Synthesis of My Blog and Reflection

Blog #8: Open Topic / Reflection

▶ First of all, I cannot believe that I have been through all these many tools. It was such an interesting class to take to know all of these new things. I appreciate that professor Ryan opened other doors of teaching method for me.

I hope I can keep using these tools for my current classes. I am sure that my students are going to like the new style. In one of my classes, I have to use touchscreen TV to present the class and it is connected with PC. I assumed that I can use tools through this and I am glad that I can use the tools that I have learnt. It feels bad when you just learn something but not actually using it.

I am looking forward to having the writing class with professor Ryan.

Thank you for looking at and reading my posts.

Mobile App Review_Pocket English Grammar for Beginners

Blog #7: Mobile App Review

▶ Pocket English Grammar for Beginners

- Website for PC: http://www.jinhak.com/

- Website for Mobile: http://appsupport@jinhak.com/


- How to find this application?
; This application can be found at Samsung App store.
; Search for "포켓영문법 왕초보" as "Pocket English Grammar for Beginners" in English.
; You can use this application for FREE.
; You need to pay 3,000 won if you download this application through Google Play for Android OS.


▶ Write a brief review of this application that includes information about the app's functions, which devices it is compatible with, and how it can assist or enhance the language learning process.

- Review of this application
There are three sections that you can start with. The first section is about understanding the basic use of verbs such as be verbs, general verbs and making questions and others. The second section is about the basic English grammar which is in terms of the eight parts of speech, countable & uncountable nouns, major tenses and so on. The third section is in terms of English grammar for practical use.

This application is in Korean. In the addition, each section of this application has many different types of questions that you can make sure that you understand the concept of the grammar. You can also have the audio support as well. Thus, it helps your pronunciation.

- Compatible Devices for This Application
You can use this application with Android OS. I am using Galaxy Note 2.

- How does it can assist or enhance the language learning process?
This application has the basic grammar which is significant for beginners who can be too busy to go to institute for studying. It can be also useful to someone who is introverted due to being able to have the correction for oneself.

Reviews of Zimmer Twins at School & Storybird

Blog #6: Digital Storytelling

▶ Zimmer Twins at School
Website: http://zimmertwinsatschool.com/

This is the tool that you can create cartoons & comics by clicking. You can also make a movie and a conversation clip through this tool.
One of the good thing about this tool is I personally think, you can have a male and a female looks that the students can substitute the roles through these clips.



▶ Storybird
Website: http://storybird.com

This tool provides you to be able to make a professional-looking digital storybook by just choosing the template and typing the story in the page that you want to have. Even if you make a such a short story with this, it can be still very powerful for the visual learners.

▶ How could these tools be used by teachers AND students?

Teachers and students can cooperate on making the story together. Thus, it can help to build up students' creativity by using English. It can also support the reluctant student who does not want to do the speaking class due to having all the attention. This is because the reluctant student who does not want to speak in front of other students is able to have a good idea about the story with a free conversation class which provides much more natural atmosphere to have the opinion in public.

▶ How could they be incorporated into a class?

This can be incorporated at the very last of the lesson such as a group project that the students can use their knowledge from the lesson. Thus, the teacher can also evaluate the students' understading by checking their performance, not by giving them a assessment test paper.

Reviews of sites_Compleat Lexical Tutor & The Corpus of Contemporary American English & Wordle

Blog #5: Corpora, Concordance, Collocations, Word Frequency

- Check out the following sites and report back on how they could be used to inform materials development and classroom instruction:


▶ Compleat Lexical Tutor
Website: http://www.lextutor.ca/

This site provides a variety of different skills to analyze the language. It seems it can be very useful for someone who is studying English for having a good score based on tests such as TOEIC, TOEFL and TEPS. Also it is a very strong stie for having numerous vocabulary.

▶ Corpus of Contemporary American English

Website: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/

In my opinion, this site can be a best website for identifying the word which has many different meanings in a different sentence. One of the important characteristics in terms of learning English is to use the right word in a right position. It takes quite a long time to figure it out when the learner is just trying to memorize it. Because if the learner just tries to memorize the words but it has not been used before, it can cause a problem when it comes in real life. To avoid having this kind of problem, the learner or the teacher can use this website wisely.

▶ Wordle

Website: http://www.wordle.net/

 

We can use this site for presenting the keywords from the text easily. I mean as the keywords, it comes frequently in the text to say about the message.



