This group EFL Classroom 2.0 on ning.com has a bunch of resources for both teachers and students of ESL. They have lots of useful lesson ideas, discussion boards for member collaboration, games, video and audio lessons and tons more that I haven't looked at so far.
Not only would this group be useful for me as a teacher to collaborate and meet with other teachers, but it seems like it would also be a good site for students to meet up with others who are studying ESL. How cool would it be to link up your class with another one around the world and have the students practice their language skills with others far away?
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Connectivism - The Theory of the Future?
Te learner of today is like a good librarian
They don't know all of the latest info, but they can tell you where to find it.
They don't know all of the latest info, but they can tell you where to find it.
In his article, George Siemens explains the relatively new learning theory of connectivism, in which knowledge is created through external connections between learners, or groups of learners.
Siemens lists some recent trends in learning, one of which is that "Know-how and know-what is being supplemented with know-where (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed)"
This reminded me of a good librarian. If you ask him a question about Russian history, he may or may not have that information internalized, but he will certainly be able to tell you where to find an external source of the required information.
In this video entitled "The conflict of learning theories with human nature," Siemens argues that "as human beings, we desire the ability to externalize what is in our heads" but that the older learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism are "substantially in conflict with many of the learning theories which we have based our educational system on." He argues that in the learning environment that is growing ever-more technological, teachers should "focus less on bringing knowledge into the mind of the person, and more on developing skills of our learners so they are able to go out into fairly complex environments and function in a distributed manner." Just like the good librarian, he says that learners need not have a vast amount of knowledge internalized, but must be connected to the knowledge networks in a way that allows them to access what they deem to be relevant and important.
Siemens lists some recent trends in learning, one of which is that "Know-how and know-what is being supplemented with know-where (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed)"
This reminded me of a good librarian. If you ask him a question about Russian history, he may or may not have that information internalized, but he will certainly be able to tell you where to find an external source of the required information.
In this video entitled "The conflict of learning theories with human nature," Siemens argues that "as human beings, we desire the ability to externalize what is in our heads" but that the older learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism are "substantially in conflict with many of the learning theories which we have based our educational system on." He argues that in the learning environment that is growing ever-more technological, teachers should "focus less on bringing knowledge into the mind of the person, and more on developing skills of our learners so they are able to go out into fairly complex environments and function in a distributed manner." Just like the good librarian, he says that learners need not have a vast amount of knowledge internalized, but must be connected to the knowledge networks in a way that allows them to access what they deem to be relevant and important.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Reaction to video "The The Machine is Us/ing Us"
What an interesting take on how we transform the web, and indeed how the web is transforming us.
Although the main point of the video was how human interaction with the web morphs it into an ever more interconnected "space," I really think that the most interesting aspect of it was sort of the "big picture" - how human interaction is becoming ever more web-related.
As i said on our discussion board, I am not a huge fan of this (in my opinion,) invasive inter-connectedness. It is evident even today (especially for youngsters,) how central our "web presence" is to our ideas of self. How many blogs do you have? How many social networking sites do you belong to? How many "friends" do you have? It would seem as though how deeply you are inter-connected with other web users is directly related to how much worth you have as a person.
Another thing that I found to be very interesting is how the video said that the more we link webpages to each other, the more pictures we tag, the more that we are teaching the machine. This reminded me of theories of learning presented in one of my cognitive science classes, the theory of learning as the strengthening of neurological pathways through repeated use. I have this notion of links as "synapses" between the "neurons" of webpages.
What I want to know is, while we are so busy "teaching the machine," how much is it learning?
When will it surpass us in cognitive abilities?
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Safety concerns
The safety of their students is obviously a huge concern for educators, and i think that this concern increases tremendously when you add an internet element to the classroom. My ideas regarding keeping our students safe online are:
1. Assigning pseudonyms to my students, (perhaps the names of cartoon characters or literary characters?) so that there is no chance of their identities being compromised in any way. In our classroom, we could have a poster/s showing who is who, so that the students in our class can identify their classmates online.
2. Creating a closed class blog, thus limiting access to only those students, parents and educators who are a part of our community. This obviously closes off any opportunity for an outside audience, thus limiting the possible readers and responses that or work can have.
3. If I do decide to have an open blog for my students or class, setting strict guidelines for appropriate content. Anything that you wouldn't say in class probably shouldn't be said on the class blog. Educating the students on what to do if they believe that something is inappropriate will allow and empower them to self-monitor the blog.
1. Assigning pseudonyms to my students, (perhaps the names of cartoon characters or literary characters?) so that there is no chance of their identities being compromised in any way. In our classroom, we could have a poster/s showing who is who, so that the students in our class can identify their classmates online.
2. Creating a closed class blog, thus limiting access to only those students, parents and educators who are a part of our community. This obviously closes off any opportunity for an outside audience, thus limiting the possible readers and responses that or work can have.
3. If I do decide to have an open blog for my students or class, setting strict guidelines for appropriate content. Anything that you wouldn't say in class probably shouldn't be said on the class blog. Educating the students on what to do if they believe that something is inappropriate will allow and empower them to self-monitor the blog.
Hello!
Hello!
This is Anne Montgomery's blog for LAI 684, Fall 2009.
I guess I can start right out with the Mod 2 assignment, so here goes...
My top three ways to use blogging in my own teaching and learning:
1. Create a storehouse of online information, including links to sites and other blogs that are relevant to the topic at hand. (this would be useful for me personally to keep all of my online knitting patterns at hand and organized!)
2. Invite my students to create their own blogs to have a digital portfolio of their best work, their reflections and their thoughts on assignments. I think this would be rewarding for them to have a forum for outsiders to read their ideas, and it would be useful for me to gain insight into how the students view the assignments and topics.
3.Create a journal-type blog to connect with other educators (and perhaps students also?) to share lesson ideas, technology ideas, best practices, etc. I guess this kind of fits in with my number 1, but it would be really useful (and community-building) to be able to share a relate to others. Everyone out there has some idea that I would never have thought of!
This is Anne Montgomery's blog for LAI 684, Fall 2009.
I guess I can start right out with the Mod 2 assignment, so here goes...
My top three ways to use blogging in my own teaching and learning:
1. Create a storehouse of online information, including links to sites and other blogs that are relevant to the topic at hand. (this would be useful for me personally to keep all of my online knitting patterns at hand and organized!)
2. Invite my students to create their own blogs to have a digital portfolio of their best work, their reflections and their thoughts on assignments. I think this would be rewarding for them to have a forum for outsiders to read their ideas, and it would be useful for me to gain insight into how the students view the assignments and topics.
3.Create a journal-type blog to connect with other educators (and perhaps students also?) to share lesson ideas, technology ideas, best practices, etc. I guess this kind of fits in with my number 1, but it would be really useful (and community-building) to be able to share a relate to others. Everyone out there has some idea that I would never have thought of!
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