ESL Podcast

Podcast is a great way to learn languages in nowadays, because it has the advantages as followings: first, it has a relatively authentic dialogue setting: from the list of ESL Pod (learning customs), the dialogue often happens in real-life scenarios; second, the range of podcast topics is really wide to choose from, it almost covered every sides of language study. Another important feature to language learners, besides the audio dialogue itself, podcast also provide text scripts as well, which makes the materials more easy to understand. Usually, in the first part of podcast, is the record of a dialogue or conversation, then comes with the explanation to certain language points of the episode.

For language teachers, I will use podcast as part of my introduction material in the beginning of class,   as part of complementary material to introduce the certain topics or unit contents. In additional, the podcast can be used as the listening comprehension material to mark out key vocabulary and use of sentence patterns. I also want my students to read after the conversation because the speed of speakers is slow enough for even beginners to follow. Finally, I want my students to make up their own conversations and do the role-play.

ePals

ePals is a great integrated websites for language studying. It mainly have three parts: global community, Cricket--a reading resources which contains apps with various study resources for children, This is school is like a teacher's forum where teachers can share and search for teaching resources. 

For different study groups and various language learners, ePals have different categories like grades, languages and disciplines. It is much easier for both teachers and learners to locate the right sources and is helpful to find what they need at the same time. 

Another good feature of this website is it emphasize that students learn through experiences, in this case, the materials provided are mostly very authentic. It also has a good combination with technology of today, it provided learners with education app which enables learners all over the world have access to its resources. Therefore, I might utilize the teaching materials on this website in future and recommended this as complementary sources to my students as well. 

Storybird- Comics brings fun and knowledge

The first time I learnt about that comics could apply to education purpose is in one of my grammar class, my teacher used comics strips to demonstrate certain grammar knowledge, embedded with grammar structure within it. At that time, as a student myself, find out this way to teach grammar is quite engaging. 

So, today I made my own comics which are focus on grammar as well. This Thanksgiving Plan comics focus on demonstrate the way of how to asking for people's opinions. And two structure I used here is quite basic and simple one: how about/what about doing something. 

Overall, I think the idea of introducing grammar via comics is great for teachers. Also, I think instead of making students do regular grammar exercises, asking them to make their own comic strips with the apply of target structure is a good way to check their understanding as well. 

Stupeflix-A simple way to make your own photo stories

This is my first time to try make my own video and with the help of online tools, the outcome is quite satisfying. The tool I used is called "Stupeflix", it is an online editing video tool that can assist users to create their own videos. The fabulous feature of this tool is: a) it provide new users with 60 second photo show; and b) the video can be converted to HD version for free(one-time trail).

I made a short video about "how to plan a trip" and I think this can be used as a warm-up activity at the beginning of a class, since watching a video and then introducing the topic is always an attracting and popular way in a second language classroom.

In future, I think not only myself, but also my students can utilize this tool to complete assignments like: video presentation, digital story telling, field trip slide show...and much more. The advantage of easy to make and time-saving makes this a really great tool to use. 

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling, as it entails from the name itself, it is a kind of storytelling that through the means of technology tools like computers, internet. According to an article named "What is Storytelling", digital storytelling is "around the idea of the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia". 

Nowadays, education and technology are really closely combine together, both teachers and students are highly relied on high-techs, therefore digital storytelling is welcoming to learners as an educational tool. To apply this approach, there are seven elements should be bear in mind as The 7 Elements of Storytelling refers to as followings:"point of view; a dramatic question; emotional content; the gift of your voice; the power of the soundtrack; economy; pacing." However, for educational purpose, the requirements are slightly different from the elements above.

First thing is to determine the overall purpose of the story, then choose the perspective of narrator's point of view. A dramatic question or questions should also been make, after that is the choice of content. The clarity of voice and pacing of the narrative also matters in the storytelling, with the use of a meaningful audio soundtrack, quality images, video and other multimedia elements can really add content to the story itself. Last, it is the story detail and grammar/language usage part should be pay attention to. Overall, digital storytelling is a good variety form to apply in class. 

Serious Games for Autonomous Learning

The game I played is Third World Farmer: "an experiment in the genre of Serious Games, it simulates some of the real-world mechanisms that cause and sustain poverty in 3rd world countries."In the game, the player gets to run a farm located in Africa and is faced with difficult choices that bring by poverty and war.

In the game setting, players will see many different reasons that result in money loss or even the death of family members, for instance: civil war, corrupt officials, corn harvest fails, etc. After each turns, the player will get a brief summary of balance and a short description of reasons lead to this results. 

 To better understand the meaning that game designers want to convey through, students/players should fully comprehend the explanation/reasons of "Event of the Year", this often provided randomly, however, after playing several turns, the player will gradually realized one accidental events can lead to serious outcome like starvation or family death. This is unimaginable for people who lives in industrialized society because none of these events will happened on us. After playing this game, I will ask students to write a report of what events they've encountered in this game and what kind of actions they think can takes to prevent those happened. 

To assess the students' understanding, they need to summarize the issues and events which lead to a specific results; put forward suggestions of how they think can help to improve the current situation. Finally, through playing, I hope students can understand the initial intent of game developer, start to make change from them own.  

Gamification in L2 Classroom

This week's topic is gamification, by a definition provided from a website called Gamification Wiki:"Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging". By this definition, we can understand that one important reason to introduce game into learning and education is game is able to create fun and engaging atmosphere in the process of learning. 

To get a better idea, I read 10 Gaming Genres to Adapt in Class, in this article, the writer wrote about which kind of games can be used and how to apply it in real classroom environment. Next, it's time for me to try one of those games! I choose Bathroom Escape because I've already played similar games like this before. The key to this sort of game is try to find out every details, collect all useful items and try to apply those in the right place.  For this game, I was lucky enough to get through in one time. During the process of playing, I considered that if I use this game for my language teaching classes, my teaching objectives might focus on vocabularies and grammar (directional propositions), I will have my students try to play this game and remember the words and items names that appeared, also I will ask them to describe the place between two or three objects. For example: in this picture, I will ask the position between the picture on the wall and the vase on the floor. The expected answer should be: the painting is above the vase or the vase is under the painting.  

In a large classroom, if I decided to adopt this game, I might divide the whole class into several different groups, each group can finish this game independently, try to make them compete with each other. Me, as a teacher, I will play the role of monitor and observer, if they come across any difficulties during the game, I can give them explicit/implicit hints. I will not use a walk through during activity, but if they fell this game is really too difficult or get stuck with last few steps, I will demonstrate a walk through in front of the whole class. Also, for the review of vocabulary and grammar, I will use the screen shot from scenes of the game to help them reinforce knowledge. Last, to assess whether students have acquired the things I want them to learn, I will have a quiz in the following class to check their understanding.