Educational Podcasting!

I have viewed several podcasts over the years but had not truly concentrated on them until recently. While exploring the various podcasts available, I found that there were many different types and topics. My initial opinion of a podcast was a sort of video that discussed recent news. However, through my exploration, I found a lot of audio podcasts that discussed a wide range of topics and did so in a way that made listening to podcasts enjoyable and entertaining.

I found my favorite podcast so far on PodCastAwards.com. This site provided a variety of great podcasts. The one that I found most interesting and quite funny is called This American Life. The podcast I chose to concentrate on from this site is titled 511: The Seven Things You're Not Supposed to Talk About (aired on November 8, 2013). This podcast revolves around a set of rules for conversation as established by the producer's mother. These rules include notions such as never discussing sleep, dreams, diet, health, route, money, and more. Her reasoning is due to the fact that these topics are either boring or vulgar. The podcast is very funny due to the fact that the mother of the producer has a very strong opinion and the producer capitalizes on the obscurity of her statements.

I think this podcast would be a great way to bring up pragmatic competence in the ESL classroom. It is very important for ESL students to understand what the cultural norms of American society include. For this reason, I think that this podcast would be a great way to begin a topic concerning conversational norms. The students would be able to discuss what they think are appropriate conversational topics in various situations and between various people in society. Overall, this is a very important lesson and I think it would be great for the students to not only practice their listening skills by listening to the podcast but also the content of the podcast is directly relevant to their study of American culture.

Creating a Global Community!

This past week I have spent a lot of time exploring the ePals website. One aspect of this website that I really like is the effort to build a global community. The website allows teachers to create a profile and state their classroom goals. They can then collaborate and connect with another classroom from around the world to meet these goals. This is a great way for students to have direct contact with not only other cultures around the United States but also cultures around the world. This is perfect for foreign language classrooms such as French or Spanish. The teacher can connect his/her class with a class from France or Spain and use this connection to send emails, Skype, and learn from one another. For ESOL classrooms, the teacher can use this site to connect with other English speaking nations such as England or Australia in addition to other areas of the United States so students can learn about all the different cultures within this country.

Another aspect of this site that I really like is the link to the teacher resources page. This page provides downloads for many different instructional resources including PDF, video, and audio. My favorite part of the teacher resources page is the Common Core Implementation Center. This page provides ready-to-use, collaborative CCSS ELA projects through ePals. I think this is great because it provides a way for teachers to align the Common Core with the use of ePals in the classroom.

Another very useful aspect of this site is in the Tools for School page. This section provides a great amount of teacher resources and even has a list of classroom-tested and teacher approved resources. The only downfall to this section is that some of the resources cost money. However, there is a good amount of resources that are free for teachers to try before purchasing others. These resources can be browsed via content area, grade, price, and language.

Overall, I really enjoyed the various aspects of this website and definitely plan to use it with my future students. Not only are the resources endless, but there are also numerous classrooms around the world to collaborate with and learn from. I love this site, especially the idea of involving my classroom in a global community!

Comic Crazy!

Over the past week, I have looked at a couple different comic strip generators. I have already used Storybird and therefore wanted to try something new. I ended up choosing StripGenerator. I watched a tutorial on how to use this site and then began to make my own comic. I am not a particularly creative person and therefore I really struggled to come up with ideas. However, once I came up with an idea, I think it worked out really well. Unfortunately, the user is limited to a choice of several characters and items that may not include everything the user is looking for. Additionally, the comic can only be in made in black and white.

Despite the limitations, I think this is a very useful tool for the classroom. It gives the artistic and creative students a chance to create something new and original to present their thoughts and ideas. It could be used as a storyboard activity for students to draw and recreate a story that is being read in class. Also, students could create their own stories or demonstrate a specific situation. Overall, I think this is a great site to help students get involved and excited about school projects. Even though I had no idea what I was doing, I was very proud of my final creation and cannot deny excitedly showing it to my family. I hope my students would find it as fun as I have!

Animoto- Bring Your Presentation to Life!

The past few days I have been experimenting with various websites used for digital storytelling. A site that I found extremely easy to work with was Animoto. This website allows the user to make a video using different themes, music, pictures, and text. It is a really engaging way to present information and make learning fun and interesting. At first, I thought it would be very difficult to create a good video but I quickly realized that all it took was a little effort to add a theme, pictures, and text. The theme came with a great song and constructing the pictures and text was extremely simple. I think my favorite part of this tool is the fact that it is easy to use and therefore it would not be too challenging that students would lose interest. Also, the product is very impressive and makes the creator appear to be experienced with making these presentations.

With the upcoming holidays and the prediction of snow, I decided to create a video about Christmas. This could be used in the classroom as a "hook" for a lesson about Christmas or holidays. It would be especially useful for ESL students who are not familiar with this holiday and need some background information and a quick idea of what it is. I made sure to put some information, vocabulary, and pictures of important elements of the holiday. However, this was made with the limitations of a 30 second free trial. If I had an account, I would create a longer and more vocabulary oriented video to introduce the topic to the students. This could be used for many topics other than Christmas and it is a great way to grab student attention to introduce a new lesson. Overall, it is an extremely beneficial tool for the classroom and also very user friendly because it does not take too much effort to use. Give it a try!

What's Your Story?!

Digital storytelling is something that I have previously seen used in the classroom. However, I did not further explore the concept and its various uses within the classroom. I was exposed to digital storytelling when I was subbing in an ESL classroom. The students were using Storybird to create their own stories and poems using pictures. It was very interesting and the students seemed to enjoy the activity because it allowed them to be creative and choose from all different pictures.

