Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way for both teachers and students to expand their knowledge on a specific topic through the use of the internet. Podcasts can be available to listen to even after they originally "air" making the content easily accessible. As a future ESL instructor I would use podcasts during my instruction. The podcast that I listened to on the English As A Second Language Podcast website is called Seeing A Circus Performance. This website is made specifically for ESL learners. This podcast can be used in my classroom for multiple purposes. This podcast uses clear and slow use of the English language that will allow my students to be able to follow along. This particular podcast includes a dialogue about going to the Circus. This can be used as a listening activity for students to participate in. This podcast can also be used along with a book about the Circus to reinforce concepts about what a circus is. This podcast can be done as a listening activity in the classroom with all the students at once, or individually with students so they can listen at their own pace and pause the podcast when they need to. Students can also work on the computer individually and have dictionaries available in case they are unfamiliar with words being used in the podcast, they can use the computer as a resource to look up those unfamiliar words. Podcasts are very beneficial because they allow students to learn new information from an English speaker outside of their teacher as well as incorporate technology and work on their listening comprehension.

e-Pals

It is very important to expose our students to people from different parts of the world to gain a better cultural understanding and a broader view of the world. One website that allows this connection to be possible is ePals.

This website aims to create a network of Global Citizens and Digital Citizens. This website serves grades pre-k-12. Schools from all over the world participate in this website. The website provides schools with e-mails, classroom matches to find partners to work with through the website, media galleris and forums for teachers students and their families. Teachers have the ability to monitor their students to ensure safety on the internet. Classrooms can participate in projects where they collobrate with partners from somewhere else in the world. This allows students to gain perspectives from other cultures while engaging in educational experiences as well as cultural diversity.

The website offers many motivating components for students to participate in activies such as Games, In2Books Clubhouse (only for US citizens), Smithsonia ePals and much more! Cricket is a component of the website that teachers can subscribe to for their classrooms. Cricket is a chidlren's magizine thats mission is to "inspire children to a lifelong love of reading and writing". Cricket contains a "variety of books, crafts, toys, and gifts" that make the learning process fun for children.   There are also rescourses for teachers such as a focus on the common core which is significant for all teachers in the United States.

This website provides an authentic way to incorporate educational topics with a fusion of cultural diversity. It is not possible for all students in our classroom to have the resources to meet those from another culture. It is our job as teachers to encourage this bridge to those around the world and provide them with the resources to do so. It is important to encourage our students to be not only citizens of the United States but global citizens.

Go Animate!

The website Go Animate allows users to create short comics with pre-made characters, scenes and objects. These scenes are highly customizable and you can even create what your characters to say and what they sound like. There is a free version of this website as well as a paid portion. This tool can be great for ESL classrooms!

This website can allow students to practice with language through the use of technology. Students can present a number of topics using Go Animate. Some ideas include: historical presentation, retelling of a story, telling a personal story, or many more. This website will allow students to work with language but also have fun. Using this in a classroom would be highly motivating for students because it will allow them to individualize their comics which can be both educational and fun. This website allows you to either type your speech or record your own voice which is a great function to differentiate instruction among students. Language learners can learn through both typing what they want to say and listening to the characters say it, or practicing speaking use their own voices. This tool can be used to check proficiency levels in speaking. I would use Go Animate in any content area to reinforce topics. This website is also very fun for both teachers and students!

Here is an example of a Go Animate video.

A Walk Outside by lrlichtenberger on GoAnimate
This scenario can be used in a classroom to check listening comprehension among students. Following this video teachers can give an assessment to check for understanding.

Animoto

Animoto is a great website to use for teaching. The purpose of this website is to publish visual stories. A free version of this website allows users to create a 30 second video accompanied by music and text with a link to the final product once it is 'published'. There are more features that become available once the user has a paid account but for educational classroom use it is most likely that the free version will be used.


Here is an example of an animoto that I created based on the book, The Hunger Games.


The Hunger Games

The use of this website in an ESL classroom would be useful for story telling. Students can use the website to retell a story they have already in class (to demonstrate comprehension) or to tell their own story (to get to know your students/get to know each other). The use of pictures, texts, and music makes the process individualized for each student. Students who are at a lower proficiency level can rely on the pictures to convey their meaning with minimal use of words. Students at more advanced levels can be expected to write a little more. This is a great way to differentiate instruction among students. Students can express themselves through using this tool because they get to select their own pictures and music which makes the task more motivating and exciting. This is also a great way to learn about your students on a personal level. The website is very easy to use so teachers should not worry about difficulty with using technology. Although a separate lesson may need to include how to upload a picture, or how to upload a song this can be a meaningful lesson for students that can be transferable to when they work with different websites who use similar functions. Remember, the most important thing in incorporating technology in the classroom is having a clear purpose so students understand what is expected of them!

