Learning Technologies with Language Learners

I recently gave a presentation to a group of university English language instructors.  It's entitled Why? How?When? and Which Tools? Learning Technologies with Language Learners. It's divided into two parts.  Part 1: Frameworks to view technology integration. (The why, the when and a bit of the how.) Part 2: The tools with some examples.

What framework(s) do you use to guide your integration of technologies in supporting language learning and/or content learning?

National Film Board of Canada Interactives

Looking for a relaxing way to kick back for a few hours?  Get lost in the National Film Board of Canada's Interactive site!

My exploration has just began.  Bla Bla by Vincent Morisset simply puts a smile on my face. The key to the interactivity is uninhibited clicking and sound on.  Flub and Utter by Scott Nihil and Sabrina Saccoccio caught the attention of the linguist in me.  It took me back to my first linguistic course and the study of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, which Nihil references.  My favorite may be Flawed by Andrea Dorfman, but it's too early to know for sure.  I'm still exploring.

It turns out this is an ongoing area of interest that I keep stumbling upon.  Here's a related post about one of the earliest 360 interactive documentaries, Out My Window.  Also check out the NFB's films! The Girl Who Hated Books is a good place to get started for elementary teachers.  Quallunaat! Why White People Are Funny reminds me of Narmica and a good lesson I need to reinvent.

Thanks to the fabulous learners in my Ed Tech class this term, and specifically Brian Levine for sharing the National Film Board of Canada's Interactive site.

Happy interactive exploring!

Multiple Perspectives from Winnie the Pooh to Groceries

My preservice teachers had a great discussion a few weeks ago about the importance of brining in multiple perspectives into the classroom.  Doing so affirms that the world is complex and takes more than one view to gain a picture of a concept.  It can widen our worldview.  Multiple perspectives activities should also be accompanied with conversations around information literacy, bias, culture, and language.

This Russian Winnie the Pooh video (Vinni Puh) by animator Fyodor Khitruk caught my attention.  One of my favorite blogs, The Kids Should See This, has a nice post about it.

In continuing the conversation of multiple perspectives, take a look at this interesting post, What a Week of Groceries Looks Like Around the World, on Nutrition News. I think it would be interesting to pair it with a unit that maps where food comes from with this site. Type in a recipe and explore the originations of the food.  

On a similar thread of thought, don't miss James Mollison's photographs, Where Children Sleep.  If you haven't seen it, The Danger of a Single Story TED Talk by Chimamanda Adichie is a must see!

How can you bring multiple perspectives into your learning environment?  If you are interested in more sites, check out my Multicultural and Bilingual Resources that I will add to in time.  Happy exploring!

Exploring Social Justice with Storybird

This is the second in a series of two posts where in a brief assignment, my students explored Social Justice integrated with technology and I share their results with a wider audience.  (Take a look at the first post on Thinglink accessible here.)  This post highlights Storybird, an online visual storytelling site. It had been a few years since I played with Storybird, and I was happy to see the teacher account now includes ways of managing classes and assigning projects.  Check it out!

Here are a few of my students’ creations and thoughts about Storybird:

http://storybird.com/books/some-girls-6/

“I really enjoyed using Storybird, even if it did take me a bit longer to finish than I would have liked. The artwork available for use is simply amazing, and if you use the right search words you can find exactly what you need. I loved being able to customize my own story, and this could be a great tool for a specific problem or occurrence in your classroom. My story was pretty simplistic, hoping to be for a younger audience; however, it is about celebrating our differences. It's pretty superficial but with more time and using more resources it could be great! Enjoy :)”  (EN)

http://storybird.com/books/what-happened-to-our-food-and-homes-by-kl/

“I really wanted to create a story about how humans affect animals’ environment for young elementary students. I wanted to show students that people do affect others by their actions by showing how we affect pandas, foxes, rabbits, and polar bears. There is a little bit of a science part to the story because people do affect the environment with global warming.”  (KL)

http://storybird.com/books/the-spotted-bird-family/?token=vz8s66cbmv

“I liked using Storybird http://storybird.com/teachers/ to create my book because you can choose an image style and they give you a wide selection of images in that same style to use as your book illustrations. Sometimes, however, the images did not really fit what your image of the right image for the page should have been, so you have to be flexible. I was surprised how easy it was, but coming up with the content to put in the book was a little more difficult. I found my book turned out pretty superficial and with a lot more time, I would have liked to come up with a more intricate story that delved a little deeper into social justice issues, tackling some of the Bomer & Bomer article points. However, I think this would be a great way for ELLs to simplify what they have learned into a short story, concreting their knowledge and using language to describe what they learned. If they did a screen-cast or presented it in class, that would also give them speaking practice too.” KG 

