ESL Podcast

Podcasting makes language learning more convenient since the learning process is no longer been constrained by the time or places. With podcasting, we can learn at any time anywhere.

The episode, ESL Podcast 736-Following One's Dream, I chose is from ESL POD. This episode lasts for about 16 minutes with a slow speed. It includes a short dialogue as well as the interpretation of the dialogue. After the dialogue, the host will explain all the new phrases and vocabulary in the dialogue in details so that the listener can comprehend the content better. This episode can be used in ESL elementary listening classroom. As teachers, we can apply this material both inside and outside the classroom. If we use it inside the classroom, the teacher can first teach students some new phrases or expression that is going to be played in the episode, and then play it. After listening it, the teacher can ask students to repeat the dialogue or ask students to create a similar dialogue with their classmates. Since there is a detailed interpretation of the dialogue, teachers can also ask students to listen it at home. And then students are required to make sentences with some new phrases or vocabulary. Besides, students can be also asked to read after the dialogue so that their pronunciation can be improved through repetition. 

Applying podcasting in a language classroom is an effective way to improve language learners' learning efficiency. As an ESL teacher, it's important for us to know how to make the best use of those internet resources and try our best to help student acquire the language better.

A fantastic online learning community---ePals

      

       The program ePals provides teachers, students, and parents worldwide with a safe and secure platform for building educational communities. Both teachers and students can enhance their teaching and learning effectiveness by sharing projects and best practices with other professors and learners around the world. I think the most obvious feature of this program is it creates a global collaboration-learning environment for participants. As its website describes, ePals connects teachers as well as students with people not only they have already known, but also with the people they may not know around the world. People may get connected because of a common interest, or a common need. Also, this program involves authentic communication and learning activity.

      In my future classroom where students are Chinese and learn English as a foreign language,  I will encourage students to make the best use of the program. For example, ask students to establish learning collaboration with students from the US. They can send email with American students through the product of ePals SchoolMail, and also discuss with them in the LearningSpace. By communicating with target language people, students are exposed to English frequently. As a result, their four skills (reading, speaking, listening and writing) will be improved dramatically.

How to use digital story to teach

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Applying a digital story in our teaching class can motivate students' learning interest.I can use it as an introduction of my lesson. For example, if I want to talk about the topic of how to beat exam stress,I can show the video first, and then introduce today's topic. This tool make students' learning process more visualized. Besides, I can also ask students to make their own digital stories. As last post has mentioned, creating a digital story contributes to cultivation of critical thinking of students as well as an increase communication with their classmates. Thus, this tool can activate classroom learning atmosphere to a large extent.

A Digital story: Healthy Foon and Junk Food

Made by 12, 9, 105, 108 & 104

The story that I would my students to create is based on their own interests. For example, if some of my students like doing sports, they can create a story about different kinds of sports; if some of my students are fond of travelling, they can make a digital story about his/her trip. I prefer the story they choose is related to their daily lives. There are three objectives for the lesson: firstly, to offer students the opportunities to express themselves; secondly, to provide students with the chance to reflect on their interests and lives; thirdly, to let students know more about each other by sharing their own stories.

Digital Storytelling

     Digital Storytelling is one of the computer-based tools that can be integrated into classroom. According to the article 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, the author defines it 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". Anyone can use it to record their lives and share with others. For students who want to create a digital story might need a recording device and microphone, hardware and software to manipulate images and video, or tools to take pictures and video. As for topics, students can choose the topic related to the subject he/she is learning or any he/she is interested in. Just as the article Education Uses of Digital Storytelling describes, "The topics that are used in Digital 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". The purpose of making a digital story is to teach values and beliefs to others. When student is creating a digital story, not only can he/she express his/her emotions but also he/she go through a critical thinking process. 

      As a language teacher, I will ask my students to make their own digital story and each week ask one students to share his/her story with the whole class. Students' speaking skill as well as writing skill can be improved since the story needs to be organized well. More importantly, students learn how to assemble their collections in a way that can achieve a desired effect. I cannot agree more with the view presented in the article of 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling which is "digital stories give students an opportunity to experiment with self-representation—telling a story that highlights specific characteristics or events—a key part of establishing their identity, a process that for many is an important aspect of the college years". In my opinion, this is what a college student should acquire through college studies.

Using Twitter to connect the world

      In this day and age, there are a host of technological tools applied in education area. These Internet tools undoubtly enhance teaching and learning efficiency. Twitter is one of these tools that plays an increasing significant role in education. First, Twitter has numerous functions that can be used in our teaching process. From the article 28 Creative Ways Teachers Are Using Twitters, we find that Twitter functions in a multitude of ways, including asking questions, following world events,taking notes and so on. With so many fantastic features, there is no doubt that Twitter will exert beneficial influence upon our teaching. 


