Group items tagged

Brief overview of good ed tech blogs.

Thank you for this list. I just started following a couple of these through Feedly, glad to see that they are in the "top ten" :)

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.

5 ways with examples to show how tech "can truly improve learning" from Matt

If you don't watch this blog, you should! He has a lot of interesting posts - not all are on tech, but many are.

This tool can create and add beautiful videos with photos, text and music for presentational or other communicative activities. The user can begin with a template and ready made images or start from scratch with their own images.

I tried this tech tool but I couldn't figure out how to make a video that is beyond basic.

There's a Part 2 that gives further introduction and directions to the tool and its features (see the link attached). Hope it be of help for your further exploration of the tool. https://teachersfirst.com/blog/2020/03/tech-tool-of-the-month-adobe-spark-video-part-2/

First paragraph: As 21st-century teachers, we are expected to help students master the technological tools they will use in college and the workplace. But in many districts, the one-computer classroom is not extinct. So how can we do a lot with a little? How can we best use limited resources to support learning and familiarize students with technology?" Here are some tips!

A list of tech tools for language learning - listed in groups of skill focus

6 principles for working with ed tech, examples and collections of tools

"When should we use it? And what does that look like?" - Matt Miller

"Explore the latest in education technology tips and tools, in-depth reporting and trends for K-12 educators and administrators."

This easy-to-read introduction to SAMR (standing for "Substitution," "Augmentation," "Modification" and "Redefinition"), a model for helping integrate "technology tools into foreign-language classrooms," is blogged by a Chinese content and technology specialist who, I trust, has a lot of experience of incorporating media into Chinese learning activities. Besides clearly explaining how the SAMR model works for a L2 class via really useful tech tools such as Google Docs and Flipgrid, this blog also reveals a fact that our students "are not all 'digital natives,'" and encourages us, 21st-century educators, to "meet our students halfway to use tech for learning." I found the first two SAMR stages, namely, "Substitution" and "Augmentation," are very helpful for evaluating the interpretive mode implemented with appropriate media.

ACTFL 2012 tech presentation with ppt - some are Chinese-specific, many could be used by all langs.

Useful talk on apps for the world language classroom. 

I started using Storybird last year, and I love it. It is great to teach fantasy writing and to reinforce the elements of fiction. Using the sample stories for ESL students sounds like a great idea!

A good article in favor of learning multiple languages!  The first part mentions a number of tech apps for assisting in global learning collaborations.

Articles on Ed Tech

There was a hyperlink to an article about whether we should still teach cursive. Apparently high schools are not doing it any more. My son stopped cursive in about the 5th grade and didn't have to use it and now he is struggling at the university because he can't read when the professor uses cursive in anything, like comments on his papers. I have to print when I leave him a note. Wow, technology is wiping out one of the long-standing activities that took humans decades to develop.

I like the balanced way this piece presents some of the pros and cons of technology in education. Just this week I had a conversation with another educator who has encountered recent studies suggesting a link between handwriting (of any kind) and certain cognitive development. Some schools are now emphasizing handwriting instruction because it helps boost students' academic achievement.

My daughter is 8 years old and she started learning cursive this year. So it must be back! I'm not sure if will help boost her achievement or not, but I'm glad she is learning it. I think the article made a good point about how students today have a short attention span and easily get off track. If they are typing a paper on the computer, for example, they can open a browser and start surfing the web. They don't necessarily stay focused on the task at hand. It is even hard for me sometimes. If I don't ignore email (just put it off until later, I mean), I would never get anything done!

Here is an article that describes boomwriter, a technology tool that allows students do collaborative writing. Activities may have to be simplified for beginning level students, but I can see how this might work well with higher level students as well as with native speakers.