Thanks to my students for their work and willingness to share!

Exploring Social Justice with Thinglink

This term, I assigned a short mini assignment for my students to play with some technologies that can be easily used in Digital Storytelling, working with English Language Learners, and in exploring topics of Social Justice.  We have also been talking about the power of visuals and video.  They had several choices, but most of them chose Thinglink, Storybird, or Tagxedo.  This is the first in two posts that will highlight these sites, showcase student creations, and look at potential uses.  (Access post two about Storybird here.)

Here is a past post I wrote about Thinglink that discusses what it is.  Be sure to move your mouse over the picture and click on the dots to discover the links.  Explore some of my students' creations and read their reflections.

Women’s Suffrage

Children Living in Poverty

 

“Once we saw the example in class, I had a ton of ideas in my head of what I wanted to do. I chose to do child poverty because it is an issue that cannot be brought up enough. I focused a lot on the United States because most people don't realize how bad this issue really is.  Children deserve better than what we are doing, and it needs to be brought to the attention of others. I chose to do five different links on the picture of a child who is clearly struggling. One link that I chose to use was the NCCP website, which has state information, data tools, and news about child poverty. The second I used was a link to a Youtube video that gives some basic information and then had a very sad piece of children talking about what it is like to be hungry. The third link is the No Kid Hungry site. It discusses the problem, solution, and how to take action. The forth is a made of 35 countries and shows the poverty rate in each country. The fifth is a link to the Voices site which has articles and facts about child poverty. This was a really fun assignment and I thought it was a great way to learn about some new technologies! Some of these sites could be used to talk to older grades about this issue and what we can do to help make a change. This site could be very fun for students to make their own with many different topics. I plan on using this again in the future!” KW

Positive Body Image

“I decided to create a story about positive body image because I really enjoy talking about body image and find it very interesting to learn about. I think that it is important for students to know what positive body image is and that every individual is beautiful no matter who they are. Talking about this topic can be applied to any grade level and can open up the door to talking about how the media's representation of beauty is distorted because of the use of Photoshop. Teachers can also talk about how society creates this notion of beauty that is unrealistic as well as talking about stereotypes that are associated with body image. The goal is to give students the resources to have a positive body image of themselves and teach them not to base judgment on how another person looks.“ LW 

Civil Rights

 

“Using this tool would be easy for any subject. I think that students would find this useful for research projects. I think that I may use this as a resource in student teaching, as well as my remaining college courses!!” MF

Lyndon Johnson

 

“I used Thinglink because it is a very interesting concept and has so much potential for all grades. I love history, especially the Kennedys, and so I decided to use a picture taken after JFK was assassinated and LBJ was being sworn in. I can see how this would be interesting for students because they can easily find out additional information just by following the links on the picture.”   KC

Thanks to my students for their creativeness and willingness to share!

Scavenger Hunt: Social Justice

When Tech  I recently sent my pre-service teachers in my Approaches for P-12 ELLs on a scavenger hunt.  They then shared their results in small group blogs.  I told them I would aggregate some of their responses and share.  (This is another way I see my role as an instructor shifting as I use Social Media.) Here are their social justice lesson plans, sites, and video results.  I am not endorsing these sites (although some of them are my favorites), but posting them in one place for my students to further analyze.   Access the list here.

Met Ed  I encourage my students to take a critical look at the sites in a way that goes beyond the directions of this small assignment.  What are some questions a teacher at your grade level should ask when looking for educational sites related to social justice?  How could the sites be used in a way that fosters learning?  For the teacher as a springboard? For the students?  What questions should be asked as one evaluates sites related to social justice for educational uses? If you taught one of the lessons from one of these sites, how could you integrate it into a content area?  What language would need to be addressed to help your language learners be successful?