From another article Twitter-Expanding our Classroom-Shrinking the World, we also can find the specific illustation of how does Twitter help in teaching process. In the article, the author shared his experience of getting benefits from Twitter. For example, Twitter helps his students have collaboration with students from another states. What's more, Twitter brings the world to his classroom, in which his students can follow the world events and discuss them with their classmates. Just as he has mentioned in the article, " Twitter provides opportunities for connection, communication and collaboration to help make the students’ learning experiences better. Twitter has made me a better teacher. Twitter has expanded our classroom and shrunk the world in exciting ways for my students." Technology is changing the world, so is the Twitter changing our lives.

A great group: Learning with computers

I found the group which is Learning with computers from yahoo very useful. All the language teachers can get together to learn how to start integrating computers into teaching. We can learn from each other by asking and answering questions. Users can ask any questions related to technological education area, and can get abundant resources shared by others. Through the discussion, we can build network with others.I like asking questions and getting opinions from different people. I think this group will be very helpful to my future teaching.

A teacher is like a pipeline

In this day and age, I think a teacher is more like a pipeline, who delivers knowledge to students. In other words, a teacher is a knowledge carrier; without the carrier, knowledge cannot be easily passed on to the students. Knowledge cover all the fields in our lives so that no one can acquire all of them. For teachers, the knowledge that they can teach to their students is limited, but it doesn't mean that teachers cannot use other methods to broaden students' scope of knowledge. For example, teachers can tell students where they can learn more knowledge as well as obtain more information, or teachers can instruct the students in the efficient learning method. In my opinion, how a teacher leads his/her students to learn is more important than the knowledge itself. Just as mentioned in the article Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age written by George Siemens, "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe."  

More importantly, teachers should make sure that the pipeline is leading to a right direction. What I to say is that teachers' decisions of what to teach and how to teach place  huge influences on students. It's essential for a teacher to teach his or her students the knowledge that is advancing with the times.Today, human beings have embarked upon the information era, so it's the teachers' responsibility to let their students know how to learn in the information epoch. For example, teachers can equip their students with the consciousness of connectivsim. In the infromation era, teaching students how to learn in the network is increasingly important. Like the video The Impact of Social Media on Learning says, when people use internet tools to have a dialogue with others, it's undoubtless that people can learn from each other's thoughts or learn how to express themselves. Communication can not only bring the increase of knowledge, but also can build people's ability of critical thinking. Therefore, the decision of what to teach can determine what kind of knowledge can students learn from. Where the pipe is leading to should be considered seriously by the teachers. 

As teachers, it's vital to instill knowledge into students; what's more, teachers should lead students to a right and broad way.

A really useful post

I subscribed to the blog of  Free Technology for Teachers  on my Google Reader, and I read a very interesting as well as useful post on the blog. Its title is "Three Good Sites Where Teachers Can Learn Tech Skills". I put its link at the end of this post. The reason why I found it's helpful is that it covers almost all the basic technological skills I want to learn. For example, on the website of Think Tutorial, I can learn how to use blog, browsers, communication tools, and so on. The website provides free, easy tutorials so that learners can understand and acquire the skills quickly. On the website of Learn It In 5, we get access to tons of videos to teach learners how to use web tools in classroom, such as Voice Thread, Diigo, and Skype. The third useful website is Make Use Of which offers dozens of free downloadable ebooks and cheat sheetsfree for a wide variety of software and web applications. It's really like a mini digital library. With so many useful information, it is doubtless that I can get essential benefits from them. I hope my sharing of this blog can benefit you as well. Below is the link of this great post:

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/09/three-good-sites-where-teachers-can.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Two Great Videos

The video makes me to think what challenges we are facing as an educator? The world is shifting, the way we live is changing, as a result, the aim of education also should be reflected. Since technology place an increasing effects upon our lives, as a teacher in the future, we should be equipped with the knowledge of technological skills and make the best use of technological tools in our teaching. It's our obligation to spare no effort to enhance teaching efficiency as well as students' learning interest.  

Just as the question put forward at the end of the video, "Do I create a lifelong learner?", to answer the question, we have to be a lifelong learner first. Then, we create another one. 

This is an interesting video telling us how technology is shifting the world. Even though I know people's life is changing essentially under the impact of the development of science and technology, the figures in the video shock me also. After watching the video, I can't help thinking what  the world will be like in ten years? I cannot imagine!

Review of Brave New Digital World: Chapter one

At the beginning of book, the author presents some researches made by FSI, telling that four years of second language study at university are not sufficient to obtain functional proficiency. As a second language learner, I agree with the view that estimated by FSI. I have been studying English for more than 12 years. With such a long time learning experience, I still think that my English proficiency is not as good as it's supposed to. We had English classes several times each week, however, without target language speaking environment, it's still difficult for L2 language learners to improve his or her English level. And only a few students can get the opportunity to go abroad to have some internship program, which is the most expensive method of acquiring linguistic competence in another language. Based on this situation, the author notes that "Technology, then if used wisely, could play a major role in enhancing L2 learners' contact with the target language, especially in the absence of study abroad".Therefore, the principal focus of this book is to discuss how technology can best be employed in the foreign-language curriculum in order to enhance and enrich the learners' contact with the target language and thereby assist the SLA process. 

