TIFLE final project proposal

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I realize that many of you are not reading these blogs anymore now that the TIFLE class is officially over. Still, I wanted to upload the Power Point presentation of my final project (proposal), in case anyone would like to give me any comments or suggestions. As usual, it's all deeply appreciated.

I enjoyed working with all of you, and I wish you all the best in your future academic (and non-academic) endeavors.

Best, M :)

Thoughts on Evoca

Here's my podcast, which I'm not expecting any of you to actually listen to, so I wanted to just go over some of the things I spoke about in text form, in case you're interested in hearing what I have to say, but not in listening to me say it. I was very disappointed in evoca, mainly since I have had experience with other podcasting sites in the past that I found very simple to navigate. The interface, to me, was very confusing and jumbled and I found it rather difficult to get to the point where I was actually able to create a recording. The recording process was fairly simple, although I was annoyed by the fact that the player does not allow you to rewind or fast-forward, nor does it allow you to record over what you had previously recorded, which is why, in the podcast above, you will hear my "test, test, 1, 2, 3" recording right at the beginning. The biggest disappointment to me, however, was the fact that evoca only allows you 15 minutes of free recording. This seems pointless since other sites exist that allow you to record and store an unlimited amount of recordings for free (sites like mypodcast, podomatic, odeo, etc.). Also, with the free Audacity program, you can create your own podcasts while NOT ONLINE and then modify or edit them to your liking and upload them to other sites. I think the advantage of evoca is that it offers a cross-platform service, in which you can make recordings from a phone or from skype, which could be very nifty for something like an on-the-fly recording while abroad or something, but to me, it's not really worth paying for that type of service. I think for now I'll just stick with the free services...there are just so many of them available.

And just one more quick note, not necessarily related only to evoca: interface is everything.

50 Cosas: Project justification and explanation

**NOTE: PLEASE SCROLL DOWN BELOW TO NEXT POST TO VIEW VIDEO.

The TIFLE project
The video we created is based on a series of very popular videos that have recently been appearing on video sharing sites such as YouTube. These videos are typically called “50 Things” and consist of the author reciting a list of 50 things that he has done over the course of his life. Since the subject matter (i.e. the “50 Things” video) is current and most likely familiar to many of our students, we chose to use it as the basis of our project, and considering the fact that it would allow us to expose the students to a large number of single sentences in the past tense, we chose the preterit/imperfect distinction for our pedagogical focus. In regards to the composition of the video itself, we wanted to create the least possible amount of visual distraction so that the students would be primarily focused on the words we were saying, so we chose a simple white backdrop with a heavy focus on our faces.
Although we originally had planned to create a more sophisticated video, we opted instead to create a more casual video that would be similar in style and composition to the other videos that are appearing on YouTube. We also hoped that the casual atmosphere would allow the students to more easily relate to the video. We spent a fair amount of time deciding on background music, since we did not want to include anything that would distract the students from the oral input, and we finally decided on an upbeat and catchy tune that we rendered voiceless using the audio program Audacity.

The activity
This video-based activity is designed for a beginning level Spanish class (equivalent of SPN1131 at the University of Florida) and the pedagogical goal of the activity is to offer the student comprehensible input on the uses of preterit and imperfect tenses, as well as to create a forum within which they can later produce these forms when they make their own video. Since the project is intended to reinforce the distinction between the preterit and imperfect tenses in Spanish, it should be delivered to the students immediately following explicit instruction regarding this particular grammar topic. The activity will be delivered and completed in the three stages listed below.
In the first stage of the activity, which should be completed immediately following explicit instruction, students will view the video in class two times in a row. During the first viewing, they will simply watch the video without taking notes or making any comments. During the second viewing, immediately following the first viewing, the students will be asked to complete a cloze activity in which they will complete the sentences that we are using in the video (worksheet can be accessed here). The blanks will only contain the verbs, and will be intended to enhance the spoken input and force the students to focus on the grammatical forms of the preterit and the imperfect. Once the video is completed, the instructor should review answers with the students to ensure comprehension.
The second stage of the activity involves an in-class writing activity in which the students will work in groups of three to write out their own list of fifty things that they have done in their lives. It should be noted that the group will collaborate to create ONE list of 50 things, not three separate lists. This list will be turned in at the end of class period for the instructor to revise and return to the students, hopefully creating a final draft using the correct grammar. After receiving their revised script from the instructor, the students will move on to the third stage of the project.
In this third and final stage, the students will film and edit their own “50 Cosas” video at home in their same groups of three, using the revised scripts from the instructor. The students will be given one full week to complete the activity and upload their video to YouTube. This project will also make use of the social networking features of YouTube by requiring the students to all use the same tag when the upload their video (“SPN1131_50Cosas”, for example). This will allow the videos to all be easily searchable, as well as allowing the students to easily find each other’s videos. The students will also be required to send a direct link to their video to the instructor for assessment.

