Mobile Technologies in Adult Learning

Mobile technologies are the new wave of adult learning. As an ESL teacher, I need to have tips and tricks up my sleeve for activities and what better than having an I-pad or other such mobile devise to create lesson plans quickly, efficiently and on the spot. This blog will discuss two mobile technologies and how they are useful to an ESL environment.

The first mobile technology that I will be discussing is i-lessonplan. I-lessonplan gives the teacher (me) the ability to not have to hand write lesson plans, collaborate and share with other teachers, and give access to administrators for approval and or revisions. It takes the hassle and preparation time out of developing extensive lesson plans and in teaching ESL becomes quite useful since I have never been paid for prep time. It is uncommon in Europe to be paid to prepare for classes yet teachers are expected to come prepared to teach their own lessons. I was earning anywhere from 10-14 euro per hour in Europe (Rome) and working at most 25 hours per week makes for a meager paycheck, thus creating lesson plans can be quite daunting. Furthermore, having an I-Pad application is even more useful. One of the school’s I taught at in Rome (Centro ProLingua) gave teachers I-Pads which they thought helpful to store books on. I never realized (until now) that the I-Pad could also be used to store applications to make teaching easier. Not only can I play a video clip or audio clip but I can have something for me, to make teaching easier and more efficient (especially when teaching corporate clientele). Using this specific application is good for the student and the teacher because it allows both to benefit from the technology and develop a deeper sense of the information being taught. 

https://www.ilessonplan.com/

Another good mobile technology that I would like to share is designed to, “This application features forms and tools commonly used by teachers such as a Daily Agenda, Long Term Planner, EZ Grader, Special Recognition, Permission Slips and more, allowing teachers the ability to complete their paperwork anywhere for rapid distribution to parents, colleagues and school administrators” (itunes.com). As mentioned in my previous blurb, I have taught and will be continuing to teach in the field of ESL, so even the most minute paperwork needs to be streamlined. Students (especially when teaching corporate English clients that I have) appreciate the feedback and grades in the old fashioned way yet are open to new technologies. It would be nice to incorporate I-pads for students as well and have them be able to check and review their grades and feedback which is critical for L2 development. Administrators can also check on progress and progress reports can be sent to clients and companies on behalf of the student. In Italy in general, a feature like this would be widely beneficial as a lot of language schools continue to use old-fashioned methods often without formal reviews, which again is critically important to L2 acquisition. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teachers-app-box/id458139170?mt=8

These are just two of many applications that are on the market and the link below will guide you to some more and I am sure some more after that. We should all just take some time to evaluate our individual teacher needs, our students needs and determine which program is best suited for our situation. The above two are suitable for me, if I continue to teach in the field of ESL overseas, though for teachers in the K-12 environment, you may need other types of technologies that are approved and appropriate for that environment. Please feel free to give feedback and tell me what you think!

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/05/top-101-ipad-apps-for-lesson-planning.html

 

References

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teachers-app-box/id458139170?mt=8

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/05/top-101-ipad-apps-for-lesson-planning.html

https://www.ilessonplan.com/

 

 

 

Open and Distance Education on the Web for an ESL Environment

Open and distance education on the web are great resources for ESL students. Why are they such great resources? Because students can get free or cost-effective lessons on the web which will increase their language instruction 10 fold. What exactly is this resource, open learning? Open Learning is a new phenomenon in online learning and is described as, “learning based on independent study or initiative rather than formal classroom instruction (“Oxford dictionaries,”). Open learning may be quite an ambiguous term for a few options that students now have but I do want to provide you with a link to what most people think of when they think of open learning:

http://www.openlearning.com

OpenLearning, as defined by the website, is, “a platform that promotes education and learning all around the world. We’ve designed OpenLearning to give power to students by enabling them to improve courses as they are run and to teachers who can finally teach the way they’ve always dreamed (“OpenLearning,”). One way for me to implement this in my classroom would be to host my own lecture once or twice per week for only 25 minutes or so to drill students on vocabulary. Another way would be to have my students develop their own lectures to teach what they have been taught to each other and host it on the internet. ESL students love to help other ESL students and showcase their speaking skills. It would be a great opportunity to do so! I could also, for a third, put all of my lectures online, with approval of course, and allow it to be streamed in real time by students across the globe. My rationale for choosing this resource is that it is a technological base that will help students stay focused with something new and interesting and in this digital and participatory age, it is very important to keep students engaged.

