The meatrix

While surfing the net and looking for a web lesson to use for class I found The Meatrix and this great web site with the video and some great lessons about it. The video is quite hilarious, well done and enjoyable for those who saw the movie The Matrix. I just wanted to share it with all of you so you could either laugh about it or get some ideas for your web lesson. This is the URL for the web pages with the video and exercises, and I have also posted the video for me to learn how to do it, and you to see it: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/annie.gwynn/meatrix.htm

I like the idea of watching a piece of a video or movie, or something vary popular, and later build language exercises from it. I would like to apply that for my web lesson the problem is where and how because I don't know yet a place or software that allows me to do so. If you have any input, please comment on this blog.

Readings week 5

From CREATING STANDARDS-BASED ACTIVITIES INTEGRATING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS FROM THE WWW

I am not pursuing the license for ESL but I know a bit about the 5 cs and I think they bring a sense of compliteness to the classroom. I have lesson planned with the 5 cs in mind and I agree with this article about the great tie between the Comparisons and the Culture goals. The Communities goal is the most difficult to achieve, after the Connections because they ask for going out of the classroom. Not all schools are lucky enough to go on a field trip, or to choose the best match to go on a field trip; some classroom teachers still don't see the benefits of joining efforts and work together with other colleagues. 

Finally most classrooms are getting better at Communication, so the worry relies on having teachers bear in mind the 5 cs when lesson planning, besides addressing the three modes of the Communication standars: interpretative, interpersonal and presentational. It is just a fact of getting into the habit of this new lesson planning, the rest will come.

Next I will list key ideas I found in this chapter as well as in INTEGRATING INTERNET-BASED READING MATERIALS INTO THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CURRICULUM.

- Safe sources of authentic materials are government pages and non governmental organizations, educational institutions, and museums web pages.

- Kinds of authentic materials may be online driving test preparation, maps, automobile travel planning, air or train schedules, etc.

- Online media such as newspapers, magazies, radio and television are also of great help. 

- Reading and writing are the best suited skills to the web. 

- Some limitations of working with internet are problems on interactivity and bandwidth, plus the confusion feature of using hyper links.

- Always include a presentation of an end product.

- If a print out of an Internet-based resource can be made and used in classroom, sending students only may not be the best instructional practice.

Interesting quotes:

- "The materials found on the internet should not determine the content or goals of the course".

- "The strategy is to have students write about what they read".

- "The learners need to have a minimal functional proficiency that allows them to explore an open-ended environment as the internet without the intervention of an instructor". 

- "The objective of foreign language learning should be to teach students how to read critically on their own, especially with the Internet".

- "The pre-screening and selection process of the Internet sites may constitute the most time-consuming part".

   

Mi primera foto modificada en PICASA / My first modified picture from PICASA

 

I had already had Picasa in my computer but I hadn't had time to explore all of its features. I was extremely educative what Chris did in our CALL class. We learned how to use basic features of the software while listening to his instructions in perfect Spanish. And at the end we were able to blog from Picasa with one click.

Sometimes it is difficult for me to link teaching with practical ideas. This happens may be because I learned English following the Grammar-Translation Method, and I tend to think of grammar chunks in lieu of contexts or real uses of language.

So Chris' demonstration reminded me of linking something I already know, with language in a purposeful way. His students didn't require previous knowledge of Spanish, he was talking all the time in the target language, he was introducing vocabulary and commands, and he didn't take much time. To me that sounds like the perfect scenario to use technology and integrate it with learning in a successful way. Plus it was connected to a regular activity in our class, blogs, so the wrap up was perfect.

For sure I will think of blogging from Picasa in the future, and right now I can foresee the elaboration of stories with pictures or even videos (once I learned how to do it because I still can't). Gracias Chris, ya tenía el programa pero no había explorado estas aplicaciones. Thanks Chris I already had the program but I hadn't explored these features yet.

Teaching with videos and music

Oishi brings to our table the popular web page "youtube" and a hilarious but catchy video called Mentos and Coke. It didn't take me more than 5 minutes to log into the page and find the video ... and it was impressive what those two guys showed us with that video. There are so many videos in youtube that the possibilities and scenarios to use them are countless, and as it is described in the article the main point is to stimulate student's interest in the content. I hadn't heard of Revver.cor or Zudeo.com, so that will be my next task, to test them out.