The theoretical justification
The pedagogical facet of this activity can be justified by means of the theory of Constructivism, which Hansen-Smith (2003) notes emphasizes “learning by doing and creating meanings, particularly by using the tools of the computer”. Since the students will be intimately involved in the creation of both a video focused on the preterit/imperfect distinction, as well as a script for that video, it is hoped that they will benefit linguistically through the opportunity to construct and take responsibility for their own language learning experience. Likewise, it is expected that the distinction between the two tenses will become more personal and notable to the students since the main topic of the video is their own intimate experience in life.
In regards to SLA theory, the activity is deeply connected to the concepts of noticing and awareness, as introduced by Schmidt’s Noticing Hypothesis (1990), which contends that input can only be processed in the long term memory once the learner is aware of the input, and learning, within this construct, cannot occur without noticing. The cloze activities in particular are intended to direct the students’ attention towards the forms in questions and enhance the input, while hopefully increasing the chances that the students will notice the forms and therefore convert their input into intake.

References
Hanson-Smith, E. (2003). A brief history of CALL theory. The CATESOL Journal 15, 21-30.

50 Cosas: video for TIFLE class

Here's the video that Delano and I have made for our Mini-Project 3. The justification/explanation will shortly follow in a new post. Enjoy (and leave comments if you so desire!!).

The (lack of) connections between Pedagogy and VR

"...there are some more interesting lessons to be learned from Second Life...than the obvious one: that it’s much easier to send out a press release about your trendy online marketing strategy than to come up with a strategy that really works."
- excerpt from the article "Marketers twittering, but not about Second Life", published in the New York Times on July 16, 2007

Substitute all of the marketing terms above for educational terms, and you'll easily understand the basic gist of my blog post this week. As you all know, for our hands-on in class we visited Second Life and milled around in there for a while. It was a very interesting experiment for all of us (I believe), and it completely confirmed all of my previous opinions about the usefulness of Second Life in the FL classroom. Dr. Lord made a comment at the beginning of the class about how the Sims had started out as a positive virtual reality world but then it quickly degenerated into a seedy world filled with drug dealers and prostitutes. We all chuckled at that comment, but then before our 30 minute session was over, we were collectively assaulting random members and passing mega-joints. Of course, we weren't actually trying to do anything valuable, but it just goes to show you...

The experiment in class was fun and we all laughed a lot, but I'm not quite sure how applicable it could be to a foreign language classroom, and to the learning experience. Some of the positive things about Second Life are that it allows more advanced body clues than simple text chat (via gestures) and it also gives you some sort of visual image to respond to, albeit completely invented by the owner of the avatar. Another positive thing is that it could potentially give the students access to native speakers of the target language...although this point can also be rendered negative, in the sense that the restriction on scope of the topic, and how germane it is to foreign langauge education, is severely limited. Also extremely relevant to mention is the fact that the target audience for Second Life is somewhere in their 40s, and this clearly does not match up with the general ages of our students.

If you read the NY Times article I linked to above (which is very interesting), you will see that we are not alone in trying to find the link between these technological tools and our field. It appears that many people, in fields ranging from education to marketing, are struggling to find out what is making this tool so popular (apparently), and how we can manipulate it to serve us in our professional endeavors. That being said, I think it should most definitely be noted that these tools (Second Life especially) are inherently meant for entertainment and leisure, which may be exactly the reason that we are finding it difficult to establish a link between the two worlds. I think this statement can be generalized to include many other tech tools that we've mentioned: cell phones, PDAs, Twitter, podcasts, etc.

As academics, we seem to have this ritualistic problem of trying to extend our investigative rigour into every area of not only our own lives, but the lives of everyone else as well, and I think that this is one of the things that compels us to try and usurp all of the world's resources into our particular field of research. I don't necessarily think this is appropriate. Although Second Life does have particularly interesting implications, I think we are better off dedicating our time to investigating what we can do to better the more permanent aspects of FL Pedagogy. To be completely honest, I have sincere doubts about the real use of virtual reality tools, although I will concede that it may be simply that we are getting ahead of ourselves with research...in other words, the real 'advent' of Second Life may still be yet to come.

Taking all of these ideas into consideration, I think it is in our best interest that we not spend our time and efforts in this FIRST life on trying to discover the usefulness of Second Life, but rather on attempting to better ourselves and those in our field as educators.

Teaching Philosophy

Here's the link to my teaching philosophy statement. You can read it if you like, but the only thing I would like to preface it with is: IT'S ONLY 2.5 PAGES!! I'm so proud of that because, as I'm sure you all have already noticed, I tend to be a bit wordy...