OpenLearning and other similar mediums have been so popular because of of our participatory age. “This expansion of the Web into multimedia has come about quickly and is fast evolving, due primarily to the sudden explosion of broadband connectivity and cheap memory on computers” (Richardson, 2010).

On par, a similar Open Learn environment is found on:
Open.edu

We all know Open.edu in one way or the other and it is most notably linked to the BBC. What is this platform exactly? It is designed to, “give you free access to free materials from the Open University” (“The open university,”. I like this and believe it would be useful for ESL students because they can get prepared for university courses and even partake in them without having to pay. Students can gauge their level and then if they wish, enroll in actual courses via Open University in an array of different topics. I picked this medium because my students will surely ask me for classroom supplements based on their needs or motivations. If I direct them to a class on OpenLearn I am also directing them to other learners and hundreds of hours of study and materials at their fingertips in pretty much any subject or level they are looking for. An example of just how I would implement this would be to have students register and we would all partake in the same course and students would give reports on it and come back with problem vocabulary that we could work out in class or talk about an issue they felt was important. Another way I could implement this would be to assign it simply as homework by finding classes that would help students with their individual needs based on assessments for language acquisition and improvement. Just as blogs, wikis and podcasts are important today in learning so is OpenLearning in that, “the possibilities are endless, limited only by your imagination and your own understanding of these tools” (Richardson, 2010).

In conclusion Open Learn is a great resource and there are a few platforms that you can find online that support the general idea of learning like this. You can learn from anywhere, however far, and be able to educate yourself in whatever discipline of your choosing for free, whereby the world becomes a smarter, more intellectual place. It is definitely something I would recommend to any student of mine, weather it be an ESL student, or of any discipline to use to their hearts content.

References

Openlearning. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.openlearning,com/about

Oxford dictionaries. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com

The open university. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.open.edu/about

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Squire, K. (2011). Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Games and Technology

Video games, regular games, and simulations are a big part of learning in the modern classroom. What this blog post is going to go over are two games that I would like to implement in one of my ESL classes. As a new ESL teacher, I want to keep my students engaged and give them other means to learn that involve games. What better way to learn than through online games?

In games, “informal conversations can lead to more formalized research studies” (Squire, 2011). The studies of games and their effect on people and learning has become immense over this digital age that we are in. Furthermore Squire also talks about amplifying players’, or students’ in my case, experiences as being an essential key to good game design. Along with good game design, learning at it’s core also requires that students be motivated to succeed and learn from their mistakes in the game or in their life. A lot can be said and taken from game-based learning.

My first idea for a video game that students could use would be Sploder (www.sploder.com). Sploder actually allows students to make their own games and others to play their games. This would be an extremely useful project for any level of ESL instruction, and an invigorating way to incorporate technology into the classroom. Students would be able to go over basic grammar structure by giving directions and other queues to pass different levels of their games. If they are technologically savvy, they would also be able to create more advanced games and could serve as a course project. I would most likely like to use this and have requested to do so for my classes. My first example of how this could be used would be to have students create it as a end of course project and in it, students will show users how to navigate the course or play the game and then be the game master in a role play type end of course project or assignment. Another way I could use it is to have them use it interactively throughout the course as a supplement and blog or journal their games and their classmates games and how it was useful to the vocabulary being learned. It is truly a great resource and in particular a huge leap for ESL students and teachers a like.

