How to educate with a Podcast

I listened to  an English as a Second Language Podcast episode 990-- Being Socially Popular. This episode really caught my attention and I had no idea what this Podcast would actually be like, but it was just like the title says, explaining being socially popular to a second language learner. Obviously this Podcast would be for High School ELL's, and it seems a little strange to be teaching students about popularity, but the conversation between two students is extremely authentic and truthful. The conversation is about a girl waiting for an invitation to the biggest  birthday party of the year. She wants to be invited because this girl is the most popular girl in school. Her friend Grant explains how silly it is that people need to be friends with someone that bad. He also states someone needs to put this Miss. Popular in her place. So, besides teaching ELL's about what being popular is, it also as a good storyline in the end. I would use this Podcast to explain popularity in an authentic way to my students and could even have them act out the scenario because it is posted on the site as well. Students would become familiar with the term of "popular" and hopefully realize how silly this is. Being popular is unimportant. What is so nice about the Podcast is that the speaker, Dr. Jeff McQuilin explains every single sentence used in this scenario between 2 friends. So, the students are learning numerous vocabulary words/phrases, which is essential when learning English and good for the students when understanding social skills. We would be able to discuss each phrase in the scenario and students could ask questions for clarification, or even listen to the Podcast for homework and we could discuss this scenario the next day. This Podcast was very interesting and useful for High School ESL learners.

Get Connected!

If you are a teacher  and searching for a great place for your students to globally get connected I've found just the place! It is called ePals. EPals can open your students eyes to a whole new world. Experience new cultures without leaving the classroom, students can create project with students around the world, and collaborate. As a teacher you can set up an ePal group for your class by simply signing up for an account. After you've signed up there are a million options to choose from. It is important to choose the language your students will be speaking or writing, what grade or ages they are,  what kind of project you are looking for, and choose a region you are interested in connecting with. For example, if you are an EFL teacher you may look for somewhere in France or Spain because students there will speak French or Spanish. Some projects you can choose from include: penpals, skype/video chat, or project workspace. EPals also has a feature where you can pick the subject area or choose from the Common Core standards which includes: Art/Music, Language-learning, Science, Reading, Writing, Social Studies, Math, Culture,Literature, Informational Text, Writing, Math, Speaking and Listening, and Language. The learning choices are ENDLESS. A class project  I came across that caught my attention was a Discussion Circle Project with writing. Students can choose to work alone or collaborating with partners in the classroom and around the world. Students have the option to work and learn new things from their ePals from another region, who could possibly have new learning strategies or ideas the students could learn from. Another simple, but great idea is to connect to another region and become penpals with these students to learn more about their culture, community, region, what games they like to play, what music they listen to, etc. This is a good way for students to focus on writing, learning more about someone else's culture, and work on their communication skills. When students are a part of an online collaborative learning community, powerful learning takes place. Having the correct digital tools, like wikis, blogs, forums, email and media galleries, all in one place make for a rich learning environment ready for collaborative and interactive project work...

As a future ESL teacher I would be willing to try out many of the tools offered on ePals. It is important when choosing a project for your students to keep in mind their learning level. You don't want to pick an activity that would be intimidating for your students. Therefore, I would hypothetically say I have "newcomer" students. Therefore, a project I would be willing to try out with my students would probably first be penpals. I would like my students to practice with the English language and find penpals that are also practicing English as a second language. Then, the students are on the same level. While writing their penpals I wouldn't give the students too many guidelines. They could write as they wish, with my assistance, and get to know their "pal."After the students got good with penpaling we could move to video chatting or skyping because it would feel more real for the students and they can socialize a little while practicing English. Both penpaling and skyping are very authentic ways for learning.  I also like the project workshops. It seems amazing for students around the world to collaborate on the same assignment, but this kind of activity would seem more appropriate after connecting with your ePals first. I highly suggest teachers find more ways to make their content AUTHENTIC and ePals is one of them!

Try and Use Comics in Your Classroom

Today I experimented with a free comic strip website called http://stripgenerator.com/. Although I found the characters to pick from quite odd, which comic strip characters usually are, it was a simple set up. Creating the thinking/speaking clouds were easy, inserting whichever character you'd like, and coming up with some kind of silly story, as I did. Check out Miss.B's ESL class created using stripgenerator.

Using stripgenerator or any other comic tool online can be a very fun way to engage your learners. You, as the teacher, have the freedom to have the student create any kind of comic strip. This could include using science, math, social studies, or English content areas. Student's also have the freedom of creativity, with the exception of a few guidelines from the teacher. Using comic strip tools can be one way to help teachers incorporate technology in their students lives. The easiest way to use comic strips for content purposes would be to first pick a content area. We'll say science. Use a topic you have covered recently in class, and have students create a comic strip using new vocabulary words, but adding their own twist to a storyline. For example, the weather. Students could make a comic strip involving a weather man, being a student waiting for the bus, etc. Throughout their comic strips students should have at least one vocabulary word per section.The options could be endless. The main thing to focus on is making sure an objective is being reached by incorporating this fun activity.