Teaching Philosophy Statement: Teaching with Technology

Technology is so NIFTY

This is my first attempt at using Microsoft Word 2007 to publish a blog post. I've never actually tried it before and I just noticed today that it could be done. I don't really have much to say since I haven't completed revising my Teaching Philosophy, but I just wanted to test it out. It's very neat: it works like an FTP client in the sense that it allows you to enter in your username and password, and then publish directly from Word, so you don't even have to upload the document. This is really cool because you can write blog posts at times when you are not connected to the internet and then upload them later. That also allows you to save blog posts on your computer in case, for example, the internet dies tomorrow and all of that lovely work (or more importantly, all those procrastination tools) you've done disappears. If that does happen, you can still have "hard" copies on your computer to later make even "harder" copies out of. I think it's a novel idea and I love the potential of it…we'll see how I feel about it after this first post.

Just FYI….

Intercultural competence: can we teach it?

I want to start by saying that having the discussion with my chat mates in last week's class got me really interested in this topic. I think it's incredibly intriguing, and I think it's unfortunate that it, by nature, resists testing. One of the things that we discussed in our class at UF was whether or not it is possible to teach intercultural competence. I think that we, both as teachers AND as students, have this idea that teaching culture involves mainly being exposed to the PRODUCTS of the target culture (food, music, film, etc.), but one of the most interesting things we talked about last week in our class was how much language is involved in learning intercultural competence.

I made the comment, and I still hold it to be true, that language is inherently linked to culture, since it is intrinsically the primary means of transmitting culture from generation to generation and between natives and non-natives. Because of that fact, I find it hard to believe that we can teach culture without necessarily including language as a main component. I also mentioned that when I think of the times that I have experienced cultural misunderstandings, they have most always been linguistic in nature...but that of course is only my personal experience.

One other thing I want to mention in this relatively short post is the importance of the concept of recul in learning intercultural competence. I have always said that student motivation is one of the most important things in language learning, and recul is a perfect example of that. I believe that in order for a student to, first, reach that "third place" where s/he is able to analyze and compare aspects of the target culture to their own they must first be very motivated and prepared to accept the information.

I have much more I could say, but I'm very tired from a long trip today (I'm in NYC at the CUNY conference, check it out), and I'm posting only what is still swimming around in my head...desculpe.

Video Cameras and the Speaking World

My post this week will cover two topics in specific: possible video ideas for the Mini Project 3, and my new technological discovery, palabea.net. I am going to be doing my Mini Project 3 with a good friend who is also in the TIFLE class at UF, and he and I have been discussing possible project topics. We haven't exactly decided on a topic or a format, but we have knocked some ideas around. I was originally completely against the idea of having people in the video (living people anyway), just because I'm always wanting to try something new. I was thinking about maybe using puppets or even just objects--you know, busting it out Baby Einstein style--but after some brainstorming, I think we may go for real people in the end. Before talking about our ideas, I want to share a video idea that I was working on in a previous class, which I've been keeping in the back of my mind hoping that it will serve to inspire me on this project.

I formulated the plan for the particular video I just mentioned while taking a French Phonetics class in undergraduate with a professor who was in her last semester of teaching. She was a huge fan of Phonetics and she always talked about how much she enjoyed teaching the class, and since she and I were good friends, I wanted to make her a little going-away gift. So this was the idea: in French, there are certain liaisons (word-linking) which are prohibited (before words beginning with an h aspiré, after the conjunction et, in the plural forms of compound words, etc.); these are called liaisons interdites in French, which to me really sounded like a soap opera title. My idea consisted of making an old-timey film, in three acts with subtitles, which would use a dramatic scenario to explain each of the liaisons interdites. I wanted the film to include subtitles so that the students could see the words written, and the film was going to include one character who would serve as the "reminder" that the liaison was interdite, so for example, s/he would appear at random moments when the liaisons were being used incorrectly and do something completely out of context to call the students' attention to the liaison.

I never actually created the video because I couldn't find enough friends/students to agree to collaborate with me in writing and creating the video, so it went without being done. Maybe one day....For now, though, I am trying to focus on Spanish because that is my field of study, and I am also hoping to produce something I can use in the classroom. The idea that my partner and I have discussed involves a dance-instruction video (salsa, tango, etc.) that we could use to, simultaneously, explain how direct and indirect objects work: who does the action of the verb, who receives the action of the verb, etc. Still, the idea is pretty incomplete and requires a lot more thought and effort. We'll get there eventually though, so that's all I'm going to say about that.

The final thing I want to discuss in this post is my recent technological discovery: palabea.net. It's an online community of language learners, similar to livemocha, only much better (ironically, a Brazilian who I met through livemocha and speak to regularly turned me on to Palabea!). In case you aren't familiar with either of these, livemocha has as its principal goal live contact with native speakers, and it does work quite well. You can either enroll in a language course (from a VERY limited selection) or you can just search for native speakers of the language you are learning and then connect with them through the website. Livemocha has its own chat software, which, to be honest, works rather slowly but includes interesting features like a translation window and a second-language dictionary. Other drawbacks are that if you speak English as a mother tongue, you won't get any work done because so many people will be trying to chat with you. Still, you can deny chat requests and then talk to the ones you want to...you just might have to test it out a while to find a good partner. One thing I can say for livemocha, the native speakers I have come into contact with through it have all been very good about sharing language exchanges equally and correcting me when I make mistakes.

