Podcasting in ESL class!

Podcasting (or non-streamed webcast), is a new and popular way to share and watch shows or create your own program episode. Recently it has become a more popular and acceptable way for students to learn. The word "Podcasting" stands for “Personal On Demand Casting”, you can download the show, all you need is a show catcher like iTunes, then when you can subscribe and download it on your computer or mobile device and pocket it with you and enjoy the show when every you want. This of course can be used in education; a teacher can post his or her show on the podcasting and allow students or other teachers to download it.

I would use ESL Podcast 743 – Writing a Story for an example for the students. It not only talks about how to create a story, it also introduces the meaning of the idioms used in the short conversation; what is more, it is spoken in an unnaturally slow speed so students will have no problem catching on. With this podcast, I can ask them how to create a good story, I can even assign them to write their own story and list out the settings like what he mentioned in the conversation for a big project. I can ask them to either write their own story or do cooperative writing. I can also ask them to listen and repeat the conversation with the podcast and try to write them down, then I can ask them the meanings of the idioms used in the conversation and tell them to make sentences with them. There are so many ideas of how I can do with podcasting, and this is only the starting of everything.

collaborating on ePals

ePals is a k-12 online educational collaborating site. Many teachers use ePals to improve students writing or communication skills by apply accounts for the whole class and then collaborate with classes abroad, which is a great idea, some teachers encourage students to find a pen mate or “pen pal” at ePals so they have the opportunity to create a one to one learning and communicating relationships in improving their own skills. I would also encourage my students to do so.

What I like about the site is that it is not only opened for teachers and students all around the world, but also that it is opened to families as well, a user-friendly site for all learners. You can also choose projects to collaborate, there is even a search engine for you to choose your own preference of country and language.

As a teacher, I would want my students to collaborate with people from other countries, they are sure to learn more than their textbook. For the simplest thing, I can train their writings skills, for example, in English by forcing them to collaborate with students from other countries that don’t know their native language. I can also share and collaborate with other teachers to improve my own skills. ePals is really a great site for education and collaboration.

Digital storytelling with photos or pictures

 Animoto, Slideroll, or Stupeflix are good sites to make digital story videos, they are user friendly so they can be grasp even by those who are not familiar with film making; thus it can be a good way for students to get started to make their won films. I can assign them to make a digital story in my own field (please see to my old post Digital storytelling). This is a more advance step to start in making their own digital stories, and I would hope they can learn to combine academics and technologies well.

The subject of pictures I use are from a web comic called Axis Powers Hetalia, a controversial comic that “presents an allegorical interpretation of political and historic events, particularly of the World War II era, in which the various countries are represented by stereotyped anthropomorphic characters.” I choose this comic because I want them to think and debate about the short film I made. It can be a discussion about stereotypes, or about the history behind all the countries, or even about peace and war.

By using Stupeflix and other tool, I want them to see that a digital story videos is not as hard as many people thought and hook them up with technologies by using them. I also want them to brainstorm on their own favorites, whether it be their favorite hobbies or movies, or experiences they had and can be shared with others. Furthermore, I want to broad the use of the technologies into classes and make the lessons more colorful.

Bookr your own story!

I decided to use Harry Potter because it is my favorite series. Although there were not many pictures to choose from, I still tried to make the most of it. I will use my bookr story for an example for them to create their own digital story. Bookr is a good starting for creating a digital storytelling because it is easy to create. The example of my favorite novel is to show students that digital storytelling is not so difficult and motivate students to accept and create their own stories with their own photos and experiences.

With bookr, I wish to motivate students to learn more about the technologies and combine them with their lives and their academic studies.

Digital storytelling

 Photo by Ben Cooper

Digital storytelling is very common now a day, movies, pop singer, commercial advertising, politics and many others use this type of media to share information or experience with others. What is digital storytelling? In 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, it explained as the practice of combining narrative with digital content including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component. Beginning with a script, the storyteller then assembles rich media to support the ideas and emotions in that script, including music or other audio effects, personal or public domain images, animations or video, and other electronic elements.

I would assign my students to try making digital story on some specific topics to keep them familiar with the multimedia and technologies. This not only teaches students that technologies can be combined in all fields, but also gives them a chance to present themselves and explore in other possibilities. Students will also be more motivated in the subject, and while they are searching more materials, they gain more insight of the topic they are researching..

I would use digital story telling in both individual and group project.  The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling mentioned that the storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between. Thus, students can

Individual work: I will assign students individual project before trying group project. I will assign them topics such like introducing their favorite movie star or pop singer, introduce their favorite or special hobby, tell a story about your most unforgettable experience or memory, a wonderful trip they took before or so on. I want every one of them to try their best to make their own stories and get more familiar with digital storytelling.

