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Contents contributed and discussions participated by ncsargo

ncsargo

Skype and Skype in the Classroom: Options for Language Teaching and Learning - 4 views

  • Skype in the classroom Skype in the classroom, launched in March 2011, is a website especially designed for educational purposes. It is a platform where teachers and students can disseminate information about their classes, share educational resources, and find partners to start classroom projects.
  • Language teachers and learners may find the “Languages” category especially useful because they can search for Skype language lessons that meet their needs (see Figure 4 for some examples of Skype language lessons). These lessons provide opportunities for learning another language or practicing language via language exchanges.
  • Language teachers and learners can enroll in any language lesson according to their needs and interests
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    • ncsargo
       
      This seems like a great way to expand your PLN and collaborate with other language teachers
  • advanced features, such as group video calls, require users to pay a fee and upgrade to a premium account to get the service. Calling fees vary depending on the countries the user calls and the amount of time spent on calls. Subscribing to a premium account, which will allow users to use services such as group video chats, currently costs US$59.88 for 12 months. US$4.99 per month is not very expensive.
    • ncsargo
       
      There is a cost for premium features.
  • Limitations Although Skype and Skype in the classroom provide an intriguing option for language teaching and learning, there are some limitations as well. First, there are minimum download/upload speeds required for using Skype. For example, video calling and screen sharing require 128kbps/128kbps as the minimum download/upload speed; group video calling requires 4Mbps/128kbps as the minimum download/upload speed. Therefore, Skype users need to check whether their Internet connection meets such requirements to avoid video and audio lag during Skype lessons.
    • ncsargo
       
      It is important to keep these limitations in line for any web based interpersonal activity.
  • Second, Skype and Skype in the classroom promote authentic learning. According to Lombardi (2007), authentic learning emphasizes “real-world, complex problems and their solutions, using role-playing exercises, problem-based activities, case studies, and participation in a virtual community of practice” (p.2). Thus, authentic learning happens as learners participate in real-world relevant tasks that require their judgment to distinguish information, patience to participate, ability to adapt themselves to unfamiliar contexts, and flexibility to work with people from different cultures. In this view, Skype and Skype in the classroom allow language teachers and learners to participate in a context of authentic learning.
    • ncsargo
       
      As we saw in our synchronous class session Skype just like Adobe Connect can be used to deal with problem-based activities.  Through creating contexts in which certain language is required we can simulate an immersion environment for students online.
  • The ACTIONS model, proposed by Bates (1995), is a practical guide for educators and policymakers to select and evaluate the use of technologies for teaching and learning. The ACTIONS model involves the following criteria: Access: How accessible is a particular technology for learners? Costs: What is the cost structure of a particular technology? Teaching and learning: How does a particular technology support teaching and learning? Interactivity and user-friendliness: How does a particular technology facilitate interaction among learners? How easy is a particular technology to use? Organizational issues: Are any class organizational changes needed? Novelty: How new is this particular technology? Speed: How quickly can courses be taught and learned via this particular technology?
ncsargo

VoiceThread Extends the Classroom with Interactive Multimedia Albums | Edutopia - 5 views

  • Ed.VoiceThread.com, a secure site just for educators and their students
    • ncsargo
       
      I'm going to have to look into this to see if this site is really more beneficial to educators than the standard site :)
ncsargo

Tip of the Week: Tumblr in your classroom? Maybe. Just maybe. | History Tech - 2 views

  • The truth is, every platform has its strengths and weaknesses. My argument here is pretty simple–there is no perfect platform for student blogging because everything that does exactly what a teacher wants sucks for students, and anything that is exactly what a student wants will probably get a teacher fired.
    • ncsargo
       
