When I started to use Web 2.0 tools as part of the ICT in TEFL subject, the first thing that came to my mind was “Jesus how difficult it is!”. But the truth is that the two aspects that make the process so difficult, from my point of view, is the time devoted to accomplish one task. Perhaps is that we don’t know how to manage our own time or we have to sincere our schedule and give each duty a real good time to be completed, but finally we have to do it and do it well and time should be a manageable variable. Another reason that makes the use of these kinds of tools difficult to control or perform is the lack of knowledge we, common beings, have about ICT related topics. Here, is when the project in Movie Maker we had to do appears. The Movie Maker is a tool embedded in the windows’ software which allows you to do projects and make them as movies in different formats, WMA for example.
This tool, as many other ones, is very useful when we deal with classroom strategies, but the use of this source in my context is “far fetch” because my students are really out of the motivation bus, they do not want to do more than grammar and only grammar in classes. They do not see other type of teacher than the one who just come into class and make them write on the book, makes workshops and assign simple task, “not very difficult to complete please”. The same happens to the parents. They do not want to be called to the school, especially if this represents their children are doing badly. Sometimes I’ve been scolded because of the grades the teenagers are getting. But this post is not about my problems but the way I actually did the Movie Maker project and the YouTube uploading
The first thing we had to do was to make this project with our own ideas and resources. We had to use as many pictures as possible to produce a video that serves for a purpose, communicating something. At the beginning it was extremely difficult because I had to find the appropriate pictures for my project and the right music also. So we had to download copyright free music and select the pictures from our existing files or download from internet. Then we had to use these resources to create a movie for the already established purpose. To be sincere, I tried to make this the best I could (and I still don’t know if I did it right) and produced a video for the wiki which I’m supposed to use in the subject (…as another duty to cover). Afterwards, we had to join in YouTube and create an account and upload this product, the movie. The end result can be watched in this same post. I hope you enjoy it the same as I did it when it was finished.
The name of “Podcast” appeared in “The Guardian” newspaper in February 2004 when Aled Williams mentioned the word for the first time. The name comes from a mixture of two words, “Pod” (taken from the Apple Ipod) and broadcasting. It is a web syndication of a series of media files, normally mp3 sound or videos with RSS system that can be released periodically and downloaded automatically from a site. These files are available whenever the user requires the file to be heard or seen or both.
For Podcasting, listeners, speakers or viewers need to employ software that helps him/her to down or upload files which later on can be available for the user. Those files can be stored as media files in digital players and/or as web logs in the website used for the purpose of podcasting. This tool then, is not a single event, but a series of episodes (up/downloaded files) that can be compared to a TV series or a magazine publication, in which the user have access to the information (files) in desired time and/or place.
In TEFL, podcasting offers a wide range of possibilities for extra listening on both inside and outside the classroom. This provides students with authentic listening extracts and real life conversations where the students can trigger their ability to hear different voices and varieties of spoken English. Additionally, some sites can be used to make students record their own English speech and doing in a meaningful way. This experience can be very helpful because it can give the opportunity not only to explore the tools available for that alternative, but also a means to practice the pronunciation and speech patterns and make them more accurately with the way the ideas need to be said.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Podcast. [On line publication]. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast [resource consulted: 2011, July 22].
McCarty, S. and Jogakuin, O. (2005) Spoken Internet to Go: Popularization through Podcasting. The JALT CALL [On line journal]. 1, 2 Available: http://jaltcall.org/journal/articles/1_2_McCarty.pdf [resource consulted: 2011, July 22].
Stanley, G. (2006) Podcasting: Audio on the Internet comes of Age. Teaching English as a second or Foreign Language. [Online publication] 9, 4. Available: http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej36/int.html[resource consulted: 2011, July 22].
It comes from the Hawaiian expression “wiki wiki” which stands for fast. It is a web site carried out by continuous uploads of collaborative. Those persons can add, remove or edit every page inside the wiki. The term WIKI refers to the web site as well as the software used to create and maintain the site. It is quite easy to go inside the wiki and check pages and title since they all include different browsers that can be used by registered participants and the administrator, since changes are logged with the identification of the author. “The goal of wiki sites is to become a shared repository of knowledge, with the knowledge base growing over time” Godwing, 2003. In regards to this, content needs to have a serious degree since participants have to clear about collaborating standards, willingness to follow the group and permanence in commitment to participate.