Palabea is a little different, and I think it's MUCH more relevant in a pedagogical sense. Palabea also offers contact with native speakers through synchronous chat (text, voice AND video), but it offers SO much more than that. It is actually connected with various language schools around the world, and you can enroll in their courses for free. These schools all maintain their own pages where they can upload documents (lessons, worksheets, etc.) as well as video-lessons (which can be really interesting or really boring), podcasts and other forms of media. The website itself also maintains a blog site that can be used by any member. The setup is nice in that it gives you the opportunity to enroll in whichever course you like and then all of the information you access is stored in your account and saved there for you to see later if you like. Another interesting thing: it allows every member to create their own course in which they can upload their own documents, videos, podcasts, etc., so that, for example, you could potentially run your entire class from the internet if you really felt like filming yourself teaching every day. It's very interesting and I think it deserves some research attention. It also houses a very interesting non-language-learning-exchange section where you can, for example, find a job as an au pair, and I think it has great potential for creating a real "community" of online language learners.

One other thing I would like to mention about Palabea is that after spending some time on the site, I've noticed that a couple of notable researchers maintain pages there, such as Orlando Kelm from UT Austin (he hosts the amazing Tá Falado website). There are some drawbacks though: the site is a BETA site, so it's still in the beginning stages, but it's very well designed and the interface is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. That said, you will have to navigate around for a while to figure things out, like which tabs mean which things. Still, I strongly suggest you try it out...it's worth the time.

**Sorry about the long post.......again.......hehe

Social software and the classroom

Reading about social software in the articles from last week really got me thinking, once again, about the actual (or should I say "practical") usefulness of technology in the classroom. In this post I'm going to focus on two social sites in specific: del.icio.us and citeulike. I realize that these are the ones that were suggested on the TIFLE homepage, but that is not why I would like to comment on them. I simply find them the most interesting, especially from a pedagogical perspective. I'm going to first start out by saying that I find no pedagogical use for these tools whatsoever. In fact, I was a little confused last week as to why exactly we were even discussing them in a class that is supposed to be aimed at helping up incorporate technology successfully into our pedagogy and teaching methods...and the articles we read only marginally increased my level of comprehension.


The truth of it all, for me, is that I cannot seem to find any one particular way that such software or websites could aid us in teaching our students. It's true that they can help the students to connect, or to publicly recognize their common interests. Still, what more do these social software sites offer our students? Is it reinforcing any of the 5 Cs that we are so constantly hoping to reinforce in the FL classroom? Except for offering the students a means of connecting with each other based on their interests, I can't see how it's doing any of those Cs.....maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

In general, this topic is very frustrating for me because I feel sort of on the fence about it. I think that we should definitely put time and energy into investigating the ways that technology can be useful to us in the classroom, but I still think we need to be very careful that we don't get ahead of ourselves. Just like I stated in my last post, it's not a matter of bringing stuff into our teaching that no one is familiar with. TIFLE, for me, is a peculiar topic in regards to research, because we always seem to be missing the mark....what I mean by that is that we are either stuck investigating--and reading about--topics that are no longer relevant (think discussion groups and email) or topics that are not quite relevant just yet (think Blogs and wikis), or that may never actually be relevant to us in teaching (think social software). I think all of these things merit research and consideration, but if we're going to successfully incorporate this technology into our classroom, I think we need to first focus on what the students are familiar with and what is the most current, and the most relevant. And for me, social software is just not where it's at.

Not so MINI project

I am posting my mini-project a day early because I have so much work to do that it's better for me just to get it out of my hair now. You'll see--if you decide to read the project, which as you can see from the title, isn't so mini after all--that the actual student description for the project as well as the grading rubric is located online and is hyperlinked from the Mini-Project document. You can click on those links to get a better idea of the scope of the project (please let me know if they aren't working!!).

Comments and suggestion for bettering the project are always accepted with open arms!

So, here it is:
Collaborative WIKI project: "Virtual" Culture Portfolios

We ♥ CMC...wait, do we?

In this class so far, I've learned quite a bit about the potential applications of CMC tools in the classroom, and to be honest, I'm starting to wonder how useful they actually are. Of course, it is true that we live in a buzzing technological society, but if we aren't able to effectively bring that buzz into our classroom, aren't we just wasting our time? Isn't that just a disservice to everyone involved? The more I keep reading, and the more I keep seeing so-called justifications for the use of virtually unknown technological tools (think Technorati, or even worse, that ridiculous "virtual café" proposed by whats-his-name), the more I'm starting to wonder if the chalkboard isn't really where it's at. I think that actually was a topic in one of the first articles we read: something about a good teacher will have a group of students around her (or him), even without a classroom.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge advocate of CMC tools, and I most certainly ♥ technology, in all shapes, sizes and especially colors. Still, the same question keeps rearing its ugly head: how do we avoid a typical "bells and whistles" situation, and use the technology to our benefit in the classroom? It's true that we are in a time where technology is advancing rapidly and, clearly, if we don't move with it, we might get left in the dust. However, we still have a responsibility to our students and our profession to deliver content and information with sound pedagogy that is strongly tied to sound theory. So, after all that blah-blah, what kind of tools can we bring into our classrooms effectively?

