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The question isn’t just academic. When related to education I think it really has some significance. Of course we have all the data driven, test score driven administrative tom follery. I’m not going to discuss this silly stuff. If you can’t see that emperor has no clothes, well, then dream on….. No, I want to look at how teachers make decisions in their own classroom. Are we like Apple, generals and experts that know and with our charts, handouts, videos, textbooks – steering the ship of students? Or are we listening to students and letting them take hold of the wheel and allowing them to steer the ship?

Of course, most teachers will say that they are the later, they are googlites, they listen to their students. This is the mantra of modern education. However, me thinks this is only cosmetic. Look deeper and almost all teachers are governing their class as “experts”. We truly don’t go down to the level of students or listen to them. We all say that we “listen” and are “data informed” but when push comes to shove – I believe we teach as we were taught. We perpetuate a worn and bedraggled and very much irrelevant orthodoxy. All the while propping up and rationalizing our methods, our job, by saying we are listening to the students, we are listening to the data. However, the facts are out there for

all to see.

Also, you can discuss why certain companies make different products for different countries.  I saw one commercial for a lemonade made by 7-Up.  It is always fascinating the different flavors that each company makes worldwide.

a video from UNICEF to the class

The students then read an infographic

nother UNICEF video, for wh

Web 2.0 as “a second generation, or more personalised, communicative form of the World Wide Web that emphasises active participation, connectivity, collaboration and sharing of knowledge and ideas among users

there is a longer time lag between sending and receiving text messages or audio files via the chat facility, although both parties are online at the same time. We thus coined a new phrase to capture the speed of such interaction, semi-synchronous, which is under investigation in this research.

there is a tendency to not reach the stage of resolution in online asynchronous text-based discussion

While this may seem odd at first (if they are in the same room, why not have them discussing orally face to face?), a number of studies have shown that some students communicate more when they don't have to speak or be face to face with interlocutors, that communication overall is more evenly distributed among participants (e.g., Warschauer et al., 2000), and that they may even use a much wider range of discourse functions than they do in face-to-face settings with the same material (Kern, 1995).

The potentials for dropping in html objects such as quizzes that enable interaction can make static data much more dynamic. The ability to drop in multimedia and particularly video can lend more significance and impact to the information in the graphic.

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.

Posted by Kara Parker on April 17, 2017 in 3 Activities, Interpretive Reading, Reading, Techy Stuff, What's New

Highlighting is one of my top go-to interpretive reading activities. Today I will review an app for Apple devices and Chrome. Let’s see how highlighting can go digital! I blogged about this “Highlight Away” activity before… It was Idea #71 in 2012! If you haven’t read it, take a minute to see where this idea started. Why I love highlighting… It gives a focus while reading It takes away the frustration of “not knowing every word” (adjust the task, not the text) It preps them to summarize It preps them to discuss the reading No comprehension questions needed (low teacher prep) It lets them figure out the meaning and learn new words in context It shows comprehension without translating Here are a few examples of highlighting activities we’ve done in lessons:

s in the Street Art unit. They were reading opinions about graffiti before they gave their opinion. It was awesome seeing how this activity gave them so many solid reasons that support their opinions.

0LFURVRIW¶V 0RYLH 0DNHU RU $SSOH¶V iMovie for Mac users) is a free and easy-to-use program that lets students combine audio, video and still images.

Slidestory lets students share PowerPoint-like presentations online and others comment on it. A great feature is that it makes it very easy to record narration for each slide. Similar, but more centred on discussions, is VoiceThread,Q

f so, will you reward fluency over accuracy

A flipped classroom reverses traditional teaching methods: The learners get the topic and recorded material online at home, while class time is devoted to doing exercises and discussing the topic. This will enable you as a teacher to devote more time to problem areas.

By Natascha Chtena November 22, 2015 5 Comments   .blog-spacer { display: none; } @media (max-width: 420px) { .blog-spacer { display: block; height:1px; clear:both; } }   googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("dfp-ad-story_level_pages"); }); Natascha Chtena is a PhD student in Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. You can follow her on Twitter @nataschachtena.       One of the challenges I face teaching a daily language class is finding novel and creative ways to maintain student interest throughout my lessons. One of my favorite teaching “tricks” is using music to motivate learning, improve concentration, create a sense of community and help my students absorb material.   Music is a wonderful tool to integrate into your teaching repertoire, especially if you are a foreign language teacher. It has a

The key is to not be too ambitious (unless of course you are teaching a language AND culture class) and to set realistic goals: one song one major point! I usually keep it to seven minutes max, which includes a song, a very short “lecture” and some time for student questions at the end.