WEEK 8: Online Tools in Language Classrooms

The journey to innovation is in its 8th week. I have learned lots of things within those 7 weeks and this tradition of learning new things is still going on. This week we have explored ANVILL. ANVILL (A National Virtual Language Lab) is a course management system where teachers can create oral communication course. It can be called “an innovative language lab”. Although it serves as a language lab,  it is different from the traditional language labs that we use. In ANVILL, learners have multiple ways of interacting. The students have a chance to step inside the window of their computers and interact with the real World where target language is actually used. The content is fairly easy to display. By the help of this tool, the students will find a way to share their own experiences with the other students from their country or from other countries.  ANVILL provides many useful features such as Voiceboard, Livechat, Forum etc. The teachers can post questions and students can response making their own video and audio recordings. I belive that it is an easy to use tool which will enhence student learning. The best part of ANVILL is that it is FREE! As teachers you can create your own teacher’s account from https://anvill.uoregon.edu/anvill2/user/teacher

At this point I have to thank Jeff Magoto for being with us in order to share his experiences and answering our questions.

This week, we have also experienced things other than ANVILL. We have met many tools to prepare online or offline worksheets for our classes. It is really great to know that a wide collection of useful online tools are there for the teachers to create online or offline worksheets, flashcards, tests and games. One can prepare worksheets by using the following sites;

• http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
• http://bogglesworldesl.com/http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspxhttp://hotpot.uvic.ca/  http://eolf.univ-fcomte.fr/index.php?page=technically-interesting-hot-potatoes-pages
• http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/create.htmlhttp://wizard.4teachers.org/
• http://clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/mimea/smile/v2/index.php
• http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=166165

 “Hot Potatoes”  is a very beneficial tool to create a variety of exercises and it is for this reason that it is one of my favorite sites. It is practical as you download it to ypur PC so that you can use it off line. Features such as JQuiz, JCross, JMatch, JMix, JCloze etc. are easy to use parts of the program. The below list consist of some of the tools that you can use in your teaching;

HotPotatoes Web

Poster Wizard

EasyTest Maker

Toolsfor educators

Lanternfish

CrossPuzzle Games

SMILE

 

I belive that the best part of preparing worksheets is that you can save time because the only thing you have to do with these sites is that you only prepare the questions, the rest of the work is done by the site itself. All the formating and cover pages are done by the site. By trial and error method, I belive that I have gained a lot from these sites. As using these tools is something new to me,  I had to work hard and create some very useful worksheets. Once you use them, you will find out that the hardest part of it is the first try. It will be only then that you will find it practical. 

The tools that we have used in this course generally serve for different purposes. For example Blogger is a good place to post comments and written tasks, Nicenet can be used for written class discussions. Nicenet can also be used for the sharing among colleagues. I will create a nicenet class so that I can show my collegues the use of Nicenet. You can use the padlet to genarate a “virtual wall” where every class member can share. We can guide our students to use the wall to share the sites they find useful with their friends whom they share groups. They can even share the wall for their personal needs. I personally created a wall for myself for my favorite music. You can visit my page from http://padlet.com/wall/mymusiclist  and add your favorite songs so that I can have an idea about your taste of musicJ.  If you want to share sites and files with students you can use Google Sites. Students can also share sites or files among each other as well by using this tool. One can use wiki and Google docs for class surveys.As it can be seen from the given sites, web is a great ocean full of tools to be used for educational purposes.

This week is a bit different from the previous weeks as I feel that we are coming to an end. While I feel satisfied on one side, I feel excited about the topics of the coming week too but,  I also feel a bit sad as we have only got 2 weeks left. All the pedagogically supported tools I have met in this course were new to me and I am sure I wouldn’t have had a chance to learn about them in another way.

Week 7: Learner Autonomy and one Computer Classrooms

Morpheus: ‘I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one who must walk through it’

- The Matrix (Film)

This week’s discussion was about Learner Autonomy and one Computer Classrooms. In the environment where I teach, having a computer in every classroom is not always possible. There are new projects that have been conducted about having more technologically supported classrooms but of course this kind of innovations take time.