The answer is multi-faceted. I think the first part of the answer is the following: go with what's been proven to work. Of course, there are still oodles of areas that need to be researched, and the field is still so young and has so much potential, but it's always best to stick with what works. Judging from the articles we've read so far, things like blogging and chatting seem to be effective (at least in some areas), so I feel that those would both be good options. Blog and chats are familiar to our students (some of them, anyway), which accounts, in a large part, for their effectiveness....which brings me to the second part of the answer....

We've mainly talked about the need for a connection between the use of CMC tools and sound theory, but I think it's very fitting to also talk about the general availability, accessibility and knowledge of the technology in question. We have to keep in mind that our student population is not composed entirely of members of the techie subculture who spend their time playing WoW, scripting in MUDs, having LAN parties or LARPing. In fact, I was very surprised recently (yesterday, actually) when I had a candid conversation with my students and found out that NOT ONE OF THEM maintained a Blog, and only about half of them actually knew what they were. How is that possible, right? Well, it is possible, and just like I mentioned in one of my last posts: maybe we should spend our time talking to our students, figuring out what they know and what they don't know, what they're familiar with and what they aren't, and then use that as our point of departure for future research. Remember, it's about using technology in teaching, and not teaching how to use technology.

Thoughts on final project

FIRST OFF: I apologize for the legnth of this post.
I've been really excited about getting to write the final project because there is one thing that I have always wanted to look at: how technology can be used in listening comprehension. I started becoming interested in this topic a few years back when I was first introduced to BBC Languages and their listening exercises, which are geared more towards listening comprehension than anything else. This semester, in a Portuguese class I am taking, we have also been introduced to an amazing listening website created by the University of Texas called "Tá Falado", which has only increased my interest in the subject. And then, of course, when we started to read the articles for this class and I came to realize that there has not been much investigation done regarding listening, I was decided.

My ideas for the project have gone through various stages, and I think I've finally come to the one that I want to pursue. Just like we read about in the Zhao article, the process of arriving at the point where I am now took focus. What I mean by that is that I had to take my raw idea and whittle it down to a more refined and specific topic. My original idea had to do with how listening exercises could be used to increase cross-cultural awareness, but I found that difficult to design and even more difficult to measure, so the idea changed. The second phase involved using listening exercises to measure students' comprehension, maybe by having them follow specific instructions given by the speaker through a podcast (well, they would all involve podcasts really). I thought about this for a while, but then it ceased to be clear to me what exactly I was trying to measure and how that would be carried out, especially if the students would be required to respond immediately to the aural input. So, after thinking it over for a while, I think I've gotten it more honed. Here's my current idea:

I would like to see if and how aural input (via a technological medium like a podcast) can increase the acquisition of prepositions. For me, prepositions are very difficult to acquire and yet they make very crucial connections in a language. Also, there hasn't been much done on the acquisition of prepositions. My idea, as of now, is to have the students listen to a series of podcasts over the course of a semester, and then immediately complete a sort of cloze activity that requires them to fill in the blanks with the correct prepositions. All of this work would be done via my webpage and the results would be emailed to me directly (through a script), that way I could potentially collect much more data without having the stress of getting all of the students in one place at one time. I would also like it to figure in as part of the homework grade so that students at least try to do the activities. And of course, I would hope to find support for the use of supplementary aural exercises via podcasts, or any other medium for that matter.

This study would clearly have to involve a pre-test and a post-test, and my current issue is finding a way to create a control group. Also, I am trying to decide which level would be best to conduct the research with, although I have to admit that I kind of want to see if level in Spanish could also be a factor in increased speed of acquisition. Another issue has to do with the prepositions themselves, meaning that I am not sure if I should limit myself to certain prepositions (por and para are very interesting to me) or just look at all of them. All that said, a few possible research questions could be:

1. Is there a significant difference in the level of correct use of prepositions between students who receive supplementary aural input via podcasts and those who do not?
a. Does previous experience with Spanish as a second language (i.e. level in Spanish) play a significant role in the potential benefits?

