11/03/2011

Prezi, Online Comic Strips, and Fakebook Integrated in SLA Assignment

Have you ever stepped out of your comfort zone as a student?  How about as a teacher?  I received a lot of comments such as the following from my online College of Ed students, “I stepped outside of my comfort zone in doing this assignment, and I’m glad I did.”  This echoes my sentiment in assigning this assignment. 

Assignment Background: The basic idea of the assignment was to spend an hour playing with technology and demonstrating knowledge of our second language acquisition (SLA) weekly readings.  I’ll be the first to admit that these are rigorous readings when encountered for the first time, so I wanted the students to be able to demonstrate a small portion of their current understanding (which we will continue to build upon throughout the term) in a creative manner.  The suggested methods of doing so were online comic strips, Fakebook, Prezi, or Powerpoint.  I gave some basic guidelines and outlined some possibilities.

I also tried to stress that approximately no more than an hour needed to be spent on the assignment to meet the expectations, sharing in a public way was optional, and ultimately the assignment was to demonstrate understanding of our course objectives—in this case related to SLA theories and technology integration. 

Without further ado, here is the unveiling of their first creations!

PREZIS on SLA  (I was surprised how many students chose to tackle Prezis! Impressive debuts.)

Krashen’s Theories:  
a.  http://bit.ly/s3uAty
b.  http://bit.ly/vMPcsQ,  
c. http://bit.ly/w49e40, and 
d. http://bit.ly/sCFYRb

Schumann’s Theory: a. http://bit.ly/sm81Po and b. http://bit.ly/vq7tZ2
 
For info on  Prezi educator’s account, look here.   Today, I signed up for the beta Prezi U for educators.  It sounds promising.

COMICS on SLA:  Humor is displayed in several of these comic strips.   A-D  were made with Make Beliefs Comix.  E-F were made with Strip Generator.  I recommend Make Beliefs Comix due to the ads for K-12.

a . This one has two parts. It is cleverly entitled “Krashen the Party” and is a game.  Part 1 http://bit.ly/sNmHUQ  Part 2  http://bit.ly/vLlBwT  b.  http://bit.ly/utNBZQ  c. http://bit.ly/rFWZLz  d. http://bit.ly/sJ8z2r  e. Schumann’s Theory: http://bit.ly/trP3SM  f. Krashen’s Affective Filter http://bit.ly/sUC3VQ

Make Beliefs Comix suggests 21 ways to use them in the class http://bit.ly/jmIGk, and here are some blank comic strip printables http://bit.ly/97fPQP.

FAKEBOOKS on SLA THEORIES:  This is a spin-off of the Facebook/social media idea in popular culture.  ClassTools.Net is the site used.   Several debates between theorists play out in some of these.  Some are in a question/answer format.           


Click HERE to see what the teachers and future teachers had to say about the use of each of these tools with teaching ELLs.

Final Thoughts: I like having this blog as a way to bring both sections of my online classes together to share.  I encourage them to look at their work and continue digging into the theories, questioning and applying.

A few students opted to not share their creations with a larger audience.  I strongly agree that this should be honored without question.  One student did a great job, but had last minute challenges with the technology, which is a reality we face when we deal with technology.  We need to have a plan B for ourselves and students as well as a way to assess the process and not only the final product.  I’d also bet that a lot of technology challenges were overcome and not voiced.  Many interesting conversations about the pros/cons and how-to’s of using these tools are still left to explore.  Feel free to leave your comments. How can you use these tools in your class?

A BIG thank you to ALL of my TCE 572 students for their effort! 

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