Digital Storytelling

      Digital storytelling is "the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component" (7 things you should know about digital storytelling). Digital storytelling allows the storyteller or storytellers to add more detail and therefore add more personal attachment to the story being told. The values of digital storytelling are many and include allowing students to better express themselves, encouraging students to further explore the digital world, and encouraging practice with the target language.
      As I complete my observations this semester, I have come into contact with students with many different, complex backgrounds who seem to struggle with expressing themselves. ESL students and students of interrupted formal education generally have a lot to tell and I think that it is difficult for any teacher to know their full story and that students often do not feel that they are able to tell it but I think that digital storytelling would offer the perfect medium. By allowing students to incorporate images, I think that they would be better able to share their culture with their instructors and peers and I also think that students might feel more encouraged to work on their language output if they know that it will be published for an audience. As an ESL teacher, I might have students draft parts of their stories and conference with peers so that they could work on revision and being confident with their final product. Digital storytelling is something that I believe could be invaluable in almost any context, as stated by educause but especially for English language learners who are looking for ways to express their diverse backgrounds and might be greatly helped by the ability to add visual support to their presentations.

Educational podcasting

When searching for a podcast to listen in on, I was unsure of where to go. I thought that an ESL podcast would be fabulous but what I found wasn't what I thought it would be so I headed over to edtechtalk.com, assuming that I would be able to find some good teacher ideas there.
I imagine that podcasts could also be used for students to give them access to increased exposure with the target language, but I was most interested in teacher tips so that is what I settled on!

I poked into a podcast with professor Jay Wilson about creating authentic learning communities for students. The podcast was about an hour long conversation so it was pretty thorough but I thought that it was fascinating in that it used technology (podcasting) to discuss the value of learning without technology. This podcast is about the value of authentic environments for learning rather than traditional learning or technology-based learning.

I absolutely support authentic learning for all levels and I have personally had a lot of success learning in authentic contexts. When I took an indigenous cultures course in Peru, we went on field trips to an animal sanctuary where we learned about different animals important in peruvian culture, to a museum about coca leaves and their cultural significance, and to a musical instrument museum where we got to see the very instruments we were learning about. These contexts and the interaction I had with the people at each location were much more significant for my learning than any of the lectures I attended and for that I am grateful. Furthermore, I am in the process of completing my observation hours at the school where I will student teach and being in the school and sitting in on the classes has taught me everything I know about ESL education.

This podcast was useful to me in that it was a valuable conversation between two individuals that gave me access to current thoughts in the field and new ideas for my future classroom!

A review of ePals

I realize that there is a plethora of educational resource websites online and that it is good to check them out and see what is available but I think that a lot of them are wholly unnecessary and what I can find for free is generally better than what I can find with money. I'm a do-it-yourself kind of girl so although I did browse the ePals website, I was not overwhelmed and I will explain why.

•  A lot of this site is helping you order books or handouts that are pre-created. There are worksheets for colors and small books about specific topics. Cricket and Tools for School are supremely organized, but I can't help but feel that what they are offering isn't any better than that which I could find elsewhere. I can see the value in ordering some of the magazines from Cobblestone to cover individual topics more in depth, but I cannot imagine ordering a class set of those magazines and hardly feel that I could not teach effectively without what is available on the site.
• Global Community, from what I can discern is a teacher communication website. It's a way for teachers to chat with one another and share resources. For my group presentation, I researched my own teacher websites like teachertube and I have already found and enrolled in websites that allow me to access those same things. I feel that there are probably thousands of teacher networking sites available and having already joined a few, I see no need to join still more.
• In2Books, or "common core mentoring" is a bizarre concept to me. Upon reading a little more, I see that it is a sort of online pen-pal system with adult mentors. I can see no harm in establishing this in the classroom but I think that dialogue journals might be just as effective (although much more time-consuming).

I feel that in the field of education, we are constantly bombarded with resources and told that they are better than all the rest when I think that I received a fair education that entailed the use of absolutely none of the things I'm now being told that I should use.

I can imagine myself using the magazines and books available through ePals to touch more thoroughly upon something learned in class or even to offer reading material for students either when they have completed their work or as a part of a reading hour.