Learner Autonomy according to (Holec,1981) is the “ability to take charge of one’s own learning”, learner autonomy is not an ability “is not inborn but must be acquired either by ‘natural’ means or by formal learning in a systematic, deliberate way”. He also points out that autonomus learner should “ …take charge of his learning and have the responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of this learning..” (Holec 1981, p.3). It is also important to be an autonomus learners as teachers. A teacher has the reponsibility to improve the way s/he teaches and also should try to catch up with the innovative changes in the area of ESL/EFL studies. By improving ourselves we become role models to our students.  As the above quote indicates, as being the teachers of this new century, what we really need to do is to show the way “how” they can do things intead of telling tham “what” to do.

 

Today, foreign language education is a prominent issue on my country’s educational agenda. While forming a national policy in education, the needs, objectives and the realities of the society should be taken into consideration. The needs analysis should be done according to concrete scientific data studied by professionals. While planning the language studies, innovative changes should also be taken into considiration as Turkish society is a transitional society between the “Orrient and Occident”.

 

Language policy of a country is an important issue in having Autonomos learners in the society. The students should be taught about the strategies in order to become autonomos learners starting from the early ages. The decision of such an important thing should also be taken by the academicians and put into the curriculum of the national education system.

 

The discussions this week were really fruitful and I have gained a lot with all the sharings of my colleagues. This new experience as a whole is one of a kind because it is not very common to learn the teaching environments, needs, Project plans of teachers who are kms away from where we actually live. I hope to keep in touch with everyone in the program and hope to study together in the future.

As for the final Project, we have moved one step further as we have chosen our partners for the peer check. We have all started to write down the first draft of our Final Project so that we can send it to our peers.  I am hoping to have a well prepared Final Project so that I can get the best out of my studies.

Final Project Tentative Study!

While planning my Final Project, I had two important goals; 

- one was having more motivated students,

- and the other one was to increase  the exposure to the target language because my students do not have much chance to do this.

In order to reach my goal I have aimed to:

•   Create a group where we can keep the contact about the course given.

•   Tutor the students to create blogs as I will ask them to publish every product related to the course – I will also ask them to comment about each others' studies-.

•   Guide the students to choose a short story to read, if they have problem in choosing a story I planned to direct them to http://www.classicshorts.com/

• Introduce the students with the Microsoft Photo Story 3 which is a Digital Storytelling Software.

•   Create a rubric for the need of the classroom.

•   When the students are ready I will ask them to present it on powerpoint presentation.

•   Then the students will be asked to post their presentation to their blog page and write the whole story about how they prepared the study.

•   The last part of the Project will be asking the other students to comment on at least two studies.

As for the application / planning of the Project, this week every student in the course started to work on the Project.  I personally moved on few steps as for ;

-          Ceating a classwiki

-          Cerating a nicenet class

-          Preparing a rubric for the planned product-I can edit the rubric according to the needs of the classroom when I actually start to apply my plan to my students-.

In order to get the comments of my fellow coursemates, I would like to share my rubric. http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&module=Rubistar&rubric_id=2288181&

I would like to share the rubric in my blog just incase of a difficulty in seeing it on the “Rubistar" page.

Digital Storytelling : Teaching English Through Literature II

CATEGORY	4  Highly Effective  ƒ	3   Effective	2   Moderately  Effective	1   Ineffective
Point of View - Awareness of Audience	Strong awareness of audience in the design. Students can clearly explain why they felt the vocabulary, audio and graphics chosen fit the target audience.	Some awareness of audience in the design. Students can partially explain why they felt the vocabulary, audio and graphics chosen fit the target audience.	Some awareness of audience in the design. Students find it difficult to explain how the vocabulary, audio and graphics chosen fit the target audience.	Limited awareness of the needs and interests of the target audience.
Soundtrack - Emotion	Music stirs a rich emotional response that matches the story line well.	Music stirs a rich emotional response that somewhat matches the story line.	Music is ok, and not distracting, but it does not add much to the story.	Music is distracting, inappropriate, OR was not used.
Images	Images create a distinct atmosphere or tone that matches different parts of the story. The images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors.	Images create an atmosphere or tone that matches some parts of the story. The images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors.	An attempt was made to use images to create an atmosphere/tone but it needed more work. Image choice is logical.	Little or no attempt to use images to create an appropriate atmosphere/tone.
Economy	The story is told with exactly the right amount of detail throughout. It does not seem too short nor does it seem too long.	The story composition is typically good, though it seems to drag somewhat OR need slightly more detail in one or two sections.	The story seems to need more editing. It is noticeably too long or too short in more than one section.	The story needs extensive editing. It is too long or too short to be interesting.
Duration of Presentation	Length of presentation was 4 minutes.	Length of presentation was 3 minutes.	Length of presentation was 2 minutes.	Presentation was less than 2 minutes long OR more than 4 minutes.
Grammar	Grammar and usage were correct (for the dialect chosen) and contributed to clarity, style and character development.	Grammar and usage were typically correct (for the dialect chosen) and errors did not detract from the story.	Grammar and usage were typically correct but errors detracted from story.	Repeated errors in grammar and usage distracted greatly from the story.
Point of View - Purpose	Establishes a purpose early on and maintains a clear focus throughout.	Establishes a purpose early on and maintains focus for most of the presentation.	There are a few lapses in focus, but the purpose is fairly clear.	It is difficult to figure out the purpose of the presentation.

