Writing a news report in EFL classroom

No doubt that at low levels it is practically impossible because the reporters speak too fast and the vocabulary is very complicated. It is obvious that for low level students it is very difficult to listen to news reports or to read newspaper articles and write a report. However there are some solutions for that. 

It is true that now CNN has great impact on news media becasue it is famous for its truthful news and it is a great source to use in EFL classrooms for almost all levels. Of course you will think that CNN news is complex with difficult vocabulary. However let me inform that CNN provides transcripts for most of its shows which you can find at 

http://www.CNN.com/TRANSCRIPTS/index.html

In this link you can find an article which will help you to introduce and use news reporting in EFL classroom for all levels. 

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Mackenzie-CNN.html

This tutorial may also help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCOy9yyAHQk

The best course ever!!! :)

I guess this is the last post for this course and that's why I wanna share my knowledge and experience gained during the whole course. So, reading my posts you can see what we have discussed so far in our classes-SIMPLY THE BEST :). As a future teacher and in general as a representative of the 21 century youth generation it's obligatory to be aware of different technological innovations and the ways that they can be used in educational settings and in TEFL in particular.

WEB 2.0 tools that are used by teens so much appeared to be very helpful in learning and teaching. Various studies have been conducted to find out their usefulness. In fact they can be applied in the students' learning process very easily because most of these new technologies are user-friendly. After having explored and discussed so many interesting tools it becomes clear for me that new technologies and even games can be beneficial for language learners. And the only advice that I can give all  young language teachers is:

NEVER FEAR THE UNKNOWN JUST EXPLORE IT.

That's what we did in our course with our instructor's guidance. So thanks him for showing us new ways of thinking, creating and analyzing. 

Technologies in Education

Before starting my blog post I want to share a few links  with you about the technologies in Education. These links will give you kind of an overview about the history of using technologies in Education and about its trends now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ0nlh5FU5A


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzi2RIt8_nk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?=9cxyH1qgKZQ&feature=related 


Nowadays education happens anywhere and anytime due to the new technologies.There are modules to support learning outside of the classroom because there is such a wide range of activities provided by the technologies for learning to occur. Its a very different space for learning. Students especially kids are motivated and become very fluent in using new technologies. Adults should recognize that there is all kinds of learning when using new technologies. Students develop their collaborative relationship and teamwork skills. Students create, edit and comment. This leads to all kinds of mediation in the learners' behavior that can promote learning.
  Today there is a shift from:

• consumption to participation
• institution to network
• users to producers

So now there are 21st century learners with completely different behavior, needs and interests.
Here is a link with interesting opinions. Have a look! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw&feature=related 

So far I have discussed a few new technologies that can be used in education and in the  language classroom in particular. It seems that there are no other things to think in terms of using these new tools in the classroom but it’s not so. There are still a lot of questions that can not be answered yet. So, there is a need for further research.

 While listening to a talk by Connie Yowell which was held in the Breakthrough Learning Conference a question arise for me in terms Armenia. For example it is still unclear to what extend  Armenian students are digitally literal. This is the question that should be investigated in order to know the feasibility of this or that technology for the target audience in Armenia. The main reason is that learning with the digtal media is fundamentally different and the lack of awareness of may bring some unnecessary difficulties in the learning/teaching process.

So before using new technologies in the classroom educators need to think about how to reconstruct the learning system in order to fit it with the new changes. Another important question is to find out how young people are learning and where and finally how they are using and participating with the new technologies. And as final note in my post I advise you to watch this video by Bill Gates " How do you make a teacher great?" It's part 1 of his talk at TED's conference. Enjoy !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnfzZEREfQs&feature=related 

Cloud Computing

I guess having heard these terms you will think that the topic of today’s post is whether or environment. But I have to disappoint you J it is a new notion of the software somewhere in the cloud. Two decades ago the main delivery system of software was University or school computer labs. And then it came to the students own computers. But nowadays that is going to change as teaching and learning involves the use of computational tools through software applications virtually. In cloud computing the Internet is the one that provides computational service. The applications aren’t installed in the personal computers but are used directly from the cloud. It is simple, easy and the important thing that it is accessible for all operation systems (Windows, Macintosh etc.). Accidentally I remembered Freidman’s idea that the “world is flat”. Everything is becoming accessible and the whole information is being shared in the cloud. So that’s kind of a new twist on outsourcing. Now we don’t know where is that outsourced system, it maybe everywhere or somewhere in the cloudJ.