Animoto- A Tool Used For Digital Storytelling

I tried a free trial of Animoto, which is a digital storytelling tool, and I found it  extremely easy to use. These kind of simplistic tools catch my interest for the sake of my learners as well as myself. Technology can easily get frustrating and time consuming if you don't know what your doing.

I created a story about my lovable cat, whom I had to put down almost a year ago, and my sisters dog. I created this story to test the waters with Animoto and see if it could be of interest to use in my future classes. It turns out, it is! Animoto has easy upload features, songs and backgrounds you can choose from. Here's my sample I created using Animoto. Check it out!-->My Unconditional Love

Digital storytelling can be a very useful tool to use with you students. Students could create a story about ANYTHING they wish! Unless of course, you decide to limit the topics or choose a specific content area. A specific content area that digital storytelling would work very well with would be English. You could have students create a storyline first, or sentences, and then have them find pictures to upload that go along with their sentences, or story. This way your placing the emphasis on the writing, instead of just pictures. Another way to use digital storytelling in the classroom could be to incorporate social studies using digital storytelling. You could possibly focus on the history of one specific time/event of history, or even on specific person. Students would then be more motivated to learn about a specific topic in history by having to put together their own story about it. Since my focus as an educator is ESL, I would most likely give students the freedom to make their own story once, to get a sense of who they are or learn a little bit about each of my students. Then, I would do a second story that is more language and content specific. Students could possibly create their own narrative to work on their writing and language skills. By leaving the students a choice in what to create, they usually are more willing to put in a better effort, it they are interested in the topic.

3rd World Farmer

I chose 3rd World Farmer because I failed after one minute of trying the game. It is a difficult game, but interesting to think about for someone who has never been, or lived in a third world country, or for those who have. After playing a second time I got more interested in the game and began to try and make smart decisions on my farm, but still did not succeed.

What is 3rd World Farmer?

"3rd World Farmer is a new kind of game. An experiment in the genre of Serious Games, it aims at simulating the real-world mechanisms that cause and sustain poverty in 3rd World countries.

In the game, the player gets to manage an African farm, and are soon confronted with the often difficult choices that poverty and conflict necessitate. We find this kind of experience efficient at making the issues relevant to people, because players tend to invests their hopes in a game character whose fate depends on him. We aim at making the player "experience" the injustices, rather than being told about them, so as to stimulate a deeper and more personal reflection on the topics."

A language learning objective that could be generated from this games is students will learn basic vocabulary words, and how to balance their wants and needs using the serious game 3rd World Farmer. I will assess my students by having them write to me about their experiences each time the game is played, or do a class discussion. Students will be able to use the word learned from the game as well as communicate with those around them about real-world situations. This topic of 3rd world countries could also be a very sensitive subject some of your students, so I suggest knowing your students pretty well before using this game.

Can using games in an L2 Class Really Be Beneficial?

According to "7 Things You Should Know About Gamification," "The application of game elements in non-gaming situations of to motivate or influence behavior."Using gaming to motivate learners is a great thought for now and the future. I never thought about how much more motivating gaming could be than a worksheet. According to Stephan J. Franciosi's "A Comparison of Computer Game and Language-Learning",
Task Design Using Flow Theory "recent studies show that a gaming approach to language instruction is more intrinsically motivating than non-gaming approaches. "This article explores the ways that goals, feedback and skill/difficulty balance are typically implemented in computer games and tasks. The article touches on constructivism, and that constructivism favors the notion that learning is an active process which alternately involves skill-challenging experiences and reflective thinking. Franciosi compares computer gaming and language learning task design using flow theory, and it turns out computer games and 

language learning tasks are fundamentally identical in that both can be considered goal-oriented, rule-driven activities. He points out computer gaming could be used to prepare learners with authentic and real-world communication skills. "Three important insights resulted from this comparison: (1) goals should be concrete, quantifiable objective, and appeal to learner interests; (2) feedback as a means of fostering flow should be considered in addition to feedback as a means of supporting reflection; (3) task difficulty and player skill are ideally balanced moment-by-moment at the individual level."