Happy evaluating!
A special thanks to my students for their willingness to share.

(Photo by  robynejay) 

The Up-Goer Five in Education

Guest Blog Post:

Hello all! I am a Biology teacher currently masquerading as an English teacher in South Korea. Since I don’t have much in the way of experience teaching English—much less English as a Foreign Language (EFL)—I am taking some online courses to improve my teaching skills.

When Tech: I discovered The Up-Goer Five on Nik’s LearningTechnology Blog.

Users are challenged to explain a complex idea using only the ten hundred most used English words. The program identifies any words that you use which are not simple enough.

Here's an example.  Can you guess where it is?  " I live in a big place with one people group that is not my own. The big place I live in is broken in two parts because the two parts were fighting. I live in the lower part. People here are nice. "

Met Ed: TheUp-Goer Five could be used either to help English Language Learners (ELLs) explain an idea using words that they are familiar with or with non-ELL students to show how difficult it is to express complex ideas when you don't have the proper words. Sites such as these can expose educators to new ideas and give them tools to implement the use of these ideas.

Go ahead and try it! Leave your definition in the comments so mine won’t be lonely. 

The Learning Network: Teaching and Learning with The New York Times Teacher Resource

The Learning Network: Teaching and Learning with The New York Times has tons of valuable resources and activities for 7^th-12^th grade teachers. It contains a blog that invites students 13 and older to contribute comments about the news.  (Here’s their commenting FAQ page.) There are lessons based on content from The New York Times that can be adapted and are geared toward many content areas.  Students can take news quizzes and more.  Here’s a taste from my brief exploration today.

I explored the technology section and enjoyed the first post entitled, ‘The Secrets It Holds’: Discovering the Lively Morgue and Other Archives.  It contains an interesting short video about the The Lively Morgue which left me wanting to explore this link to the The Lively Morgue Times Tumbler.  I was not disappointed, and you will not be either if you enjoy captivating pictures that captured moments of everyday life from the past. Today’s highlighted picture of a bucking bronco in Montana in 1929 brought a smile to my face as I imagined one of my Montana relatives taking a ride.  Grandma, is that you?  Click on the picture and you’re in for another treat.  Don’t take my word for it, browse other wonderful pictures such as this one, read, and learn.  

This same post from The Learning Network, ‘The Secrets It Holds’: Discovering the Lively Morgue and Other Archives, has some excellent questions and could be used as a springboard for an assignment or discussion.  Here are a few of the questions from this post: “Why do you think some people feel a stronger connection to a physical object like a book or photograph than the same data presented on a screen? As the photo editor Darcy Eveleigh says, ‘You can’t touch digital. It’s easier to look at, faster to look at, but it feels in a weird way like this [the morgue] is a little more permanent than digital.’ Would you agree? “

The post also contains suggested activities and links to additional worthwhile readings!  These could easily be embedded in an engaging unit that probes students to consider issues of our times revolving around research, libraries, books, and the past and future.  These concepts are things I’ve been thinking about over the past few years, and they relate to several articles written on this blog, including my post What’s a Book?  Is This a Book?  (Rereading this post written about a year ago made me think how much our conversations on this topic have changed since then, yet how the essence is the same.)  It also relates to a podcast interview I listened to today with Mark Bauerlein and Steve Hargadon on Ed Tech Live. 

What is described here is only ONE post on a rich site. It is worth checking out and RSS feeding like I did. Check out other educational sites here.  Happy exploring!

Digital Citizenship, Information Literacy, and Digital Literacies Conversations Begin Today

With the explosion of information available to us at our fingertips and even by voice command, it is paramount that we as educators begin to understand information literacy, media literacies and related concepts of digital citizenship.  These three terms can lead down many paths of conversation.  For a beginning focus in this post, I'll ask can we assign a topic to our elementary-high school students and expect that they can find credible, reliable sources and know how to cite them? Will students be safe as they explore sites at school and home?  When do these skills get taught, and when do conversations about digital citizenship begin?  Is around junior high too late?  Whose responsibility is it to teach these skills and to instigate these conversations?  Perhaps all educators (including administrators and parents in this definition) need to learn and be involved in helping our children navigate informational literacy, media literacies, and concepts of digital citizenship.