Week 6: Engaging Large Classes with Interactive Teaching!

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”

                                                                          Albert Einsteisn

This week’s discussion made me understand that as ESL teachers, we are not alone in the Universe J . Whatever the geographical position is, almost every teacher faces the challange of having large classes. I am sure every teacher on the area would prefer a class with a fewer population but things does not always work in the ideal way.  However  whether you teach a small class or a large class, a language teacher has to come up with engaging activities that will keep the students interested on what has been presented or discussed in the lesson. As teachers we can find ways to grab the interest of the students as long as we don’t give up. We should remain convinced.  

Having interactive lessons stresses the importance of acquiring the language by using it rather than learning it by studying. The reason of learning a language is sometimes confused by other lessons which can be done only by lecturing. The role of the teacher in language classrooms should be different as language teachers’ role in the classroom is not only lecturing. A language teacher should be a facilitator, a resourse, an independent participant, a researcher and also a learner. All these roles makes learning an easier task on the side of the learner. Learning the ways of using the language does not mean learning how to use it. As real communication is the interaction between people, there should be interaction in the learning environment in nature. Linguistic interaction is a collaborative activity which brings the need of having interactive classrooms. There are many ways that can be used in a language classroom which are very practical. You can find some of the very practical ideas in "Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students" by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw at http://aei.uoregon.edu/de/iraqelt/handouts/engaging_students_handout.pdf

One way of having interactive lessons is using visuals.  It is a known fact and indicated by Allen Klein that 80% of what people learn is visual. It is for this reason that having classrooms with engaging activities such as using interactive PPTs is a way that will enhence the learning in language classrooms.  In order to learn how to prepare an interactive PPT or an interactive lecture you can visit http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/howto.html , http://thejournal.com/articles/2000/08/01/creating-an-interactive-powerpoint-lesson-for-the-classroom.aspx  and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgPO-agnnMk and many other sites that you can easily search from the internet. You might think that powerpoint is not your way of teaching using visuals, then I can recommend you to spend some time in http://readwrite.com/2010/11/27/hate-powerpoint-here-are-5-web-based-alternatives. As the resources indicate, as long as you decide to capture your students interest, there is a way to do it.

One other task of this week is to take a step in our Project that we are going to be planning for one of our classes. As a first step of my Project I have created a wiki in order to keep in touch with the class. My classwiki is https://www.wikispaces.com/user/my/hulyakucukoglu . However, as I am a new user of wiki, I will try to get used to classwiki until I actually start teaching. If I find myself  not well prepared in using the wikispace, I will use the nicenet class that I have created under the name “Teaching English Through Literature II”. I have also prepared my rubric for the study I am planning. I belive that this Project plan will be very beneficial for my classroom and I will reach my aims with my class. 

Week 5: Endless Opportunities of the Digital World; As long As you Share Them !

“It is not about the technology; it’s about sharing knowledge and information, communicating efficiently, building learning communities and creating a culture of professionalism in schools. These are the key responsibilities of all educational leaders”.

