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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.