ePals: More Learning Experience

   

     ePals is a digital media that allows children to gain more learning experience outside the classroom. Through ePals, children are provided with a number of stories, games, and books, etc. Teachers are able to connect with other teachers all over the world to share their teaching experience and culturally different teaching strategies. What is more important to both young learners and educators: many meaningful and helpful projects which will enrich learner's learning experience in various aspects could be worked through this Internet tool. There are some education projects which have been developed through this program:

     1. Education Around the World Project This project is developed by an education student and pre-service teacher who is looking to start a project about education curriculum and systems around the world. Through this project, this pre-teacher would like to communicate with elementary schools around the world, gain as much information about education systems worldwide as possible, and get contact with students, teachers, and administrators all over the world.

     2. Class in Azerbaijan Seeks Partners for Culture Project This project is started by a class in Azerbaijan which is seeking partners for their project. Since the students from this Azerbaijan class are interested in foreign countries and want to learn other countries' art, culture, and educational system, they develop this collaborated project through ePals to gain as much information from different countries as possible.

     3. Let's Paint the Globe Green This projected is designed to give students a better understanding of the "Go green" concept and the "Think global". Through this project, students all over the world are expected to think about earth and it resources through discussion and conversations with other students in different countries and cultures. 

     One feature that ePals provides is the available entry to communicate to not only students but also educators around the world. Therefore, for my future teaching, if I am able to apply ePals to my teaching, I would like to develop some projects through ePals to have my students share their English learning experience with other students from different countries and cultures, and encourage them to learn from each other through communication and conversations. 

It is Meaningful: Join a Social Networking Site

     I join a social networking site which is a Google+ community of English Language Teaching (ELT). This community is created for both teachers and learners of English. In this community, members are provided with resources, discussions, and tips of learning and teaching English. For me, as a future English teacher, joining this community is meaningful and helpful.

     Firstly, through this community, I could share my experience on teaching English with other members, and I am also able to receive comments and feedback from others all over the world. This will definitely help me improve my teaching and enlighten me on applying newly teaching strategies. In addition, I am able to keep pace with the development of new social media. In our contemporary education society, teachers are expected to combine technology with their teaching which will not only benefit teachers but also students to learn effectively. The last but not the least, this ELT community will encourage me, as a language teacher, to keep connection with others in the field of language teaching. As a result, I will be able to have a more proficient entry to learn what I do not know from others.

A Learner is Like a Catalyst

     In Siemens(2005), the author notes that connectivism is an integrated principle which shifts learning from an individual and personal issue to a more widely connected process. Since the rapid development of network, learning is no more individual; on the contrary, learners are actively involved in the information flow which connects individuals with the entire network. From this perspective, a learner is able to be considered as a catalyst of the constant extension of learning communities. As Siemens states, "Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity" (Siemens, 2005. Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age). For individual learners, learning does not only indicates receiving knowledge from social network, especially in this digital era, learners are also encouraged to be able to provide feedback. Therefore, a learner is like a catalyst which could bring a reaction to the learning communities--the tighter the connection between learners and the whole network, the more new tools and knowledge are utilized.

     In addition, in the video following, The network is the learning,Siemens also notes that "Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today".In this digital society, learners are tightly connected together to share knowledge and information, but what seems more important is that learners are connected together to cause and bring new tools and knowledge for further development, with the abundant application of technology and digital skills. Therefore, individual learners are no longer individual but tightly connected, which will definitely function as a catalyst which bring reactions to a constantly developing and creating learning communities.

Which one to choose: Diigo or Pinterest?

     With the development of technology, I believe that many of us have already experienced and are definitely involved in the modern revolution of technology. As a future language teacher, I think that it is important for me to experience abundant technology resources since I will be able to provide more information on language learning for my students. Therefore, I have tried two different Internet tools and would like to share my experience.

     First, Diigo is an Internet tool which provides users with a website to keep bookmarks and multiple tags in their personal "library", and it allows users to highlight text in saved sites. In addition, users are able to follow others and write comments on others' sites as well as bloggers. One convenient feature which Diigo has is that users are able to message others who follow them. This feature really works since as an website user, I am able to get contact with others who may share the same experience with me, or someone who leave comments on my site and I would like to talk more with he/she. This is really a good website for users who would like to keep many online bookmarks and share with others.

     Compared to Diigo, Pinterest is a website which provides visual entries and sharing. Pinterest users are able to create their own boards which are similar to bookmarks in Diigo, and then they could save and share as many pins as they want in their boards. Additionally, users are able to categorize their boards according to their own preference. Same with Diigo, users of Pinterest also are allowed to keep multiple tags and follow others who also have interesting boards. Pinterest really works well since users can "pin" whatever they like and them share all with others. Most importantly, this website is more suitable for visual learners.

     After experiencing these two web tools, there is no doubt that I would like to keep using both of these websites since I could gain different resources and share with different people through these two different Internet tools. And I believe that I would like to develop these tools into my future teaching since I would like to help my students to have more entries of language learning.

     

How technology impacts our future education?

     

     With the development of technology, we are experiencing a new era of Internet, and people all over the world have been involved in a new revolution which is called the Social Media Revolution. It becomes an Internet tool which changes the world into a global village, and even our offline behaviors get greatly impacted. The video clip "Social Media Revolution 2011", tells us the huge impacts that social media bring to our daily life from a statistical perspective. There is no doubt that education also receives great effects. For example, E-mails have become to be the most commonly used tool of communication between teachers and students, and there are more and more e-readers. This video clip reminds us, future teachers, that combing social media with our teaching becomes important and meaningful since social media are able to provide students with more entries to effectively explore and learn what they want to learn.

     "Every student can learn, just not on a same day or the same way". However, in our contemporary society, if we do not use technology in learning, we may lose the connection with the world, and we may lose the meaning of education. The video clip "Education Change Challenge 2010" shows that technology not only brings educators challenges but also opportunities since the generation of students that we are going to teach is a media driven generation; therefore, facing the challenges of using technology in our teaching also provides us with opportunities of changing the traditional education into a more efficient and world-wide education system.

How do Blogs Work in Language Learning and Teaching

    From my own experience of English learning, I would like to agree with the thought that motivation is one of the keys which could have great effects on the success of language learning. Therefore, as a future language teacher, how to effectively improve my teaching with more fun and help my students raise their interests could be important elements that I should consider, especially in this Internet era, with the combination of appropriate Internet tools. 

        Blogs could be considered as one efficient tool to help language teachers develop their teaching since it provides various entries for different demands. One way that I think I would like to use blogs in my future teaching is to expand students' access to relevant materials by incorporating links. Blogging is a good choice to add a number of different links to provide students with opportunities to learn something new and what could not learn in a real classroom. For example, if my students have learned something about culture during the class, but they want to know more about culture diversity; therefore, I could post some links for interesting pictures, videos, and articles on blogs. Additionally, I have a chance to make sure that all links work well and my students are on the right track of learning.

       Moreover, using blogs could be one efficient way for me, as a language teacher, to develop my self-reflection on my teaching. I could keep records or write journals about how I design my class, how my class processes, and what do I need to improve for my next teaching. All these information could be recorded on blogs. Additionally, I can receive feedback or comments from other bloggers since some other language teachers who share the same experience with me may also use blogs as a way of reflecting. 

Performance Indicator-ESL.I.5-8.2.1.1

Students read, listen to, view, write about, and discuss texts and performances from a wide range of authors, subjects, and genres.

Performance Indicator-ESL.I.5-8.4.1.1

Students use a variety of oral, print, and electronic forms of social communication and for writing to or for self, applying the conventions of social writing.