Group work: After everyone had made their own project and showed to the rest of the class, I will assign them a more difficult and longer storytelling with topics related to the course subjects. Topics will be like WWII, Gandhi, Pompeii, the great canyon and many others. Students in groups are required to gather information about the topic, including interviews, videos, songs or other manners they can find. The video must contain everyone’s work and the quality of the film must meet a certain standard.

Let’s tweet in class

Twitter kind of reminds me of msn and chat rooms which I am more familiar with, where people discuss and chat with others. But Twitter offers something different, something that can be formally used in classes and more importantly, allow more people and even for outsiders you do not know personally to join in the discussions.

Unlike the e-learning platform that takes time to response and wait for responses, Twitters allow people to communicate with each other immediately on topics. Although most of the Time more that 40% of the tweets are babbling nonsenses, the use of it on the academic use can be very beneficial. In the article,  How Twitter will revolutionize academic research and teaching, it tells us this kind of micro-blogging is a revolution in all fields, academic is not only printed books and articles, but also a window to “facilitate the development of specialized audiences. People read your articles, give feedbacks and even write about your articles and breach more ideas from them. The unidirectional  day are over, and the seminar room of communication had taken the place the auditorium of working alone.

But the biggest drawback of Twitter is that too many people are tweeting on the discussion board, and the tweets becomes very short-life and is “expired” about a week and a half and is getting shorter every day. The post may “disappear” in the huge amount of  tweets, and this is a serious problem that has to be solved if we are using it to discuss important class works and not some pointless chatting. Luckily,  in 10 Ways to Archive Your Tweets and Teach with Twitter? Read This!, they teach us how to fish back the hashes that is needed. This basic function must be mastered before we can tweet and broad our subject and dive in the ocean of knowledge.

Web group for teachers

I have to say Classroom 2.0 really is an amazing web group. I have yet to read all the post or be familiar with all the functions, but I can already say that it is a great web filled with priceless treasures of experiences. More than sixty thousands of people from all fields and all over the world visit and contribute on this site and share their experiences, knowledge and engage in discussions with others. For a teacher, a student or a learner eager to immerse and explore new aspects and share their own experiences, what can be better than getting involved in such a great and organized web group?

I think this web group will be very useful for me because for a teacher, staying in a lab or studying theories is never the case. Especially for language teachers who require constant interactions with students. Teachers learn by a mass amount of experiences and communications of teaching, sharing, evaluating and reconstructing. For example, I can post my lesson plan, and activity I would like to do during class, videos filmed in classes, or a question I don’t understand on the board to ask for opinions and suggestions. I can also read through other posts and find new ideas or give my own opinion. Classroom 2.0 allows all these communication for teachers from all fields to stay updated and share information for improvement and suggestions.

Connecting and evolving

A teacher is becoming more like the internet in these days, especially a homeroom teacher. Asides from giving knowledge and being able to answer all kinds questions asked by the students, they are also being required to “stay updated” in their knowledge and being able to function all kinds of technologies so they are able to help him or herself and the students to stay in current.

Just like what George Siemens said in Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age :“Experience has long been considered the best teacher of knowledge. Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge. ‘I store my knowledge in my friends’ is an axiom for collecting knowledge through collecting people”. The jobs of teachers are not only to teach them the knowledge on the textbooks, but also to give and share the experiences students couldn’t have as many as possible. They need to learn how to stay updated, to learn about the rapidly changing world and how to survive in it. What teachers can do is to feed them the experiences, knowledge and wisdom so they could learn, like an on-lined computer that has abundant of information to share and explore whenever students need them.

In The Changing Nature of Knowledge, George Siemens said that “another important thing is to have a strong emphases on the manner of which knowledge is rapidly evolving. So it’s not just what we know today is important, it’s our ability to continue to stay current as knowledge changes.” The internet is one the most rapidly updated and changing nature of things. Just like the internet, teachers are asked to stay in current of their knowledge and constantly add or change their teaching style according to the temporary life.

Hence, I think teachers are like the ever growing internet the evolves with time and constantly connecting to others and absorbing new information.

Group projects and creative learning

      I commented on the post What does learning feel like? in the blog What Ed Said created by whatedsaid. It is actually a large student projects including What does learning look like? Year 6 PYP exhibition unit, the PYP exhibition is a large student project that allows students to chose a favorite filed and do research in groups, a creative way to let student engage in their own studies.

    I really like the idea of students research because this is a rather novice idea in my home country. The only group work students are familiar before university is their study groups which only serves the purpose to academic grades. The PYP activities will allow students to actively engage in the study because the field was picked by their own choice of interest, and not just sit there and be fed the knowledge by teachers.