 Marion Ginapolis

In these days people say that the newborns come to this World with a special chip in their minds as they know so many things about technology starting almost from birth J . It is for this reason that it is not suprising for our students, especially young learners, to be familiar with using technology.  Another point which is not a suprise is that most of the teachers today, including myself J,  are not as familiar to technology as their students. But still as being a teacher, there is a mission to be completed J  Although the students know many things about technological tools, they are not much familiar with the use of these tools for the purpose of their learning.   We, as educators, are responsible to guide our students to the point where they can benefit from technology for educational purposes. It is for this reason that we have met in this platform with the support of University of Oregon.

This week’s first study was to create a rubric for a lesson as an alternative assessment tool. In order to do this, the programme called  “Rubistar” was introduced to us by our coach, Courtney. It is another magical tool to be used for the sake of our language classrooms. This tool brings out a solution to one of the mostly discussed topics in Language departments; “rubrics”. At the beginning, I found it to be a bit confusing but as everything else in the programme, once getting use to doing it, you will find it as one of the easiest things to prepare as long as you know your needs. Creating a rubric is important as it gives you a chance to meet your personal classroom needs. 

Our second task for the week was to read about rubrics, project-based learning (PBL) and WebQuests. PBL is a very popular approach of the contemprary language classrooms. Project Based Learning is an instructional approach built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. The main idea of Project Based Learning is generally to have students in groups, working together toward a common goal. Performance is assessed on an individual basis by the quality of the product produced. It is when alternative assessment tools start to get into our classrooms. As the tutor is different from the traditional method, the assessment will also be diffrent. At this point the article The article "'Practical Ideas On Alternative Assessment for ESL Students" by Jo-Ellen Tannenbaum. The article introduces alternative assessment models and I highly recommend the article to my colleagues who will visit my page.  

Brainstorming on a “Technology Related Change” in our Project Classroom was another task we needed to complete as part of Week 5’s study. When used properly, technology can be an interesting and motivating tool for our students. With a touch of well -prepared and organized lesson, the teachers have a chance to “make a difference”. Technology is a great tool to create that “difference” in an ordinary language classroom. At this point, in this week’s study everyone in the programme came up with many interesting ideas that can easily be applied in language classrooms. Sometimes it is the small details that changes everything. With a small “magical touch” we can engage our students to our classrooms.

Creating a WebQuets, was another challange of the week. It was a great experience. I think it is true that we feel afraid of the things that we don’t know. Once you become familiar, you also become friends with the new things which was once a threat. As the below quote indicates, the best part is not the technology in WebQuest, it is the sharing of knowledge and information, it is about building learning communities and creating a culture of professionalism among each other without having borders in our minds.

It is really suprising to face the fact that it is our 5th week in the course. It is also suprising to find out so many tools within those 5 weeks. As everyone else in the course, I am also excited about the tasks for the coming weeks.J

 

 

Week 4: Reading & Writing classes Enhanced with Technology

“There can be infinite uses of the computer and of new age technology, but if the teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails.”

Nancy Kassebaum, US. Senator

             Use of technology in language classrooms has been the main concern of this study that is being conducted by the university of Oregon, as well as the rest of the ELT World. Having technology in language classrooms supports learning when used efficiently. In my opinion there are a number of key components of using technology in learning: the first one is the active engagement of the learners. Others are; participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts. In order to use these key components, learners need proper guidance and support. As teachers, we are the ones to guide and support our students to use the net which has “infinite uses”. One of my professors at University said, “You cannot teach something you don’t know”. It is for this reason that we, as teachers, improve our teaching by not only reading books or articles but also trying to find ways to integrate ourselves to the rapidly changing World. Having all these things in my mind, I am moving on in my journey to “Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web”.

            The first challange of this week was the discussion conducted on the articles which are about using web in teaching reading and writing. The article that we read written by Jarek Krajka was about an interesting way to use CALL in language classrooms to enhance learning and teaching goals. By using web pages, e-mail connection and creating class websites, the researcher conducted a study which shows us how on-line component could be incorporated into the curriculum. One other study was by Mei-Ya Liang, who gives an example of an application in which the teacher centralizes the learning activities in the learners within a classroom. Having the learners as the center of the learning environment and using the internet are the main concerns of his study.

