Kaylynn’s Pronunciation Lessons
http://nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu/~kaylynn/pronunciation.html
Talking Avatar
http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php
Vocaroo
Rachel’s English
https://www.youtube.com/user/rachelsenglish
Sources for drama techniques
Jazz Chants
http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/listening/jazz-chants/mp3-files-and-recording-scripts/
As a Google user, I’ve never tried even heard of these useful tools before. So I clicked in and tried to figure out how they work. Personally I like two among these five. The first one is Google Keep, which is a bit like Padlet we use in class. It is turned out to be a very useful and effective tool for brainstorming in writing class compared to the way teachers use in traditional writing class. In the past, we either share brainstorming notes on the blackboard or share after brainstorm in groups first with a sheet of paper. By using GKeep, students and teachers can share ideas instantly in class and everyone can keep one as a private file as well. Changes in notes are easy to make so that students can keep the brainstorming notes that works best for their own writing task online as a reference. The second one is Voice Typing Tool. It is highly effective when the teacher has no time to write down every single word of important points on the blackboard. The output of this tool is relatively reliable in terms of accuracy. Overall, these tools are of value for me as a future language teacher.
I’ve got the idea that there can a good balance in games between educational purposes and having fun from the documentary video we watched last week. This game, Minecraft, is a well-balanced example. Surprisingly, it is believed to be applicable in teaching many different subjects like math, science, art, design, and even languages. I’m never a science student before, but I think my interest in the weak subjects can be raised through this kind of exploration. I haven’t got the real chance to play this game, but I hope I can apply it or similar games in my class in the future.
Basically, in this week’s twitter exploration, I’m looking for truly useful and applicable tools teachers can use as the integration of technology in the instruction. And here is a list of 50 apps for digital storytelling, which is quite beneficial in writing and speaking class. Some of these are similar to the Rory’s Story Cubes that we used in class this week. One like Sock Puppets can produce videos and upload to Facebook or Youtube, which is a good way to prompt the use of digital media in classroom as well. We can see that these apps have different focus on the way to create a story. Teachers thereby can even provide students with all these choices in order to achieve the personalized storytelling in language class.
Digital Media- New Learners of the 21st Century from Upper St. Clair School District on Vimeo.
[The full video is on Vimeo]
“Teaching in the Internet age means we must teach tomorrow’s skills today.” – Jennifer Fleming
For me, the most impressive thing about this documentary is the task-based learning lead by technology. Success in 21st century requires problem-solving skills more than content knowledge from the textbook. Compared with students taught in traditional education, students in digital age should not only learn the facts, but also learn how to apply facts into the real world innovatively with the use of technology. They are learning not just to become competent for the existing jobs, but become able to produce new opportunities and new ideas. As mentioned in the video, “we should understand that sometimes we don’t have answers”. It is these students that will give answers to questions they raised. What teachers can do is to develop their “deep passion” to identify questions and find a solution.
In order to achieve this goal, teachers in this program attach the importance to two essential elements in curriculum design. One is students’ interest and the other one is the power of play. These are almost nowhere to be found in traditional learning and teaching. Every student has his/her own interest, which can be developed into his/her motivation to learn. That’s why some of them are really passionate about what they are doing and what they can do in the future. Moreover, they are learning with games and digital media. Therefore, they are learning without knowing how much they have learned already. Conscious rote learning in traditional instruction becomes unconscious internalization and competence.
Digital media also provides various tools for students to present their works. Teachers now are aware that students simply have different styles in learning and they have the right to choose the presentation tools that work best for their project. They have the same learning goal but different ways to achieve it. Students’ level of engagement is increased when they have the right choice as well.
Overall, learning and teaching can benefit a lot from the integration of digital media into educational technology. Here are some opinions from another blogger discussing what can educational technology learn from social media in order to achieve better instruction.
–> What Can Educational Technology Learn from Social Media?
So far I don’t know for sure what kind of environment I will be teaching in the future, but one example in this documentary inspires me a lot. The teacher changed students’ impression of museum from a boring place to an interesting adventure through the integration of digital media and technology. Learning inside the classroom matters, so is learning outside the classroom. Online resource matters, so is tangible resource in the real world. The connection between these two can bring new spark in task-based learning as we can see in the video. Students, then, take an active role in their experience during the task. They are learning as well as having fun.
