How to Create a Podcast

     In the podcast, the speaker introduces how to use "Podcast Producer" to create or capture any content you want. You can use the podcast to do your presentation, lectures or use it as a tool of training. You can make a podcast either as a video or audio and the podcast that is made by Podcast Producer can be played on ipod, iphone, itunes or on apple TV.

Podcast Producer

     In my classroom, I will use podcast as a tool for mutual communication between students and teacher. Sometimes the class time is not that sufficient, I will record what I hope to share with the class as a podcast and share it on my blog with my students so that all of them will not miss their chances of learning more. Also, if they hope to reply my podcast, they can make a podcast either in video or audio as one of the way of reply. Of course they can type a comment if they are shy to speak. To help them learn how to create a podcast, I not only will share this podcast with my students but will show them some websites that people can use to create a podcast. Also, I will teach them how to search some further learning about the field they are interested through podcasts. If they are learning Japanese, there are several channels for Japanese learning. If they hope to learn other podcast teaching videoing a podcast, they can also find other videos that teach this on iTunes or other websites. In addition, when doing group presentation, I will also ask my students to make a presentation through podcast such as telling a story they make in target language or even acting a story that we just covered in class.
     Once students learn how to make use of podcast in their learning, they not only know how to create a podcast to communicate with teacher but can find other podcasts that will improve their learning.

Learning Gloabally with ePals

     After browsing on ePals, I discover that it offers people to create a project and classroom which I am really impressed. First, it allows people not only to present a project online but can search for projects around the world with the topic they are interested, country or teacher forum. Also, teachers are able to open an online classroom to assist their teaching. I think ePals can be an ideal platform for teachers and students to communicate and grain information from other countries.

     In my classroom, I plan to use ePals as a tool of online learning. On ePals, I will create a classroom with specific topic such as English speaking that I am going to teach in one semester. Videos and audios related to the class will be uploaded onto the classroom for students to download. Also, I will separate the class into small groups and request students to present a final project on ePals at the end of the semester. Through completing the project, students can develop their creativity and scaffold each other through discussing. Third, I will create a community for the class. On the site, students can present their problems about learning and will immediately receive a reply from me or other students who are online. Finally, I will teacher students in my class how to use ePals to search for the information they may need.

     I think ePals offers both teacher and students a place where learning is no longer limited in a classroom that teacher creates and the chance of receive global information with authentic learning. I also notice that it offers the opportunity for people around the world to find other e-pal such as looking for people in the U.S. if the person is learning English and hopes to understand American culture. 

Video with Teaching

     Video is a good tool which enriches the class and also appeals to students. It assists teachers with showing the main point in their class clearly.
     I think this tool is good for introducing some holidays or a simple idea with students, especially children who just start to learn English. If I use it in a grammar class, I would compose a short video with a grammar rule and music to teach students.  Each slide will contain just one idea. If I put the grammar rule first, then I will put a sample sentence after it and more slides with pictures showing how this rule can be used under what kind of situation. If it is a reading class, I would transform the short story or text we are going to read in to a storytelling video and play it after we cover the all reading. It not only will attracts students' attention and prevents them from getting bored but also can deepen their memory and provide them a brief review. But, it is significant and necessary to switch the images in video based on the age of students I teach. If they are children, providing them some comics or cutes images will be fine. However, if they are college students, the pictures in video should be changed.
     The ultimate goal of teaching not only resides on students' understanding but the cultivation of their interests. A good video clip with proper teaching can help students learn happily and efficiently.

It's a video I made with Animoto which briefly introduces the meaning of Easter.

Pay Attention!

