Mod. 4- Post #2 - Ning

I’ve joined EFL classroom 2.0 because I found this group beneficial to second language teachers. This group so far has 17000 + members and most of them are teachers from all over the world. In this social networking group, they share their teaching experiences, teaching techniques, favorite English learning websites, reading or useful teaching materials, etc. Moreover, EFL classroom 2.0 is diverse. It has organized categories such as videos, forums, classrooms, blog posts, photos, events, message board. You can name it. I am really looking forward to having more interaction with the group members and hope I will be enlightened by the community so as to enhance my teaching in the future.

CONNECTIVISM AND COLLABORATION

Through reading Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age , it did enlighten me to some extent. In this article, the author mentioned that: " Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.” Indeed, nowadays the 21^st century learners are different from that of learners in the past two decades. Every day, after we wake up, the first thing we do is not reading newspapers to acquire information but turning on the computer subconsciously and mechanically. Why? To receive updated news from your friends and news around the world. To give an analogy of that, a learner today is like a spider. In order to prey, it needs to spin its web. The way of spinning cobwebs is like nurturing and maintaining connections so as to facilitate continual learning. Without making webs, a spider cannot catch preys and finally it may die of hunger. It is the same as human beings. If we do not connect ourselves to the world, we will soon fall behind and lose competitiveness.

As for Siemens video,The impact of Social Software on Learning, he said that through social means, we are able to share and connect with each other. Take Facebook as an example which has been widely used all over the world. With it, it allows individuals to form connections with each other. It gives people an ability to talk, to have conversation, to comment and to share ideas and lives. In addition, other social software such as Blogs, Wiki and Podcasts all play a role in connecting people together in terms of learning from each other and socializing each other. Doubtless, for the people in the 21^st century, to nurture and maintain connections is surly needed to facilitate continual learning.

Video Reaction

After watching a video, A Vision of K-12 Students Today , it made me wonder how time flew and how much our life has been changed because of digital technologies comparing to 10 years ago! In the video, first, the K-12 students showed how many hours each day they were engaged in digital technologies/computers as 21st century digital learners in order to let us know that their life is always surrounded by IT. Second, they told people how low percent their teachers were using blogs, wikis and podcasts or they never used digital technologies in class. They wondered if teachers would teach them to think to create to analyze and to apply them in their daily life for life goes on and it is advanced with IT. One child even showed her notebook to the audiences implying what she could learn from teachers by taking notes in class because technology has been changing the way we live our life; however, teachers are still teaching students in a traditional way. Moreover, this video also showed us how competitive China is which made the kids afraid of falling behind as members of the global village.

 In my view, digital technologies did change our way of living, thinking and learning. However, they cannot replace the essential ways of learning and acquiring knowledge. We are still able to write, to create, to come up with ideas simply by using our brains without the help of technology. As a teacher, it is very crucial for us let them know that digital technologies may help our learning more interesting and collaborative, but some essential knowledge and skills we definitely need to learn from books, and life practice.  Last but not least, don’t let technology rule your world, but you rock your world with the help of it!

Safety Tips of Blogging!

Blogging has its own advantages and disadvantages. Speaking of disadvantages of Blogging, as a teacher, we should teach students the safety of blogging. The followings are some tips for students to learn how to blog safely.


1. Students should not disclose their personal information such as phone number, address, SNS number, PIN number or even your private life.

2. Students should not give nasty comments to others. Blog in peace with others!

3. Teachers and parents should keep an eye on students’/children’s blogging activities to make sure they are using blogs positively. For instance, be concerned about what is going on in their blogs to see if they are doing good or having problems in terms of academic studies or peer pressure.

4. Students should not easily trust any information from unknown websites because some of them may be scammers.

5. Teachers should regularly check students’ posting or comments, making sure they stay educational and are school-appropriate

6. Teachers should let students know the difference between appropriate posting and inappropriate posting. They should know what they post may influence others to some extent. Therefore, they should be aware of what the post and be cautious about what they write on their blogs.

How could I use blogs in my class?

     Reflecting on my previous seven-year teaching experiences at cram schools in Taiwan, I found that I myself barely used Internet as a medium to interact with my students except asking them to email me their writing assignments for grading. However, after reading chapter 1, 2 and 3 of Will Richardson, I am now much clear about how to apply blogs to my future teaching. In order to use blogging as one of my teaching methods, the followings are my ideas for using blogs in my future class.

     *In my blog, I will share and update many useful links for learning English on-line in terms of academic or entertaining websites. In this way, students can enjoy various English on-line materials in their spare time so as to motivate their learning.

 *In my blog, I will regularly post journals sharing reflections, sharing English teaching/learning experience, sharing current life, or sharing movie reviews. I would like to be a teacher not just teaching them in class but to be the one who can share many things in life with them. Hopefully, by doing so, there would be more interaction between my future students and me.

 *In my blog, I would like to recommend my students to read (watch) inspiring, thought-provoking, positive, entertaining, interesting or touching English books/ movies. I hope by recommending them those can not only motivate them to be active in learning but also bring good influence on them in terms of cognitive development.

 *In my blog, since I will keep teaching exam-oriented class. In other words, most of the time, the class is still a teacher-centered one though I want to modify it as 70 percent teacher-centered and 30 percent student-centered. Therefore, setting up a blog for them can provide students with a voice to talk or discuss English questions with me as opposed to traditional classroom settings where some students might be too shy to express themselves.

 *Last but not least, in my blog, I hope that students’ parents can join the on-line community I set up by giving me any comment, advice, critique. In addition, I would like to make my blog a communication center for them. Through my blog, they can talk to me freely about their kids’ English learning at home or at school or even they can ask me any question because I will be willing to answer for solving English problems.

      Finally, those ideas will be my major tenets for how to use blogging as one of the teaching methods. But, I may add or drop some ideas according to  my current teaching orientation then. I truly hope that I can successfully apply blogging to teaching in my future class soon!