However, I do not think that these resources are necessarily any more remarkable than other sites I have seen, nor do I think that they are unique. With a million teacher websites out there, it's nice to see that quality materials are being produced, but I feel that I can make my own just as well!

GoAnimate as a classroom tool

Today's feature: Awkward conversation between zoo animals!

I have used comic strips before in my classroom and they were a good way to get students to practice the target language, although massively time consuming. However, the comic strips that I used did not have pre-made templates and were static so they were more complex to put together and did less once created.
Today, I used GoAnimate to create my first ever animated comic strip and along with a review, I am going to reflect on ways that it could be used in the classroom.

So, before I get rolling, here's the video I made. I tried embedding but it simply did not fly.

I wasn't sure what to have the animals say so they introduced themselves to each other and I worked in a snide comment about how cold it is in Buffalo.
This program was extremely easy to use and the video came together rapidly which I love. There weren't too many options so as to be overbearing so I chose my zoo animals and got to work.

First, for the critiques:
I did notice that the video cut out part of my dialogue. The giraffe had an entire line at the end that was reduced to "T." which is slightly depressing because I really wanted the world to know that he too liked The Walking Dead.
Also, when I named the animals I did not think that they would have genres and it surprised me a bit to have a deep, manly-voiced elephant introduce himself as "Amelia" but I thought it was hilarious so I decided to keep it. I guess that's not so much a critique as a "my bad" kind of situation. I could have easily swapped the characters but I decided not to.

Now, for the perks:
Like I said, this program was really easy to use! I think that if students had handwritten the dialogue beforehand in class, this could be completed in less than five minutes. Also, the templates and characters are cute! I like the different options like "anime" which I can see interesting a lot of students that I have personally known. This program is free, it's easy to use, and it goes quickly. The perks outweigh the complaints.
I almost wonder if there is a time limit that I did not know about which caused my video to be cut off, making it my fault (oops).

Applications:
This program would be absolutely amazing for English Language Learners (my specialty, goody!) because it would allow them to see dialogues that they created be read aloud in (although slightly robotic) fluent-ish English.
Also, the reward is instant with this generator and it is something that students can share all over if they wish so I think that the motivation and interest would be high.
I think that if I wanted students to practice a certain grammar point, discuss a certain topic, practice debates, or do pretty much anything else under the sun requiring fluency and two-way dialogue, that this tool would be extremely valuable and easily worked into the classroom.

My final veridict is a hearty 1.75 thumbs up (if only I knew what happened to the giraffe's last line!) and I am delighted to have used this tool because I can imagine it doing wonders in my future ELL classroom.

Teaching with short films

My assignment today was to create a brief photo story that could be used to teach something in my future classroom. I am a huge proponent of grammar and an even larger proponent of  corgis so I made a video that combined the two in a slightly bizarre yet wonderful way using the glory that is stupeflix.
The video follows:

I found that stupeflix was incredibly easy to use and once I had picked out the right format for me, it took a matter of minutes to upload and arrange everything the way that I wanted it for my mini grammar presentation. Even the upload to YouTube went fast! My only problem with the site is that you have to pay for a subscription beyond your one free upload and I missed an 'r' on a slide with "they're" so I wanted to change it but could not. I must have watched the video through ten times but apparently I was not meant to catch my error but instead learn the hard way.

I am very pleased with this video and program otherwise (I even proudly made my boyfriend and best friend watch it before I realized there was an error) and I think that it is an incredible tool once a monthly subscription fee has been forked over. I often want to use little videos for clarification when teaching but sometimes what I am able to find on the internet doesn't match exactly what I need. This tool will allow me to create videos about whatever I like using pictures of whatever I want (today corgis, tomorrow cake, then who knows?) and I like how much personalization I can add. The program is simple (so as not to be overwhelming) and convenient. Furthermore, I love that I can share these videos with some skillful titling and tagging to the entire YouTube community if I please so that other teachers can use what I have made as well!

