Post #1

Blogs 

1.     Blog de Christina  http://www.cristinacabal.com/

Christina has been teaching English to adults since 1991. Blog de Cristina aims at providing useful teaching materials and ideas and it’s based on student’s needs and her own motivation to make her lessons enjoyable, involving and effective. “In my classes, I try to combine the traditional method of teaching with the new technologies and for this reason I’m always on the lookout for new tools to spice up my lessons”.

This is especially interesting to me because I am all about combining the traditional teaching methods with what technology has to offer.

2.     Mondo’s ESL/EFL World http://mondosworld.blogspot.com/

This resource-rich Blog is beneficial for students and teachers alike. It offers numerous video lessons, song lessons, and writing classes. There are also cartoons, suggestions for discussions by level, writing topics, podcasts, and grammar lessons. There are links to newspapers, books, and useful videos. This is a great site that can be used inside and outside the classroom.

3.     English for University https://englishforuniversity.com/

This blog is meant to help international students prepare for and do well in college. Students can find a wide variety of useful guides, including “How to write your introduction,” “How to survive your summer course,” “How to develop a paragraph,” and “Writing topic sentences.” The author, a university lecturer in the UK, also posts on points of language and includes references to outside resources to help supplement study. This is especially useful for my advanced writing classes.

Twitter 

All five accounts are based on teaching the English Language. I have particularly chosen educators that integrate technology in their teaching. Since I have been learning more about web 2.0 tools, it would be beneficial to get ideas of how to use them more in my lessons.

@TheEngTeacher : Aniya Adly. E-Teaching Consultant, Personal ESL Trainer.

@MissShonah: Shonah Kennedy. ESL teacher. Learn English Online. Passionate about language acquisition and teaching English.

@teflclips: Jamie Keddie. It is a website dedicated to the role of YouTube in ELT.

@FelipeMorales: Felipe Morales. Teacher, Educator, web 2.0, e-learning, social learning, blogs…

@langwitches: Silvia Tolisano. She is a 21st Century Learning Specialist-Technology Integration.

Since I am not a big social media fan, it has been hard for me to keep up with all the educators that I followed for the sake of this course. The only social media account that I check regularly (since I have the app on my phone) is Facebook and sometimes Pinterest. But when I scroll through Facebook, I usually do it to take a break from whatever I am doing and see what my friends and family have been up to. Now as I scroll through Facebook, I see educational news-feeds from the pages that I followed but I honestly don’t always open them for two reasons. 

1. My mood (since I consider Facebook to be for leisure and not educational purposes) and 

2. The title of the post (if the title interests me I read the post, if not I don’t).

Another purpose as to why I haven’t been keeping up with all the social media educators that I followed and the blogs is because I am not teaching this semester. I took this semester off to focus on a personal matter. Being detached from teaching has made me less eager to check out the latest trends in the education realm. But I am sure that when I get back to work next semester, I will be more in touch with my teacher self.  

Post #2

How do you view Wikipedia and YouTube (or any non-vetted site) as a resource for your students? Why? Do you let them use either as a resource? Do you yourself use them during instruction?

         Personally, I never had a problem with allowing my students to use use YouTube and Wikipedia. I seldom viewed either sites to be inaccurate or inappropriate.

I, myself use them extensively and I can’t but say good things about them. I don’t mind my students reaching out to those sites for extra information whenever they need. The only time I restrict their use is when they write research papers. In this particular case, I ask them to only use peer reviewed articles. Why? Because this is what I was taught in school. This is what I was asked to do when I wrote research papers. But even when I write research papers, I do use YouTube or Wikipedia to further understand certain concepts even if I don’t use them as resources. So in reality, they do contribute to every research that I do! 

       The podcast was very interesting and I couldn’t help but listen to it until the end. I do understand the discrepancy in the female to male ratio when it comes to Wikipedia but that doesn’t affect my view towards their effectiveness. Regardless of who writes and edits articles on Wikipedia (whether it be males or females) I’ve always thought that they offered reliable information and no matter what I searched for, Wikipedia had the answer.

Web 2.0 (Week 4)

I have been teaching beginner and advanced ESL courses (university level) for the past three years. Since technology has been advancing at the speed of light, and since it affects all aspects of our daily lives, it is very important for us, as educators, to learn the proper ways of integrating technology into our teaching. And this is exactly why I chose the instructional technology field. 

Basically, Web 2.0 tools are used to either replace, amplify or transform traditional teaching techniques. Such tools give teachers a good chance to individualize instructions and offer more support to the students in need and give more activities to the advanced students. They also increase the student’s motivation level and gives them a more authentic learning experience and the chance to participate in meaningful communications with peers around the world.

An example of Replacement, would be when I ask students to type their essays instead of handwriting them. Or when they access their books through e-books instead of buying the hard copy. Another example would be using more creative presentations with visuals using websites such as Prezis and Animoto. It’s also a more creative way for students to present their work rather than using the traditional PowerPoint. 

An example of Amplification is when my students use tools that enables them to share their work with their peers and other students around the world.  For example, using google docs to share their essays with their peers, or blogs to share their work with a more extended audience worldwide. Blogs, online journals, and online shared documents, for example, are great tools that help my second language learners practice their target language in an informal manner all while sharing their work with their peers. Viewing each other’s work and giving and receiving feedback is an optimal way to practice the language and learn from each other without excessively worrying about syntax. But even though learners are not graded on their grammar or spelling, online shared learning strategies might be intimidating in certain circumstances. 

