Thursday, March 11, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
About setting up a private account/channel on Youtube
I liked my classmates' presentations on various technologies they like to use in their teaching.
About my presentation, I talked about using our private account/channel on Youtube for students to view and evaluate their own videos in order to improve their communication skills. But I realized during the 3-minute presentation, I forgot to introduce how to set it up. Here are the procedures:
If we want to set up a Youtube Channel/ account only for our own class or a small group of friends, we could
1. Click Sign up for YouTube!
2. When filling information, don't click the following two items, otherwise, anyone who have our email address will be invited to go to this channel.
Let others find my channel on YouTube if they have my email address
I would like to receive occasional product-related email communications that YouTube believes would be of interest to me
3. Following the instructions, and then you will have your own chanel where you can upload your own videos privately.
4. Send the account name and password to students in your class, or people you want. So this channel is only accessible to your class, not to the public!
Hope it helps!
About my presentation, I talked about using our private account/channel on Youtube for students to view and evaluate their own videos in order to improve their communication skills. But I realized during the 3-minute presentation, I forgot to introduce how to set it up. Here are the procedures:
If we want to set up a Youtube Channel/ account only for our own class or a small group of friends, we could
1. Click Sign up for YouTube!
2. When filling information, don't click the following two items, otherwise, anyone who have our email address will be invited to go to this channel.
Let others find my channel on YouTube if they have my email address
I would like to receive occasional product-related email communications that YouTube believes would be of interest to me
3. Following the instructions, and then you will have your own chanel where you can upload your own videos privately.
4. Send the account name and password to students in your class, or people you want. So this channel is only accessible to your class, not to the public!
Hope it helps!
Using Skype in ESL classrooms
Last week we talked about some advantages of using Skype in our classroom. I used to think that Skype is for one-to-one communication. But in the class, I know that it can be used in group activities and video conference as well. From the video Mimi showed us, I felt impressed by the excitement and brilliant smiles on those students’ face when they saw and talked to their foreign pen pals together through Skype. I think it is an excellent tool in ESL classrooms as students feel motivated when they could communicate directly with native English speakers at the same age.
Another interesting tool is Acapala: Text to speech. It reads aloud everything you write! And it can speak in different voices. In foreign language classrooms, students can make animated cartoons by choosing the voices they want for different characters. It is really fun!
We also talked about Games. (http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/globalgizmo/globalgizmo.html ) I cannot wait to explore more about those tools in our following classes.
Another interesting tool is Acapala: Text to speech. It reads aloud everything you write! And it can speak in different voices. In foreign language classrooms, students can make animated cartoons by choosing the voices they want for different characters. It is really fun!
We also talked about Games. (http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/globalgizmo/globalgizmo.html ) I cannot wait to explore more about those tools in our following classes.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
What I learned last week in our class.
I learned several useful tools such as Hot Potato and Podcast. Hot-Potato can create cloze exercises immediately once we copy and paste an article on it. Our professor, Mini also shared her teaching method with us about how she used cloze exercises in class. “Never correct students”, said she. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t pay attention to students. Instead, she wants to create a relaxing learning environment. By self-correcting, students learn without the fear of making mistakes. “It is a way to make them feel easy.” as Mini said. I agree. When we feel relaxed, we learn fast.
The other interesting activity we tried was to using Hot-Potato to learn the language and culture from movies. We watched a court scene from the movie “My cousin Vinny” . We were divided into two groups and used Hot-Potato to make Q& A exercise. Students engaged in this activity. They listened to and observed the scene very carefully in order to answer any questions their peers might ask. I always think using movies in ESL classes is great if we can use it properly. From the short scene, I also learned one sentence: “The store has a flue.”, which means “The people in the store have a flue.”
Another website I liked is: breakingnewsenglish.com. It offers a wide range of topics from business to fashion. If we click on some news, for example, “Toyota recalls more cars over safety fears”, we can find a 15-page study sheet! From listening practice to discussion and writing, the exercises include every necessary practice students may need. I think I will introduce these websites to my friends who are ESL teachers in China.
The other interesting activity we tried was to using Hot-Potato to learn the language and culture from movies. We watched a court scene from the movie “My cousin Vinny” . We were divided into two groups and used Hot-Potato to make Q& A exercise. Students engaged in this activity. They listened to and observed the scene very carefully in order to answer any questions their peers might ask. I always think using movies in ESL classes is great if we can use it properly. From the short scene, I also learned one sentence: “The store has a flue.”, which means “The people in the store have a flue.”