Another online game that I could use would be Second Life. The link is http://www.secondlife.com. There is an ESL community within Second Life and it is free to use. I do believe that this environment would be good for ESL students to use in America and Western countries but might be a little risky for me to use for my ESL students based in Saudi so I would not use this; however, as I plan on teaching other teachers to prepare to teach abroad, it would be something useful to implement and show them so they have a rich basket of learning tools! One way I could implement this in my ESL classroom would be to have my students join the ESL community already there and interact in it for x amount of time per week or to have them join their own and use it also as a class project. It could be something they use out of class and during the end, we could reverse roles, and the students could show me their community and how to use it. It would be a great way to portfolio what they learned through the duration of the course and something they could go back to as well as a way to continue interacting with other students.

Part of the reason to use games is that it is part of our participatory 21st century culture, “although games are a vivid example of participatory culture (especially when compared with broadcast media), a profound shift is occurring across media and institutions…. people are developing academic interests and learning academic content through games, regardless of whether or not we design them for education. Players learn the basic facts of their games (the names of pieces, the maps, the terms), but, more important, they learn the emergent properties of the game as a system” (Squire, 2011).

In conclusion the above two examples are rich tools to use to supplement classroom instruction. In this participatory age, we need students to be lively and engaged and these resources are perfect tools to help support the ESL instruction I will be implementing in the classroom.

References

http://www.secondlife.com
http://www.sploder.com

Squire, K. (2011). Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Mobile Technologies

Mobile learning is such a new idea that there really aren’t many mobile learning technologies out there, and very little research into the subject. That being said, mobile learning is now being referred to as, m-learning is what it is now being referred to. “Because m-learning is such a new field, the research is still in a stage where different categories of m-learning pedagogy are being developed, identified, and researched” (Alsaadat, 2010). Furthermore, “mobile learning provides useful, authoritative, and comprehensive guidance for professionals in higher and further education, and trainers in the business sector wanting to find out about the opportunities offered by new technologies to deliver, support and enhance learning and training” (Kukulska-Holme & Traxler, 2008). One new such technology could be integrated with a course like this: BlackBoard Mobile Learn (www.blackboard.com). Blackboard is a perfect integration for teahers in traditional classrooms or nontraditional. Some features that have been added include dropbox integration (for those on the go, mobile tests so that you can take your test wherever you have, automatic notifications on the phone which include grades, postings etc, announcements, discussions (the ability to post on your phone), content, blogs and journals, etc. (Blackboard.com). The reason why I selected this technology is because it is the most useful. The cost is low and fair for students to download. It is perfet for both traditional classrooms and online classrooms and for students on the go. I was unable to access my class for most of the week as I was promised internet and had none and then fell pretty darn ill, this would have helped me a lot. The point of using mobile technology in the classroom is to make it easier on students and teachers to collaborate.

In researching for another type of mobile learning technology, I also came across one from a vendor, Onpoint Digital. Onpoint digital offers options for smartphones which they call CellCast. CellCast is designed to allow the learner or teacher to access, “mobile web content, web and PDF files, videos, podcasts (mlearning.com). The reason why I chose this technology because it is geared for corporate professionals for corporate learning, not just the educational sector. The teaching I will endure will be in both worlds so both technologies are relevant to me as an ESL instructor.

 

References

Alsaadat, K. (2010). Global learn. Global Conference on Learning and Technology, Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/34167

Kukulska-Hulme, A., & Traxler, J. (Eds.). (2008). Mobile learning: A handbook for educators and trainers. Routledge.

 

www.mlearning.com

Social Networking in Our Classrooms

To prepare for this blog, I was supposed to research at least two social networking technologies either on the web or in the Library. Well, one that I have been using a lot and has a lot of educational umph to it is Meetup.com. Meetup.com has the possibility to transform our classes for the good. For an ESL class in Chicago, I researched the groups available and found many language groups that would potentially benefit my students. In Chicago there are 2 meetup groups for ESL learners, one of which moto is as follows, “This is a group where you can improve your English (ESL), practice English Conversation and make friends. We encourge you to find study partners, network and have
fun” (“Esl english conversation,” ). I see Meetup sort of like Ning and this helps students: “Current and future students now see our site as a living community that connects former and future students as well as a growing lists of experts in the field” (Richardson, 2010). The ESL groups in Chicago allow students to meet people they would otherwise not be able to meet, attend free or significantly reduced priced lessons (as low as $3.00 per lesson) and gain invalable networking opportunities. What’s more important, students can join groups that they have interests in also. Maybe they want to learn web developer skills or mingle with others that also like to play board games, or simply just find new interests. I would incorporate this medium into my classroom to meet specific learning objectives. As an example, we may have to work on interpersonal skills; therefore, having students report back after attending a social function like this could serve to meet this objective. Another example could be that a student needs extra help with. Instead of assigning homework, I could assign the studnet to attned 4 events over a period of a few weeks and to report back through reflective summaries for each event and also have a class presentation or the like.

