Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
podcasting
This is a podcast that my friend Kennedy and I recorded together about podcasts and some ways that they can be used in the classroom. In addition to the activities we talk about in the podcast, which mostly came from an article by Dolly J. Young, podcasts can be an easily accessed learning tool for students inside and outside of the classroom.
The idea of portability really appeals to me. I know that if I had the opportunity to download all of my homework assignments and carry them with me in the car or on a walk or during the other daily activities that fill up my time, I would definitely take advantage of that opportunity. Unfortunately, I haven't found audiobooks for the novels we are reading in my Spanish classes, which would definitely be a time saver for me.
Other than that, though, none of my current classes have made use of podcasting or of audio recording in general. I think this activity could be useful for helping students become more comfortable with their ability to produce the foreign language and their ability to communicate with others in the foreign language. It is often hard for foreign language teachers to gage students' speaking abilities when the only formally assessed oral language production takes place in the form of individual interviews or class presentations, where students have environmental factors that negatively affect their production of the foreign language. The idea of having students record even a brief response to something they have read, heard, or learned about in the foreign language classroom, as a sort of audio journal, seems like something that I might be interested in including in my classroom -- not only does it incorporate a different form of communication than most graded student work, but it could be entirely portable for me, too! I think that podcasting has advantages for students as well as teachers!
The idea of portability really appeals to me. I know that if I had the opportunity to download all of my homework assignments and carry them with me in the car or on a walk or during the other daily activities that fill up my time, I would definitely take advantage of that opportunity. Unfortunately, I haven't found audiobooks for the novels we are reading in my Spanish classes, which would definitely be a time saver for me.
Other than that, though, none of my current classes have made use of podcasting or of audio recording in general. I think this activity could be useful for helping students become more comfortable with their ability to produce the foreign language and their ability to communicate with others in the foreign language. It is often hard for foreign language teachers to gage students' speaking abilities when the only formally assessed oral language production takes place in the form of individual interviews or class presentations, where students have environmental factors that negatively affect their production of the foreign language. The idea of having students record even a brief response to something they have read, heard, or learned about in the foreign language classroom, as a sort of audio journal, seems like something that I might be interested in including in my classroom -- not only does it incorporate a different form of communication than most graded student work, but it could be entirely portable for me, too! I think that podcasting has advantages for students as well as teachers!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Second Life...in the classroom?
From what little I've seen so far of second life, I have serious doubts about its potential uses in the classroom.
I understand that it could potentially provide interactive situations for students to practice the language they are learning, but the hurdles and time required to set up those situations seem disproportionate to the perceived benefits.
It takes a long time to learn how to move around and communicate in second life. I think that the amount of class time that would have to be dedicated to learning how to maneuver in this virtual world would take away from the over-all learning time in the classroom. Unless all of the instructions for moving around in second life were in the target language, it would be hard to limit students' access to English instructions given by second life. I think it would be very challenging to hold students accountable for their movements in this virtual world and especially challenging to track their conversations.
Exploring teen second life would have been interesting for our class, because it seems like it might have a few more behavior limitations for its avatars. At least, I think I hope it does -- I'm not sure that it would be appropriate for my students to be able to walk around with their shirts off in a class activity, even if it was only in the virtual classroom.
So, although real-time interaction with others does seem to be important for language learning, I think that second life presents too many options and too little accountability for me to include it in my classroom. At least until a whole lot more research has been done on it!
I understand that it could potentially provide interactive situations for students to practice the language they are learning, but the hurdles and time required to set up those situations seem disproportionate to the perceived benefits.
It takes a long time to learn how to move around and communicate in second life. I think that the amount of class time that would have to be dedicated to learning how to maneuver in this virtual world would take away from the over-all learning time in the classroom. Unless all of the instructions for moving around in second life were in the target language, it would be hard to limit students' access to English instructions given by second life. I think it would be very challenging to hold students accountable for their movements in this virtual world and especially challenging to track their conversations.
Exploring teen second life would have been interesting for our class, because it seems like it might have a few more behavior limitations for its avatars. At least, I think I hope it does -- I'm not sure that it would be appropriate for my students to be able to walk around with their shirts off in a class activity, even if it was only in the virtual classroom.
So, although real-time interaction with others does seem to be important for language learning, I think that second life presents too many options and too little accountability for me to include it in my classroom. At least until a whole lot more research has been done on it!
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