Digital Storytelling

What is Digital Storytelling?

According to The University of Houston, digital storytelling is “the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories”. Digital storytelling focuses on a topic that typically has a point of view and it can vary in length. According to educause, “ Digital stories can be instructional, persuasive, historical, or reflective.”  Digital stories can be used to tell stories by combining various aspects of media to create a story. Digital stories can be comprised of images, texts, sounds, music, and video clips. Digital stories are basically a "mash up" of materials that all relate to a single topic in order to tell a story. According to educause, people who are not technologically savvy can successfully make a digital story because there are many simple applications that can be used for their creation. Digital stories work on learners digital literacy, global literacy, visual literacy, technology literacy, and information literacy.

Implications for Teaching

Digital storytelling can be utilized in an ESL classroom for individual or group presentations, because according to educause, anyone can make them. Digital stories can be used for creating original stories, giving information on a historical event, re-telling a narrative story, or exploring a topic of interest among the students. The use of digital story-telling will allow students to explore a topic and present it in order to demonstrate comprehension on the topic. The internet has an abundance of resources that can be used to compile a digital story. Using the internet as a resource can be beneficial for ESL students because they can use online dictionaries to help them translate words (as they work) if they become confused while on their journey to create a digital story. Digital storytelling is also a task that can differentiate instruction. While students work on their digital stories they can work independently and at their own pace. Digital storytelling also includes many aspects of media which allows different kinds of learners to pick which outlets of media they enjoy the most (text, music, video, etc). The University of Houston states, "This type of activity can generate interest, attention and motivation for the "digital generation" students in today’s classrooms." This motivation will make for a positive atmosphere and successful learning to occur in the classroom. This project idea helps students become an agent of information while utilizing the internet as a resource.

Making homework fun! How gaming can educate our students.

It is important that students stay engaged in content after school in order to ensure learning is meaningful and impacting our students. Most students do not enjoy doing homework, so why don't we go beyond boring worksheets and make homework "fun"? One way teachers can make learning English for ESL students "fun" is through gaming! The game Trace Effects is a great game for incorporating language and culture learning! This game provides a video at the beginning with photos and written instructions. This will help students with their reading and comprehension skills. Throughout the game the students will interact visually, through listening and reading. A feature of this game I really like is the dictionary that is included with the game so students can look up unfamiliar words. 

The language learning objective for this game would be for students to recognize features of an American campus. This learning objective can be assessed by putting objects from the game on a piece of paper and saying the names of vocabulary and having the students circle the appropriate picture to answer the question.

Another language learning objective would be for students to comprehend the conversations and instructions throughout the game. These learning objectives can be assessed by the completion of each Chapter (the Chapters or "levels" cannot be completed if the student is not comprehending the conversations and instructions they need to follow). 

I played this game up to Chapter 3 on two separate occasions and I really enjoyed it which I hope means my students will enjoy it too!

Here is a picture of what the dictionary feature looks like!

Using games in the classroom

According to the gamification wiki, gamification can be defined as "the use of game design techniques and game mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences." Games can be used in language learning because it can motivate students to learn. Games are fun and enjoyable to most students so it is a great way to "mask learning" so students may not necessarily feel like they are being "forced to learn". According to the blog post on Escape the room games, these types of games can be used for language learning through listening and reading. Escape the room games will include instructions that need to be heard and understood by the students in order to successfully complete the game. The teacher can provide a walkthrough on how to play the game which can be written, spoken, or visual which helps student utilize their listening, reading and/or comprehension skills.

A game that can be used for ESL learners is The Great Kitchen Escape. The first time I tried to play this game I tried to do it without a walkthrough leaving me very confused. Once I watched the walkthrough I played the game several times (3). It took me a few times to refer back to the walkthrough to understand what I had to do in order to beat the game. I think that when using this game in the classroom the walkthrough video on youtube is necessary for students to watch.

The language learning objective for students playing this game would be to be able to recognize kitchen vocabulary words. The students would be actively involved in the game because they would be watching the walkthrough in order to comprehend how to complete the game. They will be looking at vocabulary words in the walkthrough and having to mimmick the walkthrough in their own game. As the students grab kitchen items their name pops up in English. This will help the students learn kitchen item names throughout the game. The students will stay engaged in the game because it is very interactive. The teachers role in the game playing will be giving instructions to the students on how to watch the walkthrough video and monitoring the students as they watch the video and attempt the game. The teacher will provide additional support to any students who are struggling with comprehension by asking students if they understand as the game progresses. In order to measure if the objective was met the teacher can have the exact same items from the game cut out onto cards and can ask the students what each picture is. The teacher can go one step further and have the students copy the spelling of each item. This will help gauge understanding from the game. For a final assessment to ensure that the objective was met, the teacher can do an activity where students need to match the written word of the kitchen items with their pictures.