A semi-serious, strategy game

          Part of differentiation, to me, is giving students more opportunity to practice their language skills outside of the classroom if they choose to do so for enrichment. An effective teacher will connect his or her students with the opportunity to use valuable resources at home for autonomous learning. In exploring game opportunities to connect gamification and at-home learning, I stumbled upon and played through (once!) the Gotham Gazette Garbage Game (how's that for an alliterative tongue-twister?).
         I like this game because it includes strategizing and it connects to a real-life problem that is experienced across all cultures. All around the world, people have too much garbage and they do not know who to give it to in order to find a resolution for this problem. This game requires students to read (a lot!) and evaluate different options. I personally am not very into video games so this appealed to me in that I don't have to have a fabulous sense of direction in a fictional world but instead have to be able to make decisions and justify them. That falls into the category of things that I can handle. This game is straightforward.

         The learning objective that I would apply to this game is "students will learn to read and think critically about real world problems". This game is all about practicality and I think that my objective should harness that factor while incorporating basic reading strategies.
         This objective is a bit harder to assess in that if students are doing it at home, I would not be able to physically oversee the process but if I encourage students to write a mini-report or bring in a print out, I think that I would be able to evaluate students decisions and possibly give extra credit that would allow me to measure student understanding. For example, I might ask students to tell me what their readout was, why they think it was that way, and if/how they think they could make it better. In this way, I would incorporate simple reflective thinking in a way that would allow me to see precisely what progress students made with this assignment.

          There are many games available to students to practice at home, but I think that this one suits my style best and I think that it is one that I would be able to practically apply and measure.

Gamification

          Gamification, according to Educause is "the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior". Gamification argues that any activity in the classroom can be turned into a game in order to make it more effective. Better games yield an increase in student motivation and heightened learning.
          Games were my favorite part of being a student and my teachers always seemed to work pretty hard to incorporate games wherever possible. But why?
          Games increase student motivation to learn a language because they make learning fun. Students generally want to learn, but if it seems that it is difficult then they will have less desire to do so. By incorporating games into instruction and practice, teachers can make language learning more enjoyable, therefore increasing the probability that students will partake in it. For example, if given the chance to choose between a lengthy research paper about mediation or some sort of game that allows students to match key concepts with their definitions in a fun and interactive way, students will most certainly always choose the fun option. Learning when made fun seems less like learning, increasing students' desire to participate, and increasing their learning overall. Because games essentially make students learn more, why shouldn't they be incorporated? Gamification in the language classroom makes learning more enjoyable and engaging for all.

          A game that I wish to cite that I can imagine myself using in my language classroom is Castaway, a simple html game that creates a situation with options that change in every turn. The game has many optional endings, ranging from starving to death or being eaten by sharks to finding a very successful fresh start somewhere in Canada. I played through this game about a half dozen times in order to figure out the different options and although it loses its interest after about the third time, I thought this game was the most engaging thing in the world the first time that I saw it and I anticipate my students playing through it a maximum of two times.
          If I were to use Castaway in my language learning classroom, I would use it with this objective: "Students will be able to use oral conversation, reasoning, and justification with a partner to complete a castaway scenario." Ideally, students will survive the scenario (points will be awarded for students who do so) but the language objective is for students to use reasoning and justification to make decisions and as long as students are doing that, I would consider this a successful lesson.
          In this scenario, the teacher would walk students through the introduction and get them to the first decision-making page. Students would be placed into effective pairs (preferably with a high proficiency student in each grouping) and they would receive the task. The goal is to get off of the island and students cannot make a decision if they do not both agree on what they choose to do. Each student pair would have a tablet or computer with this website loaded and would be told that no "back" buttons were allowed, nor "restarts". Students would have to work with their partner to reason through the different options made available to the castaway with the goal of surviving. Student teams who survived would receive a prize and if a student team does not survive the first time, they will be given a second attempt to choose different options and hopefully come out alright. The teacher will record the success of student attempts. There will be a first prize for student teams who survive the scenario on their first walkthrough, and second prize for student teams who get through on their second attempt.
          Although the game has clear objectives, the student learning objective will be measured by teacher observation and it should be easy to measure. Are students conversing with each other? Are they presenting their opinions in a clear way? Are they being respectful of their partner? If the students are interacting in an effective way in order to complete the scenario, the learning objective has been accomplished.
          I think that this activity would be very fun for students and I think that the objective would be easily measurable merely by teacher observation.