tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30096834233724866282024-03-13T16:52:02.467-04:00Hi, I'm GabriellaHello, everyone! I'm Gabriella from Beijing, China. I'm really looking forward to communicate with you guys through my blog! Let's have fun ^^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-24303349934820640032013-04-12T16:10:00.000-04:002013-04-12T16:10:07.468-04:00Absolutely Intercultural Podcast<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This week, I find this podcast episode,
<a href="http://www.absolutely-intercultural.com/?p=2269" target="_blank">internationalize yourself at home through simulations in teaching to overcomesocial barriers and culture shock</a> very interesting. The episode is divided into four parts:
Absolutely foreign, absolutely privileged, absolutely real and absolutely
simulated. In the first section, absolutely foreign, they have university
students to share with audiences their own experience of how to prepare
themselves to be internationalized by study abroad or work abroad. In the
second section absolutely privileged, the episode focuses on a game called “How
far can I get in my society.” The game makes people aware of the social
barriers in a society visible. In the third part, absolutely real, it talks
about it is very helpful if you have already experienced what you will encounter
for intercultural preparation. Zydrune shares her own experience in Germany in
this part. In the final part, absolutely simulated, the university lecture
intercultural communication helps a lot with interviews about advantages and
disadvantages of simulations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I find this podcast episode is very useful
especially for language teaching. In the future, I want to go back to China to
teach middle school students English. Since studying abroad is still a very hot
issue in China, most of my students will be interested studying abroad, that
means most of them will encounter something like cultural shock. I think this
podcast is very helpful for them if they could listen to other’s real life
experiences and use strategies to get them better prepared to be internationalized.
Also, language learning is always about culture learning too, so it is
necessary for them to be aware of cultural issues even for those students who
do not want to study abroad. It is still a good tool to help them gain a global
view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-49705986239082583672013-04-08T13:11:00.001-04:002013-04-08T13:11:29.835-04:00ePals!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQaLZXlNJ56QUOZ14bsa5Dv8kbozdsN5pNhIpqByZrsa6Q80X6Am9vh5wxwe6DIPOCDKXatUDp8-yr13gb805M-bH6EnmEIKAJQhByheaQ2sQveyzTRxTWNoVRT4R-CXJK5wI-12CWrs/s1600/epals.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQaLZXlNJ56QUOZ14bsa5Dv8kbozdsN5pNhIpqByZrsa6Q80X6Am9vh5wxwe6DIPOCDKXatUDp8-yr13gb805M-bH6EnmEIKAJQhByheaQ2sQveyzTRxTWNoVRT4R-CXJK5wI-12CWrs/s1600/epals.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">After exploring the ePals site, I found it a very
useful website that offers opportunities around the world to collaborate in
learning using technological resources in different subjects. There are many
featured projects on this website such as “<a href="http://www.epals.com/project-detail.php?id=2813a56b-25df-4520-88e4-0002e23dfa63" target="_blank">Class in China Seeks Partners forInvent It! An ePals Project</a>”, w</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 200%;">hich is a collaborative writing project between Chinese
second year college students and native English speakers. The project is about learning,
cross-cultural communication, environment and global awareness. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 200%;">They will use resources like </span><i style="line-height: 200%;"><a href="http://en.community.epals.com/smithsonian_on_epals/p/inventionprocess.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Key Steps of the Invention Process</span></a>, <a href="http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/biblio_young_readers.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Invention Reading List</span></a>, <a href="http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/ilives/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Innovative
Lives</span></a>, <a href="http://en.community.epals.com/smithsonian_on_epals/p/inventionchallenge2012.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Invent It Challenge</span></a>, <a href="http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/menu_edu_materials.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Invention Educational Materials</span></a>, <a href="http://images.epals.com/Smithsonian/Invention2012/InventionTemplate.pptx" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Power Point Template</span></a></i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 200%;"> to correspond by email and write at
least once a month. The project also culminates with students creating
multimedia presentations that name, explain and sell their new inventions.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are other features of this site like <i>Finding a Classroom</i>, teachers can find a
collaborative classroom that they are interested in. Also, the website offers
instructions of how to use ePals in classrooms, and there are searching