Begin Exploring Digital Citizenship at Digital ID
I'm still in the beginning stages of pulling together some sources to help my own kid understand these topics and to continue educating myself.  Digital ID is a great place to go to begin understanding digital citizenship (a part of which relates to information literacy).  It is a wiki created by Gail Desler and Natalie Bernasconi.  Take your time, explore it and use it with your students!  Watch this Ed Tech Talk where Gail and Natalie discuss the wiki site and more.

This interactive graphic by Online PhD spurred on this post and offers some tips for using Google search.  But don't forget to go beyond Google.  Some of the links in the Information Literacy Tools section on our web 2.0 tools page offer some ways of doing so for various age groups.  Don't miss our young guest blogger's post, The Teachers Should See This: Research and Expensive Food.  These are a few ways to begin to understand informational literacy.

How do these concepts of information literacy, media literacies, and digital citizenship connect?  Perhaps in large ways as our students remix and become producers of knowledge, not only consumers of it. As educators, we can help them do this in responsible ways.  We can encourage connections to the everyday pop culture, but focus on extensions beyond into academic learning.  Doug Belshaw gave an interesting TEDxTalk entitled, The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies, that offers another view of this changing landscape as well as more food for thought.

Join us in developing these skills and having these important conversations at all levels in education. 

Count Down To Digital Learning Day and Beyond

February 1,2012 is Digital Learning Day.  The motto is “Empowering teachers.  Promoting Innovation.” Find out about the day, partners, events, contests, blogs, and more here.   Register to watch webcasts on the morning of February 1^st .  They include sessions entitled Leadership and Innovation, Instructional Strategies Session, and Effective Teaching and Learning Opportunities. 

The toolkits will be relevant long after February 1^st has passed.  There is a lot of useful digital learning information to explore on this page alone!  

Get involved locally, virtually, nationally, or any way you want. Consider hugging a computer teacher as a start.  (Here’s a virtual one for you, Dad.)  Just pass on the digital love.  

See recent related  posts: 
Google in Education Provides Nice Resources
iBooks 2, Textbooks, iBook Author, itunes U First Impressions
Google Science Fair and TEDx Women Winners from 2011

Happy digital learning!

Google In Education Provides Nice Resources

Google “revamped” its Google in Education site last week, announced the launch of Google+ Google for Education page, and highlighted its booklet Google in Education: A New and Open World for Learning. The Googe+ page looks like it has potential for dialogue.  The booklet shows some ways Google is implemented in education across the globe.  The site makes it nice to have so much Google information related to education in one place.  It has links for teachers, organizations, and students, and one that highlights its news and calendar.

I’m eager to take a closer look at the classroom videos on the You Tube for Schools.  It would be exciting to participate in some of the professional development opportunities.  The classroom tools is convenient for quick access to all of Google’s educational resources.  My first impression is also that it is nice to see some student examples.  I particularly like the Google Sketchup information and can attest to how Google Sketchup can integrate fun and learning.  There are some videos showing students in action, lesson plans, and more.  

The timing of these is interesting in comparison to Apple’s recent education announcements.  Read our most recent related posts:  iBooks 2, Textbooks, iBooks Author, and iTunes U Initial Impressions and Quick Byte: Google Science Fair 2012 and TED x Winners from 2011.  The Google in Education site can now be accessed in our Ed Sites page as well.

Happy Googling!

Fun with Typografit, Flickr Poet, Vizlingo, and More for Jan 31st EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival

This is my “fun” contribution to the Jan. 31st EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival hosted by David Deubelbeiss at EFL Classroom 2.0.  In deciding what to contribute, I came to the realization that so much is fun to me, particularly when it includes technology that spurs critical thinking and discussions that my students connect with.   Have fun with a few of the sites and ideas I enjoy, and consider taking my “challenge” at the end!

