Podcast--how to describe people's look

   

    Have you heard Podcast before? It's an excellent tools for teaching and learning a second language.

    What is Podcast? According to the Wikipedia, it said that, "A Podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication." (Wikipedia, 2011)

    Anyone can make a podcast by recording a audio or video just with a microphone or video camera, a computer, and web. In addition, you can subscribe it, and also download it to your computer or MP3/MP4 player to watch and listen it whenever and wherever you want. Here's a short introduction about Podcasting and its usage which named Podcasting in Plain English.

 

 

   Furthermore, I'd like to use this piece podcast from ESL Podcast to teach you how to describe people's look. In our daily life, sometimes it is necessary to descrie one's look. A effective way to describe can make some identification during people's interaction much easier. In this episode, the host gives detailed explanations about how to describe the features of one person.

    I want to you listen to it carefully and design a short conversation depends on the 'describing people's look' topic. You can choose whatever scene or people you want, and bring it to our next class. We will share these conversations together and act it out in pairs or groups in the classroom.

    After that, I would like you to choose 2-3 partners of your classmates and make a podcast by yourselves together in gorups. And this will be your final project for this semester.

 

 

Photo Show Videos in Teaching

   
     This is a short video of Easter Day I made using Animoto, which is a digital tool to tell stories using photos, texts, and videos.

    I can use this video to in an English as a second-language classroom. The level of the students will be Grade One children of elementary school. With such a video, I can not only teach students some vocabularies, but also introduce them the imporatant festival--Easter Day. I gave some extra information about Easter Day such as its orign, meaning, and ways of celebration and features.

    For those higher level students, I can show this video as a model of small project. I can let students to make a 2-3 minutes video to introduce one kind of American holidays using whatever pictures or informations related to it. They can make it by themselves or work as a groups.

    It's a good way to teach and learn by digital materials like this.

Journey of Voice Thread

I think Shan’s and Meng’s Voice Threads were designed very interesting and useful. Meng’s incorporated the use of adjectives to describe a picture. That will be a useful tool for ESL learners practice the use of adjectives. At the same time, it can improve the students practicing  using their speaking or writing skills. And Shan’s thread has clear and instructions and example. That makes the students not confused what they should do. I also like the pictures she posted. That is a really good example for ESL learners.

In my Voice Thread , I required the learners to respond orally and in written. It refers to choose one what their preference is and talk about it based on their experience. In my thread, I think that this will be a helpful tool to make the learners show their opinions and suggestions to teachers what can make the learners gain the knowledge in a most efficient way.

ePaLs

ePaLs is a excellent website which can be used by both teachers and learners as a communication and collaboration tool. These are many useful features provided that you can benefit from it.

• It's a vast information bank that you can find whatever educational information you want from 'collaborate' forum.
• You can search any classrooms of different subjects around the world, and find descriptions and course information about that class. Besides, you can also contact with that teacher directly via messages if you really feel interested in it.
• You can use 'advanced search'  to narrow your search ranges to specific country, langaue, category, class-size etc.
• You can also send and check your e-mail conveniently with other teachers and students.
• You can also make a address book as a contact/friend list, and send e-mail to a group or several individuals.

   
    It's really a easy way to communicateand collaborate with educational people online.  You can contact with people no matter which countries they live or what areas they majored in.

Publish a book for your teaching and learning

  

This is a book of a story talking about American Tour which is published by me online. I made it through the website Bookr which is a digital tool to tell stories using photos.

   I can use this video to in English as a second-language classroom. The level of the students will be Grade One children of elementary school. With such a book, can not only teach students some vocabularies, but also make students enjoying and having a further understanding of the knowledge. Through this, they will have an impressive memory about what the teacher is talking about.

   For those higher level students, I can show this book as a model of small project. I can let students to make their own books. It might be homework or notes or something else. They can make it by themselves or work as a groups, and for each person has a different role.

   It's a good way to teach and learn by digital materials like this way.

Digital storytelling

Everyone has his/her own stories, and everyone has their own way to tell their own stories. Today I want to introduce you a newway to tell stories which is called Digital storytelling. In the Educause article of 7 things you should know about Digital storytelling, the writer describes it as follow: "Digital storytelling is the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component."(Educause, 2007)

    In the modern society, it's adapted to education and used as a teaching method. in the UH article called Educational Uses of Digital storytelling, it said that, "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."(UH, 2011)

     Moreover, both of the teachers and learners can get profit from Digital storytelling program. Teachers can present a theory or give an instruction with Digital storytelling to create an audio-visual classroom. In this way, it makes courses more understandable and more interesting. In addition, 7 things you should know about Digital storytelling also said that, "Digital stories let students express themselves not only with their own words but also in their own voices, fostering a sense of individuality and of owning” their creations." (Educause, 2007)

    Furthermore, through completing Digital storytelling, storytellers can be given an opportunity to learn and improve own technological skills. Besides, it's a good way to connect content with realistic practice.

  by  BryanAlexander 

For searching more information, please refer to following links:

 7 things you should know about Digital storytelling

 Center for Digital storytelling

Educational Uses of Digital storytelling

Twitter--Popular way to teach

There are many different kinds of free technologies you can use in your teaching. Today, I want to introduce a excellent tools for you -- Twitter!