A “Fun” Online Video Game For English Language Development I found was Phantasy Quest. I played this game once. I thought this game would work well for language learners because you have to search for things and you are stranded on a deserted island. Students need to learn the language as they are trying to figure out how to get off the deserted island. The game motivates them to try and learn more vocabulary words and direction skills faster to then move on to the next level.  There seem to be a lot of basic words the students can learn including cat, rope, lantern, clothes, etc. It's just very basic. I'm sure by also playing the game the students will begin to talk to you (the teacher) about how to advance or tell you what they collected. Students will also possibly talk to each other to help each other get further in the game. You could also place students in pairs to help each other during the game and work on more communication skills together. All these strategies are a great way to develop better communication skills and the students are motivated to do it. It's a  win, win! A learning objective that I would use for this game is students will learn basic vocabulary words, including direction skills, that will help their future communication skills. Besides the basic communication skills being used with the teacher and students, the teacher will be able to assess that students knowledge of the words they are truly learning from the game. Students could keep a 'new word' journal to look back at. This way you could see if the students are paying attention to the skills being learned or simply trying to get to the next level without grasping any new concepts. While the students were in pairs I would also use a walkthrough so students could work on direction skills and communicating with each other. They would be using team work while building new vocabulary, as well as trying to advance on the game. I would also try and use images from this game around the classroom, so students could continue building their vocabulary, or I  could help them in they're having trouble with any words. We could make our own adventure out this game, and be stranded on our own classroom island trying to escape. This game has some advanced words so students may need your help.

Twitter-chatter #Edtechchat

I had never heard of twitterchat until today. It's a shame. What a great communication device. I do believe that twitterchat is a great way for professional development. I came across a youtube video about President Obama and "The White House- Student Film Festival," I was amazed by Obamas' attempt to, within 5 years, demand technology in every classroom in the U.S. I would have never even heard of this unless I went on this twitterchat at this exact moment. I think that's incredible. How easy communication becomes. As a future teacher I could simply browse through all the posts and learn an extreme amount. I honestly never thought of twitter for this purpose until now. These chats can definitely broaden my horizons to future educating. I think because anyone is allowed to use the chat, the amount of information is endless. Twitterchat is a very simple way to find new information as a teacher, and also you do not have to even post anything if you don't want to. You can simply browse what other's have to offer, and possibly when you feel more comfortable sharing information you may do so. I also think the twitterchat is great because you never know what people will post. I came across a blog I had already seen, which I found to be ironic. I  really just think this chat can connect you to educators all over, which is important because each state, town, etc. is different. You can view others opinions and ideas in a second! Twitterchat is a nice way to develop your technology skills as an educator and keep update with new up and coming technology offered.

Connect-ivism. What is it?

I learned about Connectivism from reading one article called "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age" and watching one video "The Network is the Learning."

A learner is like.. its own network field. In the fact that "the network is the learning". "That network enables me to stay current in my own field." One must continuously be keeping up with current information and be able to "cast light" on the rest of that network. It's like blogging. People find out new information and want to share it with the rest of their network, and that's also where the people are learning from too! By sharing and receiving new information you are learning new content all the time, without even realizing it some of the time. "We derive our competence from forming connections." 

"Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than we know today." This fascinates me. Years ago, who would've known we would be learning this way. Connectivism IS the up and coming way of learning. Think about it. Students no longer need a teacher, they have the internet. Now I'm over exaggerating, but a lot of information kids want to know about they can find out on their own. This is why we, as teachers, need to become familiar with things such as networking. "The starting point of connectivism is the individual." Students need to be able to connect with their own knowledge.

Ch-Ch-Changes

I recently viewed two extremely interesting videos for educators. I was shocked by the information I received, although I probably shouldn't have been. The first video I watched was The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler. At first the video seemed a bit odd, but give it a chance. It is all about connectivism. It is a theory of learning which emphasizes the role of social and cultural contexts. It is definitely something educators should look into. Students could benefit greatly by building a personal learning network. And learning a tremendous amount from others. Sharing information with the rest of the world is how we continue to grow. Connectivism makes is easier for student to connect and can make learning new information fun! So, why do we need a teacher? They teach the 21st century student how to build a network by offering guidance and support. The teacher is there to help the student also differentiate between good and bad information as well. 

The other video is a long one, but well worth the watch! The Future of Learning, Networked Society puts a shocking new twist on teaching! First the video  touches on the fact that all learners are different. This is extremely important to realize as a teacher. I surprisingly found out that the origin of the education system came from the military. If you take a good look at a school, how we process students is like a factory. Sadly,students that don't conform to the system get medicated, such as students with ADHD. 

Now a days, if students want information they can simply look it up! "Knewton" is a brilliant new adaptive learning platform. The course figures out how and when you learn best which could be detrimental to some learners. Not everyone learns great in the morning. We can predict and prevent failure in advanced. It's genius! Showing every student has a path to success. So, why is our system failing? Standardized testing. You only take them once in your life, such as the SAT and that determines what colleges you get into, and then what? As stated in the video, it's a big scam and corrupting education. At the same time, we can't completely do away with assessment, and it is not going to change in a day..so what do we do?