According to Edutopia, “social-networking tools aren’t just for flirting. The evolving world of internet communication-blogs, podcasts, tags, file-swapping– offer students radically new ways to research, create and learn” (Smith). Linkedin is a powerful tool that should be implemented in an intermediate and above ESL classroom. We can go over resume writing, communication tools and develop profiles in class to meet specific learning objectives.

In conclusion, social networking tools are great as classroom tools. I am excited to be able to implement different piees of technology into the classroom and more specifically the types of technology like this that allow students to develop social skills.

 

References

Esl english conversation and social chicago meetup. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.meetup.com/ESLENGLISH/.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools
for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Smith, F. (n.d.). How to use social-netorking technology for the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/social-networking-how-to

 

 

Applications and Multimedia Resources for Enhancing Adult Learning in an ESL Environment

In this blog post, I will describe a couple of resources that would assist in the implementation of an ESL class environment. I primarly focus on intermediate and above level students, so using more complex resources would be acceptable at this point.

One multi-media resource I have personally used for taking classes myself in company trainings was WEBEX (www.webex.com). WebEx has many function of which one of the most popular is the meeting function, multi-media function and classroom function. The speaker and forum persons are able to take charge of the classroom while the students are able to put up hands as in a traditional classroom, it even allows students, teachers and forum members to all get on and see eachother, share documents and record. You can send messages in private, or in public and many other functions. This would be great for a breakout group/role play. The teacher could silently observe or not if he/she wanted to be more proactive. Maybe students are going over how to give directions and the teacher takes turns doing a rapid fire excersize using a map or grid and students work in groups or take turns.The teacher would be able to give real time feedback and use a multimedia resource to do this on in class or via distance learning.
“A profound shift is occuring across media and in situations. Digital development and production tools such as GarageBand, iMovie and YouTube are reshaping music and video. Blogs like Daily Kaos are reshaping public discourse. The list goes on. These media present opportunities for ordinary people to follow a passions, develop expertise in a particular domain, and reach a global audience…” (Squire, Gee & Jenkins, 2011). The use of these technologies, such as the one outlined above, WebEx, is shifting the way our education is being delivered in the classroom and translating into expertise in the field, whereby teachers are able to give it their all in the classroom.

A second application excellent for a teaching environment today would be the use of a class wiki, or individual wikis. “A wiki is a database of pages which visitors can edit live. The building blocks of wikis are the ‘comments’ from visitors (http://www.wiki.com/). I would like to use wikis in class as homework as one function. I could post gap fills and other excersizes and students would be able to go in and fill in or complete assignments, working together collaboratively. We could then discuss the results of their wiki in class if need be and it would also serve as a feedback assessment for students and the teacher would know where to focus attention on.

Another use of a wiki would be that students could use them as a supplement to their education. They could go through and start constructing rules and it could serve as a portfolio of what they learned over the period of the class. It could be used and implemented in a string of classes leading up to an official examination once a student goes from begginner to elementary to intermediate to advanced.