      Tumblr was a bit hard to navigate for me but it allowed for a lot for creativity, I can see why students would like it.
  • seven quick reasons why Tumblr may be perfect for the writing / blogging / posting / literacy piece in your room: Students can post by email. There’s an “ask” system. It’s social-by-design. Hashtags, sharing, reblogging, tweeting–it operates both as social media and a blogging system. It’s flexible. It can be visual or textual; video or gifs; audio or links; conversational or one-sided. It’s already on their phones. Well, most of them. Though they may delete it when they found out that you know. It’s dead simple to use. Reblogging is an interesting way to share thinking–and simple too. Maybe too simple to be considered cognitive heavy lifting, but that’s all in how you use it. Liking posts, using hashtags, posting new blogs–all simple to do from a tablet, phone, laptop, or desktop. It’s platform-agnostic. It works (almost) equally well across operating systems, much like Evernote. In fact, it can be thought of as the Evernote of blogging platforms.
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    • ncsargo
       
      All of these functions are pretty impressive, I feel like tumblr is a little more flexible than other blogs in what content you can add to the blog such as gifs, audio, video, links etc. 
  • Tumblr is microblogging and social networking website that many of your students are using. As of last week, there were over 200 million Tumblr blogs out there. Think of a cross between Twitter and Facebook and you start to get a sense of what it looks like. It’s not really a tweet. It’s not really a blog. It’s not really a website
ncsargo

Música {and music videos} in the language classroom | Teaching a World Language - 10 views

    • ncsargo
       
      Using eduCanon to embed questions into music videos is far more convenient than answering questions with simple pen and paper. If you aren't an eduCanon fan at the very least these sites are great resources for Spanish language music for interpretive activities.
  • Next, my recent favorite, eduCanon.
    • ncsargo
       
      Silent videos can be used to create an interpretive activity for any language. Simon's cat is a good resource for silent videos, the following link also has many great silent videos that work with developing emotional intelligence and creative writing: http://ineverycrea.net/comunidad/ineverycrea/recurso/10-cortometrajes-para-trabajar-la-educacion-emocio/0f46341c-920e-48da-8147-0656407da4f1
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    • ncsargo
       
      Here is a great interpretive activity; having students use Twitter to convey how a song makes them feel or to write a ministory in 140 characters or less!
    • ncsargo
       
      I found this idea particularly insightful because I feel students must understand the main idea of the video fairly well to condense the theme into 140 characters!
  • For #authres: Bilblioteca Musical: http://musicaenespanol.weebly.com/ LyricsTraining: http://lyricstraining.com/ Zambombazo {Cancionero}: http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/tag/cancionero/ TodoELE {Canciones}: http://www.todoele.net/canciones/Cancion_list.asp El Mundo Birch: http://elmundodebirch.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/spanish-music-database-updated/ Youtube {different channels}: https://www.youtube.com/ MTVTres: http://www.tr3s.com/ Los40: http://los40.com/ For non-natives/ELE: Rockalingua: http://www.rockalingua.com/ Senor Wooly: http://www.senorwooly.com/ Realidades I, II y III {Canciones de HipHop}
  • First, let’s talk resources; here are some of my “go-to” music websites for Spanish. Feel free to add your own comments with additional sources that you like to use.
  • This tool can be used in any discipline, with any grade. What a neat way to begin class, end class or assign as an independent practice activity. By embedding music videos into eduCanon, the teacher can pose questions about the actual video or the music lyrics that may appear. Here is a sample video I created in English using a great silent film source: Simon’s Cat
  • -Have students describe how they feel when listening to the music, in #140charactersorless: write a mini story to go with the music & emotions, post to Twitter or a learning management site used {Edmodo, Schoology, Canvas, etc}, share their stories in small groups, collaborate using Google Docs to create a unique tale based on the music they hear, present their stories to the class {act it out, swap stories with another group, re-enact silently: have classmates reinvent the original story}
  •  
    Great resource for using Spanish language music videos and silent videos for interpretive activities, check out my sticky notes for more resources!
ncsargo

Jordan Shapiro-Forbes - 3 views

  •  
    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.
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