Nina's ClassDigiTools e-Portfolio

Task 1. Read a short article and create a magazine cover which summarizes its message. The article I read was "Should You Flip Your Classroom?" by Ramsey Musallam.  My magazine cover is here: 

I used BigHugeLabs because the ReadWriteThink interactive tool that was suggested did not provide a magazine cover--just a flier, a newspaper, a booklet or a brochure.

It is difficult to get students to summarize what they read. They always want to write too little or way too much. This activity holds promise as a way to make summarizing more creative. Still, it seems more like a writing activity than a reading activity.

Task 2: Read a lesson plan about having students rewrite parts of a play they are reading (e.g., What would have happened if Romeo had received the letter?). Think what story I would use to adapt this to my teaching context, and how I would adapt the lesson plan.

I confess I cannot imagine using this idea with my classes. We don't read plays; the emphasis is on developing college-level reading skills (primarily informational texts: articles and textbooks). I don't like the idea of encouraging students to think that they can improve on Shakespeare (it actually says  in one suggested activity, "Act out the new, improved turning point...."). Maybe I am hopelessly old-fashioned. That said, there is a wealth of digital tools for creating plot diagrams, Venn diagrams, timelines, etc. here.

Bed time!

Cool Extra Idea: Self-published books from ePubBud. Well, I am not a creative person, so I am not sure if this site would serve me. They say everything is free, but when I browsed through a few of their books, the books were not free. They were very cheap (under $2), but they were not free. They mention the Nook (which I do have), but all their claims seem to require an iPad (which I don't have). Wait a minute--I found a book written by a teacher for a middle school class that appears to be downloadable... but I haven't tried to download one. Okay, on this page I found instructions for downloading to the Nook: On an original Nook or Nook Simple Touch download them to your computer, then connect the nook via USB and copy the epub files to its "Documents" folder!  I guess this bears checking out further. 

Final Reflection

But I am running out of steam. I think it's almost time to wrap things up for this session. There's much left for me to do--including going back to Weeks 1-4 and spending time looking at the artifacts created by others, which I never had time to do. As a result, my EVO2012 experience lacked the vital interaction that makes EVO sessions so compelling. This is nobody's fault except my own; I just couldn't seem to find the time to do the tasks and participate actively in the community. The moderators were great; whenever I submitted an assignment, I got feedback from one of them, usually within 24 hours. As a former EVO moderator myself, I know how time-consuming this is, and I thank them all for their attention and their comments. I also thank the many participants who commented on my submissions!  I hope to return the favor in the coming months.

Yes, I promise: I will complete the survey, but not right now: I have to bolt my supper and leave for my weekly tai chi class! Bye for now!

Nina

I just got thrown out of my previous post again and for the same reason: after embedding my slideshow, I couldn't get my cursor below it to continue the post. Irritating.

Anyway, let's finish this baby:

9. Intervue.me. This is the tool we used in Task 3. I had created a little interview and invited my 16 students from last semester to respond to it, so I went back to see if any of them had. None of them had contributed a video. Was this because they never received the invitation? Or because they were too intimidated to make a video? Or because they couldn't figure out what to do? I don't know. If I remember, I will ask those who are still at MEI whether they got the invitation, and why they did not respond.

10. Knovio.  I was unfamiliar with this site, which enables the user to add narration to PowerPoint (wait a minute. PowerPoint also enables the user to add narration How is this different?). It looks easy, so I signed up, but unfortunately, I have run out of time today. I don't have a PowerPoint on this computer to use and there is no time to create one! But I hope to try it another day.

Task 5 also calls for a lesson plan, or I guess an idea for a lesson, using one of these tools. I think I would choose Fotobabble. I would have students select a family photo and briefly talk about who is in the photo. Alternatively (my Saudi students do not always like to show photographs of themselves or their families), they could describe a photograph of their house or their room.

This completes the tasks for Week 4, except for the Sketchcast/Educreations task to talk about my family, as I could not get these tools to function properly.

Ready for Week 5, the final week!

