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Friday, August 29, 2008
CALL
I found a website with a lot of activities which you can practice by yourself, it is called Cutting Edge CALL Demos:
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/call/cuttingedge.html
On the page you can find different demos to practice mainly speaking and listening. One of the benefits of this page is that you do not have to download the demos, you can do the activities online. The demos are very visual so the students do not get bored and also the listening is very clear you can save your answers of each demo and send it to your teacher if you need more explanations, but the demos are made so that you get immediate feedback and understanding.
I liked the new randomizer because you can listen to the differences of similar words such as MAN and MEN and you can listen to them all the times you want.
http://www.anglofile.com/randomizer/index.html
The drawback that I found is that these kind of demos are for children or beginners so they are not very helpful for intermediate and advanced learners.
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/call/cuttingedge.html
On the page you can find different demos to practice mainly speaking and listening. One of the benefits of this page is that you do not have to download the demos, you can do the activities online. The demos are very visual so the students do not get bored and also the listening is very clear you can save your answers of each demo and send it to your teacher if you need more explanations, but the demos are made so that you get immediate feedback and understanding.
I liked the new randomizer because you can listen to the differences of similar words such as MAN and MEN and you can listen to them all the times you want.
http://www.anglofile.com/randomizer/index.html
The drawback that I found is that these kind of demos are for children or beginners so they are not very helpful for intermediate and advanced learners.
CMC
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is defined broadly as any form of human interaction across two or more networked computers (i.e., instant messages, e-mails, chat rooms). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-mediated_communication
These tools can be really helpful when learning a second language because you can have real communication with others through MSN, chats and emails. You get immediate feedback, you can learn about someone else's culture and you can talk about yours too. You can practice writing, reading and in MSN you can practice listening and speaking.
MSN is a great tool for practicing the four abilities because with it you can use webcams, microphones, headphones, you can share pictures and games so you can really communicate with someone in real context. One of my best friends met her husband online and they communicated through MSN, they shared pictures and talked with microphones.
No matter where you are you can use it if you have access to Internet, right now everyone of us is using it to communicate with their families and friends back in Chile.
One of the drawbacks that I can see is that when you are chatting with someone sometimes you have to response very fast so the writing transforms into abbreviations, usage of symbols, changing some letters into others for example C into K and the thing is that you get use to writing like that because is easier and faster.
http://www.msn.com/
These tools can be really helpful when learning a second language because you can have real communication with others through MSN, chats and emails. You get immediate feedback, you can learn about someone else's culture and you can talk about yours too. You can practice writing, reading and in MSN you can practice listening and speaking.
MSN is a great tool for practicing the four abilities because with it you can use webcams, microphones, headphones, you can share pictures and games so you can really communicate with someone in real context. One of my best friends met her husband online and they communicated through MSN, they shared pictures and talked with microphones.
No matter where you are you can use it if you have access to Internet, right now everyone of us is using it to communicate with their families and friends back in Chile.
One of the drawbacks that I can see is that when you are chatting with someone sometimes you have to response very fast so the writing transforms into abbreviations, usage of symbols, changing some letters into others for example C into K and the thing is that you get use to writing like that because is easier and faster.
http://www.msn.com/
Webquest: Labor Day
Read the following questions and find the answers on the URLS that are giving to you below each question.
1.- What does Labor Day means?
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/labor-day/index.html
http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm
2.- How do people celebrate Labor Day in different states?
http://www.nyctourist.com/labor_day.htm
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/watts.htm
3.- Find the words that are hiding on the word search game. Click on the URL to play.
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/word-finds/community-helpers.html
4.- Follow your teacher’s instructions.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Inspiration
The inspiration for this diagram are the topics that we have talked about during the last few days. We have four points: technology, teachers/education, students and the learning process.
A discussion is happening, if we have technology at our hands, Why do some teachers keep giving lectures to their students? and also, Why do some teachers prefer to use technology?, so at the end, Which approach is better?.
But, What do students prefer?. Some think that technology is more motivating but others prefer the lecture kind of class, we have to remember that our classes are big and we can find different personalities and intelligences so we have to try to reach everyone of our students. The main point of the investigations we have red and the discussions we have had are to improve the learning process of our students to make the learning meaningful.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Language Learning & Technology article
http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/purushotma/
You're not studying, you're just...
Ravi Purushotma was a German student that found the assignments really dull and frustrating up to the point of becoming an inactive participant and leaving the course with only two things: an amazing ability to irritate his teacher, never to be called upon in class and ending with a very low grade. He really thought that he was never going to learn a second language in his life. But as Internet became more accessible to him he started to use websites like audioscrobbler and to play games like The Sims. He realized that this kind of softwares could really helped him to learn a foreign language and in an entertaining way.
