How to use podcast in future teaching?

I have chosen a podcast called “ Absolutely intercultural ”. I would use it as a listening material. So firstly, students can listen to the podcast and write down some key words which would help them recall the listening. Then they can listen to the material again and answer some comprehension questions or dictate the listening material. Finally, students can talk about their own intercultural experience.

The podcast can also be used as a lead-in cultural class. Students can listen to the material first and then summarize some intercultural differences. And then they can talk about their intercultural experience.

Reflection on ePals

After exploring the website, I find that the purpose of the website is to connect global learners. There are two interesting and typical project.

       One is called Class in Vermont, USA seeks cultural exchange for the way we are powerpoint project  , they are a class at Mount Abraham Union Middle School in Bristol, Vermont, U.S.A. The students are between 12 and 13 years old. They are currently studying culture, focusing on ancient India, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Therefore, the purpose of the project is to let students communicate with students in other cultures. With the project, students can learn modern cultures by themselves and gain first- hand knowledge.

       The other project is Class in Missouri, USA seeks French-language partners for video project , Level 2 French students will be investigating the differences between a high school in a French speaking area and an American high school.  Students are encouraged to have an email contact with that they can discuss the difference between the schools. Level 2 students can ask questions directly to students in target schools in order to know what they want to rather than gain information on internet.

       When I want my students to explore the difference between Chinese education and American education, I could establish a project on ePals. Then they can contact with each other via email and find difference through chatting.

Story telling video

I have created a photo stories called My daily routine in junior high school with Animoto. I will use the video as an example. Students should watch the video and imitate to make their own video. In the video, I have shown my daily routine in junior high school. In addition, I have used simple past in the text. Thus, Students are required to use simple past tense to describe their daily routine in the past. They can use their own photos to make the video then write caption below the photos.

My comic story

In My comic story, the scene is on kitchen. There are two persons, Sam and Penny. The topic is about making tea. And the knowledge point is usage of modal “can”. I will use the comic story to English beginners. In class, at first, I will show the video to students. And they are required to write every line of dialogue down. They can listen to the video for two times. And then students are grouped into pairs to pick out sentences with modal “can”. Next, I will explain the meaning and use of “can”. Then, several students are called to read out the sentences. Finally, students can make up their own dialogue with “can”.

Digital storytelling

After reading some articles about digital storytelling, I found that digital storytelling is a very useful tool for my future teaching. Then I will introduce the useful tool to you.

                According to 7 things you should know about storytelling , digital storytelling is the practice of combination narrative with digital content, including images, sound and video to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component. Sophisticated digital stories can be interactive movies that include highly produced audio and visual effects, but a set of slides with corresponding narration or music constitutes a basic digital stories can be instructional, persuasive historical and reflective.

                Usually story telling are applies like this. Students have to choose their own topic and then they  have to write a script about the topic. Next, small group are formed. In small groups , students can do the story circle. During the process, students would learn how to respect other’s advice and how to give suggestions.

                According to The educational uses of storytelling , Digital storytelling can be used as an instructional tool for teachers and also a learning tool for students. For teachers, digital storytelling can facilitate discussion about the topics in classroom and make the abstract content more understandable. For students, they can first choose a topic and then choose a particular point of view and tell stories of their own. During the process of telling story, students can improve their communication skills such as organizing ideas, ask questions and express opinions. In addition, when the story telling is uploaded on the website, students can give suggestions to each other can learn how to  critique.

                I think digital storytelling is a very useful tool for language teaching.

Gamification

Recently, I have read some articles about Gamification and then I would introduce some aspects of Gamification.

       According to 7 Things You Should Know About Gamification , Gamification is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior. About the rational for using games for language learning, I have gained some insights from the article called Escape the Room Games , for example, in the genre Escape the room, what makes escape the fact that they are puzzles that have an inbuilt information gaps. The puzzles are usually very difficult to solve, unless you have a walkthrough. When a teacher talks about how to play the game or students are watching walkthrough videos, students can practice their listening. This is the easiest way of exploiting the game for language learning and it requires little preparation. All the teacher needs is the walkthrough to the game. The teacher read out to the students, grading the language to suit the level of the class, and check comprehension by noticing which students move on in the game. In other words, if they were listening to the teacher and understand, then they know what to do next.