     Most of the time, as teachers, the question that arises in our hearts may be what kind of material I should prepare to teach students, how I can help them improve themselves or if students would think my class is boring or too hard to them.... After watching the video, "Pay Attention," it reminds me to think how students learn. The ways they learn are various. They may learn logically, spatially, musically, or linguistically.  In 21st-centruy, they learn digitally when playing video game, talking on cell phones, watching TV, and using computers which is the most common tool that people use everyday. Not only because it is convenient but because the rich information that one can find through browsing. Honestly, the sentence "How much richness does your curriculum  provide" impress me a lot because it actually points out an important point in a teacher's instruction. The information that a teacher can cover definitely will not be as rich as computers because the limitation of time and lesson plan. But, on computers, students are able to get as many information as they want and at any time. Also, as suggested in the video, students have the chance the create with digital devices which is something that a traditional way of learning cannot offer. Being a teacher 21st century, I think it is important to offer a site of teacher-student interaction not only in classroom but through digital sources. Further, there are lots of free sources online that can compensate the inadequacy of traditional teaching. It is really significant that teaching in 21st century is completely different from the previous; teaching no longer merely belongs to be offer by teachers but also by digital devices. And, learning is not just students' responsibility anymore; teachers in this century have to keep learning how to use digital sources to improve their students.

How Bookr Works in Classroom

     Bookr is a good stage to share some stories or transform class materials into a simple book in teaching. If I use it in my classroom, I would choose to treat it as a tool to teach writing. At first, I can use it to present a model with writing a story. Combining with pictures to illustrate the story, students will not get bored easily in class. Then, I will ask students to write a story by themselves with using Bookr. I would ask them to begin with writing a short story, then increase the length of story in the following class. Because Bookr allows people to add slides as they wish, it is really convenient for teacher to design how long the story should be for each week. Through writing the story, students practice their writing skills and also get more used to grammar rules in target language. Except from individual work, I would group students into small groups and each group needs to accomplish a medium-length story. During the group-working, students have to work cooperatively and will learn through discussing with group members, especially in revision. Sometimes one student may be better at grammar rules, s/he will become the role like teacher who clarifies others' doubts. When deciding the topic of story, students who is creative will transform into another one that lead the group. Through working and helping each other, the learning of whole group of students will be improved.


A Story of a Painter

Digital Storytelling with Education

     Digital storytelling contains a specific topic and viewpoint as traditional story which allows every people to share their view or aspects in life. According to "Center for Digital Storytelling,", it is more like a manner that one uses "first-person video narrative to record document, experiences or ideas in the manner of story-telling through digital media." Usually, It is made as a video combining with images, recorded-audio narration, music or video clips. As "Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling" suggests, the length of digital storytelling is various while it basically "lasts two-ten minutes when being used in education."
     I think digital storytelling is an ideal manner for reading class, especially for some literary texts such as novels or plays written in target language because it definitely will improve students' understanding to those readings. At the beginning of the class, I may record a short introduction about the background of text we are going to read. Since every literary text or story comes with certain cultural backgrounds and age, it is also important for students to understand this prior reading the text. Introducing these background knowledge as telling a story with some sounds and video clips can be more appealing. Also, student's memory about those information that I plan to present will be more strengthened. After reading and discussing the materials, I think it is also a good way to let students watch another storytelling video which is made with the content of the text we just covered. In this way, students will review the story again. Further, it also serves like a clarification that solves students problems or confusion. The reviewing video can be played in class if the class time is sufficient or can be uploaded to the class blog so that every student can watch the video again and again if they need.

Photo by BryanAlexander

How Microblogging Friends Teaching

     Before reading the article, "Teach with twitter? Read This!," I would never relate Twitter to a stage for teaching because it is the most popular blog among young people while I cannot imagine its relation to teaching. However, after thinking about the in-time response feature as pointed in "28 Creative Ways Teachers Are Using Twitter", I start to reconsider it as a tool that can be helpful to students because it offers an interactive stage outside classroom for teachers and students to present discussion. But, there is some points that teachers should notice. As mentioned in the first article, a teacher can no longer follow the old posts once s/he becomes a friend of the user because what twitter focuses on is the current not the past. However, the author mentions how to add a feed for a Twitter hashtag, which I believe is really useful for those who choose Twitter as their stage of teaching since they can share any article with students on Twitter. 

