I thought I would mention a project I am working on. The original inspiration for this project came from the "Choose your Own Adventure" books which I read as a boy. These are books in which the reader is able to participate in making decisions in the story. For example, the reader will be reading and comes to a page where an essential plot decision must be made. If you choose decision A you might go to page 23, decision B would send you to page 132, and decision C to page 45, for example. You continue reading the story, occasionally having to make similar decisions until your character either dies, or completes the adventure-be it a successful completion or not.
This project uses a similar idea but with the twist of digital video and web authoring. Language students have the opportunity to participate in the whole process from conception to micropublishing. Students use all four language skills actively in a fun and challenging project. In this site I have outlined the steps required to succeed in this project, along with pedagogical reasons behind the project, screen shots when possible, I have also created a sample adventure video which you can click through to below.
CLICK! :) Link to the project
CLICK! :) Link to sample adventure video
VoiceThread.com provides us with a great online tool which allows us to post a picture or video, while creating a thread for people to comment on the picture or video with either text, voice, or even video. Those who post to the thread can also make annotations anywhere on the picture or video, you can even pause and restart to make various annotations. It's really neat check it out! Below I have embedded three threads which can be directly played and commented on through my blog. The other day in my CALL and Curriculum class we broke into small groups and discussed different topics (technology, curriculum, and integration) and we wrote ideas on poster paper. Feel free to post to the thread!
There are really a lot of possibilities here for the language classroom. For instance, students could post videos, or pictures with a voice comment, and then later the other students and/or the teacher could make comments. Teachers could post a video or picture before a class and then have students comment verbally-this might prepare them for the topic of the next class. Or it could be done after a class for reinforcement about ideas-similar to what I have done below. Really there are a lot of possibilities, feel free to comment!
While I did miss the live sessions available this week for BAW 08- one of the great thing about technology is that lectures/events/whatever can be recorded and played back at a later time. So thanks to technology I was able to go back and listened to the webcast (part 1) which deals with a cool site community called WorldBridges. (Click here to listen to the same thing I did...) They had quite the setup going on allowing a some participants to be in the live conversation through a SkypeCast, along with many others using simple text based chat. Quite interesting.
Well basically WorldBridges is a online place where communities and communities within communities are able to use "live, interactive webcasting and other new media technologies to help people connect, learn, & collaborate." One of these communities mentioned in the webcast is called "EdtechTalk," which as its name might suggest is "a community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology." They have various live shows webcasted each week which are streamed and participants tune in using their favorite program...if they want to participate actively there is also a chat session going on at the same time.
Honestly I am just so amazed at the amount of high quality resources out there which I had no idea about. One last thing before I close for today- Webcasting can be a tricky thing-and I haven't really talked much about what it's good for-but I'll let you look into that-but for those of you who are interested in doing this there is a great resource available called the Webcast Academy. Completion of this course and you should be on your way!
Well I slacked a little bit this week on participation with the EVO Webheads group, but wanted to make a few comments on the topic for this week. I attended a live Tapped In tour as part of the events of the week and I think Tapped In has a lot of promise. The tour in and of itself was a litle bit interesting as the group was quite large, with many forgetting the need to "listen" to the guide, interjecting at random. So just what is it? According to the site, "Tapped In is the online workplace of an international community of education professionals. K-12 teachers and librarians, professional development staff, teacher education faculty and students, and researchers engage in professional development programs and informal collaborative activities with colleagues." The site is like a virtual campus with unlimited expansion. For those of you familiar with MOO's it has a similar feel in many respect to these kinds of worlds.
I would recommend taking a look at the site yourself, but let me just mention a couple of things which I found particularly interesting about the platform. First, there are many events/sessions available every month in which anyone interested can participate. For example, some of the events listed for this month are: "religious educators forum," "E-portfolios," "webheads in action," "Math and Technology," "Learning from Lyrics," "WIZIq Technology Demo," and many many others.
It just seems like an amazing free space where you can come learn about things which will make you a great teacher-and it's free. What is so great here is that these are live sessions (through chat) where you can actually interact with the person or persons who are presenting the information and personally ask them questions on the topic, or bring up topics and issues yourself for discussion. As well a transcript of everything that goes on is emailed to you so you don't have to worry so much about remembering every single thing. If there is a session that you couldn't make they also archive the proceedings so you can go back and read what happened as well. Pretty cool. Tapped in is much more extensive then what I shared in here, for instance I have my own office- check out the site and let me know what you think!
