Blog #8: Open Topic / Reflection

For your final blog post, please feel free to write about any topic related to the course. For example, you can reflect on what you have learned about in the course and your e-portfolio project and also discuss any future goals or plans you have to use technology in your classroom.

When I first saw the CALL class on the timetable of this TESOL program, I didn't even know what it meant. It was an abbreviation of Computer-Assisted Language Learning. Actually, I was quite afraid at the very first time because I was not that good at dealing with computers. Although I had many opportunities to make powerpoint files when I was in college, I was not that good at making it. Now, as a businesswoman, I always use search engine to find the information and use office program such as excel and word everyday. Thanks for it, I'm very good at excel and word now, but beyond that level, I was always intimidated by computers.

However, right after the first week, it started getting interesting. I didn't know there are so many teacher's resource sharing sites out there. I visit 'sharemylesson(http://www.sharemylesson.com/)' often to find the resource for making my activity plan and to get some insights of what the lesson should be like from experienced teachers. Delicious is a good one to make a bookmark for these useful sites.

After I got interested in these TOOLS for teaching, everything looked different to me. I started using Blogger to post my writings about experience of using computer-assisted language learning tools. Google became my No.1 search engine instead of Naver because I got used to google site to make my portfolio. Once I started, it gave me richer experience than I expected.

Prezi was a brand new world. It was a visual revolution.

Through the synchronous & asynchronous computer mediated communication tools like scribblar, google hangouts, voicethread and CLEAR Rich Internet applications, I was able to get a sense of what the ubiquitous computing environment is. By using these ubiquitous computing tools, now we can create an ubiquitous learning environment. To witness the change with my own eyes was a beautiful experience.

Open source learning and listening tools like TED, NPR podcasts and This American Life are now good friends of mine in a bus or a subway.

Wordle, it's an amazing word tool! Everyone loves this cool design.

To use digital storytelling tools like Zimmer Twins at School, Pixton and Domo Animate was a demanding work, but to see the output of it was very worthwhile. These tools definitely work in an effective way to raise students’ interests.

The duration of this course was just 2 months or so, but the quantity and quality of it was not that of 2 months. It was more than that. Beside it gave me lots of useful information and made me get used to the tools, it gave me confidence about handling those internet and computer tools. Above all things, I was able to know what I'm interested in among many language fields. I want to learn more about CALL from now on, because I believe it will make an effective and in tune with the times way of learning.

Thanks for showing me the world of CALL, Ryan! 

Blog #7: Mobile App Review

Search for a language learning application designed for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Provide a link to the application's website. Write a brief review of this application that includes information about the app's functions, which devices it is compatible with, and how it can assist or enhance the language learning process.

Busuu

http://www.busuu.com/



Online Website


Busuu's language learning apps cover a wide range of a speaker's ability, from baginner  to advanced. There are various themes to help you learn useful language items. Each theme provides related words, conversation, quizes and reviews.
There are apps for other languages like Spanish, German, Italian, French, and more.
The access to Busuu is available through internet, mobile and tablet.


You can use it for free. However, if you want an expanded content, it's available by paying some extra fee.


*If you download the apps through mobile, you can see the screens like below.



Mobile App - Starting Image

Blog #6: Digital Storytelling

Write brief reviews about the two tools you used to create short lessons with this week (Digital Storytelling through Storybooks, Cartoons & Comics). 


#1. Domo Animate :  http://domo.goanimate.com/studio

I think the website is originally made by Japanese or at least pay some royalty to the Japanese animation company because characters of this website are made in Japan.
By the way, you can use this site to create an animated story. You can make the characters to do some actions like run, slide and walk, and you can also change their facial expressions, too. Moreover, you can insert the background music in it, and put the line in the speech bubble.
Once you finish making one, you can share it with other classmates through online.