After I embedded my Photobabble into my Week 4 post, I was unable to get below it to continue writing, so I will continue here with Task 5.

5. Tube it!  Unfortunately, I have no idea how this is supposed to work. There is no description, no video tutorial (there is something, but it has no sound), no invitation to sign up. When I click on Participate, my  webcam is activated and I see myself, but that is all. I have no clue what to do.

6. Aack! Number 6 is Sketchcast. Thanks, but no thanks! (See previous post.)

7. Blabberize. (Where do they get these stupid names?) This site lets you choose a picture (of an animal, for example), choose a "mouth" part of the picture, and make the animal appear to talk with your voice.  It is really stupid. Not interested, thank you anyway. Maybe if I taught kids instead of university students and adults? But even kids would find this silly, I think.

8. Show Beyond (Beta). This site was quite easy to use. You have a create a free account first. You can then select up to 24 images, arrange them in order, and add audio narration or text.  I made a little slideshow about TESOL's 2011 Convention in New Orleans.  The link is here, and I will try to embed it below:

Task 1/2 A Video Interview

The first task was to create a short video using recordr.tv, answering the questions "Why did you choose to become a teacher?" and "What do you like most about teaching?"  I had trouble doing this recording because I couldn't get my audio to work! Grrrr. I've actually been having trouble with this for a long time now; for some reason, I can no longer record using the microphone in the laptop. I have to use a headset. I have enabled and disabled recording devices until I am blue in the face, but I can't seem to reset that microphone to work.  Finally, I managed to record myself, using the headset, but I found the audio to be pretty bad; it actually cuts out a couple of times during the video.  

I'd like to embed the video here, but Posterous doesn't seem to allow it. I can paste the embed code in, but I doubt that will work:

4. Fotobabble. This free tool is easier to use than some of the others. All you do, after signing up, is select a photo from your Pictures folder, choose a background theme (or not) and record a very short caption. I chose a photo from my visit to Paris in December 2010 of myself with my dear friend, Catherine Tourriere.

Week 3 is dedicated to web tools used to enhance listening skills. I taught listening & speaking last year (spring and fall); unfortunately I am not teaching it now, but perhaps I will be able to take another class next year! I enjoyed teaching listening a lot. My students were high intermediate level, and I used television sit-coms, TED talks, and online lectures with them.

Task 1: Listening Treasure Hunt

We have 30 minutes to explore our chosen treasure. I chose #1, and it opened up to Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals, which is a site I have already seen and been impressed by because it represents SO MUCH work on the part of its creator, Claudio Azevedo of Casa Thomas Jefferson, who then makes it all available for free! 

The movie segment at the top of the blog is from the beginning of the animated film of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which I have never seen although I watch the live action version, with George C. Scott, every single December 24!  The grammar goals selected for this clip was modal auxiliaries. Students select a modal to complete a sentence and decide whether it should be affirmative or negative; e.g., Sometimes the population cannot help homeless people because it's difficult for them to take care of their own family (present impossibility).  Some are not so obvious: The government may not provide poor children with a good meal for free on Christmas eve. (future possibility). At least I think that's what the author intends. No, wait... there is an answer key: He wants could/might  provide.... Is it just me, or is this not obvious? After watching the clip, I'd be more likely to write must not provide (present logical conclusion), I think.  If may not provide is the desired response, I'd say it has present meaning, not future, in this case. But this is quibbling. Teachers can rewrite the exercises if they choose.  

The next exercise asks students to rewrite the sentences in the passive voice.  This is very tricky, and only parts of the sentences can be transformed to passive.  In the exanple above about helping homeless people, for instance, only the first (main) clause can be made passive (Sometimes homeless people cannot be helped) and other parts must be rewritten or they will no longer make sense (because it's difficult for the population to take care of their own families). In the answer key, the correct response is given as Homeless people can't be helped by the population...., which sounds odd to me. Again, nobody forces the teacher to use the exercises as written. The great gift of this website is that Azevedo has selected and cut suitable movie clips and offered his idea as to how they might be used.