In this book, Blake claims "a second language is best learned and taught through interaction". And also, the author quotes Pica, Kanagy, and Falodun's statement, which is " Language learning is assisted through social interaction of learners and their interlocutors, particularly when they negotiate toward mutual comprehension of each other's message meaning". However, a question of whether technology can offer the L2 curriculum certain benefits within this theoretical framework, and if so, how does it go has been brought forward. To this question, some hold the opinion that computers are not human and cannot interact with anyone in the sense that two human beings can. However, Blake disagrees with the view and then he presents a research done by Reeves and Nass (1996,5) which reveals that computers can make a significant contribution to the SLA process because the students themselves feel that they are interacting with the computer in a real social manner.Then, the writer focuses on why certain technological tools should be integrated into the L2 curriculum and what potential contribution these tools stand to make to any given language program. One of the reason why technological tools is important provided by Blake is that technological tool like Internet not only can allow students to gain access to authentic L2 materials but also can gives all peoples a channel to express their voice, promote their self-image, and legitimize their goals. Therefore, technology become a good way to assist L2 learner to interact with others. 

Above is my review of Chapter one and all those ideas discussed impress me a lot. After reading the article, I am more favored of using technological tools in my future teaching. I believe it will enhance my teaching efficiency in the future. 

How to keep yourself safe on the Internet

When you use a blog, please pay attention to following tips:

1. Do not put your personal information on the Internet, which includes your name, address and phone number.

2.Before you upload photos to the Net, think about how you'd feel if it were seen by a parent/grandparent, college admissions counselor, or future employer.Since the photos on the Internet can be free downloaded by anyone and pass around online, it's better to consider the result before you upload your photos. If you want, choose some appropriate photos that won't bring a negative influence to you in the future. Also, for young children, it's better not to  post your pictures on the Internet.

3. Do not go out with someone you meet on the Internet.If you do meet the person, arrange the meeting in a public place and bring some friends along. 

4. Do not response to comments left by a stranger.

5. Check out what your friends write about you regularly. In their blogs, maybe they’re giving out your address or real name so someone can find you. Check the comments they leave on your blog to make sure they don’t give away personal details. 

6. Do not tell your password to anyone. Keep them in secret. 

7. If anyone (even someone you know) sends you something creepy, says something scary, asks lots of personal questions, or tries to meet you, report the problem.

8. Do not click on advertisement online.Some may contain viruses. 

9. Follow teacher's instructions seriously.

http://ilookbothways.com/learn-safety/blogging/
http://www.vbschools.com/computer_safety/blogging_tips.asp
http://mikemarcal.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-be-safe-on-world-wide-web.html

Technologies Is Changing the Way of Teaching

With the advent of information era, technologies are influencing our lives in varieties areas, including the education. More and more teachers as well as students use internet tools to teach and learn. As a result, it's imperative for us who are going to teach in a few years to gain some technologies skills.

Blogs are quite popular used in nowadays teaching classrooms for it can enhance and deepen learning. And there are a wide variety of ways of using them. Following are three ways I will choose to use blog in my teaching:

The first way I choose is to use blog as my Class Portal which can be a place for me to publish the course curriculum, syllabus, class rules, homework assignments and so on.  Through this way, blogs will become a powerful course management tool and students can easily find their homework from the blog.  

As we have created a class blog, the second way is to encourage students to blog their thoughts and questions, also, blog journal entries. What's more, to encourage students to post their comments and ideas about a topic discussed in the class.

The third way I will use it to post some videos or photos on the blog and ask students to discuss and write the reflections to these materials.

Communication

Since language is created for communication, we have to share our thoughts or different ideas by speaking or writing. Using a blog in teaching can encourage students to share their opinions through the Internet. They can discuss, post comments, ask questions on class blog so that the aim of communication can be achieved in the classroom.  

• 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, adn ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics. 

Culture 

Effective communication involves meanings that go beyond words and require an understanding of perceptions, gestures, folklore, and family and community dynamics. We can post a video or pictures that related to different cultures on the blog, and students can share their diverse culture background on the blog as well. In this way, blogs be used as a platform to learn and know 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

Communities

On the blog, we can post some interesting topics related to students' hobbies or daily lives, such as favoriate movies, sports or novels. Through this way, communicating in the second language is no longer regarded as a learning course but a way to know more about others as well as to build friendship. Gradually, students may become more and more interested in learning a second language. 

• Standard 5.1 Students use the language both within and beyong the school setting

• Standard 5.2 Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment. 

Reference:

http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3392