ESLPod Review

Blog Post #4: Podcast Review

 ▶ Provide a link to the podcast on your blog

- ESLPod : http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

- ESL podcast English Café episode 393: http://www.eslpod.com/website/show_podcast.php?issue_id=13343708

▶ General information about the content and quality

- Host: Dr. Jeff McQuillan From LA, California (Directed by Dr. Lucy Tse)

- Website adress: eslpod.com (to download the learning guide for this episode)

- Topic: Famous American Movies
 ; in 1962 film called "The Manchurian Candidate" the thriller with actions and suspense.
 ; In terms of the cold war
 ; Based on the book in 1959 by Richard Condon

- Provide vocaburary definations, general background information about movie such as actors, actresses, singers, director.

 - Q&A
; differences: expression & idiom & term
; The expression question: What name do you go by?
; He heard en masse

- Quality of the podcast
It has a very specific details about the movie. Thus, after I listened to this I felt I learnt many things about the movie. It was also very fun to listen.


▶ What do you think about the podcast? Which type of learners could benefit from the podcast?  

In my opinion, listening to podcast is a good way to improve your listening skills and also to build your background knowledge in western culture perspectives. When you listen to the podcast it is not only about listening activities but also widening your knowledge through it. If the podcast is a right level for the student and comprehensible it is beneficial to the listeners who are ready to learn. That is, the learner is the one who tries to find the content. Thus, that learner is ready to learn something from it already. And if the learner can try to do note-taking while listen to it, it is even more effective to improve its listening skills.

Synchronous(Scribblar) and Asynchronous(Video Dropbox) CMC Tools

Blog Post #3: Synchronous and Asynchronous CMC Tools

▶ Brief descriptions of the tools and links to their websites

- Scribblar (Synchronous CMC Tool): http://www.scribblar.com/
It is a tool for chatting and sharing ideas on the internet and it is actually very easy to create the room for your needs. You can have some interesting tools such as drawing and having a vote.

 <<--- Try it now!


- Video Dropbox(Asynchronous CMC Tool): http://clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/ria/videoDropbox/
It is a tool for collecting videos from yourself and others as well. You can easily access and record the video clips with typing your name in the blank and  pressing "Begin" button. Then, you can enter, record and submit the video clips.

 <<--- Try it now!

▶ My thoughts about how the Synchronous CMC tool and the Asynchronous CMC tool could support learning and the development of language skills. 

Are there any similarities and differences in how they could support language learning? 

In my opinion, they are very good tools for outside of class to practice that they learn from class of the day. To have improvement in learning language, it is essential to be consistent and repeated. Thus, if students can keep using this sort of tools after school, I am sure that they will improve a lot comparing before.

※Scribblar and Video Dropbox

-Similarities: You can use these tools through the internet which means you need to be more independent. Also you need to be aware of these tools before you actually use it.

-Differences: You can see the result straight away with Scribblar, but you need to wait until you get the result with Video Dropbox. Also Video Dropbox can be more private. Thus, people might feel more comfortable than Scribblar.

▶ Ideas of possible activities and ways that the tools could be used in a language class to supplement in-class content and instruction. 

※ Using Scribblar

- Following the instruction to teacher: Listening practice

e.g. Teacher can give students to draw a house with very specific details. 

※ Using Video Dropbox

- Reading a newspaper aloud: Fixing pronunciation and improving listening skills

e.g. In my personal experience, listening to the news and repeating after that helps to improve pronunciation and listening skills as well.

Soeun's google website

https://sites.google.com/site/jojosenglish123/

In terms of presentation tool "Prezi"

Blog Post #2 - Presentation Tools & Screencasting Tools

< Prezi >



▶ Description of the presentation tool I used

- Website address: http://prezi.com/index/

I used Prezi for my presentation in terms of explaining phonetic alphabet "A and a".

Prezi is basically that you can create your own presentation with a variety of different skills. For example, there are many different types of templates that you can use and also you can choose the template for the visual metaphor. You can also have a total picture of your presentation and if you zoom it in you can present your details more closely. Besides, you can present and share your idea easily through your own URL address.

▶ Description of the the activity I created using Prezi

- My activity: https://sites.google.com/site/jojosenglish123/

I made a presentation for my 5 and 6 years old students who struggle to learn sounding and recognising alphabet letters. There are a capital letter "A" and  small letter "a". And the next page explains what the letter is related to in real life. For example, there are "ant", "apple" and "airplane". At the last of the page has an evaluation material such as matching game. Thus, I can let them match the words to have them participate more to understand the concept of the lesson.

