As I continue my exploration of educational technologies, this week I will look at using iPads and the SpeakingPal English Tutor app with adult ESL learners.

The iPad is a type of mobile learning technology that has many useful features for ESL learners.  It offers students mobility, connectivity, flexibility, a larger screen size as compared to cell phones, and access to use it anytime and anywhere.  The ability to boot-up quickly, extended battery life, and a touchscreen that is app-based also make it a more useful learning tool than cell phones.  Students can also record themselves speaking on iPads and share these recordings with educators who can monitor their fluency progress.  Dictionaries, translator, and supplementary language-based options can also be integrated into this device that is small enough to be realistically carried around by students.  Moreover, textbooks, videos, apps, Microsoft Word, and movies can be accessed on iPads through the Internet and offer ESL learners more opportunities for practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking English.  The iPad can support ESL students in all aspects of their English learning, both inside and outside of the classroom, 24/7 (Demski, 2011).  Collaboration is also essential to ESL students’ successful acquisition of the English language.  The iPad presents opportunities for ESL students to experience this type of interaction with other learners.  “Students may feel comfortable speaking and writing for..[their instructor, but] it is how well they can communicate with other peers and leaders that signifies their success or failure” (Brooks, n.d.)  I might incorporate iPads into my professional ESL practice by using them to enable a vocabulary competition.  Students are divided into teams and each team is given an iPad.  Team leaders are assigned and asked to access the “Notes” app and list all adjectives they can come up with relating to the topic of the day and in a certain amount of time.  I might also ask students to practice creating email messages to each other in English and then have them critique these emails in small groups (Brooks, n.d.).  Another activity would be to have students record themselves reading a short story out loud at home using a voice memo app.  Then, the following day, I would sync their iPads to my iTunes library to check their progress and level of English fluency (Demski, 2011).

SpeakingPal English Tutor is a free app that can be downloaded on Android or iPhone.  It is highly-interactive and also entertaining.  It is comprised of mini-lessons that are five minutes or shorter in length.  An example of one session on this app is a job interview scenario.  The interviewer asks the applicant (the student) questions that she sees and hears spoken on video and also printed in text format on the screen.  The answer to the question appears next, and the student reads it back to the interviewer.  The conversation continues in this format until the end of the exercise.  Feedback is then instantly provided to the student and opportunities are given to practice the sentences over and over again until the English in the responses is spoken correctly.  This app allows ESL students to practice reading and speaking English whenever and wherever they have idle time.  It also gives learners feedback that is instant on their spoken responses.  It turns mobile phones or iPad type devices into English teachers that can be with students constantly, interacting with them in fun and easy ways.  I might incorporate this app into my professional ESL practice by asking students to use it outside of the classroom.  Then, I would require that they keep a log of the number of times they access the app during the week and the new English words that they have discovered.  Another way I might use this mobile learning technology is to assign students to view one learning experience on SpeakingPal as homework.   Then, during the next class session, I would ask students to write a similar, short, interactive scenario in small groups and then read them to the class.  This would offer learners practice in critical thinking, writing, speaking, and reading in English (The 9 Best Mobile Apps for Your ESL Students, n.d.; Products | SpeakingPal, n.d.).

References

Brooks, C. (n.d.). How to Use an iPad in ESL. ESL Teachers Board, English as a second language, ESL job overseas, ESL teachers, free ESL materials, free list of international ESL schools. Learn English free. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/tech/index.pl?read=46   

Demski, J. (2011, May). ELL to go. The Journal, 38(5), p. 28-32.

Products | Speakingpal. (n.d.). Home | SpeakingPal. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from http://www.speakingpal.com/products

 The 9 Best Mobile Apps for Your ESL Students. (n.d.). BusyTeacher: Free Printable Worksheets For Busy Teachers Like YOU!. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from http://busyteacher.org/12155-9-best-mobile-apps-for-esl-students.html

 

 

As I continue my exploration of educational technologies, this week I will look at social networking technologies, specifically Ning and Twitter.

The web has changed the way many people communicate and interact, and many educators and researchers “also believe that the web has vast potential to shape the way people learn” (Barbour & Plough, 2009; Drexler, Baralt, & Dawson, 2008; as cited in Hung & Yuen, 2010, p. 703).  Lave and Wenger (1991; as cited in Hung & Yuen, 2010) contended that learning materializes as people engage in social communication.  Social networking should be viewed as “the practice of expanding knowledge by making connections with individuals of similar interests” (Gunawardena et al., 2009; as cited in Hung & Yuen, 2010, p. 705).  In addition, social networking promotes classroom community which is an effective and essential aspect of learning in traditional, online, and blended learning settings.  Through social networking, adult learners can experience learning not only in the classroom but outside of it as well (Hung & Yuen, 2010).

Ning (http://ning.com/) began in 2005 and is a social networking site that is web-based.  It is a place where people can create their own social networks around their passions, interests, and pursuits.  Networks can be private or public, and Ning’s features include media sharing, collaboration, communication, text searching, and content delivery.   Ning is unique because the network originator can customize the functionality, design, membership and accessibility of the site to fit her intended purpose. “The course-learning environment created with Ning allowed the students to access the course materials and exchange opinions anytime and anywhere” (Hung & Yuen, 2010, p. 707).  Using Ning, students can collaborate together around interest areas.  With Ning, they will realize social connections and learning that is engaging, self-directed, and significant when ideas of like focus are exchanged, experiences are shared, reflection is encouraged, and support is given (Richardson, 2010). 

 I might incorporate Ning into an ESOL educational setting by posting a YouTube video that presents an English literacy concept on my private class site.  Students would be assigned to view the video and then engage in a discussion on the Ning site.  When students arrive at the next class session, they will already be familiar with the content to be discussed and ready to step their learning up a notch.  I might also use the Ning site for a role playing assignment.  I would assign students different roles based on a course reading resource and ask them to interact with each other on the Ning site in character (Brumley, 2012).

Twitter (http://twitter.com/) is a microblogging social networking tool.  It allows people to send out text communications, images, updates, and website URLs  in messages called tweets that can be only 140 characters in length.  Users choose who they will follow on Twitter and create “a personal virtual network based on interest and intent” (Newgarden, 2009, p.2).  Twitter is a valuable learning tool for ESOL learners because it allows them to connect with a live English language community as well as write and construct information in English (p. 4-5).  Through Twitter, both educators and adult learners have a network available to them where they can “ask questions and get answers, link to great blog posts or resources, or share ideas for projects as they go through the day” (Richardson, 2010, p. 86). 

I might use Twitter in an ESOL setting to build classroom community among the learners, having them get to know each other better by tweeting about their outside activities during the first few weeks of a course.  “Building a classroom community is important since students may participate more actively if they feel comfortable with others and if there is a sense of common purpose” (Newgarden, 2009, p. 5).  Another way that I might use Twitter with ESOL learners is to assign students to choose a famous person to follow for two weeks.  Then, I would ask students report their discoveries and conclusions about that person (based on the tweets they read) to each other in small groups in class.        

 References

Brumley, M. (2012, Feb. 27). 7 tips for using social media in your classroom. NBC News Education Nation. Retrieved from http://www.educationnation.com/

Hung, H. & Yuen, S. C. (2010, Dec.). Educational use of social networking technology in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 15(6), p. 703-714. doi: 10.1080/13562517.2010.507307.

Newgarden, K. (2009, Sept.). Twitter. The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 13(2), p. 1-13.

 Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms

(3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

 

This blog will explore and review different emerging, educational technologies that will enhance learning for ESOL adult learners.  This exercise also begins my indoctrination to blogging.  If I am going to use blogging with my future ESOL learners, I realize that I must first make sure that I know how to do it well.  So, the blogging journey begins. 

This week, I will look at podcasting and Visuwords Online Graphical Dictionary.

According to Richardson (2010), “podcasting is the creation and distribution of amateur radio, plain and simple” (p. 112).  Commonplace, ordinary people create podcasts, “talking about things that interest them—with a bit of music mixed in” (p. 112).  Then, the podcasts are uploaded to the Internet so that other people can listen to them on their MP3 players, mobile phones, or computers (Ashraf, Noroozi, & Salami, 2011).  Audio resources such as podcasts are significant resources for supporting, stimulating, and encouraging the listening competences of English learners.  “Listening has been called the most important language skill since people spend 40-50% of their communication time on listening (Mendelsohn, 1994; as cited in Ashraf, Noroozi, & Salami, 2011, p. 10).  It is crucial for English learners to develop their ability to listen.  Thanks to podcasts, listening resources are now much more available.  The use of podcasts produces significant learning because it promotes learner independence, allows students to prepare for class by immersing themselves in language experienced through podcasts (this also permits more opportunities for in-class discussion), and decreases stress because it is a form of distance learning (Stoten, 2007; Vess, 2006; Lee & Chen, 2007; as cited in Ashraf, Noroozi, & Salami, 2011).  Podcasts are useful tools to use for ESOL listening activities because they help develop listening, improve vocabulary, are convenient to use more frequently, have mobile capabilities, and promote interaction with technology currently being used by students.

I learned this week that there is an almost limitless supply of podcasts on iTunes.  I found an excellent sample under “Education” at iTunes called “WSE (Why Study English) Podcast:  ENGLISH.”  This was created by Brian (no last name), an ESL teacher in China.  Approximately once a week he produces a podcast where he scrutinizes and examines a small portion of English and explains how it can be used in questions, narratives, and interviews.  Each podcast is six to twenty-two minutes in length and includes snippets of contemporary musical interludes throughout (Apple—iTunes, n.d.).  Students with iTunes accessibility could use podcasts such as this one to practice listening skills on their own outside of the classroom setting and to further their understanding of the English language.  I would also assign students to listen to other free podcasts such as those found on The Bob and Rob Show at http://www.thebobandrobshow.com/ as homework.  Then, during the next class session, I would break them into small groups and use a group learning strategy like Jigsaw where teammates teach the others members of their group what they learned about English from the podcast they reviewed the night before.

Visuwords at http://www.visuwords.com/ is a free online graphical dictionary where words can be explored in a colorful, graphic way.  When a word is placed in the search query on the page, “a network of nodes or ‘synsets’ will spring out form the word…A synset is essentially a single concept that is represented by a number or terms or synonyms” (Visuwords, n.d.).  This site would improve the ESOL learner’s exploration of English words and their meanings.  I would assign students to create a journal of new English words they encounter and would review with them how to use the Visuwords website.  This interactive, technological tool would help students to be independent from the educator in understanding the meanings and usage of words and also encourage continued learning once the course is completed through the use of the free website on their own.  In my opinion, the various components of Visuwords are visually exciting and greatly surpass the contents of any dictionary, and students will be more engaged because they can have fun with it while learning about English words.  I would also ask students to use Visuwords with writing English to work on spelling skills.        

References

Apple – iTunes – Everything you need to be entertained. (n.d.). Apple. Retrieved March 14,

            2013, from http://www.apple.com/itunes/

 Ashraf, H., Noroozi, S., & Salami, M. (2011). E-listening: The promotion of EFL listening skill

 via educational podcasts. Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Learning,

 p. 10-16.

 Diem, R., & Roberto, R. (2012). The Bob & Rob Show. Retrieved March 12, 2013, from

            http://www.thebobandrobshow.com/website/indes.php

 Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms

            (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

 Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary and thesaurus. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2013, from

            http://www.visuwords.com/