ADVANTAGES TO USING A WIKI
It is good for writing down quick ideas or longer ones, giving you more time for formal writing and editing.
Gives instant feedback without emailing documents
It keeps the group in sync.
Accessible from anywhere with a web connection
Your archive, because every page revision is kept.
WIKIS IN EDUCATION
Wiki sites can be created for specific projects with a set group of allowable users and provide an excellent collaborative environment. Your project could use a wiki whether you have a small or big groups if there aren't too many of you involved, you don't need to work in public, you're able to do all or most of your work on the wiki (constant exposure is important), and your project is really big.
WHEN USING WIKIS IN TEFL
Students feel themselves as owners of their wiki page.
Students can share their findings with their peers
Wikis make Ss work collaboratively and share knowledge with each other.
Wikis improve students reading and writing skills.
WIKIS YOU CAN VISIT
REFERENCES
·Godwing-Jones, R. (2003) EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration Language Learning & Technology Virginia Commonwealth University [on line magazine] 7, 2. Available: http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/ [resource consulted: 2011, July 22]
·Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educación. Uso educativo de las TIC, manual de consulta (Weblogs y Wikis). Módulo IV Iniciación al Internet, Servicios Básicos y Estrategias Didácticas en la Web. Mayo 2008.
By 16th February 2011there was estimated that the amount of Blogs goes over 156 million, but where does the word come from? The word “BLOG” comes from the junction of two different words (web + log). The term "weblog" was originally used by the first time by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997 and the short form, "blog," was firstly included into the language by Peter Merholz (wikipedia.org).
Blogs are sites where someone, the “administrator”, “coordinator” or “moderator”, but better called “blogger” writes about different topics that he or she considers important for the purpose of the blog and his or her criterion. These writings are named “Posts” or “entries” and can be published within certain period of time (weekly, monthly, etc.). According to Wikipedia.org, those “entries” are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order” and deal with commentaries from followers or the blogger’s, descriptions of important events that help the followers to know about the blog and its content. When all the writing is combined together it a looks like a small website and can be comprised of news, graphics, articles, personal diary pages, pictures, audios, video, company information, product to be sold, their advertisement and the list is endless (Fioriello, P.) .
“Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. Some of them provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic” (wikipedia.org)
TYPES
Blogs can be divided into two major categories. One is the personal most common blog which is composed traditionally by daily, weekly or monthly posts by bloggers and/or commentaries from followers. Blogs then become more than a way to just communicate but a way to reflect on life, work, experiences, knowledge or works of art. One type of personal blog, “microblog”, provides the followers and readers with detailed events and captures different moments in time. Some others as Twitter, allow writers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family much faster than emailing or writing posts. Corporate and organizational blogs on the other hand, are conceived for business purposes, to enhance communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing,branding or public relations in a company or organization. Similar blogs for clubs and societies are called club blogs or group blogs. They aim to inform members and other interested parties about club or group’s facilities, upcoming events and member’s activities (montclair.edu, wikipedia.org).
There are other sub categories, the genre blogs and the media type blogs. The genre blog heads to particular subjects, such as politics, travelling, about the house and decoration, fashion, and the amount is even bigger than this. The media type blog are sites in which the follower interacts with the blog and can go beyond the actual site. We can go from sites that comprise videos (vlogs), the ones that comprise links (linklogs), the ones that contain portfolios of sketches (sketchblogs) or ones that comprise photos (photoblogs) (wikipedia.org).
BLOGS IN EDUCATION
The use of blogs in instructional settings is limited only by your imagination. We can go from content-related blogs, to networking and personal knowledge sharing. They provide instructional tips for students, course announcements and readings and links the student can use to increase knowledge. The options a student can take when using blogs in courses can include articrafts as reflective or writing journals, they can do also assignments submission and review handouts for the class, they can work on e-portfolios to compile different information about themselves and other students and sharing course-related helpful resources (montclair.edu).