▶ Description of my experience using Prezi. 

Q. Would you recommend it to other teachers?  Why or why not?

Yes, I would like to recommend Prezi to other teachers.

First of all, it was very easy to access and make the presentation. You can easily sign in the membership with your name and email address. After you have the membership if you click the "Learn" tab Prezi will explain what you need to do to create your new prezi file. 

Second of all, this is a very modern style of presenting the lesson for teachers and students. It looks very new to Korean people yet. Which means, it can grab students attention quite quickly and consistently. I do not mean that every new things effect like this. But when the content is strong and teacher can handle this tool comfortably, it will work with the lesson well. 

Thirdly, you can share your prezi files with other people. Sharing ideas is very important to develop things better. You can give your ideas to others but also you can get some new and good idea from others as well.

▶ Description of potential uses Prezi could have in the Korean EFL learning context.

As I mentioned earlier, I consider this tool is still a new thing in Korea. Thus, it will be worthy of notice to teachers, students and parents.

Now, I am going to refer to the parents side with culture of education in Korea. Realistically in Korea, if the teacher wants to teach the students well it is necessary to have parents role education for support at home. What I am trying to say is Prezi is easy to play at home because all you need to do is just click the URL address and play it. Then students will review well at home easily, also parents will be question-free in terms of what their children learn at school. Therefore, the education is going to be able to have teamwork.

Also, it is very beneficial to teachers who try to develop their own work. There is a possibility that Prezi is not going to work every time teacher presents, if the content is not very strong or the order of explanation is not effective, etc. From the mistakes and failure, teacher will learn many things and will try to get better for the next class.

Let me introduce my favorite teaching materials website!

Blog Post #1: Teacher Resource Sharing Site Review

What I'm going to introduce to you today is.... "abcteach" website.
And here is the link.--->>> http://www.abcteach.com/

First of all, if you can click this website you'll see a lot of free printable pages for teaching, assignment, clip art and games etc. One thing that I really like this website about is even if you don't have membership, still it's beneficial and convenient for teachers. If you, however, have membership it's also good for having seasonal contents in advance by email and have even more materials. Like this..

Now, let me begin by introducing the website in earnest.


※ General Description of the Website

I've known this website from my principal that I worked for before. This website is not only good for preparing assignment, but also theme activities for younger students who struggle to concentrate for a long period. Which means it has a variety of materials in many different ways.



※ Assessment of the Quality of the Content
I assorted the quality of the content into a few lists.

   1. Is it easy to navigate?
As you can see the website, it's all sorted assortatively. Each little tabs in the website show where things are. (e.g. DIRECTORY → core subjects, popualr categories / INTERACTIVE → Promethean flipchart)

   2. In what age is suitable for this website? 
I've used this website for my kindergarten and elementary school students. But I'm sure you can use this website for middle school students, too. If you can click "DIRECTORY" and you'll see "Middle School" in "Selected Materials". There are many good reading, writing, and even thinking skills materials.

  
   3. What kind of categories does this website provide for teachers?
 It has Art, Music, Common Core, Science, Social Studies, Handwriting, Sports / P.E., ESL/Languages, Reading, Language Arts, Technology, Math, Testing(Practice), Interactive, Audio and Video, Powerpoint, ABC Activities, Fun Activities, Holidays/Seasonal, Theme Units, Research/Reports, Teaching Extras, Think Green, Learning Centers, Clip Art and Flashcards materials etc.


   5. What is the most attractive point about this website?
The most attractive point about this website is theme activities and holidays & seasonal materials. The reason why I like that part is because I can show and explain well about western culture to my students. I think language is culture. If students can be exposed to this kind of materials consistently, I'm sure it helps my students understand English better.



※ Functionality of the Website
The most beneficial thing about this website is you can create your own activities and assignments for ABC Sort, Crossword, Word Wall, Word Shape, Unscramble, Bingo, Desktags, Math, Shapebooks & Borders, Spelling, Circle & Spell, Handwriting, Missing Letter, Sudoku, Word Search etc.

<e.g.>
Click "ABCTOOLS"

Select "Crossword"

Click whatever you need to do for the page
And.. Ta-da!

You will have your own crossword for your student and you can also print it and download it for later.

- Thank you for reading my post! I hope it helps you a lot!