categories like specific region, project type, duration, collaboration and
common core. This website has so many features that I would definitely use in
my future language class to assist my teaching. The most interesting aspect
that attracts me a lot is that this website focuses on global collaboration
which is a trend especially in language teaching and learning and language
learners will definitely benefit a lot from it!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-68852819397390932462013-03-30T01:20:00.002-04:002013-03-30T01:20:42.782-04:00Digital Storytelling by Stupeflix<iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="SxPlayer" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="http://studio.stupeflix.com/embed/E3zJsc1YSU/" title="Stupeflix Video Player" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">This is my digital
storytelling by using Stupeflix, which is a free a tool that I can add
pictures, music, text or even my own videos to make a short digital story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> I really enjoyed creating my story through
this great tool. It’s easy and convenient to conduct and can be very creative
since you can upload your own materials. I think in my future English class, it’s
a great tool to let my students using digital storytelling to practice writing skills
and strategies. They can upload a series photos and add texts on them to
narrate their own story by applying specific grammar knowledge and particular
writing strategies. Also, it’s great for teacher to conduct collaborative
writing activities. Teachers can upload creative pictures and let their
students work in groups to write with their imagination. In my future class, I
would definitely try Stupeflix for English writing class!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-44310204662907328052013-03-30T01:13:00.001-04:002013-03-30T01:13:35.614-04:00Interesting Experiences on Voice Thread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixQLjIWaRMxlUcdL408WK9XcHZI0E1pbAflPeV58LRa_WBv3gEvjUVm3q8dWmayb-ycZeFX5U-lkI-SITb6nteO39rGqlDozzG9I03ik6yYumHT9hJwhI8Ebft3IHbMYMfw993oVtFjOg/s1600/Miao.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixQLjIWaRMxlUcdL408WK9XcHZI0E1pbAflPeV58LRa_WBv3gEvjUVm3q8dWmayb-ycZeFX5U-lkI-SITb6nteO39rGqlDozzG9I03ik6yYumHT9hJwhI8Ebft3IHbMYMfw993oVtFjOg/s320/Miao.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Among our peers’ voice threads, I enjoyed participated in
Miao’s <a href="https://voicethread.com/?#q.b4365769.i22265323" target="_blank">Get Acquainted with Each Other </a>very much. Her class is the ESL class which focuses on communication for
international students. She used voice thread to let everybody get acquainted
with each other and let everybody talk about their own experiences of studying
abroad, either interesting things or difficulties. Her voice thread is very
suitable for her teaching purpose because for a speaking class, the purpose is
to get everyone speak. To avoid awkward, she come up with these topics that
closely related to international students so that it’s easy for students to
talk about. And by sharing their own experiences, they can know each other
better by having the same feeling in others. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELGplT5zoihI7t8N_-Hw0O8-JNr1Nv4hrlMQnT_VsYx62JB2djvigmfEIUJVLITqMYftUyCL1LodcXZHfhWFV3yI8ndBAR2vP0V9wmlee65P-K46f8OYnPb8uEGQRMxNtd62nWGMnBTo/s1600/Li+Ying.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELGplT5zoihI7t8N_-Hw0O8-JNr1Nv4hrlMQnT_VsYx62JB2djvigmfEIUJVLITqMYftUyCL1LodcXZHfhWFV3yI8ndBAR2vP0V9wmlee65P-K46f8OYnPb8uEGQRMxNtd62nWGMnBTo/s320/Li+Ying.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Also I enjoyed Li Ying’s <a href="https://voicethread.com/?#q.b4364233.i22257897" target="_blank">Princess Class</a> as
well, the instructions are very clear by giving examples. She provide an
interesting topic for younger learner, the topic will let students engage in
the activity with various answers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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All in all, both of their voice threads are very suitable
for their teaching purposes and I enjoyed them a lot!<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-39397667266381834932013-03-25T00:15:00.001-04:002013-03-25T00:15:15.044-04:00Bookr for Digital Story-telling<object height="250" width="450"><param name="movie" value="http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/bookr_blog.swf"></param>
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I'm very enjoyed using Bookr to create my story, it's very interesting and easy to operate on computers. I have discussed the advantages of digital storytelling for language learning for students. And Bookr is such a good tool to incorporate Flickr photos.<br />
In my future teaching, I would use this tool for culture teaching in a language class. My objectives would be culture teaching. As we all know, culture is very important for language learning because it enables students with more communicative competence rather than only linguistic knowledge. In my class, I may use Bookr to let students create stories about English festivals, historical events, food culture or any aspects that they are interested in. I would let them work in groups and present their digital story to the whole class. It's an interesting way to engage students in culture learning and also a more creative way to do presentation.<br />