A.      9 Simple free web 2.0 sites

TYPOGRAFIT and STORIES IN FLIGHT: FLICKR POET

When Tech:  Type text into Typografit or Stories in Flight: Flickr Poet and create something like the image above.  It's fun!  Give Typografit a whirl here and Flickr Poet a try here. Create a word picture and share it.  

Met Ed:  In ESOL or language, students can type in sentences in Typografit and then discuss punctuation and spelling. One of my classes typed in short paragraphs that used our vocabulary.  They then discussed the pictures and how closely they reflected their writing.  Sometimes the pictures were quite different than they expected, and this led to some interesting discussion.

Flickr Poet suggests typing in poems or music to visualize them. I couldn’t resist and typed in a poem from one of my favorite poets, Since Feeling Is First by E.E. Cummings. I then captured it using Jing; it’s viewable here.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have students write poems, use Flickr Poet, and then use a screencast such as Jing to record music that captured the spirit of their poems or their voices reading their creations? Of course, they could just simply read or discuss the results if a low tech route is preferable.  Any of these are bound to be fun and lead to language acquisition. How can Typografit or Flickr Poet be used in your class?

VIZLINGO

When Tech:  Type text into Vizlingo and create something like the video I made below.  You have some choices of videos to include in your final product.  You can even upload your own videos.  Create and share a video here. It’s almost too much fun!

Met Ed:  This can help students visualize vocabulary as well.  It can lead to some interesting discussions about idioms and multiple meanings of words.  Here’s a great post by Nik Peachy that explains it.  Don’t miss Nik’s suggested activities for using it. How can Vizlingo be used in your class?

*A word of caution is that not all the pictures generated on these sites may be appropriate for younger learners.

See more suggested sites on a recent post called, Six Fun Educational Sites.  It highlights Wonderopolis, Shel Silverstein, One World, Many Stories, Geo Greetings, Draw a Stickman, and Balloons of Bhutan.  Explore more fun educational sites on our Ed Sites page.

B.       A few past fun posts that I have done with students’ help.  The potential of fun is unlimited when tech and creativity are at play and the products are shared. 

• Who thinks SLA theories are fun?  I know I do and didn’t think they could get much more interesting until teachers in my College of Ed course helped me create this post using fakebook, Prezi ,and online comic strips.
• How can vocabulary class be spiced up?  My adult ESOL class showed me when they pulled together a Glogster mashup highlighted in this post. 
• Again, although browsing dictionaries is a delight, my adult ESOL students show in their reviews in this post how online dictionaries can make one fall in love with words and definitions in a new manner.

A thank you to David Deubelbeiss at EFL Classroom 2.0 for hosting this carnival.  I highly recommend checking out his site and its many resources!   Oh, and writing this post was a blast!  

Challenge for both of us:  Either A: Use one of the sites in this post and blog about it.  Or  B.  Use one of these sites for educational purposes, drop me a link to one of your creations, and I will compile them together some fun way that I share on this blog.

Happy creating!

Six Fun Educational Sites: Wonderopolis to Balloons of Bhutan

If you want to integrate technology in a fun, low stress way, here are a few of our “recent” finds we suggest exploring.   They fit into a variety of content areas and age groups.

• Wonderopolis Have you ever wondered any of the following questions:  Do sea cows moo?  Does every state have a national park?  If you or your students have such questions, look no further than Wonderopolis for answers, discussion and springboards for investigation.

• Shel Silverstein has long been one of my favorite authors.  This is a find that could be shared with multiple age groups.  In my experience if presented in the right context, even adult ELLs appreciate his poetry and books.  Watch as Shel Silverstein reads the Giving Tree in this animation.  Go to the Shel Silverstein website for more resources and online activities.

• One World Many Stories Use this site in geography, social studies or language arts. Google Lit Trips, which I blogged about here, is included on this site. Students may also share their own Google Earth stories on the site.

• Geo Greeting  Use this as an introduction to geography or to discuss architecture.  With some creativity, it could be used in ESOL/bilingual classes at the sentence level.  Check out the one I made for you. Make your own for free in a matter of seconds.