When the first creators and developers of internet communication started to produce connections between different computers, the never came to realize how this new process, very common for people in today’s world, will enhance a deep impact on the way communication is seen today. Taking this into account we find then that the use of internet can be divided into various platforms and usages. We find in first place what is called Web1.0, secondly the platform Web2.0 and finally the latest stage which is Web3.0. This post will deal with the concepts on those three points the internet use is seen and used nowadays.
As said before, we find first the Web 1.0 platform. It was commonly used by the 1980’s and was intended to give access to internet consumers of the huge amount of information that the means can give. Called as static ones, the websites available has no connection between the internet consumers and the actual site. This fact produced that “the vast majority of users simply acted as consumers of content” Cormode and Krishnamurthy(2008) rather than interactive participants with the website. Since any participation was given to visitors, they can’t be a content creator either, so internet access was not very interactive in deed.
The fact that a great deal of “technological aids have been created to maximize the potential” of internet use and the role of “content creation” and information interchanging Cormode and Krishnamurthy (2008), make to arises the Web2.0 platform. It has been created to give internet usage a more “democratic nature”. It is a commonly used term to bring into everyday issues various novel phenomena on the World Wide Web.
There is a significant shift in Internet traffic as a result of a dramatic increase in the usage of Web 2.0 sites. This usage is going to produce later on Web 3.0, according to some people connected to the internet world.
The 3.0 platform will be an improvement in the respect that it will still contain Web 2.0 properties while continuing to add to its ever expanding lexicon and library of applications. There are some who claim that Web 3.0 will be more application based and center its efforts towards more graphically capable environments. Web 3.0 then will primarily focus on dramatically improving the functionality and usability of search engines. An important factor that users must continue to keep in mind is that the transition to Web 2.0 from "Web 1.0" took approximately ten years. Given the same time frame, this next transition will not be complete until around the year 2015 (en.wikipedia.org).
References:
Cormode, G. and Krishnamurthy, B. (2008) Key Differences between Web1.0 and Web2.0 [on line document] February 13th Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/pdf. [Resource consulted 2011 May 29th]
“It includes the growth of social networks, bi-directional communication, various ‘glue’ technologies, and significant diversity in content types and also a platform on which innovative technologies have been built and a space where users are treated as first class objects with a variety of popular social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, etc where participants are as important as the content they upload and share with others” Cormode and Krishnamurthy(2008) p.3
In order to define what my context is, I rather take into consideration some aspects which I strongly consider determining for ICT’s to be held in my environment. One first aspect deals with the way my students see English and its learning. Most of the students I have do not agree on having a full English class or to speak the language, so it’s been really hard to promote communication in classes. It might be due to the lots of teachers who are still using only grammar as the main methodological framework in classes. Of course, if I make an attempt to speak English they just reject the idea, most of them. Mainly the students I have go deep in the use of computers or any other technological tool by getting into Facebook, upload pictures or play any of the games this site sponsors. They are really smart in using this tool; actually I consider they are kind of fanatical due to Facebook that they do not see any further from it. The fact that today do exist lots of tools in term of ICT’s and English teaching methodology based on communication, we still in the Valles del Tuy are one, two or even three steps behind in regards to these aspects. Now the following questions arise in order to explain even more my context:
1.Do you use ICT’s with your students? How often?
Well, I would say that despite my students’ alienation to the use of technology, internet and web2.0 tools, I have made successful attempts in the use of those tools for my classes and the English subject as well. At the beginning of the school year, I always make them know that they I’ve created common-visiting e-mails accounts where they can download planning, resources, read comments and get their own grade, because I upload the grades they get and an excel sheet in which they write the grades they obtain during the process and know for sure what they have in the term. These accounts also served for the research projects students from 5th year do since I upload useful documents and resources they can use in the development of their papers.
2.What do you do in the teaching area?
If we go to EFL teaching in Valles del Tuy, as said before, we have lots of disadvantages since very few teachers are on the communicative approach or ICT’s use track. This problem has made an impact on how the students perceive the subject in highschool and its importance for the academic performance. When I talk about all available tools offered for the course, there are students who say they do not understand how to use that resource but I know they do and “force” them to do use it by giving task to complete in classes e-mailed from my personal account. I also ask them to send assignments, self, peer and teacher assessments to the account created, so as to make them understand the importance of the use of the internet. Perhaps the use of such a tool for the subject and research project might be considered as a “Web1.0 use” and I also consider so since there is no interaction between the students or the teacher, so consequently I have decided lately to upgrade the use of internet and give it the touch of a web2.0 use (which is more accurate with days we are living in terms ICT’s use).
