Social Media Educational Learning Center...Is that possible???

This year, I decided to try something new with my students. I wanted to find a way to tap into their social needs and technology know-how while addressing my Spanish curriculum. So, I have introduced them the learning environment EDU2.0. This site, much like BlackBoard, but free, allows me to set up classes, provide resources and links to my students, and to establish a safe, closed environment for Spanish language practice. The site is also set up like FaceBook in that it allows the students to chat with each other and share photos. The students can contribute to a class wiki and small group wikis; they also have 3 different levels of blogs to use: personal, class, and small groups. The great thing is that you, as the teacher, are able to control and monitor the environment while teaching the students social skills and appropriate Internet usage. If we don't do it, who will???

Let me just say though that I have gained a plethora of knowledge about working with students and technology in these past couple of weeks:

First, do not introduce students to a social network and expect them to listen to a lesson that same day. As soon as the students realized they could add their classmates as friends and chat, as well as upload photos, I had lost their attention for that day. I quickly realized that for them to learn the "educational" features of the site, I had to turn them off to tune them in. So, I let them "play" with the site the first day and then took the lesson into the classroom where they had to follow me.

Second, students are not afraid to tell you how they feel about an assignment or the class via electronic media. Some things that they would only whisper to their friends during your class become open conversations online. Now, a teacher could take these comments one of two ways: constructively or destructively. For example, I learned that I need to go slower when introducing the features of the site instead of lumping them all into one project simply because the students told me so without actually planning on telling me. There were many comments posted about "what are we supposed to be doing?" "I'm confused" "Where are we supposed to be posting this information?" etc. Again, I took the site back into the classroom, where there was only one computer and projected it with their comments and thanked the students for letting me know what they needed from me. By doing this, they understand that it's OK to ask questions when they don't understand something.

Then, I was reminded that not all "digital natives" are technologically saavy. There is still a learning curve when being introduced to new sites and resources. The great thing about this site is that there are no mistakes that can't be fixed. So, they posted their research notes in the wrong wiki; just move them. Some students have to make the mistakes in order to learn how to get it right.

Next, I reaffirmed my belief that wiki's are the way to go for group research projects. I have gotten a higher percentage of students actively participating in their group's research because the findings are posted on wiki where everyone can see who has contributed. As soon as I introduced them to the history button on their group wikis, there was an immediate turn around from the "I'll just sit back and watch" mentality to the "let me contribute something" mentality.

Finally, I have gotten to know my students on a more personal level by reading their personal descriptions, seeing how they research and organize information, and watching how they interact with their peers electronically. Students are amazing, but how many of us, especially at the high-school level, actually take the time to get to know our students.

One last note on using the EDU 2.0. If you have parents who are reluctant to let their students participate, or who are nervous about social media, you can allow parents to join the site as viewers and/or contributors. It's time we stop being afraid to teach students the skills they will need for the future and start being proactive in teaching the parents how to recognize that we do know what we're doing.

Voki

So, I went to this training on creating Vokis (your own personalized, talking character) for your website. I've now taken the time to create one and am trying to put it on my site, but it's just not working. It appears that sometimes the site doesn't provide the full html code, which seems to be the problem in my case, so all you see is a link for "Create your own Voki".


Click here to comment on this Voki.
Get a Voki now!



This could be one of the coolest applications for foreign language students because they can create, and hide behind, a cartoon character of their choice. What a great way to get students practicing with oral language.

Anyway, there are some drawbacks to the program:
1. You have to create an account in order to save your creations, else they are lost as soon as you close the website.
2. They are only created in HTML, so you can't just save it as a file.
3. The maximum length of audio is 90 seconds.

I'm going to keep playing with it, and if I can get it to work, I will post an example here. It's working!!

Listening to Yourself

As a final project for my technology class, we had to create a personal website and then create and post a podcast of our teaching philosophy to it. Creating a website is not that difficult, actually, especially not with the free creation sites available. I chose webs.com for mine, and the interface was super easy. Uploading my enhanced podcast was a little more difficult, as they are having difficulties with direct uploads of videos, but it was entirely doable after I checked the help link.

I used PhotoStory to create my enhanced podcast. I had worked with the software once before, but never created a full story, so this was a learning experience. I don't know why, but I thought the program was compatible with PowerPoint, and originally created my slides there. Then I found out that I couldn't transfer them. Instead, I had to recreate the storyboard directly into PhotoStory, which is very simple. It is a matter of uploading photos, typing in captions, and organizing them in an order which makes sense.

The difficulty for me came in recording my voice. I don't know how many times I had to erase and restart because I didn't like hearing my own voice on the program. It was so easy to hear the flaws and pauses and gaps in speech. I remember when I was doing my National Boards entries; everyone kept saying that I would hate watching myself on video. This was simply not the case, as there were so many other things that I focused on besides myself. I was watching how the lesson went, what the students were doing, behaviors I wasn't aware of in me and the students; there was so much going on in the video that I wasn't worried about just watching myself. On an audio recording, however, there is nothing more than the sound of your voice. It is quite nerve-wracking, although I did finally master those feelings and, I hope, create an easily understandable philosophy of teaching and life.

I do wonder, though, if this isn't how many foreign language students feel when they begin to practice speaking in class. I know that I was at one time a novice students of Spanish, but I had such a desire to learn and speak the language that I ignored the awkwardness. I also wonder if giving students the opportunity to practice hearing themselves speak the language with a program like this, knowing there is a delete button, will help that close that affective gap.