Although there are limitation about this tool, such as limited photo resources, it is still a wonderful tool for both teacher and student to use in language class!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-84355608883504255302013-03-24T23:25:00.000-04:002013-03-24T23:25:00.183-04:00Digital Story-telling with Flickr<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/juankeefeii/3509287177/" title="Minibees English Preparatory School - Batman, Mary & Laura Have The Answer! by SchoolPrincipalOkc, on Flickr"><img alt="Minibees English Preparatory School - Batman, Mary & Laura Have The Answer!" height="375" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3320/3509287177_18482389b8.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Photo by school Principal Okc<br />
The picture above is an English class in Minibees English Preparatory School in Guangzhou in China. The children in the photo seems very engaging in the class. I hope when I come back to China to teach English, I can organize such a great class.<br />
As I read in <a href="http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.cfm" target="_blank">Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling</a>,
digital storytelling is a computer based tool to tell stories which basically
suitable for all subjects. The main idea of digital storytelling is to combine the
art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including graphics, audio,
video and Web publishing.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Digital storytelling is an emerging art form of personal,
heartfelt expression that enables individual and communities to reclaim their
personal cultures while exploring their artistic creativity.” Through using
various kinds of multimedia, it is easier for student to create their own story
more vividly and has more visual impact on audiences.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When it comes to L2 teaching and learning, digital
storytelling is a great choice for both teachers and students. For teachers, we
can use this tool to facilitate us to illustrate new concepts or present new
materials. It’s also an engaging way to attract students, especially those
visual learners. For students, digital storytelling gives them an opportunity
to express their own ideas in a more creative way. Sometimes, language learning
is not only about learning linguistic system, it also has something to do with
cultures. In my future teaching, I want my students to use digital storytelling
to create stories about their own cultures and target language cultures. I
think they will benefit a lot from it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-45358274347992875592013-03-03T18:32:00.001-05:002013-03-03T18:32:43.861-05:00Third World Farmer<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">As I read in Wikipedia, serious games <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">are simulations of real-world events or
processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem.</span> <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Serious games are not a game genre but
a category of games with different purposes. This category includes some<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_game" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: start; text-decoration: initial;" title="Educational game"><span style="color: black;">educational games</span></a><span style="line-height: 200%; text-align: start;"> <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">and</span> <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advergaming" title="Advergaming"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">advergames</span></a>, political games, or evangelical games and they are
primarily focused on an audience outside of primary or secondary education.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtWt6MXEv1uX2MXL_nj6Ah5ZGit_fCtbfMBm72NJo4dMceeNs7SEj54du8i7TOa-jNEpT3LbiJ-z10O4dh9JsypdezIUQBthyphenhyphenNe9LpT36QwxI6xWZxnnD4ZweLMh2339c5vMI03hwZARk/s1600/thrid+world+farmer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtWt6MXEv1uX2MXL_nj6Ah5ZGit_fCtbfMBm72NJo4dMceeNs7SEj54du8i7TOa-jNEpT3LbiJ-z10O4dh9JsypdezIUQBthyphenhyphenNe9LpT36QwxI6xWZxnnD4ZweLMh2339c5vMI03hwZARk/s320/thrid+world+farmer.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Among the serious
games, I played <a href="http://www.arcadetown.com/3rdworldfarmer/gameonline.asp" target="_blank">Third World Farmer</a> for several times. This is a game that puts
you in the shoes of a family of farmers in one of the poorest areas of the
world. This remarkable simulation lets you make the important decisions that
will determine if your family will prosper, or starve.</span> Upon my
experience, it is really not easy to play well. I had six turns but I only had
34 dollars left. Every decision you make should be very careful. You should
think twice before action. If I would use this game for my future language
teaching, my teaching objectives would be also teaching vocabularies. There are
words like corn, cotton, wheat, chicken, cattle and so on. Since it is an out
classroom game, I can add my students as family members in this game and I can
keep interacting with them and see how they get along with the game. To assess
