Week 05: Project-based Learning, WebQuests, and rubrics

PBL (Project-based Learning)

After reading Susan Gaer’s article, ‘Less Teaching and More Learning’, I think PBL can be used to help motivate students more for the following reasons.

1) Otherwise teacher-centered learning, PBL is student-centered leaning and students can develop their project theme as independence learners.
2) PBL gives the purpose and meaning (value) to leaning.
3) Through PBL, students can experience language learning in their real life.
4) In the case of group project, students can be encouraged participation, cooperation, and communication.
5) Doing project work, students can search for information, analyze it, and share it with others.
6) Students can try various ways and tools to achieve their goals. In this process, technology (web skills) can be the one of useful learning tools.

Sources:
-Less Teaching and More Learning by Susan Gaer
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385

WebQuests

WebQuest is closely related to PBL activities. In PBL, students choose project theme and develop their learning process by themselves. WebQuest is a kind of online PBL, I think. Teachers can facilitate students’ learning by setting the goals, making tasks and process, and explaining the rubrics.
I made my first WebQuest using Zunal WebQuest Maker.

My WebQuest is: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=120532

Sources:
-Zunal WebQuest Maker - http://www.zunal.com/
-WebQuest.org - http://www.webquest.org/

Alternative Assessment and Rubrics

Features of alternative assessment
-based on authentic task (performance based)
-focused on communication
-set the criteria with learners
-self-assessment and peer-assessment

Four main types of rubrics
1) Holistic rubrics: respond to language performance as a whole, focus on what a student does well
2) Analytic rubrics: divided into separate categories, dimension scores are added to determine an overall score.
3) Primary trait rubrics: narrows the criteria for judging performance to one main dimension
4) Multitrait rubrics: resemble analytic rubrics, involve dimension that are more closely aligned with features of the task

Sources:
-Aleternative Assessment
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm
-Creating a Rubric: Tutorial
http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/eta/Rubric_Tutorial/default.htm
-Rubistar (Rubric Maker)
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Week 04 – 2: Tasks

Task: Preparing a technology-enhanced lesson plan
I read about technology-enhanced lesson plans and create my technology-enhanced lesson plan. There are over 10 items on the lesson plan format and I had to explain in details. Likewise the regular lesson plan, teachers must elaborate their lesson plan in order to integrate technology into their classes.

My class is one-computer class and it is not easy to think about the lesson. I’m still confused where to draw the line of technology-enhanced class because sometimes I have to make additional paper worksheet for the use of web materials and during the class I don’t use my computer. Is it okay to call this kind of lesson technology-enhanced lesson?

Project Task 3: Issues or problems of my class
1) How to motivate students
2) How to develop students’ reading and writing skills
3) How to facilitate students’ vocabulary acquisition
4) One-computer class in EFL situation

Week 04 – 1: Skill-building websites for reading/writing skills and technology-enhanced lesson plans

Readings

1) Three extensive reading activities for ESL/EFL students using e-books (Mei-Ya Liang)
The lesson is consists of three parts using e-books such as choosing books, reading and sharing books, and evaluating books. Class procedures are simple but organized. Although this lesson is basically focused on reading, it starts from reading and passes through speaking-discuss the story elements, asking questions, and retelling the story-and ends with writing the final report. Also students can be involved in higher-order thinking by evaluating books and convincing other people in a logical way of their conclusion. This lesson aims at EFL high school or college students, so it is not applicable to my students. However, while reviewing this lesson plan again, I think it could be modified in EFL elementary English course if teachers set the goal lower comparing in ESL situation.

2) Using technology to assist in vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension (Andreea I. Constantinescu)
Andreea’s paper was focused on the relationship between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. She emphasized that reading and vocabularies are closely related and they are interacting with each other. Andreea also said that multimedia is an interactive and computer-based and multimedia gloss brings meaningful effects on vocabulary development and reading comprehension. And text+picture annotation is the best way to recall vocabulary for reading comprehension. Moreover, four teaching principles are suggested in this paper. Lastly, she said instructors have to pay attention to the potential benefits of technology-enhanced language class.