Microblogging

Until this course, I have only used Twitter for social networking, or so I thought. As I scroll through my twitter feed on my personal account I notice that I follow friends, celebrities, news sources, and politics. I have realized that I use twitter not only for social networking and catching up with friends, but as a way to stay informed on what is going on in my area and the world. If I can use it to follow politics then why not use it to follow educational topics as well? Through my professional twitter account I have noticed the power twitter can hold in an educational setting.

The article, "Over25 Ways To Teach With Twitter" sheds light on the value of microblogging in the classroom. This article suggests 25 ways for teachers to use twitter a few include; asking for recommendations, writing a book list, sharing new studies, starting a twitter book club, and to posting requests for people to speak at your events. These ideas can go both ways, as a teacher you can write a book list and also view other educators book lists for idea. Twitter can connect you with educators from all over the world at all different steps in their educational path. This can make a diverse array of opinions available to you and enhance your educational knowledge.

The article, "Teaching With Twitter" also provides suggestions that are more geared toward students. One of the suggestions in this article is to post "twitter pals" where students find a penpal via twitter from another culture and share ideas with them. This can be very useful for ESL students to learn about American culture as well as practice utilizing the English Language. This can also help connect students with other students in their school to get to know them on a personal level and have interactions with them.

I think that microblogging can be very useful in an academic setting as long is it is utilize properly and safely. The internet is a big place, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

I followed the #edtech chat on Monday September 30th from 8:00pm-9:00pm. I thought it was very interesting to be involved in a live chat. I am a very big twitter user and oftentimes I use my twitter to follow different hashtags or to communicate with other people who are at the same event as me (ex: concerts). I never thought of using twitter educationally. I created a separate account for my twitter for this course because my personal account is private. My account is private so my students can't follow me. I think twitter can be a great place for professional development but currently, as a college student, I use my twitter heavily for my personal life and I do not think it is appropriate to be mixing the two, I like to keep them separate. I feel much more comfortable that way. On my personal account I would like to add microbloggers to follow as well as other ESL/EDtech related twitter accounts. I also want to check in on some live chats, maybe to just view and not participate on my personal account. I think that the live chats keep educators current in the field. It made me feel like a part of the current education world which is important for an aspiring teacher.

Here is a link to my professional twitter account.

Classroom 2.0

A great resource for educators interested in technology is classroom 2.0! This site is a social networking site for "Social Media, and Participative Technologies in the classroom." This site provides virtual conferences to enhance educators knowledge of technology. This website allows its members to interact with one another through the means of social networking. It is a great way to meet fellow educators and enhance your knowledge with perspectives from all over the world with varying degrees of experiences and interests. There are different groups that you can join to interact with others who share similar interests. This is a great way for any practicing teacher or teacher candidate to enhance their knowledge and expose themselves to new practices.

A learner is like an apple

A learner is like an apple. Apples come from different places, were taken care of in different ways, are different kinds of shapes and colors, some have bruises, some are crispy, some are sweet. Apples, like learners are all different. Learners can come from different places, prior to schooling were taken care of in different ways, learners are all different shapes and colors, some learners have different features than others, and they all have different kinds of personalities.

In the article by Siemen, he quotes Landuar and Dumais (1997) in their statement that "people have much more knowledge than appears to be present in the information to which they have been exposed." This statement is very important to remember about our learners in the classroom. Referring back to what was said about apples, when we see an apple in the grocery store and bring it home, we sometimes forget that this apple has been on a journey that we are unaware of. The apple could have been dropped on the ground, it could have been licked by an animal, or it could have been sitting in the grocery store for days. Looking at an apple you might forget about all of these factors, just like our learners. Learners have gone through journeys that affect their present learning in our classroom. We must acknowledge the interactions they have had because it shapes them as a learner and may have a heavy influence on their knowledge base. Although learners may not be exposing all of their capabilities to us in the classroom, as educators, we can never make assumptions about our learners knowledge base without challenging them to show it to us.