the learning objectives, I would ask students how they make the money in this
game. They would describe their selling and buying process by using target
vocabularies. And I will also occasionally arrange a competition for them in
class to assess their learning outcome of these vocabularies. Thus, through
playing the game, they would acquire vocabularies in such a fun way!<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-78258623411484051162013-03-03T17:59:00.000-05:002013-03-03T17:59:45.280-05:00Kitchen Escape<br />
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As I read in <a href="http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7075.pdf" target="_blank">7 Things You Should Know about Gamification</a>,
gamification is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations,
often to motivate or influence behavior. In academe, gamification typically
employs elements like points, badges to engage or motivate students in learning
process. <o:p></o:p></div>
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For me, in language teaching, gamification offers an
opportunity for students to interact with each other while engaging their
imaginations and motivations at the same time. Teachers can enliven their
instruction with contests or rewards that encourage students a positive
attitude toward language learning. The
game took advantage of human desire to compete and socialize as well as to
measure progress toward clear goals. Therefore, through gamification, students
can generate unexpected solutions to the course objects.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Among the <a href="http://www.digitalplay.info/blog/category/game-genres/" target="_blank">Escape the Room Games</a>, I found <a href="http://armorgames.com/play/749/the-great-kitchen-escape" target="_blank">Kitchen Escape</a> very
interesting. At first, I totally get lost in this game because I don’t know
what I am supposed to do. After I watched the walk through video for the game,
I got a clear goal and was familiar with the rules. Then I played the game for
three times, it was really fun!<o:p></o:p></div>
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For language teaching, I think this game can be used to
facilitate teaching vocabularies and description of objects. So by using this
game, students’ learning objectives would be learning vocabularies. In this
game, students need to find several objects in order to escape the kitchen.
During this process, they will learn words like kettle, battery, leather and so
on. When I learned English, vocabulary
memorizing is always a boring process, but through this game, students can
remember words easily with vivid visual impact and a lot of fun. What’s more,
instead of solely memorize the word, students can get a better understanding of
how to use the word, like use kettle to boil water; use boiled water to cook
frozen fish, etc. By competing with each other that who escape faster, students
can be involved while learning.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As a teacher, the role in this activity is like the walk
through, that give students hints and instructions when they have difficulties
and guide them towards learning. Game is just to assist learning process,
teachers don’t want it to bring negative influences to students. For me, I
would definitely use the walk through for the game, because I don’t want my
students to be discouraged. And I will consistently give them prompts. After
they all played the game, I will arrange a speed answering game to assess
whether they acquire the vocabularies by holding pictures and to see who is the
first to answer correctly. I will using the images in the game for my assessing
part. For example, I will hold the picture of kettle, and student who answer
kettle first will be awarded a badge for his/her performance. I could not wait
using this kind of game in my class!<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-76700914619944383912013-02-22T15:29:00.000-05:002013-02-22T15:29:10.222-05:00Twitter for Teaching<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">On the DIIGO account, I found two interesting articles about the potential micro-blogging in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">education</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. The articles are </span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.educatorstechnology.com%2F2013%2F02%2Fa-must-have-guide-on-using-twitter-in.html%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Beducatorstechnology%252FpDkK%2B%2528Educational%2BTechnology%2Band%2BMobile%2BLearning%2529%26utm_content%3DGoogle%2BFeedfetcher?tab=people&uname=anciana" target="_blank">A Must Have Guide on Using Twitter in your Classroom- Educational Technology<span style="color: red;"> </span></a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and <a href="http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/09/twitter-tools-for-teachers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+educatorstechnology%2FpDkK+%28Educational+Technology+and+Mobile+Learning%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" target="_blank">Great Twitter Tools for your Professional Development</a>. In the article <a href="https://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.educatorstechnology.com%2F2013%2F02%2Fa-must-have-guide-on-using-twitter-in.html%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Beducatorstechnology%252FpDkK%2B%2528Educational%2BTechnology%2Band%2BMobile%2BLearning%2529%26utm_content%3DGoogle%2BFeedfetcher?tab=people&uname=anciana" target="_blank">A Must Have Guide on Using Twitter in your Classroom- Educational Technology</a>, there are four aspects that teachers can use twitter to assist their teaching: communication, resources, writing skills and twitter experience.