Innovations in Education
The reading for today comes out of left field for me, I didn't really know that curating content was a thing. However as I understand it it is the process of collecting materials from online sources and thinking about them critically, having a purpose in mind and creating a forum for them to be viewed by others. I wonder at the purpose of curating content or why you might want to ask students to curate content. I guess having students learn how to get content, and understand it is valuable but I don't really get curating. Maybe it will be explained in detail and with context in class and I will see the value of "curating content" but as it stands it is somewhat a foreign concept to me with no real life application.
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Day 7: Podcasting
Here is episode 1 of Ensemble!! I love the idea of creating podcasts, once you get the hang of using garage band it it amazingly easy to make podcasts that sound kind of professional. I think students would love a project like this. Also if I had the time and motivation it would be fantastic to create your own mini lessons to go along with your in class material, kind of like the idea of flipping the classroom. I love being able to embed the file in the blog, I am very much in love with technology!! I can see the practical application of podcasting in the classroom. I will be looking at other language podcasts to see if there is anything that might be good to follow and listen to in the french classroom.<br />
listen to ‘Ensemble Episode 1’ on Audioboo
listen to ‘Ensemble Episode 1’ on Audioboo
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Reading 6: Comments
I love when teachers use new technology to create excitement in their classroom while teaching skills that have been important for decades. Oral communication is not new to the classroom, teachers have been asking students to give oral presentations in front of the class for a long time, but giving it a twist by asking students to create podcasts might bring a new sense of excitement. I really like the author's point about creating an authentic purpose for learning- creating your own content rather than just consuming it. Giving the students the goal of creating this podcast that potentially people from around the world could listen to.
I was thinking of some applications of podcasting and Concour d'art oratoire came to mind right away. As most french immersion and francophone students will remember presenting concour d'art oratoire was a yearly struggle. Having the students create a podcast of their concour would allow them to listen to themselves, share their concour and maybe alleviate some of the fear of presenting in front of the class (I would still want students to practice speaking in front of the class but they would have the podcast that they created that was perfect and edited to feel confident about) I would also love to listen to some of the concours that I have heard in the past but which have been lost to memory.
Another great thing about podcasting is that it is giving students a skill: story telling. A real life applicable skill that might follow students their whole lives, maybe students will have an interest in broadcasting, in entertainment, politics etc because of their experience creating podcasts. Being confident in oral presentations is a fantastic skill to pick up as a young student. I also really love that it is a project that parents can really engage with, they can listen to their child's podcast and feel like they are engaged in their child's learning. Anytime you can get parents more involved in their child's learning it is a great thing.
I was thinking of some applications of podcasting and Concour d'art oratoire came to mind right away. As most french immersion and francophone students will remember presenting concour d'art oratoire was a yearly struggle. Having the students create a podcast of their concour would allow them to listen to themselves, share their concour and maybe alleviate some of the fear of presenting in front of the class (I would still want students to practice speaking in front of the class but they would have the podcast that they created that was perfect and edited to feel confident about) I would also love to listen to some of the concours that I have heard in the past but which have been lost to memory.
Another great thing about podcasting is that it is giving students a skill: story telling. A real life applicable skill that might follow students their whole lives, maybe students will have an interest in broadcasting, in entertainment, politics etc because of their experience creating podcasts. Being confident in oral presentations is a fantastic skill to pick up as a young student. I also really love that it is a project that parents can really engage with, they can listen to their child's podcast and feel like they are engaged in their child's learning. Anytime you can get parents more involved in their child's learning it is a great thing.
Day 6: Vocabulary Building
Here is a sample of a polyvore I created. I really enjoyed doing this and I can see how students could become very involved in creating their own polyvore. I'm not really sure if I would ever use this in class but I like the forum and it does make for a fun way to pass the time.
I like the idea of wordle as a pretty picture that alludes to a certain topic or content. I don't really see how it is all that useful in the classroom but it might be a fun cover page that students can make for a project or a way of synthesizing a unit. Creating a picture book is a cool idea for a project where you might ask students to write a story to go along with the pictures you've chosen for the book but I am not sold on using other peoples pictures from flickr to create the book. As a project I asked students to create a story using pictures or video to show their daily lives. Many students used powerpoint to show their story, some used prezi, a couple of students created stories on paper, I could have shown them the bookr site and that forum could be another option for presenting their project.
