Reflection - working on technologies

This post is not to be counted for the ICT module assignment. This is just a brief INFORMAL reflection about the work that I have done so far for this module.

I really enjoyed exploring new technologies throughout this module. Thanks to great lecturers and nice course mates, I could manage to use some tools that I wouldn't have been able to on my own. As I'm not a 'tech person', even though I am aware of the usefulness of technologies, I wouldn't have thought of discovering them by myself.

One thing I regret a bit is that I couldn't make much use of vocal tools such as vocaroo, voicethread, etc... Partially because I'm not a native speaker of English and I'm not confident in my English, although I really appreciate materials for listening and simply enjoy listening to English.

This is not the end of the journey. We, as language teachers, will need to work with technologies in any way in the future. I will try not to avoid online tools and will try to make language learning more interesting, interactive, and meaningful.

* One of my favourite places in the University of Warwick.

Padlet

Padlet is a useful online tool. It's free and those who have an account can work collaboratively.

You can also leave comments, add photos, videos or a new post on the wall and have interaction with people.

As this is a written form of technology, learners can take as much time as they need and work in their pace. Learners could feel comfortable even when communicating with people with different English proficiency levels.

As for teaching English, the teacher can create a wall and invite his/her learners to join the wall.

Here is an example. This should be accompanied with video clips and the texts from the book if the activities intended to encourage learners to work outside of classroom either individually or in pair/group.

Created with Padlet

The teacher should be able to teach his/her learners how to use Padlet. It is not terribly difficult because someone like me, who is not good at technologies at all, could manage to create a wall. However, I struggled for a while to understand how it works when it comes to adding and editing a new post. Also, it must have been impossible for me to start working on it without instructions provided in the ICT class. As for interaction, the materials should be interesting and maybe fun enough to draw learner's attention.

It was also difficult to find copy right free images in the Internet. The use of almost all of images about the works of Roald Dahl including book cover images is not allowed.


Here is the link to Padlet:

https://padlet.com/

FluentU

FluentU is a really good tool for autonomous learning. It has a variety of videos learners can choose from. Once you complete 'study settings', FluentU will provide you with appropriate videos.

This is an example. Language: English, Level: Intermediate

Videos vary from language learning videos to film clips.

Each video is accompanied with subtitles.

Also, if you put the cursor on each word, it provides you with explanations with images if possible. The video stops while the cursor is on a word.

If you click on the pop up window from a word, you will find divers examples using that specific word usually with some video clips.

Those videos will help you understand how the word is actually used with various contextualised examples.

You can also choose 'Learn' to actually learn some words.

If you click on 'LEARN', you will have instructions to focus on certain words.

One of the big problems in language learning is that whether or not materials are authentic, whether or not learners are exposed to the real use of their target language. It is good to use textbooks designed locally for learners in a specific context because the approaches might suit learners in that specific context. However, each individual has his/her learning style, interest, motivation, or preference. Some might not be satisfied with textbook-based teaching. FluentU will be an ideal tool for those who would like to learn languages by using films, different teaching approaches, and various materials which are not from textbooks. However, it would make learners frustrated if there were problems in accessing Internet or finding interesting materials. I also wonder what could the teacher do to help learners make a good use of this tool.


Here is the link to FluentU. You can sign up for free!

http://www.fluentu.com/