Last semester I wrote a descriptive study about the acquisition of the prepositions por and para by students at a beginning level in Spanish, and I was very surprised to find out two things: (1) there is a dearth of research on the acquisistion of these two prepositions (only 3 published studies!!!!), and (2) all of these studies point to the fact that the way we go about teaching these prepositions could potentially be what is affecting acquisition (meaning that the entire topic carries HUGE pedagogical implications). Since this is the case, I think that a study on the acquisition of prepositions (especially these two) could not only add to the current research in SLA and TIFLE (since it would involve podcasts), but also potentially give us some tips on how best to teach them. Since it was suggested on the homework page that we try and upload a Word document, I figured that I would just upload the study I wrote last semester (just mentioned) and if you want to have a look at it you can, just be warned: it's in Spanish and I'm not a native speaker :). Here it is: El sistema preposicional naciente: por y para.

Please leave me comments or suggestions! I'd really appreciate your input, oh yeah, and don't forget to take the new poll!!

Reactions, etc.

As can be easily seen in my past posts, I'm pretty interested in technology, and I have been finding this TIFLE class very enthralling. It has also helped me to develop some preliminary ideas for studies that might be able to add a lot to the current research in this field. I've found the readings we've done so far to be very enlightening, not only in seeing how far we have come in the field, but also in seeing how far we still have to go. I think that the people of our generation (especially) are in a really good position to elaborate and expand on what is already known: we have been able to experience first-hand the development of many great technological tools and we have daily dealings with another generation who is intimately involved with current advancements in technology.

That's right, sometimes it's okay to not only teach our students, but to learn from them too.

I've been thinking a lot about the first mini-project and what kind of activity I want to do, as well as the final project. I'm very interested in Processing Instruction (VanPatten), so I would really like to see how technology could possibly be incorporated into such teaching methods, although I'm not sure how easy it would be to apply it to a single CMC activity. Still, I think if it were applied correctly, and planned well, it could yield some very intriguing results.

So my thoughts (so far) on the two projects are: (1) a type of second language book where the students could collaborate via email with native speakers (or possibly other language students) and then publish their books online in a sort of "showcase" (similar to the project done at Thornwood Elementary in Canada with the collaboration of Jim Cummins), and (2) a series of focused listening activities that require the students to follow specific instructions given by the native speaker through a series of podcasts, or another sort of variation on this idea, which is basically what I'm working on for the final project (see the BBC Languages page for really good listening activities that could maybe serve as a sort of inspiration). I had another idea, but at the moment I can't seem to find it in my brain....I think that might be called cognitive overload...

As far as page elements in the blog, I think there are many that could be really interesting in a pedagogical sense, especially the poll widget. Of course, I totally love the comment capability, which I have previously used to conduct a blog in a Spanish II class that I taught a few semesters ago. I personally think a blog is a great tool when teaching, and the ability to embed videos and photographs makes it so culturally and communicatively relevant.

Blogger mini-revamp

So as part of the in-class assignment tonight, we had to practice with adding, changing and rearranging page elements in our blog site. As far as general template changes, I'm sure you can see that I've changed the background color (black to blue), which unfortunately also rearranged my heading alignment...not quite sure why that happened, but I'll have to mess with the HTML to fix it back.

In the arena of page elements, I've added a poll (TAKE IT!!) and I've moved it up above my personal profile information. I've also changed by "Photo of the Week", which, true to its name, changes weekly. I also wanted to post a photo (which is also hyperlinked to a very interesting website, one of my personal favorites):

I also wanted to include a link to a video that I personally love, and believe me, there's no end to this cultural phenomenon:


As you can see from my previous posts, I have linked to Power Points that I've created for my classes. Also, my last post included links to Teachers' Guides that I published through Google Docs, just so you can see how they look as a published document (which I happen to like). If you're interested in seeing those, you can refer to my last post.

Just one more thing I thought would be interesting is a link to a Practice Test that I've made for my students, which includes listening comprehension sections and which grades them automatically. I created this (and other practice tests) using the amazing Hot Potatoes software. You can see the Practice Test here....enjoy!!

Per Delano's request....

Delano requested that I give a sort of "guide" for how I use the Power Points I have links to in my last post. He's very lucky that I always type up my activities and I happen to have them on hand. You can see a guide for the "Viajamos" presentation here and a guide for the "Direct Object" presentation here. You may need to look at the Power Point at the same time that you read the guides to get a good idea of what they are talking about, since as I stated before, I only like to use Power Point as a starting point and not as the entire presentation.

I have other teachers' guides if anyone is interested (just let me know). Also, if you're interested in more really good grammar activities (some created by me and some created by collaborators), you can visit the flteaching wiki and click on the "Grammar" link in the main nav box.

And, oh yeah, big shout out to Google docs for giving me the option of not embedding files in this post.

Power Point: the real deal

Ok, so clearly the post I made with the Britney presentation was kind of a joke, although I do have to admit that I have this bizarre fascination with her as a pop icon. Anyway, since that post was not serious, I wanted to make another post just to extrapolate a bit on my real feelings concerning Power Point.