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWhnUmRFGFnZ8ZieMNDnJjI-HLwEElTeLU_mKi9E9il_pqZKAEj6pzIgBVmwZM-JRGiMtYUgwqOCzhJcNPnGieKBhDpO4v023aJzam0B8jkjuq47kbdaJa-nTKe61pNRxwFmk_NzK-q5U/s1600/twitter+for+teachers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWhnUmRFGFnZ8ZieMNDnJjI-HLwEElTeLU_mKi9E9il_pqZKAEj6pzIgBVmwZM-JRGiMtYUgwqOCzhJcNPnGieKBhDpO4v023aJzam0B8jkjuq47kbdaJa-nTKe61pNRxwFmk_NzK-q5U/s1600/twitter+for+teachers.png" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I found all of them are very fascinating, but considered to my future teaching context which I want to go back to China to teach high school students English, I'm really interested in silencing blurters, assignment coordinator and parent communication. First of all, in China, our class settings in high school are not that interactive and cooperative like it does in America. However, language learning is about communicating with other people. So I will primarily focus on communicative use of twitter in my class. Since our class settings are not interactive, students in China don't like interact with teachers, they only answer </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">questions</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> when teacher ask them to answer. Thus, most of them are silencing blurters in the class. While through twitter, I can encourage my students who have trouble with disruptive blurting, allow them to instantly tweet their blurts silently instead of out loud. They will feel much more comfortable and encouraged to speak online and if the result is good, that will also be a good motivation for them in language learning. Second, Assignment coordination is an efficient way for students to exchange ideas instead of emailing each other or waiting to meet in class. They can collaborate on projects and keep track of changes by using a Twitter hashtag. In this digital world, young people checked their mobile phone maybe every half an hour. By using twitter on their assignment is much more time saving and it's convenient for them to update their assignment anywhere anytime. Finally, twitter can also be the platform for parents to follow what's going on in the class. Our teaching is becoming more and more transparency so that we can break the gap between students and their parents.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In article <a href="http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/09/twitter-tools-for-teachers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+educatorstechnology%2FpDkK+%28Educational+Technology+and+Mobile+Learning%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" target="_blank">Great Twitter Tools for you Professional Development</a>, I'm interested in youtwit. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjemTDieVu_LHyKim599GDtY-W02KYQE8gli1Kff5WInyP-5mitHVDTcHi_-GC2rb5tiN2IMBQzotobyXMFSKOYn0r14rd13PHiTrDqR1CbfnqgNpntBDt3Z52s03cRhh4UAxTcMhl6zqw/s1600/youtwit.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjemTDieVu_LHyKim599GDtY-W02KYQE8gli1Kff5WInyP-5mitHVDTcHi_-GC2rb5tiN2IMBQzotobyXMFSKOYn0r14rd13PHiTrDqR1CbfnqgNpntBDt3Z52s03cRhh4UAxTcMhl6zqw/s1600/youtwit.png" /></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3128;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3128;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">You Twit allows users to find trending YouTube videos on Twitter. These videos are sorted according to their popularity which is measured by the number of tweets they get. For a language class, it's also important that we apply multimedia to get students more engaged in class. When it comes to language learning, it's not only about linguistic system acquisition, but also about culture acquisition. In order to teaching cultures, we can show students trending YouTube videos related to politics, entertainments, traditional festivals and so on through youtwit. And since the videos are sorted according to their popularity among students, it is helpful for teacher to choose future visual teaching material for further teaching.</span></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-68520928927485381662013-02-18T15:55:00.001-05:002013-02-18T15:55:28.854-05:00Teacher 2.0<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRFFXxzSGKn-cc7dJRsOsGPfLUyDkk9EqIAovF_wNYA2TaNJC8_9aTMHO37ND2j9BdSuEx3auwqQ8d_7Gas8foKWs-tB-dCtX1v-rDZ4Akf6jXAVgqnzVeNMh4pnfsQMHf0CleEEA7HU0/s1600/TEACHER+2.0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRFFXxzSGKn-cc7dJRsOsGPfLUyDkk9EqIAovF_wNYA2TaNJC8_9aTMHO37ND2j9BdSuEx3auwqQ8d_7Gas8foKWs-tB-dCtX1v-rDZ4Akf6jXAVgqnzVeNMh4pnfsQMHf0CleEEA7HU0/s320/TEACHER+2.0.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The website <a href="http://teacher20.com/" target="_blank">Teacher 2.0</a> is really an eye catching website
because I think it will be a great tool for my future teaching career.