One thing that I know about my future teaching is that I probably will be teaching language. For Chinese students, many of them are hesitating when it comes to writing or oral practice, especially when topics are basically limited to classroom settings and serious topics in the society. It is thereby hard to raise their interest. However, they are active in social media expressing their ideas and opinions in Chinese towards certain international events or famous celebrities. Then why don’t I encourage them to use certain social media where they can find similar attractive topics but express their opinions and ideas in English! There are a large amount of topics on the platform that they can feel free to discuss. Even though it can not help students with their writing skills much, their interest and habit of writing something in the target language on a daily basis are good for their learning.
Here is another video I found about DML that introduces a precise idea of digital learning and connected learning.
There is no doubt that learning with digital media is a fantastic idea. However, there might be problems if we lose the proper balance. Digital media is just one choice among many tools that teachers and schools can use. Students are expected to make contribution to this world by making good use of technology and digital media rather than totally rely their lives on technology after their schooling. Here is a video about trust when using digital media in learning. From this video, we can know that people do have concerns with using digital media, which may eventually handicap their active use of technology if the questions can not be answered appropriately.
This tweet attracts my intention because it introduces ways to integrate social media, in this case Instagram, into the classroom teaching and learning. Students in this digital age LOVE social media and they love the world they construct on these platforms like Facebook and Instagram. If we can open a classroom Instagram account, students can have another way to interact after class through photos and short videos. these 6 ways of using Instagram for a classroom are all very practical, especially for a beginner to start trying new things. There are a lot of benefits in this kind of integration. It diversifies the way students interact and communicate with their teachers and classmates. It encourages students to engage more in the classroom. Parents get to know more about what their kids are doing in the school. Different classrooms can connect with each other on Instagram as well. Sharing photos and videos is a fantastic way to witness the growth of the class if it is updated on a regular base. More importantly, some academic goals can be achieved on this platforms as mentioned by Kara Welty, like books sharing, weekly reminders, and inspiring quotes.
Another thing that I personally love about this idea is that photos and videos are much easier and quicker for students to engage and make contributions compared with words, sentences and paragraphs, like a classroom diary notebooks. Vivid images from daily lives are more attracting than time-consuming organized words about their thought. It is not just a bulletin board full of reminders and tasks but an album with students’ wonderful lives which will be valuable when they look back again. I would love to have a classroom account on Instagram in my own class someday in the future!!
The second tweet that I would like to talk about is indeed also related to social media. It’s a great idea to integrate social media like Instagram into classroom teaching and learning, but a proper guideline is also necessary in order to create an respectful, authentic and positive environment on the platform. Students should be aware of the online manner when sharing information, images and videos on social media platforms. Enough communication, then, is required before they really start to build their online class community. It is also a good chance to help shape their personality as a digital citizen. This THINK principle might look very simple, but more details can be added case by case.
This tweet is worth sharing because these four things innovative schools have in common can more or less achieve by integrating technology into the classroom. “Personalized learning is on offer, often with personal technologies in support, and children are encouraged to take an active role in their education", technology better facilitates students’ individual needs in learning than textbooks and traditional tasks and exercise. By making good use of technology, they are equipped with different tools to learn in their own way and at their own pace. In addition, technology in the classroom can definitely help students to build connection with the outside world that is constantly changing, which is almost impossible for traditional textbooks to achieve. students get to know how to apply what they have learned in the classroom in the real world. Thirdly, technology can provide various problem-solving tasks so that students are able to develop their critical thinking and creative thinking in a meaningful and authentic context. Last but definitely not least, technology expands the learning apace online. Innovative building design is not only for the regular classroom but also for the online learning space. Platforms for individual learning profiles and learning resources sharing can both be introduced and designed to meet students’ educational needs.
Basically, this video includes pieces of my learning activities, no matter is formal instruction or studying by myself, in one week. It looks quite boring somehow because it is quite difficult to capture fun moments by camera when it was happening. (BGM in this case seems so important to prevent audience from sleeping 😛 ) But that is my life here anyway, simple but enjoyable.
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” —- Ignacio Estrada
The video addresses people’s attention to the uniqueness of autistic children in learning. Their ways of thinking are part of many different minds in this wonderful world. What impresses me most is when Temple Grandin said “The world needs all of the different kinds of minds to work together. We’ve got to work on developing all these different kinds of minds.” It is always the diversity that makes this world fascinating, in cultures, languages, humanity, etc. With the tendency in student-centered teaching and learning, the diversity shows in students’ various thinking and learning styles.
It reminds me of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. Besides autistic children’s talents in certain aspects and other types of thinking, like pattern thinker, verbal thinker, and visual thinker, learners’ different strengths among the seven various intelligences also make them unique in learning. Here is a video about what are those seven multiple intelligences, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.