I have looked at other posts on this blog before, and many (most?) of them come from the very beginning of the movie. They tend to be short on conversation and long on music, so maybe they are more appropriate for grammar than they are for listening comprehension. But they are lots of fun.

Well, after that 30 minutes I decided to check out the rest of the offerings, and here are some treasures I found:

1. YouTube Channel TIME 10 Questions. In this series, people send in questions for a celebrity. Ten questions are selected and an interview asks the celebrity the questions. I watched Emma Watson's interview.  The questions themselves are captioned, but the responses are not.  Great site! (Note to self: Save this on Delicious later--their server is down.)
2. The next interesting site is from a favorite blog, Nik's Daily English Activities, created by Nik Peachey.  The activity is to listen to the audio track of a movie while reading the movie script. The recommended sites are Listen to a Movie and Drew's Script-o-Rama.  I found that I could not control the audio as described on Listen to a Movie (could not pause it or adjust the volume), so I am not sure this would work. It's a good idea.
3. Another site is Listen and Write. I've used this one before, in my listening speaking class in the Spring 2011 semester.  It's a great site, and the dictations are good for practicing both listening and writing (duh...). The student chooses whether s/he wants to fill in just the first letter of each word, fill in the blanks, or type the entire text. The dictations are spoken sentence by sentence, and keep repeating a given sentence until the student has typed it correctly. Students can ask for hints if they are stuck. If I remember correctly, capital letters aren't used, which is kind of weird, and I did not always agree with the level of difficulty. It's supposed to be possible to make one's own dictations, but I never tried that. I just checked out the lowest level available (2) and found only a lot of French dictées, something in Korean and one apparently English dictation  which would not load. This is not something to go into class with unless you have checked it out thoroughly and selected the dictation you wish to use!
4. AMNewYork is a page which features brief self-introductions by native New Yorkers speaking in their distinctive accents. This would be interesting if it were paired with other examples of accents from a variety of places, or if the students were planning to visit New York (or live there).
5. There is a page on teaching with TED, which is interesting; I would have just linked to TED itself! (That is the next treasure!) But I'll be interested in checking out the ideas in this wiki because I used TED a lot with my listening/speaking classes, and I'm going to be doing an EV Fair presentation on enhancing language skills with TED at this year's TESOL convention in Philadelphia.

There are some more sites worth checking out, but it's late and I have to get up early tomorrow morning!

Task 2: This was to share my notes and findings with others on Edmodo. I posted the link to this post, so I think I can consider that done.

Task 3: Listening Math

a. You've gone on a treasure hunt, had some time for reflection, interaction and learning. How about some Listening Math? Click again on the numbers above if you need, and you're going to choose two of the resources to combine them into a lesson plan idea. 

 Okay. I choose Listen and Write (5) and TED talks (9) as my digital resources.  

Class level: Adult (18+) students in a university-based Intensive English Program in the United States; intermediate level. The class is Listening/Speaking. 

Time frame: 

1. One hour to listen to the TED talk (depending on length) and practice the dictation.
2. One hour (or homework) to prepare their own presentation.
3. One or two hours to listen to student presentations, depending on the size of the class.

Lesson Goal:

1. Enhance listening fluency and accuracy
2. teach new vocabulary, including spelling
3. give students an example of a process speech to prepare them to do one of their own.

Steps:

1. Select a short TED talk that is appropriate for intermediate students, e.g., "How to Tie Your Shoes", a 3-minute demonstration by Terry Moore. As it happens, this particular talk is also available in the Beta "Categories" of Listen-and-Write (Click on Categories; select TED.).
2. Have the students watch the talk several times. Teach new vocabulary as necessary (e.g., ludicrous, savvy, knot, bow, transverse axis...). N.B. Students can take advantage of captions in 45 different languages as well as the interactive transcript in English to help them to understand the talk.
3. Students open this TED talk in Listen-and-Write. Students can select their mode (full mode = write everything you hear, the most challenging; blank mode = fill in the blanks with selected words, much easier; or quick mode = type only the first letter of each word) according to their level of listening proficiency, or the teacher can suggest/assign a mode for the dictation.
4. Students take the dictation according to the mode they have chosen and check their accuracy.
5. Students work in groups or individually to create a 3-minute how-to speech.