     In "How To Use YouTube's Video Editor," the author introduce the newly launched video editor on YouTube for people to edit the raw video they uploaded.  Also, people can add soundtracks into the video with the online video editor.  This tool is really helpful toward teachers, especially those who would like to share videos with students. Sometimes teacher may find an ideal video to assist teaching while it may be too long and costs lots of class time. Under this kind of circumstances, teacher can try this video editing tool to cut their video shorter and preserve the parts they need. 

    I think video plays an important role in teaching because clearly it catches students' attention well and even encourage them to learn what appears in the video. Further, although twitter may not able to provide long-term posts, it offers a stage for teacher to answer students' question immediately, just as really chatting with each other. Video is a tool that is necessary in traditional classroom, let alone classroom in 21st century. However, when the class is held online and teachers no longer bring videos to the classroom and project on a screen, they need to prepare the materials they plan to use through managing the online resources well such as editing the video before presenting to the class. Additionally, teacher can create a twitter account for the class on which students can share their questions and teacher can reply right away or even some students in class can help each other because another student may know the answer to this student's question. In this way, students not only are able to solve their problems immediately but can improve themselves or reinforce what they learned at the same time.

Computers Assist Learning

     On an Yahoo group, "Learning with Computers," one can find various information for people among different groups. For instance, it offers information not only for children with children books, games but some ideas about pedagogy with distance learning and free technology for teachers. Being a teacher in 21st -century classroom, students are the the only person who need to learn something new. Teachers should learn how to present instructions through technology. With this blog, both teachers and students are able to find some suggestions toward technological teaching, websites or books they may be interested or even discover new ways to assist learning and teaching. Though its target blog readers may be teachers, students still can try to receive the information they need through checking the websites or instructions such as using mobile phones and learn to create their own social stream with other people. As in the video, Levine mentions people should no longer having the idea of being failed to keep up but should start with building a connection with networks of college through emails, blogs.... Staying connected is important for people since we can learn something we do not know from others, including their experiments or experiences in life. Additionally, one should also put what they already learned or are familiar with aside, touch something new and continue learning.  In my home country, smart phones are not that wide-spreaded as in the U.S.; however, I think teachers still can start creating teaching with technology through using computers. After all, lots of free tools and websites can be found online to assist teaching and learning.

Changing the Source of Knowledge

     In my eyes, most teachers in my home country today are still laying the role of information provider. They are the person who give instructions to the whole class while students are required to follow what teachers teach. During my school life, teachers are mostly like leaders or monitors who lead and control student's learning and receiving of knowledge.  Hence, students seldom search for the knowledge they need by themselves but ask for teacher's help. Generally, teachers are more like the bridge that connects students with knowledge. Even though technology plays an essential role in most people's life, it is seldom invited to the filed of teaching. This does not mean that most people are unaware of the power of technology, while they just forget to make use of it in knowledge learning.
     According to Siemens' article, in the view of Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism, learning is a process that "occurs inside the body" and will change one's behavior because learning comes with interacting with society all fail to explain one's learning. This impressed me a lot since we always said learning is a construction of a person. Through learning, s/he learns knowledge, social rules in the community, social skills with interacting with people and finally internalize what s/he learned and is able to self-monitor or self-assess himself/herself. While Siemens here points out that all learning theories focus on the process of learning but neglect what is learned. Staying in a society, especially learning with technology and information varies rapidly, people should use other  theory to reconsider learning. Under the influence of technology, one's experience is no longer the only source of learning. A person should know how to learning with experiences, from both personal and public. This reminds me of the students in Taiwan. Most of them use blogs or other online communities to build up relationship with others. When having some problem about personal life or study, some of them will choose to find some help from people they do not know on the Internet. Through collecting what is useful or reasonable to them, they transform these information into their own and will use to same manner to solve problems. Teachers are not the only person who can offer help or share experiences anymore.
     In addition, as people in "The Changing Nature of Knowledge" points out, "the nature of knowledge power" is changing. When he's studying, his learning experiences are different from students nowadays. For instance, although students in that age have computers, they think it is not that convenient using a computer with study. However, there are more and more learning networks and databases now. The connection that learners build with learning is actually through these online information--"the network becomes learning." Further, as knowledge changes quickly, people cannot just stay at what they already learned or even just learned because it will probably change in the next few minutes. Hence, the model and manner of learning have to be "reflective." I agree that people need to "stay current" about knowledge since one will never know what you believe now is still true or right later. Learning is not merely reading books or following teacher's instructions. It can also be done just through a computer or a phone; therefore, keep staying current toward knowledge and making best use of technological tools to assist one's learning is what people need to consider in 21st century. Nonetheless, as Siemens asserts about Connectivism, "decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital." Consequently, choosing what one need to know and learn is identically important when receiving knowledge with technology. What one needs to do is keep staying current and knowing what kind of information they are receiving simultaneously. 