The Sims is a game designed to simulate normal real life, when you choose a character you have to manage its personal hygiene, what it eats, find it a job, organize its money and so forth. You can choose the language of the game and for example you could have a main computer in Spanish and a laptop in English and you are going to be able to understand what the game is describing. Purushotma thinks that this kind of games can be used for educational purposes, besides from the visuals that a game can provide it can be used on students' free time and it is by far more interesting than memorizing vocabulary, the author also gives a game that has been available in the Japanese market called Seaman a baby fish that players must nurture into adulthood by conversing with it. What we have to consider now is how entertainment can be used for language learning and how can games be modify to develop rich content for the learning process.
The main challenge for educators is how can they integrate bi-lingual games into a traditional learning environment, how are they going to be able to focus students attention on learning a language through out a game. Some students wont like it and others will, so we have to think about students' interests into choosing a game to teach them a foreign language and think on the possibilities that they will have when playing that specific game. Online games are very useful when teaching a foreign language because students can have real interaction with other people that is also playing the game.
The author also discusses the progress that technology has had, on writing and on listening. Teachers often prepared classes with old fashion songs or music that did not interest the students, today there is a whole range of music access such as MTV, online radios, music downloaders and softwares that students can use to listen to music in different languages and improve their listening ability.
There are a lot of choices when thinking on online activities that will aloud more interaction, autonomy and that will be much more enjoyable for the students. Teachers have to stay updated in terms of technology and training in order to keep students interested in learning. Purushotma thinks that nowadays with the technology that we have at our hands we should be able to eliminate the artificial separation between language instruction and everyday life--allowing even the world's worst language learner to enjoy learning a foreign language.
You're not studying, you're just...
Ravi Purushotma was a German student that found the assignments really dull and frustrating up to the point of becoming an inactive participant and leaving the course with only two things: an amazing ability to irritate his teacher, never to be called upon in class and ending with a very low grade. He really thought that he was never going to learn a second language in his life. But as Internet became more accessible to him he started to use websites like audioscrobbler and to play games like The Sims. He realized that this kind of softwares could really helped him to learn a foreign language and in an entertaining way.
The Sims is a game designed to simulate normal real life, when you choose a character you have to manage its personal hygiene, what it eats, find it a job, organize its money and so forth. You can choose the language of the game and for example you could have a main computer in Spanish and a laptop in English and you are going to be able to understand what the game is describing. Purushotma thinks that this kind of games can be used for educational purposes, besides from the visuals that a game can provide it can be used on students' free time and it is by far more interesting than memorizing vocabulary, the author also gives a game that has been available in the Japanese market called Seaman a baby fish that players must nurture into adulthood by conversing with it. What we have to consider now is how entertainment can be used for language learning and how can games be modify to develop rich content for the learning process.
The main challenge for educators is how can they integrate bi-lingual games into a traditional learning environment, how are they going to be able to focus students attention on learning a language through out a game. Some students wont like it and others will, so we have to think about students' interests into choosing a game to teach them a foreign language and think on the possibilities that they will have when playing that specific game. Online games are very useful when teaching a foreign language because students can have real interaction with other people that is also playing the game.
The author also discusses the progress that technology has had, on writing and on listening. Teachers often prepared classes with old fashion songs or music that did not interest the students, today there is a whole range of music access such as MTV, online radios, music downloaders and softwares that students can use to listen to music in different languages and improve their listening ability.
There are a lot of choices when thinking on online activities that will aloud more interaction, autonomy and that will be much more enjoyable for the students. Teachers have to stay updated in terms of technology and training in order to keep students interested in learning. Purushotma thinks that nowadays with the technology that we have at our hands we should be able to eliminate the artificial separation between language instruction and everyday life--allowing even the world's worst language learner to enjoy learning a foreign language.
Website
I chose Wikipedia as mine website of interest:
http://www.wikipedia.org/
On this website you can create articles, practice reading and writing, edit existing articles, choose the language you want to practice and you can be a member of the community.
Conditions:
1) Interaction: you can have some interaction depending on the activity that you want your students to do for example students can work in groups and create an article about their hometown. Working in groups the students interchange ideas and they practice speaking, listening, reading and writing because they are talking to each other in English in order to create ideas to write the article.
2) Authentic Audience: The students will be able to write an article, edit articles that already been writing, exchanging ideas and thoughts with people all over the world and they can also upload videos and images but on an asynchronous way.
3) Meaningful activities: This website is very useful for writing and reading but not very useful for speaking and listening, so writing activities can be meaningful you can ask the students to translate an article, to create one, to compare, to work in groups and later you can ask them to make a presentation about the article they have chosen or written, in this way the learning is meaningful.
4) Exposure to/creation of varied language: This website is very useful because students create articles on the foreign language and they can read in different languages.
5) Right amount of time/feedback: With this kind of activities you can work with the students in numerous classes, it takes some time to write an article so you can ask the students to delivered it on their own time, giving them feedback on different classes and through Internet (email) to make sure that they are doing a good work and understanding what it is difficult for them.