Skill-building websites for reading/writing/vocabulary:
-Lauri’s ESL Website (http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/) – multi-skill website
-Learn English (http://www.learn-english.co.il/) – building vocabulary
-a4esl.org (http://a4esl.org/) - vocabulary and grammar quizzes

Sources:
-Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books (2004)http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html
- Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension (2007)http://iteslj.org/Articles/Constantinescu-Vocabulary.html

Week 03 – 2: Readings

Readings

- The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills by Julia Gong

1) CALL: Computer-Assisted Language Learning
-definition: The search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning
2) Spoken language competence covers two aspects, i.e. the mechanical aspect and the meaningful aspect. (Pennington, 1995)
-mechanical aspect: learn to discriminate and produce sounds of a language and tie these together prosaically in fluent strings of sounds comprising syllables, words, phrases and longer utterances or articulation and decoding of individual sounds (phonemes)
-meaningful aspect: learn to build as well as to decompose grammatically coherent utterances and to tie these to communicate functions according to rules for pragmatic appropriateness in a given speech community
3) Application
-mechanical Dimension: in pronunciation training (provided with synthesis-by-rule technology, visual aids, speech recognition technology, speech analysis technology, and so on)
-meaningful Dimension: in developing speaking competence (provided with authentic and simulating conversational environment)
-other fields: electronic dictionary, verbal command recognition, the use of speech recognition and analysis for assessment purposes, and the integration of speaking with other language skills
4) Advantages
-The computer environment is highly motivating and offers a private workspace.
-The computer medium offers learners information in wide forms and formats to set up models, or support and contextualize interaction.
-The controllability of CALL materials allows learners to precede learning at their own pace and teachers to arrange their teaching to meet different needs.
-Many CALL materials can offer spontaneous feedback that can be used both for assessment or self-assessment purposes.
-Networked computers enhance interaction between users and the target language content, and a multitude of other resources free from the restriction of time and distance.
5) Disadvantages
-At present computers are unable to produce or understand natural language or have real interaction with the users.
-The quality and cost of available software differs greatly.
-The potential of CALL materials may fail to be realized in specific cases due to various types of misapplication or improper use.
-The demand of computer memory restricts the design of CALL materials.
-Teachers and learners should keep in mind that most exposure to the CALL environment is indeed ‘virtual’ and not real.

Sources:
- The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/research/resources/student_res/postscriptfiles/vol3/vol3_1_gong1.pdf

Week 03 – 1: Skill-building websites for oral/aural skills and saving bookmarks with Delicious

This week, I would like to summarize what I learned.

Readings

1. Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller
1) Lindsay Miller said that we spend more than forty percent of our daily communication time on listening and it means listening is the language skill most often used in everyday life. She also emphasized the importance of authentic materials in teaching listening and ‘authentic text’ is the same as a real world context.
2) Three main parts of listening exercises are as follows:
Pre-listening, While-listening, Post-listening activities
3) She suggested authentic materials using the format of pre-, while-, post-listening activities such as radio, TV, video, Internet, and CD-ROM.

Oral/Aural skill-building websites

1) Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab - http://www.esl-lab.com/
2) www.ManyThings.org - http://www.manythings.org
3) University of Iowa - http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
4) Speech Analyzer - http://www.sil.org/computing/sa/index.htm
5) 10 alternatives to Delicious (including the highly recommended Diigo)http://searchengineland.com/10-alternatives-to-delicious-com-bookmarking-59058
6) Pronunciation Tips from the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/

Using Delicious.com to store useful links

Until recently, my main web browser was Internet Explorer. Microsoft has over 90% of OS market share in Korea so most Korean websites are Windows-based. That’s why I couldn’t help using Explorer. However, I found new websites for information through Google and other search engines I got from this e-learning course and these new ones needed another browser, Chrome. Since then, I have been importing my ‘favorites’ of Explorer to the ‘bookmark’ of Chrome but it is cumbersome.
Delicious.com gave me a clear solution. I created my own page on Delicious.com and shared them with others. I could see the ‘saves’ of each link I added and I was surprised that many people already saved those links. To use Delicious.com is an interesting and very helpful experience.
Here is my “Delicious” page.
http://delicious.com/stacks/spaceleto

