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.