• Draw A Stickman  Use this with beginning ELLs.  It could be an entry to storytelling and a way to work with vocabulary.  Try it on an ipad. It’s fun.

• Balloons of Bhutan This is a “happy” project.  It could lead to interesting discussion on the topic of happiness, success, etc.  Perhaps some math could be included in the statistics section.  It would be fun to do a spin-off of this project small scale with a class.  The Happiness Project would be an excellent follow up activity.

Explore more educational sites we suggest.   Do you have any success stories using any of these in your teaching?  

Happy exploring!

Quick Byte: One Day on Earth 11-11-11

Participate in this global collaboration by uploading a short video clip on 11-11-11, or just enjoy the One Day on Earth project 11-11-11.  Watch this video trailer to learn more.

Don't miss the 10-10-10 Geo Map!  Click on a country of your choice and zoom in to watch a video or two.  I viewed a few from some places I have traveled, and a flood of memories reminded me of the injustices of the world juxtaposed against indescribable beauty.

Keep your eyes on this site.  I will share it with my Exploring the World class!  It promises to encourage open dialogue on topics of social justice.  How can you use it in your classroom?

Tech and Ed Play with Web 2.0 Tools: Part 1 Timelines

Series Introduction to Tech and Ed Play with Web 2.0 Tools: I’m excited about this series of posts.  It started with this question that you may want to challenge yourself to answer as well: What ways do I currently use or have I used digital technology effectively in the classroom or in my personal life?  I’ve been contemplating how to answer this question on the blog for a long time, and I have put it off because it seems overwhelming. It also makes me feel vulnerable to show examples that are less than what I am capable of doing, but what I had time to do, the knowledge to do at any given time, etc. (The whole competence vs. performance thing my TCE 572 students discussed this week.) These experiences have spanned many classes and several years.   I will inevitably fall short here because I know there are so many more creative ideas and tools to explore, so I’d love to gather examples and ideas from our readers.  When I recall one of the main focuses of this blog, to play with technology and share, I’m going to go for it here! 

My first post here focuses on online timelines.  Upcoming posts will highlight online make-your-own comic strips and books, voicethreads, uses of screencasting tools in digital storytelling, and more.  A final post will be a screencast compilation of some of my own creations.

Part 1: ONLINE TIMELINES WITH A FOCUS ON DIPITY.COM 

Description and My Example (When Tech): I became interested a few years ago in the possibility of online timelines, and dipity.com was the first one I explored.  Dipity states, “Users can create, share, embed and collaborate on interactive, visually engaging timelines that integrate video, audio, images, text, links, social media, location and timestamps.”  I used it in an intermediate adult ESOL Listening/Speaking/Vocabulary class as a simple model for students when doing a presentation on their past, present, and future.  My example is really basic, but it gives the general idea.  Watch this video that walks you through it.

Here’s another example on dipity entitled Steve Jobs Life and Career.  You may change the views in the upper right hand corner to see it as a timeline, flipbook, list, or map.  Happy exploring of dipity.com.

Possible Uses in Education (Met Ed): Several of my former college of education students have used and even presented their own dipity timelines when they reflected on their own language learning.  Online timelines can be used in all content areas.  Students or teachers can highlight any event(s) in a history timeline.  They can use them to document the steps of a scientific experiment.  They can use them to tell a story, outline the plot or characters in a story, etc.  Online timelines can also serve as an alternative to a Powerpoint or Prezi.  How can you use them?

I like how many of the timelines like Dipity can be embedded in a blog or website.  Most of them have the option to be either private or public.  More online timelines that I haven’t yet had the time to explore completely are listed in our web 2.0 tools page.  Some of them include LIFE Timeline, TimeToast, and Xtimeline.    LIFE Timeline contains ready to go timelines with some beautiful pictures as well as the option to make your own. Tiki Toki also looks especially engaging to me.

Additional sources:  If you are interested in exploring more student examples of media in education, check out Wes Fryer’s  Share: Playing With Media.  His site, book and podcast in part inspired me to get started on this series. 

Discussion:  How would you use or have you used online timelines?  Which timeline(s) have you found useful?  Feel free to share a link here or drop us a line via email.

Happy exploring and creating!