Sources:
- Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials (Word .doc file)http://www.elthillside.com/up/files/article4.doc

Week 02 – The ABCD learning objectives framework and effective web searches

Web searching

This week I visited NoodleTools ‘Finding the Best Search for Your Information Needs’. It provides the list of various search engines categorizing our needs and most of them are that I have never heard about before. I had to review different search engines, analyze them, and make comments about advantages and disadvantages of them for teachers and students.

Google is my main search engine and the results are mostly competent. It shows me the results listed in order of frequency and it is also convenient to find out some information with a certain file format I’m looking for.

When I visited the Noodletools, ‘Finding the Best Search for your information Needs’, vast search engines amazed me. However, I got to know that many search engines do not guarantee many credible results. It is not easy to analyze almost 10 search engines and compare them with Google.

Here are the search engines I would like to recommend:

1) Google - http://www.google.com

2) GigaAlert - http://www.googlealert.com/

-It gives the results based on academic resources. It also informs the results by Email and we can save them in Email. (Result delivery system)

3) WorldCat - http://www.worldcat.org/

-This is the world's network of library content and services providing information about the topic with all formats. If we enter our location, it shows the libraries in my location that have this item. If it cannot find the libraries in my location, it provides the nearest location instead.

4) Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus - http://www.merriam-webster.com/

-Its interface is clear and readable. It shows enormous information about word like other dictionaries but especially includes origin of word.

ABCD Objective

This is about the way to write learning objectives based on three categorized domains: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective.

1) Cognitive Domain (Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy):

Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating

2) Psychomotor Domain;

It includes objectives that require basic motor skills and/or physical movement such as construct, kick, or ski.

3) Affective Domain;

It includes objectives pertaining to attitude, appreciations, values and emotions.

In ABCD method, we have to describe Audience, Behavior, Condition, and Degree for writing learning objectives.

1) Audience: Who are your learners?

2) Behavior: What do you expect them to be able to do?

3) Condition: What will the student be given or already be expected to know to accomplish the learning?

4) Degree: How much will be accomplished?

Lesson Planning Procedure

‘Lesson Planning Procedure’ is as follows;

Identify goals and Analyzing learners → Identify objectives → Plan instructional activities → Select media/ICT based resources → Develop assessment tools → Implement instruction → Revise instruction

According to the ‘Lesson Planning Procedure’, identifying goals and analyzing learners are the first task to do. Before writing learning objectives, I had to analyze my students.

Sources:

• http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/
• http://www.slideshare.net/ashleytan/writing-specific-instructionallearning-objectives-presentation
• http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/classifications.html

Week 01 – Let’s get stared!

I’m happy to join the online course,”Building Teaching Skills through the Interactive Web”.

Creating my own blog

This is my second blog actually. A couple of years ago, I opened my blog on another website but it was hard to maintain the blog for me so finally it was lost. Looking back on it now, I didn’t understand much about blogging and I didn’t even think about what my blog was for by then.

While creating my blog this time, I pondered the questions; what my blog is for, whom my blog is for, and how to use as a tool for education. Basically this is for my reflection of what I learn from this course and my course mates. However, for the sake of blogging now and later on, I’m still thinking these questions above and trying to keep in mind all through the course. A clear sense of purpose would be a practical tool for achieving my goal.

Joining the class discussion on Nicenet

First of all, the interface of Nicenet is simple and clear and it makes me relived. I’m not much experienced in having a discussion so it is not easy to express my opinion about a certain topic by writing in English. Now I’m trying to train myself to be accustomed to discuss following the given instructions step by step. I hope I can do it. Also it is a great opportunity for me to meet many teachers through the web. They are very much experienced and professional and I look forward to learn many things from them. I wish I can help them as well.

Here is the website I would like to share:
http://www.freerice.com
This is the website for food donation program to help end hunger.
You and your students can donate rice by joining English word quiz program.