Generally speaking, the website is an independent community for educators to
explore and develop their interests and passions. It aims at building a network
of support for educators at all levels. By communicating online through events,
interviews and workshops, the goal is to let educators help each other in their
teaching career and in their contributions to the world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXEFbSo7aYpdWkbh8g5X0sYSu5yAHo6f3KOo5oPirAvzqpIvigHjpEpwQRRx35l2wMciQOXYglDrc4vYjIPyuAnsORk3iE0lVlXTDuh69hj27EGo4v7bae4kxjbsad_6oOU_7_jQU_2uA/s1600/Great+ideas+for+the+classroom.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXEFbSo7aYpdWkbh8g5X0sYSu5yAHo6f3KOo5oPirAvzqpIvigHjpEpwQRRx35l2wMciQOXYglDrc4vYjIPyuAnsORk3iE0lVlXTDuh69hj27EGo4v7bae4kxjbsad_6oOU_7_jQU_2uA/s320/Great+ideas+for+the+classroom.png" width="293" /></a></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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On this website, there are ideas, members, forum, groups,
books and readings and more. The most useful thing I find is a group called
<a href="http://teacher20.com/group/greatideasfortheclassroom" target="_blank">Great Ideas for the Classroom</a>. In this group, I can share with other educators
about various teaching methods in classroom. Also, I can learn from others
about their efficient way of teaching and thus apply it in my own class
setting. It’s a great platform for all educators to share and exchange ideas
and difficulties they have encountered. In my future career, I would be very glad
to keep in touch within this group!<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-39689509669490987502013-02-18T15:28:00.002-05:002013-04-21T11:06:06.056-04:00A Learner Is Like a Web<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">A learner is like a web because a web has infinite
threads, many learners today move into a variety of different, possibly
unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime. The threads are the
variety fields that learners get attached to. In </span><a href="http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;" target="_blank">Connectivism: A LearningTheory for the Digital Age</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">, the author George Siemens holds that “connectivism is the
integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and
self-organization theories”. In connectivism, “the ability to see connections
between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill”. In this digital era, more
and more integrated knowledge is required and learner’s ability to learn what
they need for tomorrow is more significant than what they know today.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6SCZllDcB5967NLsDfRdIzxgghXmDzZ2oxEiM7VIeVnEx0z_E1wDHcrYsLucCVAUYryJHbKfEK6TDqaE4-B_PHk7tKGl4LKPiRPeafX_02Lq4Kqj6Z-b2KV8V443c14fipaGGrX-ABc0/s1600/QQ%E6%88%AA%E5%9B%BE20130218152707.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6SCZllDcB5967NLsDfRdIzxgghXmDzZ2oxEiM7VIeVnEx0z_E1wDHcrYsLucCVAUYryJHbKfEK6TDqaE4-B_PHk7tKGl4LKPiRPeafX_02Lq4Kqj6Z-b2KV8V443c14fipaGGrX-ABc0/s320/QQ%E6%88%AA%E5%9B%BE20130218152707.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In the video, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?index=0&feature=PlayList&v=YMcTHndpzYg&list=PL3E43054A8703F57A" target="_blank">The Changing Nature of Knowledge</a>,
Paulo Vieira quotes what George Siemens says that “learning is something exclusively limited or occurs
exclusively within individual’s mind”. So knowledge is really about the
distribution that occurs across the entire network. And it has two components.