       I have tried a causal game called The Great Kitchen Escape , I think the game is suitable for beginners of English learning because the aim of the game is to help learners get familiar with kitchen vocabulary such as kettle, spoon, bowl and so on. I have watched the walkthrough before I played the game. I have played the game twice and succeeded escaping the kitchen at the second time. As a teacher, I would set two objectives for my students, that is, understanding walkthrough or understanding me when I am telling them how to play the game. The second one is by playing the game, students need to be familiar with kitchen vocabulary. In addition, in order to make students engaged in the game actively, I have some strategies. For example, I would group students into pairs. Then time which they spend on escaping the kitchen would be counted. Whoever escapes the kitchen first can have some prize.

       In my opinion, the teacher’s role in Gamification is facilitator. In other words, the teacher helps students understand rules of the game and assess the students’ progress.

       During the game, I would use a walk through. I would use it before students play the game. Firstly, students will watch or read the walk through of the game. Then I would a student to recall the content of the walk through on in order to assess their understanding. As for images from the game, I would not use it because I think walk through is enough for understanding.

       After playing the game, I have several methods to assess whether learning objectives are met by students. For example, students can write out kitchen vocabulary which they met in the game as much as possible. Or pictures from the game are given, then students have to write correct name according to pictures.

       I think game is a creative teaching method which I will use in my future teaching.

 

How can we use serious games in L2 classroom ?

At present, I have played a serious game called Third World Farmer . I have played it for 5 times. In the game, you mainly plant things on the ground. You can choose what you want to plant in the upper left hand menu, such as cotton, wheat and peanuts and you can raise pigs, cattle and chicken. In addition, you can construct wells, sheds and barns.

       There are several learning language objectives for the game. At first, you can lean vocabulary related for farming, such as wheat, cotton, barn and cattle. Secondly, students can review name of 12 months because after you plant crops, 12 months would show on the screen means that a year has passed and you can harvest. Thirdly, students can practice reading in the game. For example, in the result of harvest, there is an event happened this year. For instance, crash of the national bank: although this year’s outcome from your farm was rather promising, a crash of the national bank unsettles the market in your disfavor. Students can practice reading as well as learn some background knowledge about farming.

       As for assessment, I would present pictures of crops to students and ask them to write the name according to the pictures. Furthermore, I can design some comprehension questions for them in order to assess them whether they understand “the events happened this year”.

Reflection on Twitterchat

Recently, I have joined the Twitterchat called Educational Technology Chat on Monday. In the Chat, the topic is education on bad weather. At present, many places in US are snowing and some schools are closed for several days. Therefore, teachers are discussing how to use educational technology to help students study when they cannot come to school. The first question is that have you continued work with students during weather situations? Why or Why not? Some teachers suggest that we can use mobile phone to give students assignments. A math teacher gives us some interesting advice. He says: “ I use a blended model in math. It helps for those that are out, i.e. independent study so they don't fall behind.” And I have asked a question in the chat, “when using educational technologies such as Twitter, PPT, etc, which level of students do you think are suitable for? Why and why not?

       I think it is a good form for my future professional development. In Twitterchat, there are many colleagues. Therefore, we can search for help when we meet some teaching problems. In addition, we can read other’s tweets and learn some possible problems which we may meet in the future. Most importantly, we can learn some questions which I have never thought about, for example, the topic of this week.

Using Twitter for Classroom

Recently, I have read some articles about functions of Twitter in classroom. I have gained some inspiration from them.