Because almost all my students have Facebook accounts, I have used it for educational and assessment purpose. Recently I uploaded different famous people, create a folder “Describing People” and ask them to message me though the Facebook (because I knew not everybody have me added as a friend) in order to assign one of these people so as to make them describe one of the famous person in that folder, depending on the person assigned. The end result was that everybody who did the attempt was really amazed on the way something as simple and popular as Facebook can serve for the English class.
3.How would you describe your local context?
As has been stated before, dealing with the use of ICT’s has been very difficult, but in the meantime we (my students and I) have succeeded in the process of implementing such tools for the English classes.
3.1.The Teacher:
When I finished undergraduate studies, I had learnt very few aspects of the use of technology for English classes. I always have done things by rehearsal and mistaking because we did not have enough information about the topic. But more recently I have learnt some things about it and today I feel more comfortable in the use of ICT’s, not only using internet, but also other resources available at the two highschools I’m working in. Using the laptop, video beam, or even the overhead projector now is easier for me now. I also use the internet as far as the processes allow me to do it. It is important to quote that we do not have very much time to get into the web, prepare something for the classes or evaluate students’ performance, so the used of ICT’s is sometimes limited by the variable time.
3.2.Infrastructure
Fortunately, the two schools I’m working to have the computer labs and the teachers who work with it. But the impact on the use of those facilities is always low since both, the teachers and students cannot make a connection between English or any other subject and technology, especially when the students get to 4th and 5th years (where informatics is out of the context). I always use the Private School I work in to experiment with technology since the students’ population is at a higher economical level and almost everybody has a computer at home and internet connection. U.E.P. Agustin Aveledo has also video beam, DVD players, CD-MP3 players and more traditionally the overhead projectors.
But on the other hand, the public school has no tool available apart from a DVD player which is out of order and one overhead projector which is not longer functioning since there is a light bulb needed for it and it is very expensive. Eventhough there is a group of students who have computers at home and few of them has internet connection, a huge percentage of them don’t, so the use of ICT’s can be very frustrating for them due to, in first place, the low economical status the majority of them have. But despite having those disadvantages, I always try to make them use internet at least as a web1.0 approach.
3.3.School Facilities for English Classes
I already mentioned about the role of English in this area. To be sincere, I consider the students, a great deal of coordinators and directors, other subjects’ teachers and especially the parents see English as the least worthy subject from all. None of the highschools I have visited or worked at has English labs, well-prepared teachers, really good books to work with or committed students to the English learning. This has made and terrible impact on the highschool graduated students proficiency, the levels of English we manage at schools and even more terrible, the English teachers’ performance in terms of methodology and strategies which tends to decrease as time elapses.
3.4.Students and Teachers Knowledge of ICT’s
Of course, since lots of teachers do not manage to understand or to apply new methodologies and strategies to teach English as a Foreign Language, even less they will use the technology for their English classes. Sometimes, the students know more about things as Facebook or Tweeter than the teachers themselves. The problem is mainly because of the rejection to enhance changes in their performance and the fear many of them have to get into the use of ICT’s for the classes.
4.Make a list of competences a XXI Century EFL teacher should have
In my opinion, I strongly consider a good updated EFL teacher should have at least two competences to place him or herself in the XXI Century. The first one deals with adaptation to what is current in the field of EFLT. Most of the teachers in the area where I live are concerned on grammar and its use, but not on the performance a students should have to produce the language at any level. Other aspect in regards to this, points to the fact that there have been no updating workshops or courses the teacher can attend to in order to change their perspectives on the teaching-learning processes. And finally, every teacher should know about ICT’s since it is the latest way to upgrade the classes’ development, assessment, and student engagement on the process. There is no good end result if we continue using only the board, chalk or marker for the classes and a book which is far away from our reality. It has been proved that the more we use technology in our classes, the more students feel empathy about them and the impact they can have in their lives.
In order to know something in regards to the use of ICT's in Education watch this video