#2. Pixton : http://www.pixton.com/my-home


Pixton is a tool that you can make a cartoon in the easiest way. Anyone can make a funny cartoon without drawing or painting. All  you need is just an imagination. You can select a background image, item, character(inclding motions and facial expressions) and so on to make your own story.




How could these tools be used by teachers AND students? How could they be incorporated into a class?


There are various ways to incorporate this animation into the class.
First, Teachers can make a story by using this tool and show it to the class, then students understand the story and paraphrase it into their own words. Animations and cartoons are cute and fun, so it can raise students interests to the high level. Therefore they can concentrate on it and start thinking what the most appropriate words for retelling the story with their own words. During the process of picking the right words to make the story, the groupwork will be beneficial for them.
Second, the teacher can give students only the starting sentence, like a chain story, then students can make their own animated story using their imagination. The makig process is totally up to each student, so it will be very interesting to see what other students made and compare them with their own work. Students can also learn the vocabs while they make the story because they have to know the right words for the story they're going to make and pick up the picture describes it to paste.

These toosl will be very powerful and good for raising interests among students because the making process itself is very fun. Don't hesitate to apply these tools to your own class activity :)

Blog post #5: Corpora, Concordance, Collocations, Word Frequency

Check out the following sites and report back on how they could be used to inform materials development and classroom instruction:


#1. Compleat Lexical Tutor: http://www.lextutor.ca/


The website is similar to the 'Corpus of Contemporary American English'. At this website, when you type the word, you can see various usages of the word in the hundreds of contexts.

It's not that difficult for the students to guess the meaning of the words even though they see them for the first time because there are hundreds of hints that contexts show. Students can use the website to preview and review the class. Plus, the teacher can give an activity to the students so called 'Guessing Game' by giving them a list of words that they don't kow yet. Then each group of 4 students negotiate each other to figure out the meaning. In this process, they can be accustomed to how to use those words not just what it is.


#2. Corpus of Contemporary American English: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/

This website is offered by BYU. When you type the words or phrases that you want to know, for example 'give up', it searches 450 million words to find out how the phrase is used in the context and shows the result. Once you see the result, you can get the information about the frequency of the phrase and how to use it. It is much more effective to understand the meaning of corpus through the context than memorizing it.

To apply this website to the class, let the students read the passage first, and make a few groups out of 3 or 4 students. Then they discuss the meaning of the words they don't know together and use the website to guess the meaning of them. In that way, they can understand the meaning of the words and how to use it in the real context.

#3. Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/

I saw this wordle for the first time a few days ago in TLS class. The very first impression of it was 'Cooool!'. I think this tool can be used as a guidance material for the students before they actually start reading. Students can see the most frequently used words just by glancing the wordle, and they can predict what the article they are going to read is about. It helps them to understand the content much easier than reading it without any support.

I come up with the idea of using the wordle to teach a newspaper article.
Here's an article called 'Sometimes, we want prices to fool us'.
(Click the picture below if you want to see the full article.)

I draged some part of the article, copied and pasted it to the wordle website. Then, I was able to create my own wordle like below.
(The reason I pasted SOME part of the article is that I coudn't paste the whole article. I tried several times but failed. There could be a limit on the number of the words I can paste at a time, but I don't know what the exact reason is. If there's anyone who knows why, please let me know.)

As you can see, the output feature is quite colorful and beautiful. You can change the layout and font through the menu button on the left top.
In this wordle, we can see prices, coupon, sales and discounting, etc. Just by glancing it, we can  make a guess what this article is about. Plus, if there're several big words that students don't know, they can figure out the meaning of those words through the reading process by themselves.
Because of the successive process, guessing-reading-realizing by themselves(students), I think the wordle is a very effective tool to use in the real reading class.

Blog Post #4: Podcast Review

- Steve Jobs Stanford University commencement speech from Ted

Link :  http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html

"At his Stanford University commencement speech, Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar, urges us to pursue our dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks -- including death itself."

Above is a brief explaination written on Ted website for the videoclip I made a link to.