References

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

http://www.wiki.com/

Benchmarks in ESL and Why They Are Useful

A standard or indicator perse that I would like to talk about for this week’s discussion board was posted on one of our resources this week, adultedcontentstandards.ed.gov’s website. As an ESL teacher, having taught abroad in Rome for a little over a year, I was already familiar with standards, or benchmarks perse in the field of ESL. What I used primarily before to gauge students and to set bench marks for what needed to be taught was based on the Common European Framework of Language. Here in the United States, we have a common framework set by the Department of Education on the aforementioned website and specific benchmarks have been put into place to gauge students level of English acquisition. In this post, I am going to go over a few benchmarks and explain how I can incorporate the mediums I presented in my previous post and how that would help with my presentation of material and making sure my students met their objectives as set by the Department of Education.

First, what are content standards? Content standards (benchmarks as I am referring to them as) are, “what learners should know and be able to do in a specific content area, which in this case is the English language. The Illinois ESL Content Standards define what adult English Language Learners (ELL) should know and be able to do as a result of the ESL instruction at a particular level” (Foster, DeHesus, Obrzut, 2007). In fact, there are four benchmarks set forth in this publication, of which I will go over the first two.

1.The program has a process for developing curriculum that is based on a needs assessment of learners and includes participation and input from other stakeholders.
2.The curriculum specifies measurable learning objectives for each instructional offering for learners and is appropriate for learners in multilevel classes.
(www.adultedcontentstandards.ed.gov)

In terms of the first benchmark outlined above, I can incorporate technology in a number of ways; however, I would like to relate this week’s reading to the reason why I think using skype would be beneficial to meet this unique need. Using Skype or a similar program gives the school an opportunity to record a student at their level, share with stakeholders and go back to to determine the level in which the student is at. Typically a needs analysis is conducted and I believe it to be beneficial for that needs analysis to be conducted over a technological model such as this to encapsulate the student’s level and have further analysis conducted. In my own case of learning a foreign language, I was placed in to a class that was beneath me and it would have been useful to be able to have more administrator’s look at my analysis of language usage to determine the appropriate class for me to be put into such as B1 or B2 via the Common European Framework for Italian language learners. This in fact would serve as a weblog of sorts to administrators because they would have the search options to go to students and students would be able to also go to their personal entries and see their real time progress. Because you can imbed the video used on Skype or other social media options, it serves as a medium to help students and administrators alike. Some reasons for why this would be useful would be included in this excerpt, “Weblogs truly explain the walls of the classroom. The internet has always provided the possibility of connecting students with others outside the classroom via e-mail and chat groups but now the collaboration can be much more accessible and much more diverse” (Richardson, 2010). Moreover, as Dr. Thornburg pointed out in this week’s video, The Impact of Technology on Learning, technological innovations, “allow users to deepen their understanding, rather than focus on decontextualized factoids” (Laureate Education, 2008). Foreign language acquisition is very difficult and cannot be done by learning random factoids as Dr. Thornburg pointed out and needs to be done systematically, methodically and with tact, which in today’s world takes technologically savvy innovations like Skype and weblogs.

Update to Blog assignment based on instructor’s feedback:

I am sorry if I misunderstood the assignment. Please understand a lot of us are NOT actually teaching so this is new for us and frankly just research and in itself is very difficult to understand not having experience in the field. I only have experience using benchmarks using the Common European Framework in ‘method’ schools where I did not have the power to choose what I performed in the lesson because it was just that, a ‘method’ school. The method was predetermined and all lesson activities were planned out before hand, no room for the teacher to stray, so this is not something I have had to deal with. I went back to the publication that I references, and you are right there are very specific requirements for ESL teaching but please do bear in mind I am not currently teaching so I probably do not know a lot about teaching in Illinois, and I do not plan on teaching here anyways.
I have preferred in the past to teach low intermediate students because they are typically at the point where they can start understanding and typically are engaged. The standard below is what I would like to use Skype for:
LI.L1 Respond to statements, questions and commands in routine face-to-face conversations related to immediate needs
(e.g., shopping, transportation, health)
Using Skype with the video component would allow me to quiz students in a rapid fire succession of questions related to every day activities in and around different grammar points. I would use it as a supplement for students and would be a perfect medium to meet this objective.
The following 2 objectives would also make good use of Skype, with or without video component to check student’s understanding of giving directions and they could actually use this as homework and call each other with predetermined homework which could include having students practice giving directions and the teacher would know the answer. The students could all come up with their answers and then justify why they believe X or Y to be the final ending place.
LI.L2 Respond to short phone conversations related to immediate needs
(e.g., calling in sick, emergencies)
Role play would be a good use of Skype with this.

