ePals

In ePals Global Community, you can find a classroom by narrowing results according to region. There are three types of collaboration: email exchange, skype or video chat, and project workspace. Also, you can search by key words. There are a lot of projects which are categorized into types like culture, music, math, science, reading, writing and so on. Those projects can last for weeks, or just one semester.

There are two projects related to endangered species. One Indian project was approved on July 6, 2013. It says that enthusiastic Grade 4 students in India want to connect with an equally enthusiastic class and are waiting to explore their Saving Endangered Species Project with partners. So if my class is also interested in this project, we can match and work together in this project. It is great for my students to work with partners around the world.

Another project that was approved on December 17, 2012 is from an international school in Shanghai, China. They will record a video of students explaining/doing warm up exercises. Then the receiving class will try their workout and record a new exercise/warm up for them to try. This is a great resource for collecting some ideas of warm-up activities. Teacher can learn and share with each other from all around the world.

The best way to learn culture is to learn from a person from that culture. So I can use projects about culture to let students find their partners and get in touch with them through email or skype. In this way, students from this program can exchange and learn from each other. In addition, there are activities, games, videos which can be used to explore cultures around the world.

One most useful feature is the teaching resources. Although a lot of them are not free, I can download some of them which are free if I log in. Those resources are categorized into different grades, prices and languages. For example, there is a packet called “‘Dragon them back to school’” which is designed to help teacher bring all of the individuals together into a unified team. There is a description about the contents of this packet. I can first review the description and then decide whether I will download it or not.  This packet is really interesting. It includes some interview questions, some activities with colorful pictures and students can really be motivated in completing those tasks.

Animoto

Animoto is a good tool to make short videos. We can make a 30-second video for free. For teacher, this tool can be used for introduction. Photo story is more attractive than just introducing a story orally. By using digital storytelling which includes music and photos, the texts which present the topic are emphasized. Students can be motivated to learn the texts. So I can use this tool when I want to explain an important concept. With such a video clip, the complicated concept can be simplified and be more comprehensible to students. If I want to use a longer video, I can upgrade and pay for that.
For students, this is also a great tool. Students can be asked to make a short video based on what they have learned. Such a short storytelling asks students to conclude details into general ideas and present within 30 seconds. Teacher can check students' understanding by reviewing their videos. Moreover, students can make their own stories by using topics they are interested in. This is helpful for creative thinking.

Use Serious Game Outside of the classroom

For the game that I want students to play outside the classroom for autonomous learning, I choose the Trace Effects.    

This game is designed to learn American English and culture. This game will ‘complement students’ classroom English language instruction through interactive 3D multimedia learning adventures’. The game ‘exposes users to American society and explores themes related to entrepreneurship, community activism, empowering women, science and innovation, environmental conservation, and conflict resolution’. ALL in all, this game provides some real American life. Students can not only learn language but culture of that language.

I played Chapter one of this game 3 times and get familiar with how to play it and then the whole game. I find this game great for learning outside of the classroom because it is divided into different chapters. During the game, students can learn vocabulary and some communication strategies. In order to get score, students need to communicate with people, for example, students and library staff. Students can talk with different people and hear Native American English with some body language when they are asked to do various actions. In this way, Students can experience real campus life. During the conversation, students need to be polite which means students have to follow basic communication rules. When students complete some of the conversation completely, they can get a score. Students can be motivated in this way so that they will engage more in the following game. One great practice is that after some actions, students will be asked to have a small quiz. Students can take notes and review the dialog whenever they want.

My language learning objectives would be SWBAT infer the meaning of some words in context; apply American daily communication skills in their own life and describe the problems and ask for help from others with target language.

I can use this game in my teaching because after asking students to play the game at home, I can design some role plays using scenes in the game to see if students can perform successfully using target vocabulary and expressions. This is one way of assessing. Also, I can make students into groups and assign each group different topics in the game to do a presentation. Last but not least, I can ask students to write an essay explaining the problems Trace encountered and how he solved them. 

How to Use Casual Game in Classroom

Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging.

One rational for using games for language learning is that games can provide interactive experiences which engage and motive students. Students will have a positive attitude toward their language learning tasks.  Game is one great way to keep students engaged in language learning process. For example, by using walkthroughs, students can concentrate on teacher’s instructions which engage students into reading or listening. Students will find those walkthroughs very helpful for completing the game, so they will pay more attention to teacher’s direction. In addition, games are filled with language features such as new vocabulary, new sentence structure which provide useful language learning resources. So students can learn in a relaxed atmosphere.

I choose a game called Phantasy Quest. Personally I played the game first 3 times without the walkthrough but I got stuck.  After 3 tries with the help of the walkthrough, I completed the game. Even with the help of walkthrough, it is very difficult at some steps; for example, using the lantern to find the plant. I tried several times before I found it in the black hole. Another hard part is going out from the cave. I had to try different ways to get to right exit so that I can move on to continuing steps. The step14 should have been ‘go back once and go top right, go to middle door, go to middle door, and go left’.

My language learning objective would be SWBAT

Recognize and understand some new vocabulary; develop listening skills by focusing on details; understand my oral walkthrough and complete the task and use the vocabulary in their daily life.

The role of the teacher would be the resource and tutor. The teacher acts as a controller at the very beginning to explain the game and to teach some new vocabulary. Then the teacher acts as a resource because the teacher provides the walkthrough to students. During the game, the teacher acts as a facilitator. When students have some problems or when they get stuck, the teacher will be supportive.