In his video "The Network is Learning" Siemen states, "What we know today is not as important as our ability to stay current. If what I know today is going to change because knowledge changes rapidly, if I am not continually learning I am becoming obsolete in my field." Classroom teachers have to ensure they are staying current in the field so they can be changing with the tides and continually learning, just as our students are. We need to continue to expose our learners to knew knowledge bases and as educators we need to utilize the most current tools to do so to make learning meaningful. Technology is a great resource to stay up to date in the field and to expand our knowledge base. Our students are growing, and changing as time changes. We need to make sure we water our apples with the best water so they can grow nice and ripe.

DIIGO vs. Scoop it

DIIGO and Scoop it are both sites that can be used as an alternative to "bookmarking" websites that people commonly do in their browsers. Both websites make sharing interests on the internet more convenient. Below is a table comparing the two and the features that they offer.

DIIGO	Scoop it
You can highlight texts and when you access the website at a later date the saved highlights will still be present. Multiple tags can be used. You can follow others, they can follow you. You can post comments on the users site. You are not offered suggestions for related articles.	You cannot highlight texts on Scoop it. Multiple tags can be used. You can follow others, they can follow you. You can post comments on the users site. You are offered suggestions for related articles.

According to my personal opinion, there are pros and cons to each of these websites. I see DIIGO as more of a academic research tool. It seems more to be for those who want to use outside sources from websites complied into one page, just like the "bookmarking" feature on internet browsers. DIIGO's ability to snapshot websites as well as highlight texts are very useful resources that are not found on Scoop it. Although Scoop lacks that particular feature, I think overall Scoop it is a better website to fit my needs. The interface of Scoop it is more attractive, it is easy to navigate, and it has more of a social networking feel. In my opinion, it is easier to follow topics and users. Scoop it reminds me of a website I often use called pintrest. I would continue to use Scoop it past this class because I think it is a great resource for teachers.

Shown above are screenshots of the two websites to get an idea of what their interface looks like.

A Technological Revolution Is A Means For An Educational Revolution

Education Change Challenge

 

This video addresses the issue of the classroom changing and how educators need to adapt to this change. As educators, we learn to differentiate instruction, and we know that all learners are different, no two learners learn the same way. This video questions why we put 25 kids in a classroom for 6 hours a day and teach to them all on the same level even though we know they all learn differently. The classroom has not changed much from 100 years ago, but in today's day in age our resources have grown immensely. As educators we need to take advantage of the world around us and teach our students how to function in the modern world, we must use these modern resources. Students are surrounded by technology and live in the technological age, we must teach to their interests in order to make our instruction relevant.The video leaves us with a very significant question, "Are we preparing students for my age or for theirs?". This is an important question we must ask ourselves as teachers. Even though technology may not be every teachers comfort zone, it is our students. Are we teaching for ourselves to comfortable, or for them?

Social Media Revolution 2011

This video addresses the social media revolution that is taking place in our world. It expresses the ideas of how important social media has become in the new age. Social media not only effects who we are online, but also our offline behavior. Social media is a means of acquiring information, meeting new people, and staying in touch with old friends. The limits to social media and the aspects of the internet are almost endless. As educators, this information is very relevant because we need to take advantage of all that social media has to offer and how it can enhance our learners. The amount of users on twitter and facebook are bigger than populations of some countries. There is a great chance that our students will be utilizing these social outlets and we should be generating our instruction to incorporate what our students are doing online. Social media is all around us, so why not bring it into the classroom?

Using blogs to meet learning standards

Blogging is a unqiue way to engage students in the classroom. As a teacher, using blogs can be beneficial for many reasons.

One way I can use blogs with my own students is for collaboration. According to "Blogging in Language Learning" blogs can be used for review by both peers and teachers. Students can use comment functions to share their opinions and recieve feedback. Blogging can help every student participate. Some students may not want to participate in the classroom because they are shy, blogging allows them to express themselves. Through blogging students are given a more "stress free" place to interact with their peers.Collobrating through blogs can also enhance creativity and open up more sources of knowledge.

As a professional, blogs can be used a source of reflection. I use online blogging for my personal use and it is a great way for me to track my progress, this can also be done professionally. Through blogging I can see my progress as an educator and view my failures as well as successes. Blogging offers an archive of all of my attempts to allow me to go back in self reflection. Through blogs my peers can also contribute to my progress and provide feedback that could further the reflection process.



Standard

STANDARD 3: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for critical analysis and evaluation.
Performance Indicator:
6. Speak and write, using the conventions and features of American English, to effectively influence an audience (e.g., to persuade, negotiate, argue). Such spoken language features include appropriate grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and intonation. Such written language features include appropriate grammar, vocabulary, correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. (S, W)

 NYS English as a Second Language Learning Standards