Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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. 

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

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.

Monday, September 19, 2011

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 machinesinteraction 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 considerwhen the computer is still unable or fails to function like this, what kind of role a teacher should play. 

Sunday, September 18, 2011

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




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