The age of the learners and their proficiency levels, can also play a role in their confidence level when it comes to using blog- assisted and online shared language learning strategies. The majority of my ESL students feel anxious and intimidated when asked to share their work with others.  But this intimidation that most second language learners display is also dominant in the classroom learning. Some of my students feel shy to speak up or let their peers read their writings when they know that they have low proficiency of the language. Therefore, such constraints are not only available or caused by online-shared tools and blogs.

An example of Transformation, is when my students team up together and write their essays on wiki. I assign their groups, and their task would be to choose a topic, discuss it, write the outline, the first draft, revise it and then write the final draft all while limiting their discussions on wiki. This is an ideal way to monitor their discussions online and perceive exactly how their drafts transformed in to the final essay and how much work and effort each student incorporated into the process.

                                   Unit 1

 

While reading Presnky’s article, I imagined he was talking about one of those futuristic eras that I see in movies. An era where cars are flying above our heads and robots are attending to our everyday needs. I didn’t know what to think. I did agree with the point that this generation is in fact different than the older generation but it is no way as different as he made it seem. 

McKenzie’s critique of Prensky’s article, was a refreshing read that highlighted the extreme generalizations that tackle this generation. Yes, it is true that this generation grew up on technology, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing nor is it something that we, as educators, need to focus on and nourish. If anything, I believe that our major role as educators is take the good from what technology has to offer, all while maintaining the old roots of education. Today’s children are used to the convenience of technology and that’s why they expect this same convenience in their education. They expect things to be handed on to them instead of doing the work themselves and that doesn’t mirror reality. If we only teach “fun” and “game” dominant lessons, then we are not preparing them to the actuality of life. There’s a difference between creating quality engaging lessons vs games. Unfortunately, if they get used to this style of learning then they will not be well prepared to succeed at the university level and above. 

Just as McKenzie stated, not all teens think equally nor do they all have the same interests. Some still value the old ways and are more in touch with nature and some are more indulged in the virtual world of technology. It is also not true that the educators of today’s world, or as Presnky labeled them the “Digital Immigrants”, do not tailor their teaching methods based on their student’s needs. Generalizing and putting all of the educators in one category is foolish. Every educator has his/her own teaching style that is related to his/her own beliefs about what encompasses good education.

Most educators have shifted to a constructivist teaching stand point which has led to meaningful learning that engages students, motivates them and includes them in their learning processes. This can be obtained with or without the use of technology. Technology is great if employed correctly and it can be a great addition to the traditional teaching methods but it shouldn’t be as dominant as Prensky suggested. 

With the advancement of technology, more and more tools are surfacing and are being implemented in classrooms. To name a few, tools such as the interactive white board (IWB), clickers, games, mobiles, and the IPod touch are a good addition to the curriculum if they’re accessible. Although the majority of the studies have proven that integrating such devices is beneficial, there are always limitations that come with them. Such implementations require additional time from the educators and the learners. Before any technological tool is introduced, the educators need to attend necessary technology training before they can use the devices. They need to also spend a significant amount of time preparing for these devices and integrating them in the curriculum. And like any technological devices, educational tools are expensive to implement and can malfunction at times and that is time wasted from learning. In order to deem these devices beneficial, researches need to outweigh the benefits. Are the benefits worth all the money and time spent to implement them?

Even if there’s no argument regarding the advantages of educational technology, the problem that still persists is the digital divide. Students from different socioeconomic backgrounds have different access to technologies. According to the U.N. Broadband Commission, more than half of the world’s population, which is around 4.2 billion people, do not have regular access to the Internet.  In the United States, one in four people don’t have access to internet at home according to the Whitehouse statistics. So if the gap still exists in the United States, then what about the other less fortunate countries? 

                                                        My Students

What Prensky’s article failed to acknowledge are the vast differences that exist between the Digital Natives based on their culture, background, socioeconomic status and so on. My students for example, are all different from each other and the core of their differences mainly arises from their cultures. I teach ESL courses at a university and every semester, I get students from different backgrounds. And although I don’t like to generalize, I have found that students that come from a specific culture share many traits in common. The majority of my students have been from India, China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Europe. Their ages range from 19-25 years old. 

Using a simple chart, I will show you how my students are different and similar based on their background. Again, when I refer to a certain group of students, I am talking about the majority. In the chart below, I grouped my students based on their common interests and traits. Some cultures are more open to trying out new technologies and some are not very comfortable. But since they are all mature students, they tend to try their best and follow directions. 

Nationality	Traits/Behaviors
India Saudi Arabia Iraq	The majority of my Indian, Iraqi and Saudi students know how to use laptops, own cellphones, enjoy watching television, play video games and use social media; but when asked about their learning preferences, they choose traditional learning methods.            - One example is typing their essays on their laptops in the classroom. They always try to argue with me as to why they can write better using a paper and a pen instead of typing.            - They rarely check their emails and have difficulties following the rules of Blackboard. They would rather submit their assignments in person, rather than electronically.           -  They gave me some trouble when I introduced Wiki as part of our writing program. The biggest problem with Wiki was to get the students to communicate in groups on line and exchange comments back and forth. When I pointed out to them that they haven’t been communicating enough on Wiki they told me that they discussed everything face to face or over the phone instead, and that defeated the purpose of using wiki.  Again, their preferences are all based on what they have been accustomed to. Back in their countries, they didn’t have access to the latest technologies at all times and they weren’t expected to participate in technology dominant activities in their schools.
China Europe	The majority of my Chinese and European students have led a more technologically dominant lives in their countries compared to other students. They prefer to use their laptops in the classroom and are very familiar with using the internet and what it has to offer. They don’t mind incorporating technology in their learning processes.

The Whitehouse website. Retrieved 1/19/2017 from

 https://www.whitehouse.gov/connect-america