    Students will also gain the experience of cooperating with others, which is a main current of nowadays since more and more progressions require group working and brain storming. The feedbacks of many students said that they learn how to cooperate with other, showing that this project not only serves an academic purpose, but also teaches them how to work with others. Also, the research will let the students have a taste of real life instead of holing in their narrow world of schooling. In the post the students comment that they learn how to be grateful of what they have, which is an ethical issue parents and teachers find it harder and harder to teach children.

    Group projects may seem a waste of time in some people’s opinion because children may not be mature enough to see the whole picture; but everything needs a first start, and I think a big group project on social inequitiy is a good start for them to learn and cooperate with others and give them more insights on their subjects and on themselves.

Reaching students with technology

Now a day we live in a world of technologies, while we are bathing in the convenience of the technologies in hand, how should we prepare our next generation to face this ever changing world?

Pay attention to what children need

And what do students need

We are living in an era when mass media, information and technology expend in geometric progressions. Four or more decades ago computers were not popular because they were heavy and expensive, their function were mainly to calculate large statistic numbers. Two decades ago, the internet started to open up to publics, and the computer had shrank smaller. I remember when I was a kid the teacher took us to the computer room once a week, but we just went there and play some computer games and print some pictures. Twenty years later, the TV, iPod, iPhone, iPad, laptops, cell phones, DVD and CD ROMS, Bluetooth, optical network, Wii, wireless communication…and so on. Firefox, Google, Wiki, blogs, Podcasts, Online Collaboration, Skype, MSN, GPS and Google Maps, YouTube, e-Portfolios and countless others were born according to the internet and new technologies. Everything had advance so quickly that it became harder and harder to keep up with the trend. The question is, how are we going to prepare our children and students to use these new tools?

  Statistics show that unlike the generation of young people who probably started to use computers and cell phones in their high school or university, the younger generation started to get a hand on the technologies in an early age, some even started when they were infants. They inevitably will have a better hand on the new technology than their parents or teachers. As teachers or parents, the first issue we have to face is how are we going to reach to them? Students nowadays spend even more time on TVs, internets, texting, iPad, iPods, and Facebook and less time in studying because only some of them think studying is important, others don’t see why they need to learn the things that seem to have no use in the future. Needless to say about the students that have difficulties in graduating. Further disappointment will only drive them further away.

  The film suggests that we reach them with the tools they already have, like giving an activity about texting in class, Google Mapping the places we study in geography class, or YouTube some songs and operas in music classes. These are good way to reach out to them since they can feel the connection of the curriculum and everyday life, and perhaps more of them will be willing to study and reach back to the teachers. But first thing first, the teacher has to take the first step of the leads, so it is best for teachers to learn and master as much technologies as they can to use them as tools to reach out.



Is it a myth that technology can replace teachers?

I am interested in the myth saying that technology will replace teachers. In the first chapter of Brave New Digital Classroom: Technology and Foreign Language Learning, the author states that “technology will not replace teachers in the future, but rather teachers who use technology will probably replace teachers who do not.” This really intriguers me because I’ve been thinking about this for awhile.

It is true that technologies enables and strengthens teachers teaching, and those teacher that can use the technologies have a better chance to stay in jobs than those who cannot follow the footsteps of the trend. Take my parents for an example, they are great teachers and knew well how to teach in the traditional way: microphones, chocks and blackboards. Now a days the schools asked them to make Power Points of their lessons and put them on the e-learning platform for students to download and study, some lessons even ask them to record their voices in the Power Points.  My parents are having some difficulties getting a hand on the technologies because it is rather difficult for them to learn because of their ages, but they still have to meet the standard since it became a must nowadays, those who cannot follow the rules are in danger of losing their jobs.

But on the other hand, it is no myth that technology can replace mankind, let along teachers. While the teacher play a critical role in teaching and the technologies only serve as assisting tools, the importance of teachers may wane through time. A lesson can be videotaped and play over and over to students taking this course every year, in that way the teacher will not be needed to teach students so often. The day may come that teacher and school are no longer needed, people who want to learn can simply download the videos of the lessons and discuss it with others or mail to the experts for answers. This is a high possibility that cannot be overlooked as a myth.

Tips for web safety

Nowadays the internet has become essential in many people's life. Unfortunately, the internet has become more and more dangerous since not all people on the net have good intentions. Here are some small tips to keep you safe from potential harm:

 

1. Create a strong password for all your accounts online.

l  If possible, create different account names and passwords when you register in websites. There are some important things you should know about passwords:

l  Passwords are private, don’t give them to anyone else, because there are no guarantees what he or her will do with it.

l  Do not choose a word easily guessed or a word from the dictionary, they will be too vulnerable.

l  Blend in capitals, numbers and codes in your password will increase your safety.