On one hand, it’s the internal neuro network, which is within learner’s mind. On
the other hand is the external network, which is our connection with outside
environments. The threads on the web are like the connections between
learners and outside world. In this age, we are all buried by all kinds of
information. As a learner, one should be able to develop his owe relations and
connections and has the power to control it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">All in all, a learner is a like a web, he has many
possible threads and connections with the external world that enables himself
to update knowledge for a lifetime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-68025549803982302382013-02-11T13:58:00.000-05:002013-02-11T13:58:32.188-05:00Edutaiment-Teach through Lively ActivitiesThe name of the post on which I commented is <a href="http://film-english.com/2013/01/31/paperman/#comment-17520" target="_blank">Paperman</a> in the blog named <a href="http://film-english.com/" target="_blank">Film English</a>. I'm interested in it because the lesson plans allow language teachers to teach through lively activities. When learning a second language, I think motivation is of great importance to one's learning result during second language acquisition, especially for younger learners. In China, there is a very popular English private institution called New Oriental School. They have a Film English course for teenagers during every summer and winter vocation. The course is very popular among students because they can learn from fun compared to other traditional language classes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4EMVrrfokAWCIXbRfvuJ2Qf5eZ9JCK7y1P61xDttQ0Nm0eyqMJ-ZmV-2aP5Av_ZP0y42PKSDTjdhpdg371hhZVGhk-ersd02358pHrq-6VDnTIVlD0ZrRIXUkVvmfGKcFr3zaovTmCc/s1600/paperman.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4EMVrrfokAWCIXbRfvuJ2Qf5eZ9JCK7y1P61xDttQ0Nm0eyqMJ-ZmV-2aP5Av_ZP0y42PKSDTjdhpdg371hhZVGhk-ersd02358pHrq-6VDnTIVlD0ZrRIXUkVvmfGKcFr3zaovTmCc/s320/paperman.png" width="320" /></a></div>
In this blog, the author used an Oscar-nominated short film as teaching material to teach students how to write a narrative using specific tenses. The most enlightened part of this lesson plan is step 2, the author ask students to work together in small groups to write a prediction of the story development after showing the picture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkIO0n-addTTmwXTjRRm8Qc8zbMrIeiT_f_NEu7RY1FIz4IrHGPvB1bZ4vgixqTt4xhhk_vuChMqW5q3fyJnIVOgkfIcauRO6ww-MhubX39fWab1F5dAN2OVhgr1OWTbnFPHbh_h_wH8/s1600/paperman2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkIO0n-addTTmwXTjRRm8Qc8zbMrIeiT_f_NEu7RY1FIz4IrHGPvB1bZ4vgixqTt4xhhk_vuChMqW5q3fyJnIVOgkfIcauRO6ww-MhubX39fWab1F5dAN2OVhgr1OWTbnFPHbh_h_wH8/s320/paperman2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
This step integrate writing, speaking and social communication skills together in a L2 class through a fun way. When discussing in the small groups, students can practice their oral English and learn to cooperate with each other first, then they have the chance to produce a written production which practice their writing skills.<br />
As technologies develop more and more rapidly, it's time that educator learn to use multi-media in language classes. Film is one of a good ways to engage students in learning by lively activities. Edutaiment is absolutely a popular way in such a digital world nowadays.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-30933452899488189792013-02-04T15:46:00.000-05:002013-02-04T15:46:00.742-05:00We Have to Change<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">After watching two
videos on the YouTube, which entitled <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEHNhcdyMtc" target="_blank">Educational Change Challenge</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo" target="_blank">Social Media Revolution 2011</a>, I am so impressed by the data and information displayed
in them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEHNhcdyMtc" target="_blank">Educational Change Challenge</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHoeF1fcKsR9S9MUYRy31TuMhLuoMesoWYcvMghxnQyJK4_txp0yNQW596PhN2e6PBYe6wI0aVYmwWfWcGeK2mG7-cmbK7Yp32li3Be_pvbhSDB7ZA0z-Kc2U761nxB09lJxYp-w_SBL0/s1600/initpintu_%E5%89%AF%E6%9C%AC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHoeF1fcKsR9S9MUYRy31TuMhLuoMesoWYcvMghxnQyJK4_txp0yNQW596PhN2e6PBYe6wI0aVYmwWfWcGeK2mG7-cmbK7Yp32li3Be_pvbhSDB7ZA0z-Kc2U761nxB09lJxYp-w_SBL0/s320/initpintu_%E5%89%AF%E6%9C%AC.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">From this video, I strongly
agree with the narration that teachers exist in the space where students exist.
In this digital world, the generation we will teach is highly media-driven
generation. Look at ourselves, I can’t imagine one day that without cellphones,
laptops because I’m so rely on social media to communicate with the world
myself. Let alone our students in the future. As the development of
globalization, we are developing rapidly from one room school house to on world
school house. If we can’t keep up with technologies, we lose relevant. But
educators must be relevant. We need to change and we have to change!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo" target="_blank">Social Media Revolution 2011</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgCzGkgOdM9MZwDOkMsNVbhBF50IXy9d0SVMzy1n_78EestEwvrzugg-VaZb1YfOW9RZrJxHdUiB07_nXmQ-k7kOn6wrmL9izFlaigqPOnKh9n7wyorMNOy3y2wZKnsuM_CYFxA4ReV-M/s1600/initpintu_%E5%89%AF%E6%9C%AC1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgCzGkgOdM9MZwDOkMsNVbhBF50IXy9d0SVMzy1n_78EestEwvrzugg-VaZb1YfOW9RZrJxHdUiB07_nXmQ-k7kOn6wrmL9izFlaigqPOnKh9n7wyorMNOy3y2wZKnsuM_CYFxA4ReV-M/s320/initpintu_%E5%89%AF%E6%9C%AC1.jpg" width="190" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I’m so impressed by the
data and quotes displayed in this video. I’m really surprised that even kindergartens
are learning on iPads. The new generation is growing in an intensive world
combined by social media. The data provides us a direct visual shock that how
powerful transmissibility and influential ability the social media has.
