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.