I think the students would be actively involved because there is a clear goal of this game. Once students begin to play the game, they will be motivated because they eager to finish the game successfully. Also this engagement enforces the language learning objectives.

I would use a walkthrough for the game because I found it hard to complete separately when I play the game individually before the class. Students will be frustrated if they could not find the way out. I would use the walkthrough as a listening test. Students need to listen to and understand my instruction before moving on. I would use images from the game to introduce some vocabulary before playing the game. For example, lantern, skull, plant, rope, fishing pole, skeleton, key and the theory of how to use the stick to move the rock. I would write those words on the blackboard.

I can assess whether my learning objectives had been met by using the walkthrough. If students can escape from the desert successfully following my instruction, it means they can understand the listening part. To put the game into small part will work better because I can see if students can complete each step after each walkthrough. That is, we play the game step by step and I assess one by one. Also, I can have a vocabulary test after the game to evaluate students’ mastery of those words. 

Twitterchat #ntchat

I attended the Twitterchat #ntchat. Our Topic for tonight is Parent Conference Tips. It is a “structured chat” like Question 1, Q2, with Answer 1, A2. I followed four questions of this chat.

Q1: What is the first thing you do to prepare? The answers said about reviewing student grades, paperwork, and students’ performance in the school. Also, one mentioned that she made magnets for parents to take home with website/blog/grades websites and my email/twitter. This is a good tip for me because connected with education technology I can get in touch with parents out of the school in this way.

Q2:  How can you include student reflections in the conference? What role does the student play in team meetings/conferences? Some schools have students run the conference. There are some hints given by the participants on working with Ps and parent conferences.

Q3: There will be times when you'll need to defuse an UPSET parent. What are some good strategies to do this? To conclude, they said they try to understand why they are upset and talk with them about the concerns. Try to talk about some positive things about students at first.

Q4: How can you monitor time so that parents have the chance to ask all questions? Do you use a timer? Some of them mentioned that they will write a schedule or use a timer.

I find Twitterchat is great to share opinions. For me, because I do not have much experience, I can get many tips from their chat. I think this will be a good form of professional development for me. Actually I never thought about how I will run the parent conference. I realized that it is important to get connected with parents because I can get information about students from their parents. Students spend a lot of time home with parents. From this chat I learned a lot of tips about how to manage the conference, how to balance parents’ and students’ reflection. During the chat some participants gave resources link which I can use in my future teaching experience. For example, one great resource is 12 ConversationStarters on What Parents Want You (Teachers) to Know. I also notice that they have class website or blog so that they can meet online. I think this is a development as technology is used more and more in both learning and teaching. 

Social Networking Group

I joined The Educator's PLN. This website has various resources, for example, the Forum. As Alan Levine said in the video New Media Consortium, 'It's really important for us to be able to stay connected to people that are smarter than us because we can't know everything'. People will post some discussion questions in this section, which allows people of different experiences share their ideas. You may find a lot of useful suggestion from their comments.
As for the social networking group, I find Build the Ideal 21st Century School will be useful to me. Both the learning and teaching are changing over time, so there must be some differences between previous and future school. In this discussion forum, people discuss how 21st century school will be like. For example, there is a question saying 'Should your elementary school have a Facebook Page?' In this group, people comment and share their ideas, which will provide more resources for building the ideal 21st century school.

A learner is like a hunter

A learner is like a hunter. A hunter needs to hunt in the wild and concentrate on what he is doing. To hunt successfully, a hunter has to cooperate with other hunters. A language learner, similarly, has to learn by themselves and interact with others.

Our learning process is a socially interacted network. As Siemens posits in his article A learning Theory for the Digital Age, ‘Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual’. We cannot separate the learners from the organizations and institutions.

The hunter will have to update their hunting method as times goes on.  In the video The Network is the Learning, he says that ‘If I am not continuing learning, I am becoming obsolete in my particular field’, which also emphasizes that we have to keep learning because knowledge is always changing. 

In order to cooperate with other hunters, the hunter has to use some advanced communication tools. In learning process, one important way of learning is the impact of social software. Siemens elaborates an example of ‘online photo sharing’ in the video The Impact of Social Media on Learning. You can go and comment on someone else’s images and make connection with others that have the same tags, the same interest with you. This makes the process that sharing those resources into a dialogue, a conversation. Siemens says that ‘Most of us enjoy conversation, we are social beings’. He explains that our knowledge grows by doing this because ‘words really give life to thought’.

Diigo and Scoop.it

                           

                vs.

Diigo and Scoop.it  are both helpful tools for keeping websites that can be accessed from anywhere. I will lose my collected useful websites if I change a computer before. Now with these tools, I can assess my websites anywhere at any time.

I can follow others and others can follow me in both of the two tools. We can share useful information with people all around the world. By searching for the multiple tags in Diigo and Scoop.it, I can assess thousands of websites I am interested in. Diigo and Scoop.it provide organized and rich resources in our field.

However, they have some differences. For example, I can highlight text in saved articles in Diigo. It is useful if I want to take some notes and to share with others. This is one feature that Scoop.it does not have. However, scoop.it allows us to comment on others’ scoops so that people can share opinions on one topic. I can copy and paste from original article to appear in comments about site.  Also, scoop.it offers suggestions for related articles. I found this most useful because it saved me a lot of time finding information related to my aimed topics.

By comparing the two tools, if I would continue to use one of them, I would like to use scoop.it because I like its suggestions for related articles. This is a great way to expand the information I want.