Although, popular social networks in western country like Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube are not accessible in China yet, we have our own fast developing social
network all around the country. As I mentioned in my last blog, weibo now is
among the most popular social media in China. As the video mentioned that 93%
marketers use social media in business, we are right now living in a social
media revolution era. The world has change so fast since I was a child. I’m
really happy to be a part of it witnessing the changes and will contribute
myself in education for further revolutions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02616638983851709084noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009683423372486628.post-30056056728464325812013-01-27T15:55:00.000-05:002013-04-21T11:32:06.130-04:00Technologies in Language Teaching<br />
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Technologies in Language Teaching<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Gabriella<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">With booming development of technologies, people
are getting much more access to the Internet anytime and anywhere than we used
to be. Thus, people around the world become increasingly closer to each other
and the internet becomes a huge data base for everyone to share and
communicate. However, according to Will Richardson, as the world is changing
around us, educators react very slowly. Today, students are out there using a
variety of technologies like blogs, twitter, podcast that they can’t use in
school without teacher’s proper guidance. I feel the same way as a student. In
China, the class setting is very traditional, although teachers begin to realize
applying some technologies in class, mostly they use no more than power point
to assist their lectures. There is a lack of interactions and cooperation
between students and teachers by letting students experience the advances of
technologies in learning themselves. Therefore, internet is more like an
entertainment tool for Chinese students and has little function in education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">As a future language teacher, I intend to teach
Chinese high school students English, as described on the ACTFL: <a href="https://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.actfl.org%2Fi4a%2Fpages%2Findex.cfm%3Fpageid%3D3392?tab=people&uname=anciana" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">National Standards for Foreign
Language Education</span></a>, which represent a variety of
languages, levels of instruction, program models, and geographic regions,
undertook the task of defining content standards — what students should know
and be able to do — in foreign language education. Among the standards for
foreign language learning, there is a focus on the communication. The
description is as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations,
provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and
exchange opinions<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret
written and spoken language on a variety of topics<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Standard 1.3: Students present information,
concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of
topics.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Therefore
I feel strongly using technologies in my class to give students more valuable
resources and more opportunities to share ideas with each other. In the first
three chapters in <i>Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts,</i> the author mainly
talks about weblogs. Actually nowadays, there is a very popular social network
tool in China called <i>weibo</i>. Its Chinese name means micro-blogs.
Everyone can share his or her news within 140 words. The operating model is
very like Twitter in America. <i>Weibo</i> has quickly become the
hottest way among people in China to communicate in just a few years. People
talk about everything like politics, social events, pop news, their lives, etc
in weibo. So if I’m going to apply technologies like weblogs in my teaching
settings, I will choose weibo to assist my teaching. For example, I can create
a public homepage in weibo to share more interesting resources related to
culture learning and have students involved in discussion on that homepage. By
doing so, I can encourage students who are reticent in class to share their
thoughts in writing forms. As I will teach English, I will require my students
to communicate in English. And as internet is a double edged sword, by sharing
resources and materials using a public homepage, I can set a good example for
students to filter what is appropriate to learn and what is unhealthy to follow.
Thus, I can do as best as I can to keep my students safe online.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Another
way that I can use weblogs is to create a class portal. By putting all
materials like syllabus, homework, assignments, reading materials online, it is
not only much more time consuming and easy to track student’s minds, but also
convenient for parents to get access to our class and supervise their
children’s learning process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Therefore,
students get more opportunities and a good platform to communicate in English. Although
technology has so many advantages in this digital area, we should never forget
that every coin has two sides. As educators, our first priority is the benefit
of our students. We can apply technology but not too depend on it. We must do
our best to keep balance and make the best choice for our students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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