Tag Archives: learning

Open CALL Resources for the 4 Skill Areas – Prezi

I’m giving a talk today at Hanyang Cyber Univerity in Seoul to TESL students.  I decided to give a broad overview of Web services/sites that could be useful for learning/instruction for listening, reading, writing, and speaking.  It’s a 90 minute talk and I’m sure we will use all of it as you can see from the scope of the presentation.

Of course, after I finished with this first iteration, I realized that I completely ignored Opensource software and Open Educational Resources (OER).  I figured that I’d hold off on that for now considering this group might not be ready for that discussion.  There are so many fun applications in those categories.  I guess that will be a part 2 that will have to wait until later.

The handout is here: http://tinyurl.com/opencall4skill

And the Prezi presentation is embedded below.

<a href="http://prezi.com/lwllwrdjvm-o/open-call-resources-for-the-4-skill-areas/" title="This presentation accompanies a handout at http://tinyurl.com/opencall4skill on free Web resources for language learning”>Open CALL Resources for the 4 Skill Areas on Prezi

 

Let me know what you think.

Paulo Freire – Good interview later in his life. Introspection and reminiscence


via youtube.com
It’s nice to hear the man himself, especially in reminiscence of his thinking and being.

The pace of the interview is quite slow for us rather impatient souls. Sit back, hit full screen, and relax.

Interaction in Blended EFL Learning: Principles and Practice

Interaction in Blended EFL Learning:
Principles and Practice.

Mei-Ya Liang and Curtis J. Bonk
Taiwan / USA

Abstract

The trend of acquiring English as a foreign language (EFL) through blended learning (BL) has prompted teachers to develop strategic plans and directions for its onsite implementation and evaluation. This paper applies the concept of interaction to the challenge of creating a BL curriculum for an EFL class. General principles of interaction based on three dimensions of interaction—textual, social, and technological interaction—are presented and then applied specifically to EFL classes at a Taiwanese university by adopting the following practical steps: (1) setting course objectives; (2) formulating techniques and strategies; (3) selecting media and tools; (4) organizing activities and technologies; and (5) evaluating student learning. Students’ reactions to and comments on six BL curriculum units indicate that various combinations of BL based on level and dimension of interaction are well adapted to the specific university EFL class. Our findings suggest that the interaction-driven approach should be the focal point for future development and implementation of BL in EFL classes.

via itdl.org

I’m crushed for time right now, but I’d like to look further into this. Blended learning seems such a natural mix, but like everything, we need to know what the best ways to design for this approach to teaching and learning.

A Science for e-Learning

Skinner’s Teaching Machine

Media_httpwwwelearnma_hjhit
via elearnmag.org

I’m actually surprised that this isn’t discussed more. An update of Skinner’s Programmed Instruction for the computer age. Lots of research showing the benefits of the programs.

However, the problem that was there years ago is still there. It’s labor intensive to prepare the content. Programming responses is not much of a problem. The technological side is not that difficult. However, at the level required for Programmed Instruction, content preparation takes forever.

Have I also mentioned that it is quite boring. Could the use of computers help with this? Possibly. But the reality is that people get sick of taking baby steps. They don’t like being led. They want to think. A system like this would likely be very effective for those who could finish it, but I’m going to guess that attrition would look worse that new health club members after the holidays.

Learning by Playing: Video games in the classroom – NYT

Learning by Playing: Video Games in the Classroom

Gillian Laub for The New York Times

Class Media Nicole Dodson, Dakota Jerome Solbakken and Nadine Clements, students at Quest to Learn, a New York City public school, play a game they designed.

By SARA CORBETT
Published: September 15, 2010
via nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html?ref=magazine

This seems more like a short book. 9 pages in total. It’s a great read for a general audience. No deep research insights and a little too much observation, but a good read none-the-less.

I don’t see a future in which all school-based learning is video game-based, but I do see a time at which most homework is. At school, I still see a place for manipulation of objects, information retrieval, and design/development of products to gauge learning.

The Evolution of Classroom Technology – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com

The Learning Machines

PRODUCED By CHARLES WILSON, MARVIN ORELLANA and MIKI MEEK/THE NEW YORK TIMES
via nytimes.com

Not sure if this will show up in the Posterous post.

If not, go here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/19/magazine/classroom-technology.html

Neat timeline (though limited) of learning-related machines through the years.

Facebook hits exam results by 20%…In other news, if you study 88% less, you’ll do 20% worse on the test.

Media_httpitelegraphc_bbjlx
via telegraph.co.uk

Talk about headline grabbing. Ugh! The real findings are that people who use Facebook “study” (not sure how they operationalized that) 88% less than those who don’t use the site (how did they find any??).

Here’s a link to the abstract. I guess I’ll have to wait a little while until I can see what they did. The abstract looks vague, which isn’t a good sign. Lest you think I doubt this finding, however. I don’t. I’m just glad I didn’t have Facebook when I was young. The immense time-suck it is would have swallowed me whole. I have problems with it as an adult.

———————————————————————-

Facebook® and academic performance

Paul A. Kirschner and Aryn C. Karpinski

Abstract

There is much talk of a change in modern youth – often referred to as digital natives or Homo Zappiens – with respect to their ability to simultaneously process multiple channels of information. In other words, kids today can multitask. Unfortunately for proponents of this position, there is much empirical documentation concerning the negative effects of attempting to simultaneously process different streams of information showing that such behavior leads to both increased study time to achieve learning parity and an increase in mistakes while processing information than those who are sequentially or serially processing that same information. This article presents the preliminary results of a descriptive and exploratory survey study involving Facebook use, often carried out simultaneously with other study activities, and its relation to academic performance as measured by self-reported Grade Point Average (GPA) and hours spent studying per week. Results show that Facebook® users reported having lower GPAs and spend fewer hours per week studying than nonusers.

Students learn English using virtual reality

Media_httpwwwkoreatim_abbce
via koreatimes.co.kr

I have to say that this is nothing really new conceptually. This is essentially the interactions that have been taking place is SecondLife for years. The interface is different though. This is likely using something similar to Playstations video or Microsoft Kinect.

The latter is probably the one that will have the most impact on a project like this. Kinect (with the Xbox) will make interfaces like this much easier for developers to integrate into their software.

From the article, I can’t tell what the role of the guy in the picture is. Does this software require a real life dialog partner? That could be cool for practicing more realistic dialogs between language learners, even without the teacher. Otherwise, I’m wondering what the purpose really is. Having smart bots engage and respond would be much better overall.

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