I have been following Shapiro for a little over a year now. I first became interested in him because as a former video-game player I was always interested in game based learning. Jordan covers the gamification of learning but also how ed-tech is changing the culture of learning in the U.S. and around the world.
Abstract: In recent years, a sharp increase in the number of academic studies around the use of video games and new media for educational purposes has greatly expanded our understanding of their potential for enhancing learning.
Constantinos, this a great resource of information. Thank you for sharing! I haven't sit down to read it all, but skimming through it I found plenty of interesting information. I was always interested in using video games or educational games for language learning, but never took initiative in reading anything on the topic.
In the beginning of "From "Authentic Materials" to "Live Materials" section, the author mentions that the culture should not be described to students, but rather facilitate a platform for them to actually participate in that culture. I see how we can do that through games, but is there any of you using other means to do it? Is it possible to do it through social networks or second language learning networks? If yes, how exactly? Any thoughts on this?
Telling and listening to stories is an ancient tradition that can benefit foreign language learners of all ages, languages, and levels of proficiency. Stories contain linguistic, paralinguistic, discourse, and cultural features that provide the comprehensible input and output that students need to develop their conversational skills. Instructors and students can select and tell stories that they enjoy and that interest their listeners. Some interactive story telling activities are presented, categorized as: Change the Story, Group Picture Story, Jigsaw Story, My Story, Oral Reading, Picture Stories, Psycho Story, Rumor, Shuffled Comics, Story Hour, Strip Story, and Tell Us a Story. Contains 33 references. (Author/LB)
We live in a time of rapid change owing to accelerated technological advancement, increased globalization, power shifts on almost every societal level, and the changing nature of information. We are preparing our children for a future of frightening uncertainty, but astounding opportunity, and to prosper within that future, our children must become skilled, resourceful, and habitual learners — not just lifelong learners but adopting a learning lifestyle.
Are you a 'learner'? Are your colleagues 'learners'? Do you promote a 'learning culture'? Six suggestions to cultivating a learning environment to reflect upon.
Here, native Mandarin speakers teach you Chinese as a second language. Audio and transcripts are available on the website. The lessons also place an emphasis on understanding Chinese culture.
From the website:
Use BlueHarvest to help students with pronunciation and oral examinations by recording audio straight from your desktop. Upload your standards, so that students know what vocab, grammar and cultural standards you want them to focus on. Provide feedback by standard.
To truly assess proficiency, learners need opportunities to use their language in real-world situations, using authentic cultural resources (i.e., resources that are created by native speakers for native speakers).
"The purpose of this activity is to encourage students to learn and practice a thinking routine that they can use inside and outside of the classroom. The thinking routine is: Observe. Analyze. Extend. This routine promotes a contextualized approach to meaning making. Practicing this routine will help students wade deeper into self-directed participation with the target language and culture. It provides a reliable sequence of actions which can be easily adapted to structure participation in new and uncertain citations.
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I think this is a great idea for using virtual reality in the classroom and can be adapted for any language.
The team will expand upon the initial pilot by hiring five Parisians from different neighborhoods to document and share their lives with a VR camera over the course of one to two months.
I'm trying to figure out how to do this for my own classroom; I wonder if one day we could develop an exchange where we work with partners in other countries to gather video for each other for these types of projects.
Awardees hypothesize that virtual reality will allow language learners to have perceptual, empathetic, and culturally immersive experiences in multiple sensory modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.) that will enhance their vision, perceived value of language and culture learning, and willingness to communicate.
A "text" isn't limited to something written down. A text can be a film, an artifact, anything in a language and culture that conveys meaning.
Created texts have long dominated the materials used in language classrooms. But increasingly, educators are coming to understand the need to bring more authentic texts into the learning environment.
"Authentic" appears to mean: naturally produced by authentic source for communication in a native setting. What concerns me is that the call for "authentic" dates back to perhaps 20 years ago? We are still claiming it is important, yet we scaffold authentic text often to the point that they loose their intrinsic challenge.
I have selected a digital magazine issued by the Office of the Spanish Ministry of Education in the USA and Canada. This yearly magazine gathers lessons, units and projects around a different cultural topic carried out by Spanish teachers in immersion or foreign languages programs in America or other places outside of Spain. These issues don't have a strictly academic tone but they are actually more like real experiences carried out in real classrooms that can be borrowed or inspired by other educators. The magazine guidelines require a very specific format with objectives, level, materials, etc. to describe the experiences.
Abstract - "Teacher educators have increasingly integrated social media into their education courses with aims including improving instruction and preparing students for a connected world. In this study, the authors sought to better understand the possibilities and challenges of scaffolding 60 pre- and in-service teachers across two universities into professional learning networks (PLNs) through a social media assignment. Participants analyzed educator practices, participated in, and envisioned future uses of teacher Twitter. Consistent with previous studies, education students were positive about the relational and relevant aspects of Twitter use. However, students' participation did not mimic the participatory cultures of affinity spaces often reported by connected educators in the literature. Instead, participants tweeted around deadlines and quit using their accounts for professional education purposes once the class ended. In contrast to recent literature, this article argues that social media integration for education students should focus on relational and relevant engagements and content, as opposed to attempting to build social media augmented PLNs for unknown futures."
thanks for sharing Roxana. I really like how this blog discusses the language and cultural uses of using voicethread to create learning communities. It provided me many practical examples I can use in my classroom to help students focus on langauge development while using the technology. This post puts the focus on learning not on the technology. The handouts are great supports that help students stay on the learning track and because of this, the coummunity of learning is built. I was a little concerned by the deficit language used on the scoring rubric for asynchronous content. I will probably use something similar by change the wording to be a little more constructive, as meaning can be lost online and harsh wording can be misinterpreted.
For young people without a personal connection to an immigration story, these websites, games, multimedia news pieces, and more, can help put a human face on an abstract debate.
For students with first-hand knowledge of the immigrant experience, they can find validation of their stories and/or those of their friends and family.
they can help students step back for a big-picture, historical perspective on U.S. immigration
The foreign born population map information says, "The culture and politics of the US have always been profoundly shaped by the material and emotional ties many of its residents have had to the places where they were born".
analyze migration patterns for the whole country over time
Not free (9.99) but sounds like an amazing learning experience.
Players approve or deny someone entry to a fictional country, basing their decisions on an ever-increasing number of virtual documents they must read and analyze.
But true authenticity comes from the activities we use during class time, leaving an impact on the communicative skills of our students.
Use the language proficiency site developed by UTexas to gain access to native Spanish speakers talking about a variety of themes. These are conveniently divided into proficiency levels.
I tried this activity by having each group research then report about an Arabic speaking country of their choice and the activity was a great success. They seemed to have had a lot of fun, presented short clear sentences (for the most part) that also provided factual and relevant material, and it opened the door for some spontaneous cultural themes and relevant dicussions.
I've used some of the videos from UTexas. Some of the novice level videos are still too difficult for my middle schoolers though! I have to give lot's of scaffolding and support.
remember these rules when selecting activities:
They must be authentic.
They should always be engaging.
Activities should be varied.
They need to be focused around the unit theme.
Perhaps most importantly, they should force students to use the target language.