Youtube Teachers!

YouTube Teachers - Ideas for Using Video in Your Classroom
     When seeing the title, I am really interested in what does "youtube teachers" mean since it is a term that I did not know before.
     In this article, the author introduce the new channel on YouTube which instructs teachers to use videos in their classrooms. On that channel, teachers are able to find various video-based classroom planning suggestion and even learn how to make their own videos for class. But, the author also points out a tremendous problem the channel has--it is unable to be accessed in every school. Hence, though some teachers discover this channel and plan to use it in class, they may fail to use this function.

     I like the primary idea of YouTube Teachers--combining technology with teaching, while I do not understand why it would be restricted in some schools. In addition, during my studying life in America, none of my teachers use this channel in class. I guess it still has long way to go to popularize this channel.

Combining Blog with L2 Classroom

Nowadays, most students in middle school have their own computers in my home country. Some of them even got their own blogs to write a diary of life experiences such as school life, diet experience or traveling.  Consequently,  a blog for L2 teaching can be more appealing to students than just learning with textbooks. I will use a bog for teaching in the following ways:

1. Using the blog as a place where students can discuss some question or post some response about the class:
Standard for Foreign Language Learning Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions


I would ask students to post responses toward the class in target language on the blog. In this way, students can practice their writing skill and review what they learn in class. Further, students can help each other when reading others' post and sometimes offer some suggestions to help their classmates.

2. Using the blog as a place for student to learn more about the language and various culture:

Standard for Foreign Language Learning Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures.

Learning a language is not just listening to teacher's teaching but leave all the textbooks behind after class. It is a process that includes knowing another culture so as to understand the difference from the background they come from. So, I will post some further information such as articles about cultural difference on my blog.

3. Transforming the blog from a website into a communicative tool for teacher and students:
Standard for Foreign Language Learning Standard Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.


Some students may be afraid of asking question in class or discover their problems after reviewing what they learned, a blog is a good way for students to post their problems in private while teacher can reply them right away. To help them use the language as much as possible, I would encourage my students to present their questions in target language either in private or public. If they feel like to, they can comment or reply in target language.

These are the ideas that I come up with to combine a learning blog with teaching. In my opinion, the ultimate mission should cultivate and improve the standards of L2 students who are able to make use of the four languages skill in the society. This does not mean their language abilities must become as great as native speakers, while I hope students at least will no longer be afraid of using target language in front of people.

Internet Safety Tips

Internet is the most convenient tool for people to search information, build connections and discover other worlds. However, this convenience may come with some threats toward one's own privacy. Here are some tips for people to remain alert when surfing on the internet and protect themselves:

1. Remain as anonymous as possible: never give out your full name, home address, phone number, social security number, passwords, name of family members and credit card numbers.

2. Be careful of Cyberbullying: cyberbullying means sending some bullying messages to your computer which may be irritating or even frightening. When getting a cyberbullying which you fail to get it away, ask for parents', teachers or other counselors' help.

3. Don not open any e-mail from address you cannot recognize. You also can buy some software to protect your computer and privacy from spam.

4. Tell your parents, teachers or other people right away when you across some information that make you feel uncomfortable.

5. Never send your pictures to a stranger online.

6. Do not respond any message that are mean or irritating.

"Internet Safety Tips for Teens:" http://kidshealth.org/teen/safety/safebasics/internet_safety.html#
"Basic Safety Tips:" http://www.wsd1.org/greenway/safetytip.htm

Although I know some of the tips before reading these article and follow the rules all the time, my information is still caught by some scam gangs when I was in Taiwan, which is really annoying. I guess it is not just online surfer's responsibility to protect their privacy. The website  also needs to take the responsibility of protecting their users.