Kanel's article was pretty interesting, it is the first time I read about how using songs contribute toward various aspects of teaching a language, besides all the different exercises that teachers can create with songs. There were two things that caught my attention: first it was new to me that "music is generally processed through the brain's RIGHT hemisphere, whereas lyrics are generally processed through the LEFT hemisphere". Great support to keep on using songs !!

Second when the article was suggesting ways to select songs for the class, I found a statement I don't agree with. On page 129, Audibility and clarity of lyrics, says "If the teacher cannot distinguish the words, then there is a little chance that students will be able to." If the teacher decided to give students the opportunity to work on songs they like, it is obvious that students are going to be more familiar than teachers, so chances of teachers not distinguishing the words are bigger, right? Therefore this part of the article doesn't work quite the way it was stated and I will change it to: Just because teachers do not distinguish the words, it does not mean students cannot do it. 

That happened to me a couple of years ago, I was teaching a communication class and most of my students were teenagers, so I decided to let them choose and present their favorite songs. One of my students chose a song from Green Day (I'm trying to recall the title) and amazinlgy the cloze activity he designed was too easy for a big part of the class. Most of my students were familiar with the lyrics so they completed it faster than I did. I had heard the band before and the song a couple of times, but I discovered that day that my students were able to distinguish the English sounds better than I did. I was amazed and my students too, they believed as their teacher I should be able to know it all ... and that day we learned that was not true.

I remember the song now "Basket case", I will try to post it here just for the sake of learning how to link blogger and youtube. 

Humanware

I had to read Warschauer & Meskill again because I had forgotten all of the new ideas they introduced in their article. There were so many things I liked about it, and to make this post short, I will list them and comment briefly:

- Technology is been used since the Grammar-Translation method. Awesome to consider the blackboard as a piece of technology, this teaches us that there are more things than computers and internet.

- Computer-Mediated Communication in a classroom has three main outcomes: first it makes possible a more equal participation; second it has students notice the input provided from others, and with this they incorporate such imput in their messages; and third it promotes the use or more complex aspects of language.

- The computer is a machine, not a method. Self explanatory.

- Seeing the way technology has melted into the daily life, it is necessary to teach elementary things such as how to write an e-mail.

- "INTELLIGENT use of new technologies usually involves 1/3 for hardware, 1/3 for software and 1/3 for staff SUPPORT and TRAINING.

- Integrating new technologies is definitely a trial-error process.

- Finally success in using technology in the language classroom does not rely on hardware or software but in "humanware", which is the capacity teachers have to implement effective educational activities.

Too long in front of a computer

I need to comment on this week's assignments because I got wiped out before starting class (and don't want to mention what happened after). The first part of our assignments seemed too much to me for a single class, and since most of them were on line (and my budget didn't allow me to print) I had to read them from my computer. Then the second part involved typing and as a second language learner of English, I need to spend more time than normal when doing these written activities. Ok I was done with that, but I still needed to read my classmates' part of the homework, and comment on D2L. So one more time reading from the computer and typing. Well I thought after commenting I was done, but I realized the class was obviously going to have us use computers. That was when I felt all the load on my shoulders. 

I bet there was a point when I looked exactly as the person in the picture, and this is happening more frequently than I want it. I wonder what people got tired of before working with computers and internet, paper? books? I have never felt that, of course, I belong to the digital age so I think this is inevitable, plus I'm taking a computer class. Anyway I really think the load was too huge for this week, and I just hope it will not be like this in the future ... meaning toward the end of the semester ...   Thanks for reading and helping me get rid of what I was feeling.

First readings

I read the article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky and there was a question on page 3 that caught my attention: "Should the Digital Native students learn the old ways, or should their Digital Immigrant educators learn the new?" Technology is all about this and that is what I have heard people complain about: technology evolves too fast that is difficult to keep up, but if we don't keep up we will be out. I have experienced that myself, when my father first got a computer I was in elementary school and he introduced me to this world through Word Start which mainly used commands (ctrl + s). Later he brought a new operational system called Word Perfect which was more like what Word document is these days and I didn't want to learn it because it was different from what I was used to work on. Finally he challenged me "you either learn this new system or you don't continue using the computer" so I chose to learn the new way. In short, I believe that when it comes to working with technology there is only one possible way to follow "upgrade", "learn" or advance. So Digital Immigrants should learn the new ways, not viceversa.

PS. I did this post from word document and it didn't work well.