Issues to consider:

1. Students should know appropriate connecting words for a process speech (first, second, then, next, finally...). However, Terry Moore doesn't use any of these in his TED talk!
2. Student presentations could be videotaped and uploaded to YouTube (accessible only to those who have the link).
3. Before the class, the teacher should try out Listen-and-Write at a student station in the computer lab to make sure it works properly. If this is the first time students have used the site, the teacher will need to demo its use.

Now all I have to do is share the link to this post (again!) and read and comment on some others' contributions. I will set aside one hour for this.  

By the way, I really should go back and watch the Edmodo introductory video. I don't feel confident using it. Every time I use Edmodo I have to type out my entire email address and password; it doesn't want to save this info. I find this very irritating for some reason. Perhaps there is something I should know but don't. And I don't feel as if I can navigate around the site at will. But that will have to wait.

Oops! I forgot

Task 4: Listening List: Going Beyond with your Listening Math

  How about a twist to your Listening Math? You've got two numbers and their addition. Now, use the math result you got to make a list of X things you can do using to enhance your students' listening skills with the sites you've explored in your treasure hunt. 

Ouch! This is a large task. Okay, 5 + 9 = 14.  Here goes:

1. Using  http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/3-unique-ways-to-record-edit-and-publish-your-audio_b980, have the class watch Eric Whitacre conducting his virtual choir singing Lux Aurumque; then assign Whitacre's talk describing how this came to happen in his TED talk, A Virtual Choir 2,000 Voices Strong. Students may use the interactive transcript or native language captions if they need to.  Students record their responses to the following questions on Chirbit: What are the advantages to conducting a virtual choir vs. an actual choir? What are the disadvantages?
2. Have students listen to one TED talk of their choice (of any length) every day as homework. Students log their talks on a Google spreadsheet with columns for their name, the name of the speaker, the title of the talk, the length of the talk, the URL of the talk, their rating of the talk (e.g., jaw-dropping; boring; inspiring; difficult to understand...) and the strategies they used to listen (e.g., listening several times; using the interactive transcript; using the native-language or English captions; just listening once through; looking up new vocabulary; taking notes as they listen). (N.B. I actually assigned this to my high-intermediate listening/speaking students during the spring and fall 2011 semesters. Most students commented very favorably.)
3. Have students do a daily or weekly dictation using Listen-and-Write. They can all do the same dictation, which you assign, or they can choose according to their ability and interest. Dictations can be done in the lab during class hours, in the lab outside of class, or at home (All students have laptop computers and Internet access.).
4. Using  http://www.amnyinteractive.com/project/2008/NYC-Accent/ , have students listen to one of the 10 New Yorkers. Students then share information about the person they listened to in a small group where each group member has listened to a different person.
5.  Have students listen to a celebrity interview on TIME 10 Questions. Have them transcribe one of the answers, working in teams of 2-3 students.
6. Have students listen to a celebrity interview on  TIME 10 Questions. Then have them summarize (one or all of) the questions and responses, either in writing or orally (on Chirbit or in front of the class, or in groups).  (Does this count as 7 ideas?)
7. Are we limited to just the 11 tools listed here? If not, and assuming the previous idea was worth 7 ideas, my final idea is to have students listen to an authentic university lecture on Academic Earth or CosmoLearning and take notes.

That's all, folks. I pity the people who chose #11 and #12 for a list of 23 ideas for enhancing listening. Enough already!

I have fallen completely behind this week.  I just can't seem to get motivated!  This is the first (almost) full week of class in the spring semester. I've been thinking more about my class, which is just settling down (eight very nice beginners, seven of whom are from the same country--Saudi Arabia).  Looking at what the 500 (I'm told) participants in the session have been doing is totally overwhelming; I just can't even begin it and cannot fathom how the moderators are keeping up with it. 