All in all, the important point here is that many learners are special in how they think and how they learn new knowledge about the world, not just learners with autism. More attention should be paid to increase the effectiveness in facilitating these students’ learning, especially when autistic children’s learning has been ignored for a long time.
The next question, thus, is what teachers can do to better facilitate different learners in order to satisfy their learning needs and make them achieve their goals. There is no denying that these learners’ uniqueness in thinking and learning usually are their strengths. Enhancing this kind of strength while reducing learning barriers is an important way to do that rather than ignoring them with the conformity of present curriculum in classroom teaching and learning.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL), then, provides good philosophy and principles for educators to apply in pedagogical practice. More specifically, changes are required to diversify the resource distribution, assessment and other aspects in teaching and learning. Here is a video introducing UDL as an innovative approach to teach students with diversified characteristics.
The ultimate goal of many theories or approaches is to light the spark in students’ various learning styles, and to fulfill different students’ learning needs even the special needs in education of students with autism or ADHD. Once the awareness has been raised, practical suggestions are valuable in curriculum design and classroom teaching. How can we know students’ unique learning needs? How to provide multiple ways of learning? What are resources and materials that teachers can use? How to make students engage in learning? What are multiple ways to assess and evaluate students’ learning? How to create an environment that respect and accommodate different learning styles? Here is another video about UDL that gives good examples to some of the questions above.
“Education is evolving due to the impact of the Internet. We cannot teach our students in the same manner in which we were taught.” – April Chamberlain
This is a high-tech era in which many people believe technology can provide a powerful teaching and learning tool to equip students with skills and knowledge they need for their further professional development in a constantly changing world. One goal of integrating technology into instruction is to change students from passive recipients of content knowledge to active learners. Teachers, thus, are expected to make this dream come true. Ideally, teacher’s role, in this sense, is to incorporate technology properly and seamlessly into classroom instruction, which can help shift the educational focus to be more student-centered.
In reality, however, the integration of technology in pedagogical practice is not as prevalent as we expect. This is mainly due to, first, external barriers like access to technology, certain number of devices, financial support and teachers’ training courses in technology use that limit teachers’ technology practices; and second, internal factors like many teachers’ doubts and attitudes about the use of technology in students’ learning, and some strong beliefs in traditional teaching approaches.
There is one difference between the classroom teaching in America and China that makes me reserve the claim that it is really not the teacher’s choice whether or not to integrate technology into instruction. Each teacher in China basically only teaches one subject at the same time, that is, Chinese students are learning different subjects everyday from different teachers. There will not be a serious problem that the whole class cannot learn with technology if only one or two teachers in their classroom don’t do it. Thus, personally I think it is ok for few teachers to decide not to incorporate technology into classroom teaching (or only use very limited stuff like Microsoft and the projector) with respect to individual teaching styles if they are not able to catch up with advanced technology. There are some very experienced teachers meanwhile are slow learners of technology, which I think is quite understandable at the present moment. For these teachers, traditional ways to teach may be more effective since unskillful use of technology can have bad influence on their teaching pace and time management during teaching. Therefore, what people encourage in this case is to provide better resources and chances for teachers to learn and practice so that they can to a greater extent apply it to their instruction.
The bigger problem might be the number of teachers who are doing it. In a general sense, it is not teachers’ choice whether or not modern technologies will eventually be incorporated into classroom teaching. Technology is EVERYWHERE in today’s digital age. Teenagers immerse themselves in modern technologies like smartphones, kindles, tablets, Internet and social media. It just happens so naturally and rapidly as how light and radio came into our lives and the classroom. When modern technologies make people’s life more effective and enjoyable, it is almost impossible to keep this trend out of modern classrooms. Here is a video I found that makes us see clearly that such incorporation is happening all the time and is not as difficult as some people thought.
If modern technologies are part of students’ lives, it should be part of their lifelong learning. While teaching and learning in school are getting more student-centered, teachers’ role become the facilitator to help students to be well-prepared and successful in this digital age even though they themselves might feel nostalgic for the simple lifestyle.
Even if most teachers cannot choose whether or not they should incorporate modern technologies into their instruction, the good news is that at least they can choose to learn how to incorporate technology effectively and decently. I am always interested in how such incorporation can be achieved nicely by both the novice and experienced. Here is another video I found that I think is useful for a novice or a pre-service teacher like me.
A Few Words about EdTech 