Another website I liked is: breakingnewsenglish.com. It offers a wide range of topics from business to fashion. If we click on some news, for example, “Toyota recalls more cars over safety fears”, we can find a 15-page study sheet! From listening practice to discussion and writing, the exercises include every necessary practice students may need. I think I will introduce these websites to my friends who are ESL teachers in China.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
My thoughts on Lesson Writer
When I first saw the demonstration about Lesson Writer in our last class, I thought “It is amazing!” There are several advantages of the Lesson Writer. First, it is free. Secondly, it can create customized lesson plans, including exercises on vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation as well as comprehension, according to the text we copy and paste into the Lesson Writer. Therefore, it can save teachers’ a great amount of time spent on looking for the definition of new vocabularies and designing the plan.
When I came home, I couldn’t wait to introduce this web to my roommates, who are also my former colleagues when I taught EFL in China. However, after I enthusiastically opened the webpage and pasted a paragraph into it, the Lesson Writer didn’t work. It froze up! I didn’t know it was because something was wrong with my internet connection or the technology was not mature.
However, it is a great concept. It would be greatly helpful to teachers especially when they only have limited time to prepare for their lessons. But the concern I have is that even when the Lesson Writer works well, can it replace teachers’ efforts to give an efficient lesson? Not really. The teachers still need to come up with their own ideas, think of their own sample sentences which relate the students’ situations and design some meaningful and interesting classroom activities. Without real efforts, we can not be an effective teacher even when we have access to many powerful tools.
When I came home, I couldn’t wait to introduce this web to my roommates, who are also my former colleagues when I taught EFL in China. However, after I enthusiastically opened the webpage and pasted a paragraph into it, the Lesson Writer didn’t work. It froze up! I didn’t know it was because something was wrong with my internet connection or the technology was not mature.
However, it is a great concept. It would be greatly helpful to teachers especially when they only have limited time to prepare for their lessons. But the concern I have is that even when the Lesson Writer works well, can it replace teachers’ efforts to give an efficient lesson? Not really. The teachers still need to come up with their own ideas, think of their own sample sentences which relate the students’ situations and design some meaningful and interesting classroom activities. Without real efforts, we can not be an effective teacher even when we have access to many powerful tools.
My thoughts on Web 2.0
My thoughts on the TechWatch report of Web 2.0
What is Web 2.0? To me, it is part of my everyday life. After I get up, I listen to NPR news on the podcast from my Iphone. As I work part-time for one of our department’s projects --- Developing Chinese Language Teachers (DCLT), every time when I arrive at my office, I would turn on my computer and check our project’s Facebook and Blog. We have a monthly forum, so we set up our own Facebook and Blog as a platform for teachers to communicate and share ideas. After each forum, I always upload photos to the www.flickr.com, and video clips to www.Youtbube.com or our university’s www.Vimeo.com. Whether I’m working or studying, Google.com is the most helpful tool for me to search and collect information. In daily life, without having access to Google Maps, I would very likely get lost on the street in the city!
What are Web 2.0’s unique features? Compared to the traditional media like newspapers and TV, Web 2.0 is interactive and collaborative. We update information and share our photos and videos online to inform our friends what we are doing and thinking. At the same time, we know what our friends are up to. Millions of users collaboratively write and edit Wiki, creating a continuingly updated encyclopedia. A huge number of users use Youtube or Skype to learn a foreign language. We also upload and watch videos on Youtube to share and relax. Therefore, we social network, study, and have fun through Web 2.0. It is the interaction and collaboration that differentiate Web 2.0 from traditional media. It is hard to image what if we didn’t have Web 2.0 in this Information Age.
What is Web 2.0? To me, it is part of my everyday life. After I get up, I listen to NPR news on the podcast from my Iphone. As I work part-time for one of our department’s projects --- Developing Chinese Language Teachers (DCLT), every time when I arrive at my office, I would turn on my computer and check our project’s Facebook and Blog. We have a monthly forum, so we set up our own Facebook and Blog as a platform for teachers to communicate and share ideas. After each forum, I always upload photos to the www.flickr.com, and video clips to www.Youtbube.com or our university’s www.Vimeo.com. Whether I’m working or studying, Google.com is the most helpful tool for me to search and collect information. In daily life, without having access to Google Maps, I would very likely get lost on the street in the city!
What are Web 2.0’s unique features? Compared to the traditional media like newspapers and TV, Web 2.0 is interactive and collaborative. We update information and share our photos and videos online to inform our friends what we are doing and thinking. At the same time, we know what our friends are up to. Millions of users collaboratively write and edit Wiki, creating a continuingly updated encyclopedia. A huge number of users use Youtube or Skype to learn a foreign language. We also upload and watch videos on Youtube to share and relax. Therefore, we social network, study, and have fun through Web 2.0. It is the interaction and collaboration that differentiate Web 2.0 from traditional media. It is hard to image what if we didn’t have Web 2.0 in this Information Age.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
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