Well this first week there are quite a few readings dealing with having success with online learning. This post deals with the first two along with some other comments
The first reading is a page from the University of Guelph containing some quick hints on learning online. It could basically be summarized saying that in online distance courses it is important to do the following:
- Be familiar with the course, that means look around the website(s) or whatever platform the course is using and become comfortable.
- Keep up with the coursework, you are expected to participate in the different activities, forums, etc. As these courses tend to have a life of their own, getting behind can be more fatal than normal in this environment.
- Participation is also important as other class members will be relying on you to keep the class going (aka discussion postings, etc.-it's no fun writing to yourself)
The second reading entitled "What makes a Successful Online Student," likewise has a quick list though I think it is better than the first reading. It mentions that more and more online learning is becoming something for mainstream education, and not just the "working adult education niche." The reading brings up a number of great points, but I will just comment here on a couple of them.
Once again, the student must have dedication to the online course, "The online learning process is normally accelerated and requires commitment on the student’s part. Staying up with the class and completing all work on time is vital. Once a student gets behind, it is almost impossible to catch up." Just like in a face to face classroom students are required to keep up with the work and fulfill certain requirements, the same is try for online learning. A student should not assume that simply because the course is online it is easier, as the reverse may actually be true.
An online student must be willing to spend considerable amounts of time at a computer, as the article says 5-7 days a week. They must also be willing to and able to be flexible and find ways to work well with others and do projects which must be completed in new and different ways then in the physical world they may be used to. Online courses may not be for everybody, and not all teachers may have what it takes to teach online.
I am currently taking an intensive Winterim course on using the internet for language teaching. (Goes well with the EVO Webheads conference) I wanted to make sure I would have enough time during the break to complete all the tasks so I went to the teacher beforehand to see how much time it would actually take. However the reality is the time required is much greater than was anticipated. Now partly this is because I love to play around with technology and I have done additional things not necessarily required for the course, so no real complaints there. There are other students who have much less experience with technology and online courses, and I know that they are spending much more time than was anticipated.
So as teachers I think it is important to realize this, and be upfront with students at how much time it may take depending on skill levels, and media fluencies, etc. (Remember also that the time spent is not just students, but teachers can become very overwhelmed and end up with more work than expected as well!) And likely we will end up giving students more to do than they can easily handle, and we must than be extra flexible, more time may be necessary for one task or another, way may need to cut out some required things. This is true in any classroom, but maybe more important online. I think in the class I am taking right now, the teacher is aware of these issues, and has put in a lot of work on her side, and has been very flexible, allowing for change and having mercy on those students who really are struggling, and not just slacking.
Well I did some more of the initial "sign in and setup "things for WebHeads-and I thought it was really quite cool how many people are participating and from all over the world. It's amazing the way the world can just connect like that. Without the internet this would never be possible in the same way. And the great thing is it's free. To see just how many people are contributing to this conference just look at the map below. That's cool.
This blog has officially been opened! Come one come all, see what it means for Sir Jeremy dancealot to be a webhead. This blog is being created as part of a class - Integrating Technology into the Curriculum-a class this semester at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. The first part of this semester we will be participating in the TESOL EVO online conference particularly the "Becoming a Webhead" session. I am also participating in a session dealing with using drama in the language classroom-but that is not the subject here. These sessions are many weeks long requiring participants to do different things- and so we will see what exactly it means to be a webhead. This blog will serve as a place of sweet reflection on the topic. This blog will also hopefully make it past the conference and be a place for all many other CALL reflections. The time is now, the time is ripe for revolution!!
Now before I close for today, how about a little bit about me as a learner? (It's part of the assignment) Well I like to do. Don't just tell me something. I'm not a spunge. While some people are spunges, I'm not. I am a quick learner if I can have time to just play around with something myself- guided tours are not my thing. However, if I have a guide along with me who is just there when I want, and can give me some direction, I find that very helpful. I am a Kinestetic learner, I am among those students who teachers worried about. People thought I was ADHD, because I have trouble staying still for more than 10 minutes at a time. I like dancing.
MATFL-Spanish &