helianlingzi

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 one mp3. I use it to listening English dialogue, music, film sound recording. The first semester at UTSA, I was afraid that I may miss important comments by the teachers or classmates, so I used the mp3 to record others’ lectures under permission. After the class, listening the records helped me to review the content and improve my listening at the same time. I also use mp3 record my speech to check my pronunciation and tone of reading.

I like to give assignment to my students to create their own audio or video materials. Because the download materials may make students listen passively, it is more motivating and interesting to produce own files. To make better records, students may compare own speaking with native speaker’s pronunciation. I think the skills of listening and speaking are mutually influence and promote. It is necessary to give students more chances to speak bravely.
And I really recommend students listen to the Voice of America’s Special English Podcasts. This podcast involves multiple topics in which students can choose what they are interested in. And because the VOA is news broadcast, its concise and logical language is a good model for students.

Comment one or two issues raised by Levy and Stockwell CALL educators must think about when it comes to the design of CALL products.
“CALL” means Computer-Assisted Language Learning. When we choose CALL, we should consider how it assists teacher to teach and what is its advantage and disadvantage. Therefore, methodological frameworks and design integration is very important for CALL designer. Call materials must embody its superiority compare with teaching by teachers. The common ground of CALL and teaching by teachers is that the tasks, course and syllabus design, language-learning areas and skills learners’ orientation must be considered ahead of time. However, CALL designers should think about the integration of the pedagogy and the technology. Good CALL materials must make learning more interesting and effective, and the learners haven’t so many difficulties to grasp the CALL materials. It is also expected that CALL can give timely, detailed, and correct feedback.
Then, comment on what types of RSS feeds you might be interested in using with students or following yourself.
I am really interested with the feeds for news searches. I don’t need search the news I need by myself. When I open RSS reader, it can provide me the information I wonder. For example, I want to know the newest reform in America. It can tell me which event happens in a school or a district, which articles discusses it, or who propose new idea about it. In conclusion, RSS reader save my time and give me a large number of information.

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?
The challenge was that the students didn’t actively take part in the blog posting and discussing. One reason is about technology problems. Some reported have problems with passwords or not receiving her invitation email; some have problems when becoming members and posting messages. The other reason is that some of them lack of time to visit the blog at home. They looked forward to receiving messages and commenting orally on what had been posted, but would not write replies at home or join in the blog as members. The ones to leave comments were mostly teachers, not language students.
Through exploring and practicing, Soares learned that it is necessary to tutor student on basic operations. The students need hand-on experience in their computer laboratory. In addition, the teacher need the knowledge and experience to choose the right platform for needs of both the teacher and the students because the students’ level of expertise, interest in technology and understanding of what an educational blog is may vary greatly. Therefore, the teacher should be ready to account for that diversity and accept the fact that blogging is a new reality in practically all classrooms worldwide. Besides these, Soares realized that there was no strict relationship between the amount of posting done and the value her students gave to the blog.
Soares thinks it is useful and helpful for teachers and students if the teacher understands the situation of students and uses the target language in meaningful learning activities
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 would like to use mobile learning because it is continent to take and easy to learn. I may send message about information or assignment and receive comments via mobile phone. In class, we can use mobile phone to look for articles and view video files. When we go outside, they can use mobile take photos, record dialogue with others, and send question to me. One consideration is small screen and inconvenient keypads, which is mentioned in the book. Meanwhile, the most important thing is that I must think whether every student has mobile phone, and the mobile phones that they have have the functions I may use in class.