First of all, I have to come out and say that I have this inexplicable aversion to Power Point presentations. I find that people tend to rely FAR too heavily on them when teaching. I honestly can't think of anything more boring and uneducating than sitting through an hour long class where all the professor does is project Power Point slides and then reproduce orally what is already written on the presentation. I ABHOR that kind of teaching. In fact, this aversion has really influenced my use of Power Point in the classroom: I nearly never use it to teach, and when I do, my slides are very few and are limited to only the most essential information. I almost never include lecture notes on the slides, and I tend to use Power Point as more of a supplement than anything else.

One area that I do feel can benefit from the use of Power Point is Culture, and that is probably the only time that I really show Power Point presentations, mainly because they give me the freedom to present images and multimedia content in a succint and attractive manner. Here are few samples of the Power Points that I have used in the past to present cultural information to the students:
Last names in Spanish (this also spotlights my fascination with Brit)
Spain: a cultural smorgasbord
¡Viajamos!: traveling in Spain

I have also used Power Points on a few occasions to present grammar topics, but only as a trigger for oral exercises that I do with my students. As a result of this, the Power Points that I have do not include much "grammar information"; I use them instead as a sort of side show (get it?? slide show, side show, hehe). Here are just a few examples of what I've done:
-AR verbs
The future tense
Direct objects and formal commands

I think Power Point can be really useful in teaching vocabulary as well, since it is effective at matching pictures with words, something that can be really useful for the students. Again, I prefer to use the presentation as a supplement, or as a starting point/reference point for oral activities with the students. Here are a couple of my vocabulary Power Points:
Clothing
Body Parts
Jobs

One other thing that might be worth mentioning is the use of Power Point for effective review sessions, especially with things such as interactive games, like Jeopardy for example. I have used Jeopardy in particular to help my students review, and you can see a sample of the skeleton Jeopardy game I've created (that I modify whenever I use it to match the review material) here:
Jeopardy Template
Oh, and try it with your sound on!

As you can see in pretty much all of the Power Points, but especially in the vocabulary ones, I like to use the Power Point presentations to give me quick access to other cultural information, which I think helps the students make connections with the wider community of language speakers (what about that shout-out to the FL standards, huh?!?). I do this by including links to videos or other virtual resources such as online museums (as in the travel presentation) or even day-to-day realia such as grocery or clothing stores (as in the clothing presentation).


It's not really that I hate Power Point, because clearly I feel that it can be a useful tool. I just believe that it needs to be limited, and like we've been discussing during the last few chapters, grounded in solid theory and methodology.

It's Britney b@&#$!!

Here is the Power Point presentation that I made during our class tonight...although I'm a bit upset because I wasn't even close to getting finished. I'm a bit slow, but it's because I'm a perfectionist. That reminds me: I never had experiences with slideshare.net, and at first glance, I like the interface, but I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that it didn't maintain the adorable font I chose for the presentation.

The assignment was to make a presentation on an American Culture topic, so as you can see from the title of this post, I chose my personal favorite in American Culture:

BRITNEY!!

So here's the Power Point:

| View | Upload your own

Also: Even though I'm sure you could sense the sarcasm of the post about Britney (who I think is absolutely abominable, by the way), you should totally check out the remake of her song Toxic by the absolutely phenomenal Yael Naïm. Here's the video...and that part is really not a joke. Her voice is hypnotizing...

My relationship with technology

As I mentioned in my initial post, I consider myself a fairly tech-savvy person, so I have to admit that I actually spend copious amounts of time using technology, and ESPECIALLY the internet. In general, I would say that I spend about 1/3 of any given day on the internet and maybe even more when I am researching something or trying to avoid actually working (hehe). Other than obsessively checking my numerous email accounts, I most frequently use the internet to organize myself and my studies, mainly through the use of the oodles of Google programs (docs, photos, calendars, blogger, etc.). I also use the internet to keep the classes I teach flowing smoothly--through the use my homepage, created with the help of Nvu--and to pass along useful/interesting linguistic or cultural information to my students. I often chat with friends (always while simultaneously writing papers or surfing the internet) and I spend a lot of time researching things that are interesting to me. Although I was resistant to it for a while, I have to admit that I've come to enjoy Wikipedia quite a bit (thanks Delano).

My main reason for using the internet is always research, whether it be personal or academic. One thing I absolutely love about the internet is the ability to have any sort (and amount) of information at my fingertips; if I ever come across something I would like to learn more about, I just look it up and read until I'm satisfied. It's great. I also use the internet to find recipes, since I particularly love to cook and bake. As far as the amount of email messages I send/receive in a day, it's hard to say; it's definitely more than two, and sometimes it can be up to ten, especially if I include the messages I send back and forth with friends on facebook and myspace. I also try to incorporate internet resources into my classroom as much as possible, since I think it has a lot to offer and can be very enriching and interesting for the students.