Reflections on Chap.1 in Brave New Digital Classroom

Generally, the learning process of L2 learners is to interacting with people through using the target language. When the manner of learning a second language change from learning with real people to interacting with computers, people may have questions like how the interaction can be made. But, some research shows that people are able to accomplish such kind of activity with computer machines—interaction with media can be equal to “real-life experiences.” This reminds me an experience when tutoring a college student when I tried to find the reason why he is so afraid of using English. He says using English on reading, listening or even writing is not that terrible while speaking with people through target language is what challenges him the most since he feels more nervous and anxious while facing real people. The author in this chapter points out people will adjust the manner of talk they used according with the fashion that computer presents. I start to think it is an ideal way to combine language learning with technology such as using some media or interactive program on computers while what teacher should do is to help learners build up the relationship with computers so as to help them earn the highest profit, especially for those who are afraid of using target language with real people. However, how to design a program that can both intervene can provide feedback suited to learners’ needs is a point that teachers need to consider—when the computer is still unable or fails to function like this, what kind of role a teacher should play. 

Some ideas I never think of

     Before watching this video, "Teaching in 21st Century," I kind of regard technology with teaching is an idea that move students from a real classroom to an online space where they can share ideas with classmates and teacher through the Internet. Honestly, I never think of the change of course content when the classroom is no longer there.
     One idea that influences me the most is that the video-maker firstly point out that teachers can no longer believe what they can provide are merely content, facts, formula or information since students actually are able to find all of these research or resources through blogs and other online resources. Previously, people may believe teacher is the major role who provides knowledge to the whole class. According to this video, what 21st-century teacher should be is not knowledge-transmitter but "filter" which means when students find the information online, teachers should instruct them how to handle these resources so as to select the one that can compromise their needs the most.
     Hence, the role of teacher and student in 21st-century classroom seem to be exchange. Teacher is no longer the information provider; contrastively, students need to find the information by themselves. Students are not the one who present questions anymore; on the contrary, teacher gives questions for student to think and get the information they need for the question. Also, in 21st-century classroom, the skills that teacher needs to learn are also different-- what they have to learn now is to use online resources through technical skills and be the filter to help students make the best use of online resources.

Education blogs

1. TESOL Blog: http://blog.tesol.org/category/blog

2. Abroad Languages: http://www.abroadlanguages.com/blog/

3. Being Multilingual: http://beingmultilingual.blogspot.com/

4. English Virtual Community: http://englishvirtualcommunity.blogspot.com/

5. ESL Technology: http://esltech.wordpress.com/

Blogs of LAI 590 Participants

My own blog: http://rachel-lan.blogspot.com/

Dr. Burgos: 

http://www.eduwebtools.blogspot.com

Branden: http://electricenglish.blogspot.com/

Alex: http://alexandriathinks.blogspot.com/

Annie: http://anniechen526.blogspot.com/

Jim: http://eslatmosphere.blogspot.com/

Haelim: http://haelimchoi.blogspot.com/

Amber: http://missbalseca.blogspot.com

Sarah: http://sarahhart120.blogspot.com/

Rose: http://learninglanguageswiththeworld.blogspot.com/

Hua: http://fanghua1119.blogspot.com/

Ashely: http://lai590-ashley.blogspot.com/

Casey: http://bsn98288.blogspot.com/

Binbin: http://binbinhu.blogspot.com

Si Jun: http://jen-jensenglishvillage.blogspot.com/

Euntae: http://euntaeki.blogspot.com/

Jaeeun: http://jungeducation.blogspot.com/

Emily: http://exploringblogging-emily.blogspot.com/

Yih-ling: http://iris-mybloging.blogspot.com/

Tai-hsuan: http://belinda-tesol.blogspot.com/

Rosa: http://librarianrosa.blogspot.com/

Brian: http://mrkanesclass.blogspot.com/