2. Do not open mails or files that you do not know from, there is a high possibility that they carry virus that can steal your information or destroy your computer.

3. Avoid at all cost to give your personal information to others, especially your ID, credit card number or bank account. People can do many things with it, and you may not only loose all your money but also commit a crime if someone stole your identity to commit crime.

4. Do not linger or chat in websites that are dangerous, such like pornography or violence site. You don’t know who you are chatting with and you do not want to attract their attention.

5. People can be nice, but some people have ulterior motivations for being nice. Do not trust anyone easily.

6. Do not believe in the things “too good to be real” like you won 1,000,000 dollars”, because they are not real at all.

7. Meeting with your net pal can be very dangerous, especially for females. If you decide to meet with him or her, be sure to bring someone with you and avoid meeting where there is no one around.

8. Don’t talk about sex with others easily. You don’t want to give other people the wrong ideas, and you don’t want to be targeted.

9. Do not think no one can find you by the internet and commit crimes online. There are more than one ways the police or other people can trace you down.

10. Be nice and polite when you are on line, if you are hostile to others, there are larger possibilities that you will be subjected to bullies and harasses.

11. If you are bullied, don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Be sure not to response or retaliate, collect evidence of the bully and report it to the police.

12. Avoid trading money online, things can get very sticky.

Safety Tips & Advice is a very good site telling you how to keep safe, please take a look and be sure to keep safe and sound!

Three ways to include blog in teaching

The time of single authority news have been subside by some authority news and bloggers broadcasting their news. Teacher can also be blogger when teaching.

1. Teachers can assign homework related to the lesson using blogs.
 This method allows student to do additiona readings or studying on their own instead of a teacher-center class. For example, if a teacher is talking about Shakespeare and his plays in his or her Literature class, the teacher can assign the student to go home and choose a play they like and read or watch the films. After watching or reading about the play, students should post their reflection on their blogs. The reflection can either be post on the student’s own blog, or put on the blog which the teacher set up. The teacher can grade their reflections on the depth or width the reflections are.

2. Teacher can ask students to do discussion on the blog.
 This method does not require a student to write a new article on their own. It requires the student to participate, discuss and sometime debate on topics. For example, a teacher can post several questions on the blog and ask students to chose a few of them to response. This can be assign as group discussion or individual responses, and the response cannot be simple answers, the responders have to state their own opinion in the topic and explain why they agree or don’t agree with the statements.

3. Teachers can ask the students to respond the lessons and open a window for suggestions.
 The main point of this way is by visiting and responding on the teacher’s blog, student can be more comfortable to talk and share information with the teacher. The teacher can post some tips, suggestions or even addition links on his or her websites to share it with the students to aid their studies; but the teacher can also post non-curriculum topic just to share something with the students. Students tend to respond more freely when they do not need to face the teachers directly. The blog can create a bridge between the students and the teachers.

According to the five "C's" STANDARDS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING, which indicates five steps to become a successful foreign language learner: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities.

COMMUNICATION
Communicate in Languages Other Than English

• Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions
• Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics
• Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.

CULTURES
Gain Knowledge and Understanding of Other Cultures

• Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied
• Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied

CONNECTIONS
Connect with Other Disciplines and Acquire Information

• Standard 3.1: Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the foreign language
• Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures

COMPARISONS

Develop Insight into the Nature of Language and Culture

• Standard 4.1: Students demonstrate understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of the language studied and their own
• Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.

COMMUNITIES
Participate in Multilingual Communities at Home & Around the World

• Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.
• Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.

My standard blogging would require:

Goal 1: Students learn how to use blogs.
Standard 1: Students learn to use blogs and add in TESOL elements.
Standard 2: Students use the blogs in legal and ethical ways. Personal attacks, pornography or any kinds of violence is strictly prohibited.

Goal 2: Stduents using blogs for feedbacks, discussions, and assignments.
Standard 1: Students should check their blogs frequently and respond to all feedbacks.
Standard 2: Students should keep their posting in a standard and delete any unwanted junk feedbacks or unappropriate advertisement.
Standard 3: Students should always try to finish the assignments on time.
Standard 4: Every Student should have a discussion board and the student should put some topics open to discussion.
Standard 5: Chatting or discussing non-curriculum related topics should be seperated to a chatting board, or the student can choose to create another blog specific for personal diary posting or chattings.

Goal 3: Students respond and communicate with each others and share more information.
Standard 1: Students should try to post their feedbacks in other classmates or teacher's blog.
Standard 2: Encourage students to share their personal experience or knowledge in TESOL, responds from people outside the class is also welcomed.
Standard 3: Assign students to read and share some good materials with each other.

See here for the "STANDARDS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING"