Group items tagged

re-posted here from Connected Principals.] Steven B. Johnson writes in Where Good Ideas Come From about the revolutionary power of social media such as Twitter to advance ideas and innovation in a myriad of fields, and it has been fascinating to see this concept in action in the swift spread over the past six months of the practice of flipping classrooms, which is also known as reverse instruction or learning, and is closely related to (or often synonymous with) teacher vodcasting.

You might want to print off the Power Searching quick sheet before starting with this course. "Gaming to learn" - this course is made up of challenges along with tips and tricks and keeping track of how you found things. A good learning challenge!

This is a great explanation. Thank you for posting it. Any idea about the legality of editing YouTube videos with eduCanon?

Abstract: Since their emergence in 2005, Web 2.0 technologies have been advanced as potentially transformative in the area of education in general and foreign language learning in particular. Web 2.0 technologies are presenting new opportunities for developing diverse online learning environments and enhancing interactivity, participation and feedback between students, their peer groups and teachers. This article examines one of the most significant Web 2.0 tools, Social Networking Sites (SNS), and focuses on Livemocha, an example of an online community specifically aimed at encouraging collaboration between foreign language learners. Results from the ethnographic approach adopted in the paper indicate that: (a) SNSs can be used by language learners to explore new relationships rather than merely maintain existing ones and that (b) longitudinal studies are required to achieve a better understanding of the complex processes of mediation involved in online community formation and maintenance

Funny! I also found this article last week and even attached it to last week's blog post in the ning. I've noticed this morning, that reading and commenting on it is also one of this week's assignments. I guess I chose well :)

Abstract: "In academic settings where digital badges are taking over conventional task formats, educators are faced with the challenge of how to deliver and assess content and skills within badges. Imposing a mastery learning approach, where feedback is key, to a digital badge system may be a potential solution to using digital badges within higher education. As a way to support student learning, Guskey, Journal of Advanced Academics, 19(1), 8-31 (2007) emphasizes the importance of not only frequent feedback but specific feedback. In order to examine how students are using feedback to inform their coursework within a digital badge context, an online survey was designed consisting of open-ended questions about the nature and value of instructional feedback within a digital badge system. Results from the questionnaire indicated three major thematic groups illustrating feedback from the students' perspective: Importance and Nature of Feedback, Authority over Knowledge and Learning, and Learning for Mastery."

Good ideas, more so on how to add different sources to readings, then on implementing them in class.

These are great! I wish that we were allowed to use youtube in our courses. I guess that before using this tool you would have to make sure that youtube would be allowed in your school. Some sites such as this and vimeo are blocked.

DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS AND SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY IN SYNCHRONOUS AND ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION The present study investigates discourse functions and syntactic complexity in English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learner output obtained via two different modes of computer-mediated communication (CMC): asynchronous and synchronous discussions. Two instructors and twenty-five students from two advanced ESL writing classes participated in this study.

Discussion on how technology is being used and why we're still struggling to give more control of learning to students. A good read!

"A 2014 paper by researchers at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, provides a tangible example: Teachers and students in the small-scale study were found to be making extensive use of the online word-processing tool Google Docs. The application's power to support collaborative writing and in-depth feedback, however, was not being realized. Teachers were not encouraging group-writing assignments and their feedback focused overwhelmingly on issues such as spelling and grammar, rather than content and organization." This really gets to the heart of the idea of combining education and technology: the technology has to serve the goal and it doesn't sound like the teachers' goals were the same as the stated goals of the assignment. So obviously Google Docs is a fantastic tool, but it has to be utilized appropriately for it to be effective.

I must say I have sat through many workshops in my tenure at my university that included the modification of some practices and even included, to my frustration, the basic structure of a lesson from stating outcomes to assessment. The problem with our particular situation is that usually it is directed to a "one-size-fits-all" use of a given technology that may not apply to many disciplines. I have found them somewhat useful for upper-level courses at times, but the language classes often pose the need for a kind of collaboration and interpersonal technology that isn't presented. Hence my desire to take this course. Another difficulty is the overwhelming number of technological applications presented--I can't tell you how many--and the students really become overwhelmed, since they often have to learn new technologies in almost many courses. Some work and some don't, and since they are the guinea pigs and there are no guarantees that everything will work as planned, and given the astounding changes in tech, the newness never seems to end, neither for the student nor the teacher. So focusing on just 1 or 2 to begin with seems like the only way to deal with it. Finally, I think that, at least in our university, the huge courses found often in the sciences reflect the slowness to adopt meaningful change. Many in these disciplines have simply used the tech to deliver more lectures on topics students must memorize, perhaps adding clickers for comprehension checks. There seems to be a great disconnect between what happens in the classroom and the amazing advances in tech they have made for their hands-on work--labs, collaborative work, etc.

The expert interviews are something I need to do more of. Love the idea of a virtual Career day. Would be a good way to keep alums connected.

Are you a 'learner'? Are your colleagues 'learners'? Do you promote a 'learning culture'? Six suggestions to cultivating a learning environment to reflect upon.

Online learning modules for LCTLs

In a fast changing world impacted by technological advances, language usage becomes "one of the factors being altered most drastically." And as language teachers, most of us feel language teaching has become inevitably bound to technology more and quickly. All this is talked about in "The Edtech Podcast" posted here. Listening through the lengthy audio discussion on how language learning is or can or should be equipped with technology one way or another, one can be happier to see "both sides of change: how we must adjust and what we can take advantage of."

I like the way this list gives tools that are both digital and physical. Thanks for sharing! Also, I'm interested to try out FluentU.

This one can't make it past my firewall.