Based on all of these things, I would characterize myself as an avid internet user. I spend quite a bit of time on the internet (and just on my computer in general), and I'm not sure what the world would be like for me if it all disappeared tomorrow. In a lot of ways, the internet makes me feel connected to the world around me, so that even if I cannot physically travel to places I would like to visit or physically see things I would like to see, I can at least virtually learn about them. If the internet were not around, I think I would feel as if the world had been closed to me, or as if my connection with it had been lost (get it?!? hehe).

And after saying all of that, isn't it hard to believe that my first experience with the internet was in my first year of high school?!?! I can still remember that amazing beeping sound...and the ridiculous amount of time it took to get anything done...and the thought of two computers communicating over that amazing distance. It still impresses me, actually, even though I do often take it for granted.

Technology rocks!

I am posting a link to a cultural presentation that I made for a Portuguese class I am taking this semster to laud the power of technology. Of course, up until now, my blogs have all been written from the point of view of an foreign language instructor, but this presentation is my homage to the power of technology from the perspective of a student:
A cultura portuguesa
This presentation shows not only the power of authoring tools such as Microsoft Power Point, but the amazing power of the Google network (which includes blogger.com) since it is all edited and published through Google Docs. My only complaint: the online google version doesn't support the amazing font I chose when creating it with Power Point.
But yeah, technology rocks!!

The Language Lab disaster

Today was our first visit to the Language Lab in the Spanish II class that I am teaching, and (even before going) I was preparing myself to write a big fat blog complaint about what a disaster it was. As it turns out, however, I had my first fully successful experience, although I have to admit that for me, the Language Lab remains a touchy subject.

In general, even though it is intended to give the students real-life practice with the language, the Lab always ends up being a complete failure, and there are oodles of reasons why this happens: the audio doesn't work, the video doesn't work, the students don't work (i.e. they use the computers to visit facebook or myspace instead of actually trying to learn the language). The conjunto of all my previous experiences in the Lab have really made me think about how true it is that the use of technology must be grounded in sound theory and methodology in order to be effective in a language classroom, just like we read in the articles from this past week. But for me, a central issue surrounding the efficacy of technology--and the efficacy of any teaching method actually--is that it's clearly very difficult to translate theory into practice.


While in the Lab, I also started to reflect on how important it is that technology be in working order. Since we are dealing with tools that can most often not self-correct, we can involuntarily run into serious difficulties when those tools malfunction, because we are then left without a plan-B. For example, when the audio or video refuses to work in the Language Lab (as it SO often does), the students who are at the stations with the problems are essentially left out of the class activities and the attention of the instructor turns from guiding the class through a sequence of exercises to becoming Tech Support. So actually, even if activities are theoretically and pedagogically sound, it may be that they are completely ineffective due to complications with the technology itself.

Based on all of this, and after considering my past experiences with the Lab, it seems to me that the real issue at hand when talking about technology is not only how to use it effectively, but how to incorporate it into the classroom in a way that we aren't left empty-handed if it fails on us. We are after all, not dealing with artificial intelligence. Unlike what a few of the articles we read last week attempted to explain, I don't believe that we are trying to replace the instructor, rather that we are trying to enhance the cultural and linguistic experiences of the students, and unfortunately, if we're lacking either sound theory or sound technology, it becomes remarkably difficult to obtain that goal. And of course, if we are dealing with students who don't have the personal desire or motivation, well.....

That's another issue altogether.

Technology and Me

I'm Moniqua and I'm just now getting ready to finish my MA (and embark on the long road to a PhD) in Hispanic Linguistics. My main areas of interest are all in SLA, and specifically in the areas of pedagogy and bilingual education. I love teaching and I love learning about how to be a better teacher, so I have to admit that I'm pretty excited about this Technology class.

As far as my relationship with technology, I consider myself a pretty tech-savvy person. I have a full working knowledge of most technological tools, and I have worked in the past with programs ranging from IMovie to Photoshop to Dreamweaver, among many others. I can write and edit HTML (please visit my personal homepage), and I have basic scripting knowledge. I can use Power Point, and I'm not sure if it's the luddite in me or not, but I refuse to use it. I absolutely abhor Power Point, well, maybe I should say that I absolutely abhor the use of Power Point to avoid actually teaching. Right, that's better.

Although I consider myself to be well-rounded technologically, I have to admit that there are many things that I have yet to implement in the classroom. I often use the internet to bring cultural topics into the classroom (youtube, Storyplace Digital, etc.) but I find it difficult to effectively use technology in other ways. Cultural topics are so interesting to the students that it makes it easy to use technology. I guess in some ways I feel as if a Power Point or a video or a listening exercise will just give the students another excuse to zone out.

I am very interested in what I can learn in this class. I have many ideas on projects I would like to carry out and research I would like to conduct in this area, so I'm hoping that the articles and discussions can point me in the right direction. Please don't miss out on the poll question at the bottom of the page...I'm interested in seeing what the general opinion is.

Hasta la próxima....