I am really thankful for having taken this technology class because it has pushed me to rethink how I use technology in my classroom and the opportunities I am sharing with my students. I would have probably never used half of these resources personally, let alone with students, had I not taken this class because of the excuse that there is no time to learn them. At some point we have to stop making excuses for not changing with the times, and transform ourselves into 21st Century teachers. Having said that, here is my philosophy that I call "Transformation":

Webquest with Web 2.0 product creation

Every year, I have my Spanish II students watch the movie In the Time of the Butterflies based on the novel by Julia Alvarez in order to help them recognize not only a different perspective of Latin America but also how important that actions of one individual (and family) can be.



I designed this Webquest - Latin American Dictators - as a lead-in to watching the video. Originally, I had planned for this to be a quick, one-day assignment with the students writing 1-page essays about their assigned dictator. After all that I have learned about Web 2.0 resources and the online collaboration possibilities, I decided to incorporate three of them into the assignment. Now I want the students to work in online collaborative groups to create a Wiki of their research findings, which will be used by the whole group to create a single PowerPoint visual. At the same time that they are getting all of this experience collaborating, I also need to know that each student is getting something about the history and culture from the assignment, so I will expect each student to use the PowerPoint visual to create a PhotoStory presentation in their own voice in which they personally narrate what they have found out about the Dictator and his rise to and fall from power.

Once my students have completed this assignment using the Web 2.0 resources, I will post some feedback of how it went. If anyone else decides to try something like this, I would like some ideas for tweaking or any possible pitfalls I need to watch out for. Of course, I plan to front-load lessons on each of these resources as well as online collaboration before I would even introduce this assignment to them.

The World of WIKIs

Ever since the onslaught of Wikipedia, which I'm still not too sure about students using for research purposes, I have heard the word Wiki thrown around. I have not, until now, ever had the interest or need to create and/or collaborate on one. I have to say that, as a student, group collaboration is an oftentimes frustrating experience. For example, posting in a forum is fine if you simply have to post your thoughts, opinion, and research findings; however, when you must wait for others to post their thoughts, and hope they post something worth commenting on, this process of collaboration can become an endless series of waiting. I'm hoping this group Wiki will not be the same process.

Having stated my worries, I will say that I am glad to see that anyone can see who has added to the Wiki and the changes they have made. As a student, this aspect is important because it is often one or two students who do all the work on a group project when everyone shares the grade. As a teacher, this aspect also helps one keep track of who is and who isn't taking their learning seriously. One piece of a Webquest I have designed, and will post shortly, is for the students to post their research findings on a group Wiki so that I can see where they are finding their information and that all members are contributing. Since I have designed this activity for Spanish II, I hope to implement the group project across my various classes for an added real life dynamic.

Early in the semester, I came across this video that my professor has recently shared with the group, and I think it is very helpful with explaining the premise of how Wikis work.



The creators of this video have many videos on using all different types of technological resources including navigating the Web, understanding and using Wikipedia, and blogging. Another thing that I, as a foreign language teacher, find wonderful is that these videos can be viewed in multiple languages. This capability could be really helpful for introducing Internet-based projects to ESL students who may not have a strong knowledge of English yet.

Teaching Tech-onomy for Spanish

One of the requirements for my technology class is that we create our own digital tech-onomy based on Bloom's taxonomy for the cognitive domain. In teaching Spanish, however, I know that the affective domain is just as important as the cognitive one because students who feel uncomfortable with and around the language will have a much more difficult time understanding the teacher and interacting with their peers in the language.


I chose to combine the two--cognitive and affective--into a cyclical taxonomy. I decided on the cyclical format because language learning does not simply progress up the levels of Bloom's taxonomies. There are many factors that often return students to the remembering level one second and push them to the creation level the next. Many language teachers spend a great deal of time shifting between the Remembering/Receiving and the Understanding/Responding stages, but we must also help our students apply that knowledge to real life and create personally valuable connections. In addition, we must show them the value of what they are learning, which doesn't simply mean a culture lesson, and how to organize that learning into something meaningful.

Technology provides our students with so many possibilities that to not tap into this wealth of resources is counterproductive. My goal is not just to teach my students how to communicate in Spanish but also to communicate in the world. It is important that I take into account their need to be social, especially in terms of technology, and help them learn the responsibilities that come along with this open world. I can't, as an educator, say "it is someone else's responsibility to teach them how to effectively, safely, and responsibly navigate the Web because I have to teach my content." Therefore, I am looking for ways to integrate teaching and learning technology within my content. This taxonomy is my attempt at integrating all of the layers of effective learning--students' affective, cognitive, social, and technological needs--in a way that makes sense for foreign language study.

File Converter

In looking for a way to covert my PDF to JPG in order to post my tech-onomy, I found www.zamzar.com This site automatically converts files for you. It was quick: 30 seconds to upload and 1 minute to receive e-mailed file.

Hmmmm...Can I get a ladder to climb from 1.0 to 2.0???

This whole Web 2.0 thing has me thinking that I don't know nearly as much as I thought I knew. I mean, who would have thought that you could co-create documents, websites and resources in real time and then share them with the whole world? Who would have known that my children and my students would know how to do this before I did? Who would have imagined that cooperative learning groups wouldn't have to take place in the confines of a classroom?

I remember when I first took a class on teaching with technology in 2003; the only thing we learned to do was to create documents to send home and PowerPoint presentations to share with our students. I thought I was cool because I used clipart to create hyperlinks in my PowerPoint presentations. Wow, have times changed!!!

Now I'm taking another class in teaching with technology, and I'm having a hard time getting my mind around how to not just familiarize myself with these tools but also how to get my students on this Web 2.0 bandwagon. So, this blog is dedicated to my journey of how to integrate Web 2.0 into my Spanish classes so that my students will not only become proficient in the language but also in the tools they need for the jobs of the future.

THIS is going to be a bumpy ride!!!