experiences

Photo stories can be an experience sharing tool for ESL/EFL students. It is a vivid and interesting way to associate sociocultural experience with linguistic performance. By simply tell stories, students can make videos and can learn to describe pictures using their own words.

For me, I like cooking in my spare time. I make my video of How to Make Kung Pao Chicken. In order to make this video, I reviewed some cooking words and also some techniques to say procedures. 

Photo stories can be a wonderful tool for teaching ESL/EFL students. For example, teachers can give students assignments to make their own photo story and design the captions. Also, a set of pictures can be given to students to let them do a description writing task. 

Digital Storytelling: Tell Your Story with Aids and Amplifiers

According to 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, 'digital storytelling is the combination of narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component'. 

If you want make a digital story, first there should be a story. You need to write what you want to tell, think of topics or themes. The story should be your own experience (good or bad), your ways of mind changing, decision making, etc. Also, your story should have some pictures or clear ways of changing. Thirdly, adding some music or soundtracks can be good for your storytelling. These can help the story more vivid and complete. 

Digital storytelling can make students aware of resources that can help with their story telling. It is a way that can make students more involved even in their leisure time. 

A Serious Game: The Garbage Game

The Garbage Game is another garbage game that arranged in narrative and certain situation that can help students practice many language abilities in an interesting way.

I played the game twice and it was quite easy to play and direct in choice. At first time, I chose what I do regularly and the results are not that good. At second time, I chose the greener way to do with the garbage and it comes better. This game is not as  interesting as the Third World Farmer but it involves more reading and more accessible for those who don't like games. 

In terms of language learning objectives. This game can make students read more and read repeatedly. Also it can let students compare several choices and make their own choice for better result.

Assessment of the objectives may lie on the understanding of passages and making proper decisions upon given information. For example, reading a paragraph and then do multiple choices can be used to test the understanding ability of students in this case. 

Gamification: Finding a Way out...

Gamification is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motive or influence behavior. Game here is including 'a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation' according to the game designer Jane McGonigal. It can be used in classrooms to motivate students and get students more involved. 

According to the passage A Comparison of Computer Game and Language-Learning Task Design Using Flow Theory, gamification can create an interesting task-based task for students. It can make the activity either too rigid or too easy. 

I've played Phantasy Quest twice and it's really hard for me. I don't play games because I think the games are waste of time. After trying again and again, I felt frustrated. This game is not easy and players need to find tiny distinctions and make multiple connections with those objects  and how them works. I failed many times and I had to refer to the walkthrough. Finally, with the help of the walk through I finally got the girl back. 

For language skills that this game may achieve, I think first is the reading ability. For example, when I tried to get on the boat, I almost clicked every part of the picture and I found some words that I didn't know like 'mask' and I checked the dictionary to find out it's meaning. Thus, this game can enhance the ability of understanding rules and directions. Secondly, this game can also enhance writing and speaking ability. Teacher can let students write or talk about how they play the game. Also, teacher can teach ways of describing activities first and let students write or talk about their own walkthroughs. 

Regarding activities, students can be assigned in groups to solve this problem. These groups can including different roles and students can collaborates with each other on either play the game or write the walkthrough. Also, students can communicate with each other on the activities they made in the game. 

The teacher may provide some scaffolding like how to describe the directions, how to use proper verbs to describe activities and also some unfamiliar words. Also, the teacher can assign different roles within groups and make teamwork runs smoothly.

I would use both ways. By using walk through, higher proficiency level students may benefit a lot but when play with some lower proficiency level students I would first provide the text and then the images.

In terms of assessing the objectives, I would assign another similar game and let the students write or speak the procedures that they use to complete the game. 

Twitter for Professional Development and Future Teaching

Before this module, I never thought twitter can be a good tool for teaching and learning. Twitter for me is just for teenagers to follow stars like Justin Bieber. It's really a surprise for me that I can find so many resources and have conversations with so many my fellow teachers and sometimes some big shots in this field. 

As for professional development, twitter provides a platform for teachers to share their ideas, webpages, videos, articles, and almost everything we can see online. Also, teachers can gather together with some like-minded colleagues all around the world in a certain time and post topics and articles and other resources they like. This we could also find in google groups. 