In the article, 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, I learned a lot more about digital storytelling including why its significant, what the downsides are, and also what the implications on teaching include. To begin, I would like to define digital storytelling according to the article as, "the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional content." This allows students to use dynamic sources of media to tell and create ownership of their own personal narratives. "People tell stories to teach beliefs and values to others." Through digital storytelling sites and tools, students can tell these stories of importance to other people. This would be a great way to boost implicit motivation within the classroom because students are creating something of personal value. However, this article does mention a downside of digital storytelling. This downside is due to the fact that creating these digital stories is more difficult than it appears and often leads to students copying or mirroring the stories of others. This is important to keep in mind when using digital stories in the classroom because it may take a lot of planning, time, and guidance by the teacher. An interesting implication of this tool as suggested in the article is the ways it allows technology to be applied to nontechnical disciplines such as history.

I also visited the site, Center for Digital Storytelling. This site was very interesting because it gave examples of digital storytelling which are very meaningful and emotional. Also, it provides assistance with the user's storytelling needs whether it be for education, advocacy, community, or more. They "partner with organizations around the world to develop programs which support individuals in rediscovering how to listen to each other and share first person stories." I think this site is a great way to look at various uses of digital storytelling and to discover ways to use it for teaching purposes.

Overall, I think digital storytelling is really interesting and it brings an emotional and personal element to the classroom. This is extremely important in the ESL classroom as students bring different cultures, experiences, and narratives to the classroom. Digital storytelling provides an engaging interface for students to represent themselves and their story through media and words.

Autonomous Learning Through Games!

A game that I think is extremely interactive and engaging for English language learners is Trace Effects. I played Chapters 1 and 2 of the game the first time I encountered it. Then a day later I played Chapters 1-3. I had a lot of fun playing the game but it did take playing the first chapter to get used to it. I had to learn how to navigate a choice of actions and spoken options. Also, I spent a lot of time learning how to navigate the character and interact with others. The game poses enough of a challenge for it not to be overly easy; however, it is very clear on what you need to do and how you should do it. There are a lot of options for English use between the actions which emphasize different verbs and the spoken options which emphasize pragmatic competence.

 

One specific language learning objective for students playing this game (specifically Chapter 1) would be to be able to identify vocabulary concerned with American universities. For Chapter 2 the objective for the students would change to identifying vocabulary used at farmers markets. This could include various listening and reading comprehension skills because the game forces students to read the information on the screen and also to listen to what the characters say in order to gather all the information necessary to complete each step. This is a great learning tool for English language learners because it shows some of the everyday elements and environments in the daily lives of many Americans. It also provides the students with a chance to have certain sections of the video or character speech repeated back to them. Additionally, there is  appropriate feedback when a student chooses the wrong option. The other characters in the game react differently to various answer choices and it reflects real life situations and pragmatics very well. I could assess whether learning objectives have been met by monitoring student progress as they complete the game and receive feedback at the end of each chapter. I could also have them show me what they have learned by having students role play the situations they encountered in the game. I could assess their navigation of both vocabulary and pragmatic competence by observing role play interactions.

Overall, I think this is a really fun and engaging game with a lot of relevance to everyday life and situations in America. I hope my future students will also find it a fun way to learn and practice their language skills!

Escape the Room Games- Phantasy Quest!

Over the past week, I have been exploring the concept of gamification. I have seen and experienced the use of games in the classroom but had not come across the term, gamification, until recently. According to the article, 7 Things You Should Know About Gamification, the term gamification can be defined as, "the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior." In general, there are many reasons for the support of gamification for language learning. Specifically, gamification provides ways for students to build connections with one another and also to provide an engaging and interactive way for students to participate in their own education. It is both rewarding and pleasing at the same time which allows for students to enjoy learning. With language students, it can provide concentrated practice on specific areas or a whole language approach depending on the game. Additionally, gamification allows language learners to use graphics and visual aids to assist their learning along with the chance to interact with others.

Over the past few days I have tried several different games, specifically "escape the room" games. One game that I especially liked is Phantasy Quest. I have played it twice, once without the walkthrough and once with it. After playing the game both ways, I would have to say that the walkthrough is definitely necessary in order to prevent frustration. Playing around without the walkthrough could be a fun initial activity for students to get used to how the game works, however, it is definitely necessary for completing the game without getting frustrated to the point of quitting.

The language learning objectives for students playing this game would be to be able to recognize beach/nature vocabulary along with being able to give and understand directions. The role of the teacher during this activity would include verbally giving directions to the students using an appropriately modified version of the walkthrough. The point of verbal directions for the walkthrough would be to increase listening comprehension for both giving and receiving directions. The teacher can provide the directions using North, East, South, and West vocabulary or simply Up, Down, Right, and Left depending on the teacher's preference. The students would be actively involved because the game provides many different ways for the students to interact with the environment on the screen. After the initial walkthrough by the teacher, the students can even use the game to create their own set of directions for what they want the character to do. Then the students can practice giving and receiving various directions with a partner. Images from the game could be used by the teacher to reference vocabulary and possibly draw out a map for students to reference directions in the classroom. One specific way for the teacher to assess learning objectives is by looking at the progress of the students while the walkthrough is presented. If the students understand the directions then they will be able to follow the directions on the screen for the teacher to see. However, if the students do not have listening comprehension for directions and the vocabulary then they will not be able to complete the steps as said by the teacher. The teacher should walk around the classroom to assess the progress of the students in relation to each direction of the walkthrough that is presented.

Overall, I thought this was a really fun game and it provides the students with a lot of different options for interacting within the game. I think it would be a great way to work on both vocabulary and directions with students!