Podcasting

I have found a seris of useful podcasting on ESL Pod,  the one I choose to talk about now is ESL941---Types of Shopping Area. I think this is more practical one for the secong language learner. It is a problem in our daily life. After studing this part, learners can have clear concept about which department they will go if they have some desire. In addition, the pronounciation in this podcasting is clear and standard without accent. What is more, the speaking speed of this podcasting is slow that is very suitable for the beginning leve of English learners. I think the tone and spped is very important that we should pay more attention to. In my own class, I may be use it as a assisitant tool to teach new vocabularies or a material to practice learners` listening skill of a bit more bigh level learners.

GoAnimate

Companion in Trouble

This website is similiar with the one I introduced in last blog. They are all tools to creat a new video belongs to yourself. But there are some obvious differences between them. GoAnimate is the one you can totally define your own background scene, the dialogue and characters even to the action and emotion. Its process seem to make flash, a little bit complicate but more ideal. Teacher can use it as a model of role play. It is better than doing lots of oral or written instruction. Also, teacher can use it as a method to encourage students practicing English speaking. It is more livily than the dialogue on the textbook and must be receive positive influence.

Animoto

Sunshine in the Life

That is the first time I use this video-making tool. That is very amazing. Just by registrating, you can make a video for 30 seconds for free. It is very simple to do that. Three steps need to be done to produce a video. Firstly you need choose a video style. There are lots of styles contained music and background pictures. Secondly target pictices need to be added from your computer or social network website, such as Facebook, Twitter and instergram. And then, Writing down any text you want to show in the video. The last thing you may need to do is giving a title to your own video. Moreover, you can share this video to others through many website. I think teacher can use this in order to make their lessons interesting and have more fun. Music and picture are best ways to arouse students` interests, draw their attention and active atomosphere of the whole classroom.

ePals--- an useful educational website

    Recently I have devoted myself to a new-found website called EPALS, which is a good recommendation for educators and students. EPALS is a social learning network in the field of educational technology that provides a place to build worldwide learning community and share resources. I found a very interesting part named Global Community. Users can find classroom to join classified by different language and age range. This is very helpful for students and parents to locate a suitable class quickly and conveniently through EPALS. Another part I found very helpful named Learning Center. There are lots of learning resources in many aspects. For example, Smithsonian Center will lead you to enjoy the largest museum all over the word, The Writing Center provide a lot of articles and activities related to improving writing skills. In addition, educators can download a large amount of useful materials freely from Teacher Resources part. In a word EPALS is a amazing website for us and need to be explored more.

Gamification in language room ----- Serious Games

I want to practice gamification in another type of game called serious game, which is focus on a particular purpose and environment and no end to play. What I chose for this time is My Beauty Spa Panic from a gaming website OgiGames.

    I design learning objectives with four levels depend on the different difficulty class. First is describing walking routes of characters (Customer goes straight and then turn left). Second is vocabulary about spa (towel bathtub massage). Third is verb-tense (The waiter is doing nail polish for the customer now and they finished shower just now.). Fourth is story-telling. Students are asked to tell classmates what happened in his spa panic. I plan to assess my teaching goal by two ways: peer mediation and expert mediation. The whole class works in pairs to play this game and be required to practice learning objectives with each other by turns. Then I will call some students answer my questions related to the lesson.

Gamification in language room ----- Escape the Room Games

Today I have learned a new concept called gamification, which means applying game-design thinking into non-game activity that can make things more fun and engaging. I never thought that online game can be a way to teach, but after reading 7 Things You Should Know About Gamification and What is Gamification? I have some clear idea about gamification. It is helpful for teacher to active learning atmosphere and involve students in lessons. That is amazing. So I am going to try it by myself. I choose a game from a online-game website Big Fish called Room Escape: Floors. Personally I have played this game twice, the second time I searched its walkthrough in Google, because I have a big trouble obstruct me to complete successfully.

If I use this game in my language classroom, my learning objective is mainly on vocabulary, which must be chosen from these three aspects: furniture (pillow desk sofa piano), color (red green white black) or preposition (on, next to, behind, below). The whole class divided into six groups to play, each one focus on one of the six keys needed to escape. Then let them exchange their findings to pass the game together. I will give the oral walkthrough to assess whether they have mastered new vocabularies. Teacher play role as a mediator and promoter. I will give students a hand when they meet troubles in learning process and supervise them keeping new words in mind.