LI.L3 Follow simple oral directions and instructions
(e.g., finding a room in a building, buying a train ticket)
Practice giving directions using a map and seeing if they arrive at the right destination. Would serve to see if students understand basic concepts or if more work needs to be done.
http://www.adultedcontentstandards.ed.gov/ReferenceFiles/ILLanguage.htm#content2

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008b). The impact of technology on learning. Baltimore, MD: Author.

U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Adult education content standards warehouse. Retrieved May 30, 2012, from http://adultedcontentstandards.ed.gov/

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Emerging Technologies in Higher Education Overview

In this blog post, I will describe two emerging technologies useful for today’s students in a higher education setting. I am completing a Master’s of Science in Adult Education focusing on TEFL studies, so I will pick for this blog (and any other blogs) topics which relate to ESL studies, including my pick for emerging technologies useful for today’s students.

As a teacher of a foreign language and a student of foreign languages myself, I believe language learning software is an emerging technology in my field. It is not to say that my job is being replaced by language software but for me it has been a breakthrough and helped students immensely in their pursuit of speaking and diversifying their own cultural identity. Therefore, my obvious first pick is Rosetta Stone, the leading language learning software. You can visit the website at www.rosettastone.com

I personally purchased sets 1-5 (Italian) because I was living in Italy but you can also do Rosetta Stone Live which allows you to attend one time per week sessions with a tutor and other language users, complete online games and other excersizes through an online subscription. This technology is innovative and a breath of fresh air from the old grammar and blackboard methodology. As mentioned by Dr. David Thornburg in Educational Technology, he mentioned that the Blackboard was developed by a math instructor at a university because the teacher needed to develop more effective teaching strategies for his students and has since been used in many a classroom. Then came the projector, white board, computer, interactive boards, and other technological innovations. For me, the technological innovation for ESL students or other language learners would be Rosetta Stone because it interactively breaks through barriers consistent with language learning needs. It focuses on pronunciation and repetition. Once a student gets through a set, they will be far more prepared to partake in an intensive English class.

Another technological innovation  now being used in conjunction with ESL students living abroad would be the use of Skype or other mediums which allow students to see their professor from the convenience of their own home weather they are here in the U.S. or clear across the world in say, China for example. (www.skype.com) This eases the tension for ESL students because the cost becomes much less being that they do not have to travel, apply for a VISA and take a year or two out of their life to learn a foreign language. Many schools, including schools that I have taught at started implementing Skype lessons in conjunction with their own teaching materials and methodology which has helped those with tight schedules and living remotely.

As an ESL teacher, I would incorporate Rosetta Stone into my lessons by petitioning the school to purchase rights in the classroom as the military does of its service members and assign Rosetta Stone as homework to students to make sure they stay up and practice because language acquisition is lost as fast as it is picked up. A second way I could incorporate it into my teaching is to use exercise’s in class from Rosetta Stone and go through them as a reinforcement to a lesson on a grammar point if my students aren’t understanding or to just make the lesson more invigorating to break up the monogamy of beginner ESL lessons and the grammar push.

For skype, I would incorporate this medium for my office hours so that I could meet with students virtually if they were unable to come to campus (if teaching on a campus). I would also like to incorporate it as a homework medium so that students could focus on specific grammar points and then present findings to class. I want my ESL classes to be as interactive as possible and to be able to use as much technology as possible to break up the monogamy of boring taxonomies in adult learning.
Something else to take into consideration specifically for the use of Rosetta Stone is the fact that many DOD agencies including the military have gotten site licenses for the use of general employees. I would like to specifically research to find out what Rosetta Stone could offer as an advantage to a class for my proposal if feasable. The only obstacle here would be the price point that would need to be researched. An alternative would be to find out pricepoints of simular products on the market.

References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.