           Preparing a technology enhanced lesson is the second challange of 4th week. Although, as most of us in the program, I am use to preparing lesson plans, the term “technology enhanced lesson plan” was new to me. But with correct instructions and positive reinforcement, I could write my “technology enhenced lasson plan”. I belive that there is nothing that a teacher can’t do when properly guided.

             We are also moving on in our studies for the Final Project. For the “Third Step” of our Project, we have pointed out the problems, needs or other issues about our classes. In order to solve a problem, the first thing to do is to identify the problem. That was what we did at this part of our study. I am very excited about the next step..

                 All the sharing and ideas on this weeks’ discussion topic opened new horizons to our writing and reading classes. The steps we have taken since the beginning of the course, make me feel very positive about guiding my students and my colleagues properly about using web tools in my classrooms.

 

Week 3: Improving Speaking, Listening Skills and Pronunciation Through Web Tools

"Education is Not the Filling of a Pail, But the Lighting of a Fire"

William Butlet Yeats

My personal classroom experience and the researches show that lack of participation in Speaking, Pronunciation and Listening parts of EFL classrooms is a common problem for most of the English Language classrooms all around the world. As Burely-Allen mentions, more than forty percent of our daily communication time is spent on listening, thirty-five percent on speaking, sixteen percent on reading, and only nine percent on writing (1995). In the classrooms, however, the general aim is usually on other skills. Students try not to participate in listening and speaking parts of the lesson. Without enough participation, these skills stay as the most problematic parts of language classes. It is for this reason that the teachers need to think twice about the ways of increasing students’ aural/oral participation in these two skills. Third week’s study in "Building Teacher Skills through the Interactive Web” helped me a lot in organizing my ideas about how to cope with unmotivated students in aural/oral skills.

Reading the articles recommended by our tutors was the first part of our study. Among many other articles on the issue, I found http://www.elthillside.com/up/files/article4.doc and www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/research/resources/student_res/postscriptfiles/vol3/vol3_1_gong1.pdf as the most beneficial ones in understanding the importance of using the right materials for these two important skills and where to find them.

“The Employment of Call in Teaching Second Foreign Language Speaking Skills” by Julia Gong enlightens the readers about the use of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) in language classes by giving the advantages and the disadvantages. It also gives ideas on the applications of CALL in teaching spoken language.

 “Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials” by Lindsay Miller shows the teachers that there are many “easy to access” internet tools to be used in language classrooms. She also leads her readers the importance of Pre-, While-, and Post- activity strategies in teaching. As teachers of English, the first thing to be done to reduce the anxiety of our students, I belive, is to use these strategies. With the correct use of strategies, the students might feel more self confident about the material used in the classroom.

One other thing that makes a difference in a language classroom is to find the right material for your students’ use. At this point, the number and the variety of the Websites and the Web tools shared by our colleagues were enormous. Learning about these sites, which were mostly new to me, was a great experience. Among these sites that are there for English Language teachers to use, I found the following sites as the most interesting ones;

http://www.shortstoryradio.com/index.htm,

http://www.artofstorytelling.org/

http://www.starfall.com

http://www.eslfast.com/robot/

not to mention http://www.esl-lab.com/

 and http://learningenglish.voanews.com/

I highly recommend the language teachers who visit my blog to visit these sites and search for the opportunities to make their language classes more interesting.

Creating my Delicious page was another challenge of this week. I have created my own "Delicious" page and started adding links. The URL of my page is (https://delicious.com/#hulyaku). This is a free service and it is designed for the users to save their favorite web pages. The best part of it is that you can have an access to your favorites even if you are away from your personal computer. You can also develop a network in which you share your intrests with other people all around the world or just with friends.  It is easy to create, I did it within a few minutes, so I belive that everybody can do it J

Reading a final Project and commeting on that report was another task of the week. It was an experience which made me feel excited as it is the final part of this 10-week marathon. Even the vision of a finished final project which has my name on it made my day J.  The variety of the projects I have read made me understand that I need some more time to decide on what and how to study in my Project class.

Just like the second part of Yeats quote, with the new tools I met by the help of my tutors and my colleagues, I feel myself lighted up and this gives me the power to make my students feel the same.

 

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Burely-Allen, M. 1995. Listening: The forgotten skill. New York: John Wily & Sons, Inc.