       According to A Must Have Guide on Using Twitter in your Classroom  , I have learned some functions of Twitter in classroom which I haven’t known before. For example, teachers can use it as an additional way to let students know if there is some last minute news, like class being cancelled. Thus, students would know the news immediately. Moreover, Twitter is more immediate than e-mail. Most importantly, Twitter can improve engagement of students in classroom. During lecture, students can tweet comments or questions via laptop or cell phone. In addition, students in another project agree that digital communication helps overcome the shyness barrier. One student said that it is just an easy way to answer questions in class without embarrassing yourself and raising your hand in a big lecture hall. Secondly, Twitter provides an opportunity for community learning. Students can exchange their opinions about some issues and even discuss some difficult questions in their homework after class. Finally, teachers can get instant feedback from students and even assign Twitter quiz to students.

       According to  10 Twitter Mitakes You should Avoid , I have learned some mistakes teachers should avoid in using Twitter. For example, over-tweeting. We shouldn’t overload our followers with too many tweets and we should get rid of the trivial tweets. Thus, once we put forward some tweets, students would notice and take them seriously immediately. Secondly, our opinions should be objective rather than insulting somebody because by doing so, we may displease some of our followers. Then, we shouldn’t have too many accounts. If we do so, we may make some mistakes such as posting homework assignment on our private account and messing up our communication.

       After reading these articles, I find that Twitter is a very useful tool for future teaching.

 

Classroom 2.0

I think the Classroom 2.0  is a very useful website for my future teaching. It is a free, community-supported network. On the left sidebar, you can search things you like by tool, subject and area. You can also search for learning revolution or education policies.

 Novice teachers can really find many useful information here. For example, some articles, such as Does technology really help? , motivating students with mindset coaching and how brains work?, and how can I best love my students? etc.  In those articles, the teachers all use their own teaching experience to talk about the issue, which I find are really practical. In addition, in the forum, you can share your class experience with other teachers or even can ask for some advice or solutions, because we cannot know everything and we need the help from smarter people. Next are some groups, such as Ipad in education, Technology integration and Exploring audio tools.etc. In this section, you can follow some groups which you are interested in or you can start your own. Then you can find some blog posts related to educational technologies and skills in teaching foreign languages.

In my opinion, this website Classroom 2.0 will definitely help me and novice teachers in our future teaching.

A learner is like a baby

It is a very interesting to make analogy to illustrate the learner of today. In my opinion, a learner is like a baby because after some period of time, we can see progress and improvement. For example, for a baby, within three years, we can see that he or she is able to speak and walk which are two most important thing in human life. It is the same as learners, they are exposed to an unfamiliar environment or world but after some time of practicing and learning, we can see that they are able to master some basic rules or even can do something by themselves.

“…Where we have come with computers, we are now at a point where an individual, can do significantly more with the aid of a computer which was never ever possible in the past..” This was stated by George Siemens in the video The Changing Nature of Knowledge , in which he explains his view on the changed nature of knowledge and his learning theory of connectivism. He also compared his childhood study with that of present students. When they learned to use computer, it is more difficult for them to use computers than not using them. However, for present students, it is very easy and normal to use computers because they are in contact with computers every day. Therefore, if teachers can use computers as aid, students can be in contact with more useful outside materials or even can learn something by themselves.

As stated in the article Connectivism:A Learning Theory for the Digital Age : A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, George Siemens, states that connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories.  With the increased use of technology nowadays, students, adults, and children stay connected through the use of social networking, news, media, etc.  When individuals stay connected through this process, they then have the ability to stay connected through different fields and continue to improve their learning process.  I think at present, it is teachers’ responsibility to help students exposed to new and various different fields and materials in order to improve their learning process.

Comparison between Diigo and Scoop.it

Recently, I have created accounts of Diigo and Scoop.it and I also did something on them. Then I would like to compare them.

For a start, let’s talk about Diigo. It is very convenient and easy to create an account. The main functions of Diigo is that you can save websites which you are interested in. In addition, you can also highlight text in saved articles. In Diigo, you can use multiple tags in order to classify and find something quickly. As an effective social media, others can post comments on your site. What’s more, if you follow others or others follow you, you can share your interested websites.

Secondly, let’s talk about Scoop.it. When you have a Scoop.it account, you can start a topic, and Scoop.it will find related materials for you automatically such as videos, articles and interviews. Furthermore, you can use multiple tags which will be very convenient for visitors to find topics they are interested in. In Scoop.it, you can follow others and others can follow you. And others can also comment on you.