As for future teaching, a teacher can use twitter as a virtual dashboard and keep all the students involved. Also, students can learn from each other and communicate with each other. Like in the article The Teacher's Guide to Twitter, ' Using Twitter is a two part process. The first part is as a consumer, where you follow people, read their tweets, and learn from them. A lot of people stop there, which is easy to understand since that is the easy part. But the real magic happens when you share, too.' Twitter is like other technology tools that can enhance communication, both input and output.  

However, in China, we don't have proper access to twitter.com, I need to find an alternative for this wonderful website and also hope the situation may change someday. 

In a word, the technologies are changing the education forms, we need to keep up with the trend and enhance the communicative nature of language education by using these technology tools.

Myths of Technologies

From the video by the linguist David Crystal, I think of a quote from the Bible. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law of Moses or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)

In the language education sense, the Law of Moses in is the ability of communication. Communication has two aspect, the language input and output, the understanding and effective expression. 

With the development modern technologies, the bad side of them are very highlighted. Especially for me, I come from China and in Chinese high-schools the use of phones, tablets and other electronic devices are quite forbiddened. These are considered only as entertainment tools. But it is not as bad as they are considered in China. Now we should consider it not the hinder of education but facilitator and helper of education. As David Crystal mentioned in the video, the popularity of text messages are not eliminating the language ability. Also, students are reading more than before by using modern technologies. So it's crucial for teachers today to find new ways by adapting computer and other modern technologies that can help with our students.

Maybe we can rephrase the scripture in to our language education version, 'Technologies not come to abolish the communication nature of language education, but to fulfill it.'

#twitterchat

I joined a twitterchat called '#edchat' tonight. I find this very informative. It provides me lots of different webpages concerned with education. I saved some pages and joined some chat with a few people on twitter. 

For example, I find some interesting tips for scaffolding in classrooms.  These tips are helpful. For me, I'm taking the Practicum class this semester, I teach a lot in class and will teach in real classrooms. So I find these tips very helpful. It's really important to use multiple ways to scaffolding in classrooms. 

Also, I tried to rise some questions in twitterchat, but it seems no one reply my question. But the reason of this may be because I didn't narrow down the chatting topic (I should choose #eltchat or other esl chat sessions). 

Twitterchat is very informative and interactive, it is helpful for teachers to share their opinions and share the knowledge they know. It's helpful for professional growth. Twitterchat also make me like twitter and deepen the belief that technologies are at our dispose and their are many advantages if we use it properly and creatively. 

Classroom 2.0

I joined Classroom 2.0 and I find it very useful in communicate with my colleagues in the EFL field.

There're many groups of different topics of language teaching not only in English but also many other languages in Spanish and other languages. I can join in those groups and get some interesting information about the topic that the group focus on.

Also, I find many interesting surveys posted by teachers. So this is a community and support group for teachers. I can get help from others and others can help me. As a future language teacher, I will definitely use this website to get professional support and peer help from the teachers.

All in all, Classroom 2.0 is a very useful website which I will use frequently.

A Learner is Like a Bumble Bee

'Buzz, buzz...' A bumblebee may make this sound when swooshing by your ear. These cute bees make me think some resemblance with learners today.

Bumblebees are connected with each other and collaborative. According to Connectivism:

A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Siemens, 'The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe.' The bumblebees are creatures that are highly connected with each other and so do learners in digital age. The learners today are helping each other and help each other find interesting fragrance knowledge. Although the connection of bumblebees seems chaotic, but there is an underlying order within the bee society. Like the author says, there is 'a cryptic form of order'. So are the learners have in today's digital era. 

In the video The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature, Mr. Siemens mentions that Behaviorism and other learning theories are somewhat at odds with what we hope learning process would be. 'Our need to externalize is so great that we can't have meaningful private dialogue... we need to externalize our thought for us to connect with other individuals.' We hope that learning should be externalize but these theories, like Behaviorism, considers our mind as a black box and unpenetrable. Like bumblebees, the learning process is both an individual process and a collaborative process. These two aspects are connected with each other and nowadays in digital era also works. 

In conclusion, learners today are like bumblebees, seems separated but organized in a crytic yet understandable manner. 