    Here's an article which can teach you How to use Twitter for Social Learning. It contains specific methods you can use in Twitter, for example, how to get started, how to creat your own twitter group, and how to use Twitter in lectures, classes and workshops. I can use this website to make students get understood of every steps clearly and impressively. This is a good and excellent guide absolutely.

    Moreover, you can also find some Best Individual Twitters as useful sources. There are some selected best twitters for different categories. And they are ranked alphabetically. You can choose those which are you think the most useful twitters conveniently and quickly. As a teacher, I can give these choices to students so that they can get the knowledge on their interestes in a specific area.

Learning with Computers

  Yahoo Group is a very interesting and useful group and tool, especially which is named learning with computers. There we can meet with different kinds of teachers who teach different subjects and courses. And they all there to learn how to use computers more effecitively as a teaching tools. It's like a discussion board that every teacher can ask and answer questions of other teachers and discuss topics or subjects together. Through these ways, we can learn much more experiences and teaching tips with just sitting in front of a computer. I think it can be a powerful knowledge base for my future teaching.

A Learner is like...

For me, the learner is like a refractor. The learner recieves some knowledge from teacher, and then reflects some different responses.

 

 At this time and age, technologies are changing rapidly and developing forward. As teachers, we should be aware of the influences of modern technology and learning tools sensitively, in order to act as a compass of knowledge for students. It’s a teacher who always leads the non-direction students understand their right purpose and direction of learning and light up their ways of learning. As George Siemens mentioned in the article -- Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, “The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.” And we can also share and learn more teaching experiences from other teachers with technological tools.

Also, George Siemens said in the video the Changing Nature of Knowledge that, “The learners themselves, the connections they form with each other, the connections they form with databases, with other sources of knowledge, is really a primary point of learning”, which means, “The network becomes the learning, the network the learners create.” Because of the changing knowledge and information, students will meet more challenge when they learn with technological tools such as computers. At this time, teachers should be a compass to connect students with learning, and in the meantime, connect different students with matching models and styles. In order to do this, teachers need to understand students capability and characteristics to help them and make right connections.

One of My Favourite Blogs

     Google Reader is really helpful for teachers and students, and saving much more time. Once we add blogs addresses we can see all the new posting in the Google Reader at the same time. And we can see these your added blogs as soon as they update.

    This is one of the interesting posts I found from Google Reader. It's from one blog named Free Technology for Teachers. In this blog, we can find many useful technology we can use in teaching without fees.

    Vocabulary.com- Extensive Lists of Vocabulary Practice Activities is for practicing the vocabulary. I think almost the learning of vocabulary is so important for students. So, to activate the student to learn and memorize vocabulary will be a crucial assignment for both teachers and students. This blog may help you and provide some resources..

      

Educational Change Challenge

Education change challenge

I strongly agree about this video says: "Teachers need to exist in the spaces the students exist, understand their culture. You have no credibility if you are not where they are."

A good teacher should always think about what students think, what students want, and what students need. As the Cisco Systems said, "Moving from the one-room schoolhouse to the one-world schoolhouse is now a reality". With the changing and developing of the web and technology, we teachers should not only consider more about the tools and technology we use in the class, but also explore the most effective ways of teaching, always depending on students.

Protect Your Privacy on the Internet

Dear students, 

When you do some activities on the internet, please take care of all your privacy. Here are some tips for you to protect yourself.

1. Do not tell any other people your real personal information such as name, address, phone number etc.

2. Do not tell any other people your password even though they are your friends.

3. Do not make your passwords with your name or birthday.

4. Do not accept some strangers' application or gifts online.

5. Do not visit a strange website including unhealthy information.Your computer may be hacked by others or attacked by viruses.

6. Do not make a face-to-face appointment with strangers you meet online.

Moreover, here are more details about internet safety and keep your privacy.

Click the links to know more:                                                       

internet safety

Knows the Risks - Privacy Invasions

The Blog in TESOL Teaching

    As the development of the society, the hi-tech becomes more and more popular in all areas. The TESOL teaching is not a exception.These hi-techs in teaching change the methods to much easier and make much more effecient. One of the most popular and effective ways is to use blogs in classrooms. 
    Here are some standards about "national standards for foreign language education", which is from ACTFL(American Concil on the Teaching of Foreign Languages). Click the article name, you can see more information.

 

COMMUNICATION

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

    It's a good way to encourage students show their ideas and make progress through practice. Especially for the shy students, they have more chances to talk about their ideas and discuss with others positively. Also, teacher can understand more about students' capability and choose a suitable way to teach them.

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

   It's a good place to meet all your classmates from different countries at any time if you want. Through blogging, students can share their personal experiences such as interesting stories, traditional cultures, and special holidays.

COMMUNITIES

• Standard 3.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting
• Standard 3.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment

   It's a good habit to blogging and sharing. Students can use their second language to communicate and discuss with each other on the blog. What's more, they can continue blogging after one course, the class blog gives them a platform to write and comment in a second language.

   Through blogs, students can discuss everything including articles, texts and research. All the way, Teachers can track students assignments, discussions and improvement in order to adjust their teaching methods. This is why we teachers are suggested to use a blog in our teaching.