Monthly Archives: October 2015

Instagram: Likin’ Pics, Crossing Cultures

Teachers probably don’t think very highly of Instagram in general. You hear about students going viral for all the wrong reasons. One glimpse of someone’s personal life can be taken completely out of context and become fodder for gossip and social drama. We already know that today’s learners are technologically savvy and spend a good amount of their free time in front of screens navigating various social spheres. But what if we challenged them to peer outside of their chosen surroundings? What if we could implement Instagram as a tool for promoting intercultural learning in the classroom? Continue reading Instagram: Likin’ Pics, Crossing Cultures

Using Facebook to enhance Foreign Language (Chinese) teaching and learning

Along with the gaining popularity of Facebook among adolescents, the research on its influences on this specific age group also blooms. Although some research emphasizes that Facebook benefits adolescents by fostering their communication skills, and offering them opportunities to make new friends, to express their ideas, and also to build their evolving self-identity Continue reading Using Facebook to enhance Foreign Language (Chinese) teaching and learning

Blogging Builds Brighter Futures

As a future English teacher and writer myself, I am interested in adolescent participation in blogging, particularly because I, myself, have actively participated in many modes of blogging to further enhance and expand the quality and scope of my writing. The reality is this: adolescents are extremely tech savvy, and have access to infinite amounts of blogging websites such as Tumblr, WordPress, Weebly, etc. (think of how many One Direction fan fictions you’ve read on Tumblr that have been written by 13 year-old girls). With increasing access to technology, adolescents have grown prone to communicating digitally, finding comfort and confidence in socially and emotionally expressing themselves in a digitally written realm. Continue reading Blogging Builds Brighter Futures

Television at Home and in the Class Room

 

Television has become a part of our everyday lives. Chances are in most households, low income or high income, there is some sort of television present in the living room. Popular culture has attracted the masses to sit in front of television screens for hours on end on a daily basis.  Adolescents join adults in front of television screens from an early age. Some questions as an educator that I would like to ask are: what educational television programs are available to adolescents? and how much television viewed by adolescents is educational?

Research has shown that by the time a teenager has finished high school they will have spent more hours in front of a television screen than in class. The amount of educational television viewed is different for each individual. There are many different educational programs available for youth of all ages. PBS Kids offers educational television shows for children from the ages of 2-8, such as: Curious George, and Sesame Street. Sesame Street has been known for teaching children the alphabet, concepts of friendship and community, as well basic language skills. Shows on Nick Jr. such as “Ni Hao Kai Lan” and “Dora The Explorer,” expose children to different cultures and language. In a house hold where learning a new language is valued, children may be able to learn words or phrases of the Chinese and Spanish language by watching “Ni Hao Kai Lan” and “Dora The Explorer.” Among other channels and networks, the History Channel, Food Network, Animal Planet, most news channels, and the National Geographic Channel all offer opportunities to learn about the history of our planet, and what it has to offer.

As an educator in a world where technology and society changes as fast as the speed of light, it is my duty to adapt in the classroom to keep my students engaged and on their toes. Involving television as text could be, and should be, on my agenda. Every student carries their own interests. As an educator I have to find new and interesting methods of pedagogy that will help open the minds of my students in a classroom environment that allows all students to explore their interests. It is easy to find a place for educational television within a lesson plan. For example: students may be asked to critically analyze a debate between republicans and democrats and bring to class their own ideas and arguments developed through watching the debate. Students can then conduct their own debate in class. An experience like this can help students with their organization of data, and public speaking skills. The experience can also get students to become more aware about the nation they live in; which should be one of the many goals for educators across the nation.

The amount of media readily available to the youth makes it very difficult to monitor or control what they watch and learn. With guidance and communication between educators, parents, and students; adolescents may be able to flip through their television channels and find an educational network. Whether or not they will stay on that channel and learn something valuable is another question. Students must want to learn in order to learn. If students come from an environment where reality shows, and the “Jersey Shore,” are valued more than educational television; then as an educator it is my job to try and break that mold and encourage the exploration of educational television networks by incorporating them within my lesson plans.

Important Links:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X00001282

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/books/review/its-complicated-by-danah-boyd.html?_r=0

Use video games to help with study- Media & Tech Critique

One of my favorite quote about learning is from Grant Wiggins, “What a curriculum should do is make you more effective as a teacher. It should not be the mere course that the teacher runs; it should be the most likely path for causing learning”. I don’t deny that teaching knowledge is important, but teaching the way of learning is more crucial. So, if video games could be used as a tool to promote critical thinking, improve logical analytical ability, they might not be as “horrible” as some teachers thought. Some teachers and parents see video games as threat because it seems that they could “successfully” drag students’ attention away from study. Continuous studies and news about video game addiction panics teachers and parents, so they seldom think the potential educational use of video games.

My perspectives on using computer games to promote learning is very positive because I have successful experience in my previous English language classes. When teaching adolescents, I tried to use an English learning software, called Disney English, which produced by Disney Inc. This software clip out conversations and classic scenes from Disney cartoon, such as Cinderella, Lion King, for students to study and do exercise. This software was delicately made with careful scaffolding difficulty, so it became so attractive to my students that they motivate themselves to study English and even learn new chapters ahead of time. One of the parents texted me saying that his kid has spent as long as 6 hours on that software because it was so interesting. Ever since then, I kept thinking: if we could make students “addict” to study, just like computer game addiction, it would be the most profound success in education area. Therefore, educators should not deny that good video games really exist, and they are effective to promote learning activities.

While embracing the benefits brought by using computer games in classroom, I still have some concerns over it. First of all, adolescents might gradually find study-based video games could not bring as much excitement as entertainment-based games, thereby losing interests to use video games for study. Comparing to some popular online battle games, like League of the Legends, World of Warcraft, Disney English is too “naive” and “childish”. Adolescents probably will tease these “babyish” software, considering their temperamental and sensitive characteristics, and gradually lose interest.

In terms of using teaching tools, my perspective is, no matter how fantastic the software is, there is no way it could replace in-class teaching. The main study procedure must be conducted in classroom, and video games could only be a supportive teaching tool. Thus, it must be correspond with curriculum and teachers’ lesson plan, which is the main reason for my second concern of video games: the design of computer games are quite independent, they are not incorporate with any curriculum. They leave little room for teachers to differentiate and adjust according to proficiency level of students, which makes them difficult to be used in school system. That’s why, it’s difficult to promote using video games in teaching activities; also, it restrains the flexibility and the time of class preparation for teachers.

I personally think video games have a great potential to become an extremely helpful tool as a teaching assist, but this area of study has not been fully developed yet. It requires a lot of great minds in education, as well as financial investment, to fully explore. With the widespread of portable devices, such as tablets and smartphones, game-based study applications are very likely to become popular among learners.