Steve Jobs tells us about three stories of his life.
The first one is about 'connecting the dots'. He says that we cannot connet the dots in life looking forward. We can only connect them looking backwards. Therefore,we have to trust in something like, gut, destiny, life, whatever. Because belief  in the dots will connect down the road will give us the confidence to follow our hearts. And that will make all the difference.
His second story is about 'love and loss'. Sometimes life hit our heads with a brick. He says, "Don't lose faith.".The only thing that made him keep going was that he loved what he did.  He claims that we have to find what we love to do. If we haven't found it, we should keep looking. He says again and again, "Keep looking. Don't settle.".
The third story is about 'death'. When he was seventeen, he read a quote that something like, 'If you live each day as if it's your last, someday you'll certainly be right.'. And since then, for the past 33 years, he looked in the mirror every morning and ask himself, 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I'm about to do today.'. If the answer is 'No' for too many days in a row, we have to change something. Reminding the fact that we certainly die in the future make us to focus on our inner voice.

I've seen this speech a few years ago, and it was quite moving and meant a lot to me. Now, again, it's still a meaningful and helpful message to me. If there's anyone who is struggling to live each day doning something he/she doesn't want to do at all, this speach will be able to give you the guidance at least.


-My opinion about the podcast & the type of learners could benefit from the podcast

There are many websites offering podcasts for free. It can be a form of a video or an audio both. I think we cannot excuse for the low English ablility anymore even though we are in the EFL environment because there are so many resources we can use to practice L2 on the internet. There's no limit of time or place to access to these materials, and most of the cases it is offered without paying a penny.
The podcast is a very good source to learn a second language because there are plenty of data for every level of L2 learners. Because of that, it can be helpful for any types of learners.
Plus, especially in Korea, the IT infra is well organized and people from young children to the old feel easy to access on the internet through their computers or moblile phones. It makes them convenient to use the podcast to practice L2. Therefore, I highly recommend the podcast as a learning source to L2 learners out there who needs more exposure to the second language they're learning.

Blog Post #3: Synchronous and Asynchronous CMC Tools

1) Brief descriptions of the tools and links to their websites


Synchronous CMC Tool  : Tokbox (OpenTok live Vedio apps )

If there are a webcam and a microphone, anyone can talk each other on the Tokbox. We can crate a room and invite friends and talk through it. This face-to-face communication tool can be used for a conference call, group discussion and social gathering. Whatever the purpose is, it's definitely cool.

Link to Tokbox : http://www.tokbox.com/platform


Asynchronous CMC Tool : VoiceThread

Voicethread is a cloud based application allows us to upload many different types of media such as images, video, documents,etc. Once we upload these media, they work like a slide show. We can share this voicethread with others or embed in a webpage. Those people that we share the voicethread can make a comment through various ways like microphone, webcam, phone, text or by uploading an audio file at anytime, anywhere.

Link to Voicethread :  http://voicethread.com/


2) Your thoughts about how the Synchronous CMC tool and the Asynchronous CMC tool could support learning and the development of language skills. Are there any similarities and differences in how they could support language learning?

Both synchronous CMC tool and the asynchronous CMC tool are effective tools to support learning and the development of language skills.
First, synchronous CMC tools like Tokbox and scribblar are fun. Tokbox, you can see your classmates' faces on your computer screen all at once. It's like you look at the bingo filled with your friends' faces. Then, they start to talk. It's very useful when students are not in the same place, but it's also can be effective in the offline class, either. Why? Because of the freshness it can bring to the class. Students love new things to stimulate them. Therefore Tokbox can make them interesed in class more than they were in the regular offline class. In the same way, Scribblar is a very useful tool for students to cooperate each other. On that one canvas, everyone in the class can draw, type a text, raise their hands and so on. It feels  like we're in a virtual classroom because almost everything we can do in the real classroom is possible in scribblar. Also, because students are familiar with computers and applications these days, it will be easier for them to draw and type through scribblar even though they are shy.
Secondly, Asynchronous CMC tool like voicethread, it's good for students to continue learning by themselvs after the class, and outside of class. Students can make a video about anything they want in English, and their friends can make a comment in a various way like video, audio, text, ect. Making a video by themselve is fun and challenging for them, and it's really helpful to learn foreign languages.Plus, they can maximize their exposed time to English by sharing that voicethread with others and making comments on friends' voicethread.
Both synchronous CMC tool and the asynchronous CMC tool are fun to use and easy to deal with. It's also a powerful tool to learn and practice languages. They are different in the way of timing and synchronism, but both of them do the complementary role for each other.