Monday, 30 July 2012
Reading 5: Comments
I like the message of this article. Sometimes when teachers don't like students doing certain things, like using wikipedia as a source or using translators or whatever it may be, teachers will just say, don't do it, and then ignore the problem. I like that this author is urging teachers to accept that students are going to use translators even if you warn them not to, and that it is our job to show students who to best use translators. I use google translate often as a quick reference instead of online dictionaries because sometimes its faster to translate one or two words, but I do have enough knowledge of the languages to judge the validity of the translation. I think making online translators part of a project at the beginning of the year could be a great idea.
During my practicum I encouraged students to use online dictionaries, I showed my grade 11 and 12 the grammar check website, "lebonpatron.com" and I even suggested that they use google translate for certain checks. You can always tell when a student has written something in english and put it into the translator and not checked the outcome. Making your students aware of the pitfalls of online translators can be a great learning opportunity and will hopefully make for fewer incoherent projects and papers that you have to give back to the student for a second try. I would be interested in coming up with a very well thought out project and graphic organizer to help show students the pros and cons of online translators.
During my practicum I encouraged students to use online dictionaries, I showed my grade 11 and 12 the grammar check website, "lebonpatron.com" and I even suggested that they use google translate for certain checks. You can always tell when a student has written something in english and put it into the translator and not checked the outcome. Making your students aware of the pitfalls of online translators can be a great learning opportunity and will hopefully make for fewer incoherent projects and papers that you have to give back to the student for a second try. I would be interested in coming up with a very well thought out project and graphic organizer to help show students the pros and cons of online translators.
Day 5: Ebooks and Publications
I chose to upload an instructional guide that I made for a Biology class as a field trip project. Although this particular documents wouldn't be useful for the classroom it might be a neat way to share resources with other teachers. I really like the idea of creating an easy to view flip book of a pdf document. There are times when I wonder about the validity of asking students to copy down notes when there is no distinct learning goal associated with the act of copying. It might be nice in certain situations to have the option of guiding students to a site where they can view the notes or activity that you want them to have without asking them to print it off or without having to make 60 copies of the document yourself. I like the format of the youblisher and how easy it was to use.
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Reading 4: Comments
I loved the suggestions made in this article about showing students strategies for reading in their L2. I love practical ideas in articles, ideas that I can see myself implement in the classroom. The idea of using non-sense words to show the students that they can guess when reading in their L2 is something I will definitely try. In general there is a lack of emphasis on teaching students strategies, such as reading strategies, in the classroom. This is not only true for the L2 classroom but for all subject matter. We need to be teaching students the strategies that they need to read, to understand a text, to pull information from text, to study etc.
Another great thing about this article is the focus on students deciphering context. There has been an emphasis in several of the articles about creating context for the students to help in their understanding. I love the emphasis on context rather than trying to ask students to understand random sentences pulled out of nowhere that have no context like "my aunt's pen is on my uncle's desk". When in life do you ever need to understand anything with no context? Giving students the tools to use metacognitive skills to think about the reasons why the text was written, the purpose of the text and the goal of the author allows them to build context themselves. Making it very explicit what is expected of the students as they read a text allows them to become confident in their understanding skills. It is important to give students the confidence they need in order to challenge themselves.
Reading matters
Another great thing about this article is the focus on students deciphering context. There has been an emphasis in several of the articles about creating context for the students to help in their understanding. I love the emphasis on context rather than trying to ask students to understand random sentences pulled out of nowhere that have no context like "my aunt's pen is on my uncle's desk". When in life do you ever need to understand anything with no context? Giving students the tools to use metacognitive skills to think about the reasons why the text was written, the purpose of the text and the goal of the author allows them to build context themselves. Making it very explicit what is expected of the students as they read a text allows them to become confident in their understanding skills. It is important to give students the confidence they need in order to challenge themselves.
Reading matters
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