6) Appropriate to personalities, styles, intelligences:Internet fits different types of personalities and intelligences, on the website you will find pictures, there are articles about history, art, math, society, technology, science and biographies. You can also work with different projects such as:
7) Motivating: It motivates student to create articles that will later be uploaded to the page for everyone to see so their self-esteem increases and they also become more autonomous because they are working on their own with the guidness of the teacher; to edit articles already written on the web so they can add their ideas to existing articles and help to improve them; to read articles that they won't usually read on paper with links to guide the students into more details investigations, so it is a very interactive and motivating website with different activities.
8) Student-centered: This website will aloud the students to solve problems of writing and reading focusing in their interests, they can choose an specific article to read or to create making them active and responsible participants on their learning process.
9) Autonomy:Wikipedia gives students the chance to work on their own with the guide of the teacher, students can learn from their mistakes and they can keep track of the article their wrote and they will be able to see what was wrong with it or what can be enhanced.
10) Multimodal: With Wikipedia you can do several activities such as creating and editing for writing and reading so I think it is multimodal on those abilities but not on speaking and listening.
11) Comfortable environment: the page itself is welcoming, you can choose the language you want to read, it is not a page with bright colors so it is not a bother. There are a lot of pictures and not only words and you can also be a member of the community, a sense of belonging.
http://www.wikipedia.org/
On this website you can create articles, practice reading and writing, edit existing articles, choose the language you want to practice and you can be a member of the community.
Conditions:
1) Interaction: you can have some interaction depending on the activity that you want your students to do for example students can work in groups and create an article about their hometown. Working in groups the students interchange ideas and they practice speaking, listening, reading and writing because they are talking to each other in English in order to create ideas to write the article.
2) Authentic Audience: The students will be able to write an article, edit articles that already been writing, exchanging ideas and thoughts with people all over the world and they can also upload videos and images but on an asynchronous way.
3) Meaningful activities: This website is very useful for writing and reading but not very useful for speaking and listening, so writing activities can be meaningful you can ask the students to translate an article, to create one, to compare, to work in groups and later you can ask them to make a presentation about the article they have chosen or written, in this way the learning is meaningful.
4) Exposure to/creation of varied language: This website is very useful because students create articles on the foreign language and they can read in different languages.
5) Right amount of time/feedback: With this kind of activities you can work with the students in numerous classes, it takes some time to write an article so you can ask the students to delivered it on their own time, giving them feedback on different classes and through Internet (email) to make sure that they are doing a good work and understanding what it is difficult for them.
6) Appropriate to personalities, styles, intelligences:Internet fits different types of personalities and intelligences, on the website you will find pictures, there are articles about history, art, math, society, technology, science and biographies. You can also work with different projects such as:
 | Commons Free media repository |  | Wikinews Free-content news |  | Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus |
 | Wikiquote Collection of quotations |  | Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals |  | Wikisource Free-content library |
 | Wikispecies Directory of species |  | Wikiversity Free learning materials and activities |  | Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination |
7) Motivating: It motivates student to create articles that will later be uploaded to the page for everyone to see so their self-esteem increases and they also become more autonomous because they are working on their own with the guidness of the teacher; to edit articles already written on the web so they can add their ideas to existing articles and help to improve them; to read articles that they won't usually read on paper with links to guide the students into more details investigations, so it is a very interactive and motivating website with different activities.
8) Student-centered: This website will aloud the students to solve problems of writing and reading focusing in their interests, they can choose an specific article to read or to create making them active and responsible participants on their learning process.
9) Autonomy:Wikipedia gives students the chance to work on their own with the guide of the teacher, students can learn from their mistakes and they can keep track of the article their wrote and they will be able to see what was wrong with it or what can be enhanced.
10) Multimodal: With Wikipedia you can do several activities such as creating and editing for writing and reading so I think it is multimodal on those abilities but not on speaking and listening.
11) Comfortable environment: the page itself is welcoming, you can choose the language you want to read, it is not a page with bright colors so it is not a bother. There are a lot of pictures and not only words and you can also be a member of the community, a sense of belonging.
Our first week
Today is our first week since we arrived to USA.
We are a group of 15 students that came to Spokane to study a semester in EWU.
The weather is a little bit strange, sometimes is very hot but at any minute it can rain and only for 5 minutes and then the sun appears again, a little bit similar to Buenos Aires.
The food is not very similar as it is in Chile, so we are working on that.
It is hard to get use to another place but it has been a great experience so far.
We are a group of 15 students that came to Spokane to study a semester in EWU.
The weather is a little bit strange, sometimes is very hot but at any minute it can rain and only for 5 minutes and then the sun appears again, a little bit similar to Buenos Aires.
The food is not very similar as it is in Chile, so we are working on that.
It is hard to get use to another place but it has been a great experience so far.
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