Thing 16

PhotoPeach

Here is the quick slideshow of the vacation in the Dominican Republic with my family.

This would be a really easy way to get your students to introduce themselves with some background pictures and such.

It might also be an interesting way to grab attention and get students to predict content of the coming material.

So It Comes to an End...

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

The favorite thing I discovered was actually blogging in general. I really enjoyed doing the activities and keeping up with the links and reading everyone's ideas. It really was an interesting way of doing a project and I was highly motivated to learn.  

If I had to pick one though, it would be Thing 11.  I enjoyed looking around at the web 2.0 programs and especially all the other things that people found as well.  I really enjoy finding those kind of websites and playing with it.


2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

This program made me think about my web presence and what needs to be done to build that.  The whole point of getting a Masters degree is to learn more, be more experience, be a better teacher, and ultimately improve one's self.  Having an online portfolio seems to be a big deal.  I've created another blog and am holding myself to updating it weekly.  The goal is to create a lesson using technology at least every week and then blogging about it.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I was surprised how motivated I was to finish something that was online.  It was a truly personalized learning experience.  The take away is to try and give my students that kind of personalized learning.  It is really important to me that students have something to create, to be proud of, to share.

These "Things" have opened up a new level of communication to me that I should be showing my students so that they can better express themselves.

4. What could I do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

If I could change anything, it would be the work load :(

No, if anything it would be interesting to have a group project or a guest blogger on the site.  Most of the assignments also revolve around finding materials and resources without actually making a solid lesson plan. It is kind of just a bunch of ideas floating around.
A final class project where we do a summary of everything would be cool as well though difficult to construct.

Well, it's not the end. More updates on An ESL Tech Activity a Week

Thing 15.5

Twitter and Linkedin

Twitter

I've slowly been coming around to Twitter  Never really was interested in it much before. Understanding what it is all about.

I liked a lot of the ideas in the "Best Practices Model". The highlights were giving an opinion on a topic from class, revealing expectations about learning, and summarizing points to share.  I feel like this could make for some really interesting lessons and discussions. I also like the idea of taking something outside of the classroom to practice.

Linkedin

I was actually doing some IELTS speaking examing and the canidate talked about Linkedin. It got me kind of interested. Then my boss looked at my Facebook page and talked to me about a post I made a while back ago. In all honesty, I was very taken aback that she would look on my personal page.  It feels like an icky ethical choice.  Private and professional life should be respected.  I also understand that anything on Facebook is out there for good.  But since I have a really good relationship with her, it wasn't a problem or anything.  I just felt like it was a minor breach of my privacy.

That being said, I like Linkedin. It is for the purpose of creating a professional page to network. Facebook is not for that.

I joined Linkedin after I read ahead in the Things assignments.  I've been following a few ESL groups and discussion boards.  It sends an email everyday for it so I get the general idea.  It has had mostly junk, but the best was a link to collaborate materials (still a work in progress) and the second was a website for students to practice talking to native speakers. (The website kind of feels scammy, but I think it is okay. I work with adults so they can figure it out?)

Thing 15

Skype

I Skyped with Troi.

We talked about how our students could use this for their studies since a lot already use it to keep up with family and friends back home.

The discussion was about how the students could listen to a guest lecturer on Skype. They could also use it as a way to talk to native speakers.  They could also use it to keep in touch with people they met while abroad and practice their English skills. They could even introduce someone from their home country.

On a personal note, Skype was an easy way to stay in touch with people back home while I lived in Korea.  There were weekends were I'd spend a good couple of hours just keeping up with friends and family.  Never really thought of the applications outside of that until this though.

Thing 14

Pod Casts and Bookmarks

Pod Casts

The podcast that I listened to was the "Reservoirs on the Side". It was interesting bit about the different geographic feature of Texas . As a Canadian, I don't know squat about Texas . It isn't really something I go out of may way to find but since I live here, I should learn a bit.

This podcast would be good for my ESL students in that it is listening practice. They may also enjoy hearing something authentic as well as interesting instead of the other types of materials that changed for a specific level of English.  Students coming to Texas to learn ESL are also interested in learning a bit about where they are staying.

Bookmarks

Love Delicious. It's almost like a game for me, seeing how many bookmarks I can find, adding to my resource bank... Just need to maybe spend a night re-tagging things. It can get overwhelming. But I love the idea of not only seeing bookmarks from everywhere, but also being able to share it. It really is fun. It also can be kind of a lazy man's web-quest for an assignment.  Just a fantastic resource to have.

My students always are asking how to study for TOEFL and IELTS tests, so sharing links like that takes it off of me and puts responsibility on them for figuring out how to study for it. (Kind of sensitive because I feel like studying a language shouldn't be so that you can pass a test with a certain score, but to use the language to express yourself)

I tried out Pinterest. Looked kind of cool. I am glad to know it is out there, but not really sure how I would use it beyond personal use at this juncture. Have to keep an eye on it.

Thing 12 and 13

Youtube

For this thing, I just typed in "ESL Lesson" and scooped around for  a while. Kind of a boring lecture, but makes sense.

Something like this could be good for a student. I like showing grammar lessons to my students as homework or a review.  It gives them a different take on the concept.  YouTube is really easy to use. I don't like having to filter the garbage. The little pop up adds are annoying but probably a necessary evil for free video.

Here's a cat video I made as a sequel to the original.

The advantages of having sites like TeacherTube are that they organize what you need to find nicely. You can also subscribe to the people who make the videos that you like. So it is a good way to keep up with new videos and save the old ones.

Students could also really benefit from things like this. I've tried to record my students giving presentations but it is always so much work to do it right and give the feedback they need from it.  There is no point in watching it if there is nothing to learn from it.

It would be neat to have students do things though. A colleague of mine came up with the idea to have students create a video and narrate it. That way they practice speaking and vocabulary while making sure they have a citation.  It would be great to have students do it because it would be an opportunity to do a speaking assignment without having it be participation, presentation, or interview. It would give students something else to try.

The advantages of having these videos shared would be that students could share their work with others.  Not only that but when something gets published online, the student can brag about it. Show friends, show relatives. There comes a certain ownership that can come with the things you create.