Reading Response Five

Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Reading Prompt #5
•RICHARDSON Ch. 8. Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, Live Streaming: Multimedia Publishing for the Masses
•BLACKBOARD - McQuillan, J. (2006). iPods in Education: The Potential for Language Acquisition
•BLACKBOARD – Stansbury, M. (2009). iPods help ESL Students Achieve Success. eSchool News (May 11).
Do you have an iPod or another type of .mp3 player? If so, have you used it or anything other than listening to your own music, such as downloading and listening to podcasts? Note some of the points McQuillan made about how podcasting can support second language learning. Which of the ideas from the readings would you be interested in trying out in your own classroom?

I have an iPod, but I have never listened to a podcast. Although, now I am interested in doing so. I really liked the article about Poli, and how she used iPods in her classroom. I can see a real advantage in using iPods in the classroom. I liked how she created exercises using music for all different levels of students.

McQuillan's article on using iPods for second language acquisition was very interesting. He talked about comprehensible input being an important aspect of second language acquisition. He also talked about a state of flow. Here are some of McQuillan's suggestions for teaching a second language,
"• Slowing the rate of speech
• Providing contextual support for language
• Using vocabulary appropriate to the student’s level
• Building on the student’s existing background knowledge
• Fostering a comfortable environment
• Encouraging identification with people who speak the target language
• Creating a topic-driven rather than a grammar-based syllabus"
I thought these were good ideas to foster second language acquisition. Some of these points can be supported with the use of an iPod, for example, "providing contextual support for language, and building on the student's existing background knowledge".

Besides using iPods in the classroom, I liked the idea of using podcasts, and am excited about creating on for our blogs. This is something I would really like to incorporate in my own personal blog, as well. Over all, I really enjoyed the readings for tonight's class.

Reading Response Four

Reading Prompt #4
* LEVY – Ch. 2. Design

* RICHARDSON Ch. 5. RSS: The New Killer App for Educators

Comment one one or two issues raised by Levy and Stockwell CALL educators must think about when it comes to the design of CALL products. Then, comment on what types of RSS feeds you might be interested in using with students or following yourself.

"The point where one begins in design is critical. Whether it is a theory, pedagogical model, course or syllabus, task, exercise, language skill, technology, or some kind of mix, the whole design unfolds from that point on." (Call Dimensions, Levy p.12)

The idea of language teachers being designers is an exciting one. It means that we can design our classes as creatively as we like. Using technology as a design tool is also very cool. I like what the book says about including the students in our design process so that they will have a chance to see the technology the way that we do.(p.14) I think that goes back to the article by Soares about her blogging experience with her class. The more time she gave in class for the students to blog the more they took part in the project. I think including students in the design of the class blog or of their individual blogs will enhance the learning experience. This leads into using RSS feeds. Rss feeds are a tool for the classroom that is valuable to teacher and students. The teacher is able to include all her student's blogs on her RSS feed enabling her to look at them and respond to them. Giving your students an RSS feed to use when doing research for a project not only ensures safety for young students while surfing the web, it allows students to have a 24/7 news feed to a particular subject.

Oprah and the Black Eyed Peas

This is awesome.

My favorite Sami Yusuf video

This is my favorite Sami Yusuf video.

reading response three

Reading Prompt #3
*LEVY – Ch. 8. Technology

*BLACKBOARD - Soares, D. d.A. (2008). Understanding class blogs as a tool for language development. Language Teaching Research, 12(4), 517–533.



What challenges did Soares face when using blogs with her ESL students, and what lessons did she learn? How does she feel about using blogs with students in the future? Levy describes several types of technologies Choose one of them and describe how you might want to use it (or have used it), and discuss some of considerations that need to be taken when using this technology with ESL students

I thought the Soares article was very eye opening. It showed how students may be resistant to using blogs in the classroom, especially if the work is to be done at home. I think when she started to include blogging activities during class time it helped the students take part more in the blog. Her survey of other ESL teacher's using blogs was also helpful. The article is a valuable resource for ESL teacher's wanting to include blogging in their classroom.

I thought that Speech Recognition and Pronunciation-Training Technology from the Levy book could be a helpful tool in the classroom. I wonder if it is similar to what is used in the Rosetta Stone software? Because when using this software, if you do not pronounce something correctly, you have to keep saying it over until the computer reckognizes the correct pronunciation.

From reading chapter eight in Levy I have some difficulty in understanding the descriptions of some of the technology. I need to see it demonstrated in class to have a full understanding of it.