There are two types of clouds: public and private. Though private clouds play not so much role in general, they are important in teaching and learning. Today many Universities have started to move their students’ e-mail services into public cloud environment (e.g. Gmail and Google Apps in general).

 There is a whole host of challenges. Risk management is key, particularly if institutional data is being held in the cloud. In other words you move your personal information, your identity to the cloud where everybody has access to it. Also strategies need to be employed to manage not only risk but also those situations when a cloud service provider suddenly and unexpectedly stops delivering services.

No doubt that cloud computing is the future but now we still have a chance to choose whether to use it or not or to what extend we should use it. 

Google Apps for Education

At first I want to share two links. Go there and watch. You'll have better understanding of what google Apps are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AI1CNpa0rU&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L-C5dUVHcY&feature=related

Nowadays there is a challenge-everything is shifting from individual into group work, collaborations, joined research, projects that different schoolsa nd Universities can do together. And here is a need for complex environment, kind of cloud where all the information will be stored and shared.Such kind of environment is provided by google Apps. There are different google Apps but as I am a future teacher I'm ineterested mostly in google Apps for Education.

Google Apps Education Edition is a broad that schools and Universities can use to bring communication and collaboration tools to the entire academic community for free. Students, teachers and staff can share ideas more quickly and get things done more effectively when they have access to the same powerful communication and sharing tools (it’s notion of cloud computing). Google Apps Education Edition lets tech administrators provide email, sharable online calendars, instant messaging tools and even a dedicated website to faculty, students and staff for free. There's no hardware or software to install or maintain, since everything is delivered through a standard web browser -- anytime, from anyplace. 

The advantages of Google Apps Education Edition are:

·         No adverts for faculty, staff ad student

·         7.3 GB mail quotas

·         24/7 administrator support

·         Advanced integration capabilities

However, its disadvantages are not clear and maybe they are but we can’t see them behind so many opportunities that Google App for Education give us.

This is in general about google Apps now I want to tell about my experience of using them both as a learner and as a teacher. This is a site that I found while exploring google Apps. There one can find a lot of resources for educators to use.

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/educator-resources.html

Web Analytics

"Web Analytics is a measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of undersatandeing and optimizing Web usage" 

                                                                                      (Web Analytics Assosiation, 2006)

Nowadays analytics are everywhere...

A few decades ago when theWorld Wide Web was used as a tool for sharing information, only a few could think about the role that it plays today.  The increasing popularity  and use of Internet access raise the possibility of using the Web to observe,  monitor and undersatand  a human social behavior. 

Now many websites are using  Google Analytics to follow their visitors behaviors. The visually enhanced reports by Google Analytics provides information on where visitors come from, what pages they visit, how long they stay on each page, how deep they go in the site, where their visits end, and where they go from there. Even Sciences turn to analytics and visuals to have better understanding of different field related issues. Web analytics offer objective satistical data which helps better see the interaction between the website and the visitor. 

In educational setting it also can play a vital role. They can measure the course and activity value in schools and Universities. This will help educators to design a better website/course/activities for their students based on the information that web analytics will provide. With the help of web analytics we can have clear understanding about the preferences and interests of our students  ans built effecctive courses and educational websites for them to enjoy. :)

Here is a link which explains how one can interpret and act with the data. If you are inetersted in it have a look :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdsb_uH2yPU

Another interesting video about web analytics by Avinash Kaushik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpDxGrSqA-E&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLBC519BB60F304EE0

Open Class

Open Class is a new kind of learning environment that goes beyond the Learning Management System (LMS). It stimulates social learning and the free exchange of content and ideas. It’s open to everyone, easy to use, and completely free. It provides dynamic cloud-based solutions. It's a free floor  around the globe which advances education by leveraging modern social technology to encourage collaboration and communication for students, faculty, institutions, and administrators.