DIIGO versus Scoop.it

According to the sequence of the syllabus, I created my DIIGO account first.  After bookmarking several websites, I found it more like a new-fashion book mark and collage. Also, because DIIGO is a bookmarking website and it is most useful when you enjoy browsing lots of web pages and wanting to add bookmarks on them. What's more, we can find someone of the similar interests and follow others' bookmarking and share with each other. In a word, DIIGO is like a tapestry of everything that you are interested in your acquaintances with the internet and others. 

After I creating the DIIGO account, I started finish the Scoop.it assignment. I created a topic and some labels, then it comes out many related suggestions. Their are websites, videos, blogs, etc. They are in a sequence of relevancy. Then I select a few from those suggestions and made my own topic. Also, I followed some of my classmates' topic. Scoop.it is called 'content curation', which is pretty like to created your own thematic library and organize your own content choices.

In DIIGO, you can highlight anything, add multiple tags, copy and paste from original article as comments, follow others, and be followed by others. But you cannot comment on others book marks.

While in Scoop.it, you cannot highlight but you can use multiple tags, copy and paste from original articles as comments and others can also post comments.  People cannot follow each other but they can follow specific topics. 

As for my preferences, I like both of them. DIIGO and Scoop.it is somewhat two reverse website. 

DIIGO is a tool for readers with a wide spectrum who like to find contents they like and usually with less motivation. They find things that attracts to them and add tags. It's kind of tagging way for less motivated and relaxed way of reading.

While for Scoop.it, it's a content curating website which means you are the curator of your own thematic library. You gotta choose your own topics and hobbies. You don't even need to create your own topic just follow others would be efficient. It's more like a kind of information search that with a specific theme. And I like the suggestions particularly and the daily update emails for your chosen topics.

As for the advantage of both websites, they allow users to follow interesting topics and each other. The internet is making our life more interactive.

Learn Whenever and Wherever You Feel Like It

    Upon watching RSA Animation- Changing Education Paradigms, 21st Century Education in New Brunswick, and Social Media Revolution 2011, I was quite shocked. Before I see these videos I didn't realize how internet would bring to education field. 

    Firstly, the accessibility of future education. The always accessible internet provides good resources that are always available. Accessibility also means that the information flow direction has changed. Long time before the internet age, the knowledge is from the book and the teacher to the students. But in this information age, students can bring all kinds of resources to them. In this information age, students don't need Ritalin to stay focused for knowledge feeding. Instead, they should be woken up to seek their knowledge they want to learn anytime! 

    Just like the IT guy Harold Finch in TV series 'Person of Interest' says, 'if the university is not available, I'll bring information to me'. This quote somewhat shows the change of education because of this information age, that the information is not mono-directioned but bi-directioned, which means more interactive and more user-based. What's more, students can tailor the time and situations for themselves in their education.

    Secondly, the lifelong learning is made more possible because of the popularity of internet. You can choose your own classes by registering an online course, using an interactive learning software, etc. 

    Like my experience with my Rosetta Stone software, I find myself talk much more than my English learning experiences in China. Technologies do change education, they make a real equality in education and solely consider the 'desire of learning' and not let other factors baffle the learners.

    

    In conclusion, technologies help us learn with more efficiency and more equality. It is surely a revolution in education and make it a interactive process.

My Opinions on How Blogging can Help English Language Learning and Meet the ACTFL Standards

In this information age, internet can help both teachers and students in language learning. I never thought about blogging can help my future teaching and learning but it's something pretty like an interactive journal when I give a second thought.

According to ACTFL Communication Standards, students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. Blogging is a good way to achieve these goals. Firstly, blogging can serve as a diary or journal. Students can record their daily life, interesting things, emotions, etc. Secondly, blog is an open diary that everybody can make a comment or response. So blogging is a bilateral way that can engage students into conversations and even find them something in common and make them communicate more.

The second standard of the ACT Communication Standards says that students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics. Blogging can also meet this standard and provide students a platform to fully express their opinions on various kinds of topics. Also, with the help of internet, students can find different kind of resources and can make more interesting discussions based on more info.

These are some ideas that I can think of about blogging's help of English learning.