For me, I would continue to use Diigo. In the past, during surfing the internet, I found some interesting websites but after sometime when I returned to them, they were no longer there. I felt very pity. But with Diigo, I would not lose the websites that I am interested in.

 

 

Social Media Revolution and Educational Change Challenge

Recently, I have watched several educational videos which I think are useful for future teaching. And they also give me several inspirations about teaching. Next, I will show you my reflections to two videos which impressed me a lot.

After watching the video  Social Media Revolution 2011, I find that influence of social media on humans are enormous and I even can’t imagine that. At first, we need to answer a question: “what is social media?” Some people would say that social media is about business and others may say that social media is about relationship. Actually social media is about people. It even impacts our offline behavior. For example, 1 in 5 couples meet online and 3 in 5 gay couples meet online. Thus, social media influence not only our learning or searching behaviors but also our daily behaviors. In addition, at present, kindergartens are learning on ipads. In other words, social media influence all ages.

       We know some popular social media such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook etc. If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s third largest which is a very interesting data in the video. Furthermore, social media also includes advertisements which are also very influential. For instance, over 37 million people watched the VW Darth Vadar Super Bowl Ad.

       In terms of books, there are more and more e-books. According to the video, e-readers have surpassed traditional book sales. If Wikipedia were made into a book, it would be 2.25 million pages long and would take you over 123 years to read. According to the data, we can see that e books have helped us to save space and natural materials.

       The next video I have watched is Educational Change Challenge 2010, it has given me several inspirations on teaching. For instance, every student is not in the same place of math, English or other subjects even they are at the same age. This gives me an inspiration that every student is an individual who has their unique characteristics. This makes me remember Confucius who was a prestigious educator in ancient China. He said: “Students should be taught in accordance with their aptitude.” If we fail to consider this principle, then classroom would produce industrial mode of thinking.

       Nowadays, the students we are teaching or are going to teach are media-driven generation. Moreover, according to the video, teachers need to exist in the space where the students exist. Thus, if we don’t use technology for learning, we may lose relevance. An educator must be relevant. As students are closely connected to social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogs, why not use social media as a learning and teaching tool which would attract students’ interest and reduce dullness as much as possible.

       In conclusion, the two videos have shown us how powerful social media is and what teaching principles we need to update. Thus, in future teaching, what we need to do is to use social media as one of our teaching tools and update our teaching principles and exist where students exist.

 

Using Blogs to Meet Learning Standards

With the development of technologies, blog is emerging as an efficient tool to communicate with students and for professional development. For a start, I think that using blogs can facilitate idea sharing and interaction outside classroom. According to my experience, some students are too shy to make a speech or ask a question in class. However, if I can use blog as a teaching tool, these students can feel more relaxed to ask me question or communicate with their classmates on written form. In addition, once students have some new ideas, they can share them immediately and don’t need to wait till the next class.

     As for professional development, I think blog is very useful. By using blog, I can do several reflections. For my experience in last semester, I have learned that self-reflection is very important for teachers. Through writing down my teaching experience, I can find flaws in my teaching plan and what I failed to consider before classes. Blog can provide me with a good platform to do reflections. More importantly, on my blog, I can receive valuable feedback. Some colleagues may pay attention to my blog. Thus, after I post some of my experience, they may point out my disadvantages or flaws of my teaching plans or teaching methods. And I can make improvements.

     According to ACTFL National Standards for Foreign Language Education , I think there are two important standards which blogging could meet. The first one is that by blogging students can obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. For example, before every class, I can put reading links on blog and students can better do their preview. Then after class, I can organize a small forum on blog in which students can express their feelings or gains from the class(just like we do how did it go in this course). Secondly, by blogging students can present information, concepts and ideas to an audience of readers on a variety of topics. For instance, students can present everything they are interested in on blog including music, movies, fashion show or current events etc. In this way, students would practice their reading and writing ability potentially on various topics.