Thoughts about Twitter after reading

   I have chose two articles from my teachers` Diigo. These are useful to me. One of them tells me about actions what I should not do in Twitter. It lists ten actions like doing advertising, showing being loved and judging professional things with own prejudice. I totally agree with the author and this article reminds me a lot as a beginner in Twitter. The other article recommends me some awesome twitters classified by their subject. It is convenient for people looking for particular fields. And this collection of helpful twitters is valuable. I think Twitter is a place people can share various resources, exchange ideas and get responds immediately. I will check it usually from now on.

Article 1：10 Twitter Mistakes You Should Avoid

Article 2: Using Twitter for Teachers` Professional Development

Twitter Chat

It is not my first time to use this kind of chat, but in twitter with professional topic, I have never been in.  I have attend a chant called #web2.0tools. This group mainly focus on the Internet technology in education. People share their idea about the advantages and influence of various learning websites, and also do lots of recommendation. I have tried some, they are very useful and I never knew it. I think TC can be a good way for teachers to get knowing about the educational tendacy which is changing rapidly. Teachers and students will keep pace with the world by twitter. Being on time must raise the learning effciency of student as they can gain more help and creative methods. In adiition, people exchange ideas in anytime under the same chat topic. They can help each other and improve together.

Classroom 2.0

    This website provides a place for thousands of educators talking about their same interests. There are lots of communities based on different topics, participants can exchange their idea with other members.Also you can find abundant resources here. It is very useful both for teachers and students.

A learner is like a cell phone

According to materials the 590 syllabus gave, the image of connectivism in my mind becomes clearer and clearer. It is really a creative concept to me and I agree with this idea. I think a learner is like a cell phone today. What cause my thought are two reasons: updating and communication.

There is one key principle of connectivism is “Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known” (George Siemens). I think this is very important. If an advanced learner does not have ability or desire to keep learning, he will be a loser finally. The world is changing every day, staying means retrogressing. I also watch the video about network learning, which shows influence of network on learning. Nowadays we more rely on some software to learn knowledge or exchange ideas. Actually we did communication naturally in the past by letters and phone calls, but now we extend it to available technology like blog. It means that connecting oneself to others and the outside world is a important elements in learning. Idea in the video has similar stand with the article: “What we know today is not as important as our ability to continue to stay current.” “The way we are connected to other individuals is largely responsible for our ability to continue.”

In the result, the function of cell phone is communicating with others to exchange ideas and share information. This is more like what a good learner needs to do. Also people want to have a cell phone which can be updated constantly in order to keep pace with the times. That accord with what I talked just now, good learners should use more convenient and effective ways to improve themselves.

Article: Connectivism

Video: The network is the learning

Diggo VS Scoop. it

    In mod 4, I have learned two tools called Diggo and Scoop It. They are all websites that can help people filter millions of information and choose what you want. Diggo's main function is marking website. People can add any website as bookmark and give them specific desciption. Tags can be added in to help people classify various website. Any texts can be highlight by Diggo tools. Refers to Scoop, it mainly classify aiticles by topic. People can creat own topic and give each tags, Scoop will search relevant passages for you and you can collect what you like in your topic. These two are all very convenient and personal when one aims to look for a particular topic. In addition, users can choose other participants to follow to pay attention to their collections, which is a good way to share information. I will recommend D&S to my future students and even everyone!

Reaction to videos about education revolution

Educational Change Challege

    Through this video, two main ideas come up to my mind. First is about the change of teachers` teaching methods. There is a sentence in the video is that the class cannot be carried on if the teacher is from the past. It means that students are always changing; their ideas are not like these students in the old age. So teachers need to change the teaching methods in classroom, or they will not have an efficient class. And also the ways to publish information need to be improved, or the students may not easy to accept it or have no interests to learn it.

Social Media Revolution 2011
    This video tells me the influence and importance of media such as some social network today. More and more people start to use engines to learn new things. It saids that the number of followers of three big stars in Twitter are huge than the whole population of several counties. I think social network is a good and popular way for teacher having connection and reaction with students, which has less stress for their communication than face-to-face.

Learning Standard

 ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards

1.	Creativity and Innovation
	Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
	a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression. c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. d. identify trends and forecast possibilities.
2.	Communication and Collaboration
	Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
	a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures. d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

Mod2 a

Two ways that you could use blogs with your own students or for your own professional development.

I think teacher can use blog as a way to improve students` study effiency. Teacher can post lots of learning materials on blog which is always available for students. So that students can download those which they are interested in. In addition, the relationships between students and teachers could be strengthened through reactions on blog. For professional development, teachers can share their teaching ideas and help each other. It must be good for the teaching research and class improvement.