Podcasts and Acculturation?

I have just been introduced to podcasts and was unaware of the wide variety of materials that are available. My assignment for class this week was to listen to a podcast that could assist in teaching. I had also, however, just finished an annotated bibliography on the effects of acculturation on academic achievement in immigrants. So, with that on my mind, I searched google for "podcast acculturation and academic achievement," and whattaya know, I ended up finding this from the University at Buffalo. It is an interview with Dr. Paul Smokowski about his work on acculturation and adjustment in Latino adolescents.

If this were an article, it would have fit perfectly into my bibliography. I feel the research I did on my bibliography will aid my teaching because, for example, I learned that assimilating completely to American culture for an immigrant is usually not best because they lose their culture and thus self-esteem. Subsequently, loss of self-esteem can result in decreased academic achievement.

So, reading theory and research is good. However, listening to this interview via podcast was really great because the researcher was interveiwed by a host who asked semi-layman questions that helped to cut through some of the academic jargon. Listening also increased my fluency with the jargon because, after reading so much, hearing the langauge in this domain really solidified new usages and connotations of words in my mind. Also, listening to someone speak about something can increase understanding because of cadence and inflection. It was also good to put a face/voice to some of this research and hear the passion of the researcher.

So, this podcast was a good way to offer a different perspective on theory that can help me in my teaching. I will be sure to consider podcasts in the future when searching for theory / research material.

Epals and Tools

Epals seems like a fabulous site, and an obvious yet necessary step in the development of education tools on the web. The two most valuable aspects of the Epals site seem to be: 1) the platform that it provides for classrooms and individuals to connect to other classrooms and individuals from around the world; and, 2) the projects that it has developed for classrooms to work on.

The site allows classrooms/individuals to use a world map to choose a country from which to contact other classrooms/individuals that are interested in collaboration. Collaboration can include sharing blogs or writing or emails, or working on one of the projects posted on Epals. The projects seem to include a main theme like global warming or habitat, for example, some activation and learning in the home classroom, an exchange of a series of emails between the new penpals, and then the building of a presentation to share.

I can think of a couple different ways to use Epals. For one, if I were teaching in an ESL classroom, I would allow children from different countries to work with people in their former countries, if possible, to help maintain their first language and links to their culture. Throughout this semester I've learned that maintaining a first language is very important for developing a second language both linguistically and culturally.

It would obviously be great for a Social Studies unit if students could interact with students from a culture or country of current study. The same goes for an English classroom if a story/poem/novel were set in a foreign country or another part of the US.

And for the teacher, the projects seem like a good place to get ideas and maybe save some time because the global outline is already finished.

Epals could also be used in collaboration with other tools on the web. I have previously investigated Survey Monkey and Animoto. I can imagine using Survey Monkey in a class with partnering classrooms from multiple countries. I would be fun and informative to make a survey on a given topic (e.g. household size and composition; ages at which people first drive, move out, get married, etc) and then distribute the surveys to the classrooms from around the world and perform comparative studies. Maybe then the classroom performing the study could compare their study to their textbook or their preconcieved notions.

Animoto could be used in conjunction with the projects from Epals mentioned above. Animoto is a tool that allows a user to upload pictures, video, and music and the site then mixes a fairly unique presentation for the user in a matter of minutes.

How to...

It seems that there are many sites at which one can find educational videos. While perusing Teacher Tube I found a video entitled How to Write a Persuasive Essay that, as the title enumerates, gives a brief lesson on how to write a persuasive essay.

A video such as this could be used in a writing classroom as either an activity to be used before the initial lesson for the teacher to build upon, or it could be viewed after the lesson for another point of view on the material. I think it is good for students to hear a couple of explanations for how to do something as some language or ordering of language may resonate with some students and not others.

I also think that videos may be more appealing to students than reading a book. So, when faced with a pile of homework, the video may get watched before the books get read.

Finally, although no one can be seen speaking or gesturing in this video, which is sometimes difficult for an ESL student to follow, the pictures that it uses and the view of the computer screen typing as the narrator speaks will definitely help second language students comprehend the video.

Flickr in the Classroom

As the previous post explains, Flickr could be used in an ESL classroom as a simple upgrade over black and white drawn pictures from textbooks or picture dictionaries that are often ambiguous. I think the color, accuracy, realism, and possibilities would really be able to spice up a classroom.

In the Richardson book, I was becoming fascinated with the annotation function. Imagine finding a picture of a kitchen, for example, and annotating the different objects in a kitchen (refrigerator, table, knife, cabinet). This would offer many possibilities for learning vocabulary.

I also like the idea of illustrating stories. Again, if students had access to computers, it would be great to use Flickr or Bubblr to have students illustrate stories they had been reading with pictures they have found. They could type in the words (spelling practice / vocab repetition) and get pictures to map words in a story, thus embedding language in a context to help facilitate comprehension.

In a content area, as Richardson mentions, Flickr is an excellent way to see the world. Just type in Paris, for example, and you get real pictures of Paris' streets, houses, and people instead of the same cliched picture of the Eifel Tower. In an ESL classroom, students from other countries could show other students pictures of their countries. And then using Bubblr they could even make a presentation about their country.

Images are very power tools and Flickr seems like a great way to give students access to a vast number of them in a searchable and social mode

Bubblr Object

So, I've created an object using Flickr pictures via the application Bubblr that could be used in the ESL classroom. The object is a series of pictures of different people dislplaying different emotions. I placed thought bubbles with sentences like "I feel ____".

This object could be used in an ESL classroom on an overhead or on handouts for teaching emtions (with more added of course). I think using Bubblr and Flickr would be a vast upgrade over using a picture dictionary, handouts copied from workbooks, or teacher drawings on the board.

If students are at all computer literate, then it would be wonderful to have students type in the word and choose which picture fits or to make their own worksheets.

Microblogging and Professional Development

After reading Can We Use Twitter for Educational Activities and watching Better Learning with ICT - Online Communities in the Classroom, I think that microblogging could be used in a few ways for professional development. It can:

1. Increase access to and number of resources available - resources can increase the breadth of materials used and so keep classes fresh and allow the teacher to employ different styles and types of learning to accommodate a wider range of students. An increased number of resources also makes the teacher’s life easier because the teacher doesn’t always have to generate materials.

2. Increase number of peers - peers are important for bouncing ideas off of. Peers allow the teacher to feel more confident before attempting a lesson because the lesson will have been validated already. Peers have the potential to offer a critical twist to a lesson that may make it successful, or they may present an idea that opens the door for a teacher to discover his own ideas.

3. Create a space for conferencing: twittering could be good as a space for many people to discuss ideas from great distances simultaneously.

4. Stay up to date: another benefit of increasing peers and resources is that a teacher can stay current on new ideas and trends. He or she can stay on top of theory and news in the teaching world.

Now I know where to find them!

Upon reading and grading my composition 101 class’s narrative with heavy description essays a couple of weeks ago, I realized that my students did not really get what I was trying to tell them about description. Instead of deep, extended, almost meditative descriptions, I ended up with a couple extra adjectives in a couple extra sentences.

I was thinking that to show them the power of description I should have found a powerful picture, of an old lady perhaps, with wrinkled skin and grey hair and bent up old fingers and displayed the picture. Next to the picture would be the simple phrase: “The lady is old.” I would then ask the students if those words aptly represented the photo.

The answer would be, in one way, “yes,” of course the lady is old. In another way, the answer would be that those four words were not capable of describing such a provocative and intense picture. A writing session would then ensue with the students taking note of the leathery skin, brittle hair, fragile stature, and other important details.

Then I thought to myself that this is a nice idea, but it’s never easy to find really good pictures. That is until I was reading ESL Technology the the other day, and in the post entitled "Writing 1000 Words," the author recommended some good sites to find powerful pictures that might prompt students to write. He recommended Photoshop Contest.com and Worth 1000.com.

And what do you know, while searching through Worth 1000.com. I found this very vivid and detailed photo entitled “We Still Have Each Other” (although, unfortunately, I could not figure out how to get it onto the blog). Now, next time I want to find an interesting photo, I know where to go.

A Hive of Learners

A learner is like a bee. Bees are a very communal insect that work for the betterment of the hive. While one bee is not so important, it is the total of all the small contributions combined into a whole that make the hive strong, produce honey, and nourish all the members. Bees also rely on strong networks of communication to distribute work and relay the location of pollen sources.

The hive works similarly to George Siemen’s theory of connectivism. In the video “The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature," he states that the “learning and the act of knowledge creation is a function of network…where it is the aggregation of activities of many individuals that generates meaningful or useful knowledge.”

So, like the bee, it is not the work of any one individual that determines the ability to grow or create, it is the “aggregation of activities,” our the buildup of output, that generates a useful product.

In his essay “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age”, he places importance on the connections between nodes in networks and the diversity of the network. These three principals as stated by Siemens are:

Learning and knowledge rests in a diversity of opinions.
Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

He implies that in order for today's learner to take advantage of all resources he must rely on connections to information sources, on taking care to maintain connections, and to utilize a great number of nodes. Again, this is similar to the bee and its hive. Without a strong system of communication between each node and care for the nourishment of the network, there would be chaos. It may be near impossible to find food, allocate work, and in the end, flourish.

EFL Classroom 2.0

I joined the social network EFL Classroom 2.0 via the networking site Ning. It seemed like it was one of the largest and most active groups on the topic of English language teaching on Ning. It has a lot of resources that would be helpful in the classroom. There is a dicussion forum, links to members blogs, a space for video conferencing, and a link to helpful sofware. There are also a great many resources for the classroom such as lesson plans, games, and downloadable videos, songs, and books for teaching.

I think the greatest use for a site such as this is that it generates ideas. Sometimes a teacher is unhappy with his lesson plans or cannot even get started, and it is good to have a place to go for ideas. Other times a teacher is tired of the same old lessons or the same formats and needs to spice things up. ESL Classroom 2.0 has a wealth of information and offers opportunities to gain many insights.

The Growth of Global Communication and Educational Effects

This video, entitled Did You Know, was quite eye opening and mind boggling. I think I'd begun to realize already that the Internet and high tech communications were still in their infancy in the year 2009, but this video shows us that they are maturing at an exponential pace and that the potential is a great unknown.

The video puts the onus of preparing people for these changes on schools and teachers. Preparation is so important because if a person does not have a skill set to work in the forthcoming environment he will be left behind.

I believe it will also be the responsibility of schools to take advantage of the possibilities. With so many resources available instruction will be able to take an unlimited number of forms and harnessing the potential will be difficult but exciting.

I don't know if the video was implying that technology was a cause for some of the other developments in the world such as English becoming a common language or increased educational opportunities in some countries. I do think, however, that these linguistic and knowledge shifts are notable because it is cause to teach more tolerance to students as they will be dealing more readily with a great diversity of people.

I also think that educating students in learning strategies or exploration strategies will become important because it will be impossible to teach all of the knowledge. It may be the primary job of schools in the future to show students how to become independent researchers and thinkers in the technological realm so that they will be able to keep up beyond their school years.

Safety tips for blogging

1) I think the features that restrict who can view the blog are important. If a teacher wants to be very cautious he could limit who would be able to view the blogs either to just those in the class, just those in the school, or to family members also.

2) I liked the idea in the Richardson book to go over procedures with students of what to do in case they receive inappropriate comments (i.e. don't respond, inform your teacher immediately).

3) Lastly, it is good to inform students to keep personal identifiers off of the blog and also to remind them that the blog is for academic purposes only.

Ideas for using blogs in the classroom

After reading chapters one, two and three, here are some ideas I had for using blogs in class.

1. I am very interested in working with refugee children, teaching ESL. Refugees are often recently arrived to the country, have very different ethnic backgrounds from their new neighbors and may feel isolated. It would be great to use the blogs as self-publishing tools to share their experiences in America with either schools in the refugee camps in their home countries (if technology permits from that end, and in many cases I think it will) or with other refugee communities in America.


For the benefit of those still to come to America, students could post writings about daily life in America, schools in America, food, pictures, etc. It would be great for them to see their work online and it would be a great cultural orientation for those still in the home country. The project could be themed such that the students in America are explorers sending back exotic new treasures.

To link with other refugee communities in other cities in America may help students see how other people are coping with adjustment. It could act as a sort of support group.

The partner communities would have to be set up by the teacher and may take a bit of research to find, but I don't think it would be hard to persuade another teacher in the US to collaborate. It might be difficult to find someone overseas, but I think that there enough resources in many cases.

2) For the purposes of a writing class, a blog could act as a process journal. It could be especially useful for a research paper. Research is a process. It starts with a topic, moves onto questions about the topic in order to gain focus, and finally the researcher decides on a problem he is interested in solving. After that he does the research to try and answer or at least explore the problem

All of these steps could be posted on a student's blog and other students would be able to give feedback on the researcher's thoughts and questions, suggest possible places to look, and ideas for understanding and synthesizing information.

For the researcher himself it would be beneficial to look back to see how his thoughts progressed and to get another perspective on his work. Also, as an archival tool, if one path of inquiry did not workout, the researcher would easily be able to go back and maybe pick up on an old path of inquiry that had sprouted but had never been pursued.

Also, in this procedural way, blogs could also be used to demonstrate an actual, live writing process for creative work. Usually in writing books there are models suggested for the writing process, but they are ideal models, and rarely does a real person follow all the steps. Real people prefer one method over another or jump back and forth between steps.

It would be great to see someone post draft after draft of a creative piece. Imagine if the student was assigned to update their draft every day or two. The writer, class, and teacher would have great examples of how the writing process really works.


3) Finally, on page 38, the book discusses using blogs as reflective experiences on teaching. I'm assuming the audience for these posts would be other professionals.

However, it could be an interesting experiment for the teacher to post his reflections on teaching for the students to read and reply to. It might be bad because it may break down the student / teacher relationship too much, but in another way, aside from being able to give feedback, the students might gain an appreciation for what a teacher does (too hopeful? maybe)

The teacher could post about: why he used a certain technique in class; why he thought the class went well or did not go so well; ideas he was considering for the next class... Student comments might then be able to say: "the lesson on Tuesday worked well for us"; "no one understood the lesson on Wednesday"; "Thursday's lesson was fun, but Friday's was boring."

In the end it may be more of a collaborative tool so that the students had a hand in planning the class. Perhaps the teacher could give some options and the students could vote on what they would like to do.

This type of blog might be great because the students may prefer the democratic feel of the class; then again, it may be slightly dangerous for the authority of the teacher.