I did manage to complete the first task, which involved selected a character, a setting, and a plot and composing a fifty-word story-starter. And I actually blogged about it here, but I couldn't get the images to embed and I finally gave up.

Let's see, task 2 is to explore the web tools associated with the character, setting, and plot I selected, read through the descriptions, and select at least one to share with everyone.  Today at work I looked at Scholastic's Story Starters. This tool is aimed at elementary aged children in kindergarten through 6th grade.  There was nothing to read; I had to try it. You type in your name, select a kind of writing (e.g., Write a short biography, a letter), an adjective (e.g., a hairy, a a nerdy, a grouchy), a noun (e.g., a muffin, a giraffe, a baseball player), and a relative clause (e.g., who lives on top of a mountain, who works is a zoo). Then you are supposed to compose a story (e.g., a short biography about a hairy muffin who works in a zoo). It's kind of stupid. Thinking about a hairy muffin makes me want to throw up!

My next tool is BitStrips, a kind of comic generator.   It isn't a free tool; it costs $10 a month. Moreover, it is aimed at children.

The last tool is DreamDoze, which bills itself at "social dream interpretations." What this means is that people are encouraged to write down dreams they have had, and other people offer interpretations of these dreams. The dream interpreters are not especially qualified or trained to interpret the dreams; they seem to be the same people who are posting their dreams on the site. I am not a fan of dream interpretation, so this site does not appeal to me, but I guess some people like it, and some students might like it. The posts I read were often badly written, rife with grammatical mistakes, so, not a good model for students.  I thought keeping a dream journal might be interesting (however, lots of people can't remember their dreams after they wake up, so what would they write?), but it appears to be more of the same: somebody posts, somebody else offers an interpretation. 

Task 3 was to select one of a list of collaborative writing tools. I was already familiar with wikis (although I have not actually used wikis for collaborative writing) and Google Docs, so I chose one called MixedInk. It looks really impressive! The site is very organized (see this page,  and check out the links on the left ("How It Works" &c). A basic account is free, and one can create unlimited classes and projects, so I signed up, which was very simple and fast. I selected Anna Conway's 50-word story starter because Anna chose the same three pictures that I did for mine (baby, street, door into another world). I added a few paragraphs, clicked on "Submit" and posted an invitation on Edmodo to other participants to add something.  I did not actually see any other such invitations, however, so I have not done my part for someone else yet. We'll see if anyone adds anything. Anna's and my story can be found here.

Checklist for Week 2:

• selected the three pictures (character, setting and plot) to write the 50-word story starter YES
• shared my  50-word story starter in the comment area below and have commented on other participants' introductions  SHARED YES, COMMENTED NO
• explored the three online tools for creative writing and have shared my classroom ideas in our Edmodo Group  YES
• explored the online collaborative writing sites, have chosen one of my peers' starters and have expanded it  YES
• shared my writing expansion based on a peer´s started in our Edmodo Group  YES
• reflected upon the collaborative tools exploration and their use in the classroom in my digital portfolio  SOMEWHAT
• checked examples of written summaries enhanced with images (Prezi, Photopeach, Sliderocket)  NO (OPTIONAL)

For this year's Electronic Village Online, I have selected the session "Digital Tools with Purpose in the ESL-EFL Classroom," aka ClassDigiTools.  The first week has been a whirlwind (typical EVO!), trying to read and respond to as many participants' introductions as possible. (I have already met many of the participants and several of the moderators in previous EVOs, but there are lots of new people to get to know as well.)

Creating a space to archive our session artifacts, reflect on what we are learning, and receive feedback from others is one of this week's assignments. Although we did not have to create a new space, I decided to create a new posterous blog for the session.

To introduce ourselves, several tools were suggested (Prezi, About.me, Flavors.me, and Animoto), but I decided to do a little podcast instead, using Audacity and Podbean. Unfortunately, I am having some trouble with the audio on Audacity, so my voice is distorted. :-(  If I have time, I will redo it, but here's my first effort: