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/