3) Some of your ideas of possible activities and ways that the tools could be used in a language class to supplement in-class content and instruction.

In the class the teacher can give a starting sentence like 'There was a boy who wants to be a soccer player.". Then the students make their own story within a group by using scribblar and tokbox by talking each other.Once they complete the story they can record it or make a video out of it. After the class, each group share their recording and video including the capture image of scribblar and some of their discussion video recorded through tokbox with others. In that way, students can present their own story and see others' works. This whole process is all learning.
Therefore, synchronous CMC tool and the asynchronous CMC tool are very effective for students to imagine and think in class. It can even force them to participate in class without telling them to do. Students participate spontaneously and do it for fun.

Blog Post #2 - Presentation Tools & Screencasting Tools

1. Describe the Presentation Tool or Screencasting Tool you used. Provide a link to the website.

I used 'Prezi' to make my visual aid for the class. Prezi is a presentation tool we can use to create a poweful visual images, of course including information in it. It looks like a one big canvas on the wall, so it's easy for us to understand the whole flow of the speach by just taking a glance of it. Comparing with powerpoint that most widely used, Prezi is not linear but  multidimensional. Because of it, it looks very active and alive enough to catch the attention of the audience.
Plus, there are so many useful templates in Prezi so it's easy to make visual aids with it even to someone who's not used to it. The templates various and beautiful, too.
Prezi is very famous now. The number of users of it is going up everyday. Now, it's your turn to explore the world of amzing visual aid, Prezi.

Link to Prezi :  http://prezi.com/


2. Describe the presentation or activity you created using the tool. Provide a link to the location of your embedded presentation on your Google Site.

It was the first time I made a presentation file with Prezi. I made a mistake, and I didn't know how to use it at first. However, I started getting used to it by clicking and seeing what happens there.
The contents of my presentaion is very simple. When we learn foreign languages, we should cover 4 dimensions; listening, reading, writing and speaking. By practicing these four categories, we can be a fluent user of that language.

My presentation on google site :  https://sites.google.com/site/heyhjfly/pre


3. Describe your experience using the tool. Would you recommend it to other teachers? Why or why not?

I highly recommend Prezi to other teachers because it's a very powerful tool. It's not just the matter of  'this is better than this'. By using Prezi, we can give students the guidance before they even start learning. Prezi is consists of multiple images on one big canvas. Whoever sees it, he/she can get the flow of the contents of the class just by looking at it. It helps students to feel easy about what they are going to learn.
Moreover, in most cases students talks each other right after the class something like "What did we learn today?" or "All I can remember is the last/first part of the lecture.". In this kind of situation, Prezi will be very effective for them to reflect and remember the learned materials in a short time-all they have to do is just glancing the canvas.
Because of those reasons above, I strongly encourage teachers to use Prezi.


4. Describe potential uses the tool could have in the Korean EFL learning context.   Korea is the country learning English as a foreign language. It's rarely probable to talk in English outside of the classroom. In most cases, students don't have the chance to talk with foreigner on the street. So it is really hard for them to practice English everyday and their motivation can be depressed easily. Due to the specific envirnment we have in Korea, it's really important for teachers to motivate students to learn. Without motivation we cannot lead them to a certain level. To do so, Prezi can be one good answer to keep students motivated by showing them colorful and actively moving images.