A Synergy Effect of the Interconnection between Teaching and Tweeting

Today's ESL/EFL teachers are often asked to think about using various educational tools or technology in classroom for the purpose of the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning. So, how they can use those tools in an actual classroom setting is a big concern many teachers have in their mind. I think encounter with the twitter world will open a gate for teachers to lessen this concern.

[Twitter: www.3dcart.com]

As mentioned in Teachers Guide to the Use of Twitter in Classroom,twitter can be a good "social networking platform in classroom." While tweeting or twitter chatting, teachers are more likely to get closer to other teacher groups whose interest areas are similar or the same as well as to their students struggling for successful language learning anytime anywhere. In other words, the sustainable interaction between teachers and teachers, and between teachers and students will keep both of them awake to language learning after class as well as during class. 

Given this, I will be able to get newer and more input from "the latest news, resources, links, researches, and mores (quoted from Using Twitter for Teachers' Professional Development" related to the target language learning which are updated around the clock from other teachers' or learners' tweets.  Considering the value of the input data, I will be able to retweet some important or interesting parts of them related to the lesson topics or objectives so that the students can read and reply with comments whenever they want. This whole process should be a valuable moment for me to develop myself as a teacher and keep students interested and engaged in their learning.

Also,I wish to "suggest people, organizations, or magazines to follow" in classroom as proposed in the subsection How To Connect With Students On Twitter in The Teacher's Guide to Twitter. Explaining why they are meaningful to follow, I may encourage the students to enhance their critical thinking, and build up relevant knowledge and skills for the current and future courses. Sometimes, I think I can assign the students a task like Mod 6 of attending a twitterchat in order for them to listen to others' voices and speak out in their own voices in real-time online chatting contexts.

[Guide to Tweitter: www.edudemic.com]

In short, I firmly believe that this interconnection between teaching and tweeting may create a synergy effect on teachers' own professional development as well as students' active engaging in language learning.  

Let's Chat! Twitterchat!

Today, I joined a twitter chat #connectedpd whose topic is a new community-sourced professional development in teaching and learning. I could find current professional development-related sources and information online.

 

[Twitter Chats: pjsandcoffee.net]

Unfortunately, however, today is Friday, so just few people joined and shared their information and thoughts. Despite this fact, everything I experienced there was totally new to me, and it made me desire to be more involved in this twitter world continually.

Every new step takes a lot of pains, but I am so happy to step into the new Twitter world because I can get much more input from others' thinking and suggestion on a certain topic related to educational technology and ESL/EFL learning. In this sense, I believe the virtual online space of the Twitterchat gives me a good chance to share people's ideas and thoughts, develop my own opinions, and sometimes ask and answer some questions. It would serve as a great foundation for me to grow as a good professional educator.

Next time, I wish to join other twitterchats where I can see more participants and find interesting topics. Anyway, twitterchatting was a great experience! 

Flipped Learning Network

Flipped Learning Network is "a professional learning community for teachers using screencasting in education." 

 
According to the introduction to this site on the main page, "the not-for-profit Flipped Learning Network™ is the source of information for emerging and established educators at all grade levels and subjects who are employing the flip in a single unit, an individual class, an entire department, or the whole school."

This social networking site provides simple but useful sections consisting of Forums, Groups, and Videos. First, in the Forums section many people join discussions whose topics are Learning Management Systems, Storing Videos and Online Assessment, Making and Producing Vodcasts, and others. Next, in the Groups section the members of this site can join a wide range of featured groups including First Time Flippers, Middle School,Moodle, etc. Last, in the Videos section, informative and diverse videos related to education and classrooms are uploaded. As for the featured videos,What NOT to do Screencast and Preparing Students for a Flipped Classroom are the most-watched videos with more than 2000 views.
 
Given this, the members of this social networking site seem to lively and passionately participate in the forums and discussions, and deliver video messages. So, I think I can share good information and much knowledge with them.

A Learner is like a Jigsaw Puzzle

A learner is like a jigsaw puzzle remaining to fit together in a state of flux of the digital age. 

Learners try to learn and externalize a piece of their knowledge to the world and put it together with other sources of information through network in much the same way as they put the pieces of a puzzle together. It is because "as human beings we desire or crave the ability to externalize what's in our hands (quoted from The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature)" and "our ability to express ourselves and our knowing increase as we express ourselves and externalize our knowledge(quoted from The Impact of Social Software on Learning)." 

For the sake of this, learners use a diversity of information and technology as tools to take in something new as knowledge basis for tomorrow. They usually use digital technology and social network systems as shown in the following image. 
  

The whole picture will certainly vary depending on the pieces of a puzzle used by learners. Probably, learners eager to design their own learning process and select multimedia learning tools now that they are likely to be never satisfied with what they know today. Rather, they may consider what they need for tomorrow more important as Siemens, G. (2005, January) mentioned in Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age as below: 
   
The starting point of connectivism is the individual. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual. This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed...Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. 

In the video The Network is the Learning, he also asserts that "what we know today is not as important as our ability to continue to stay current, so if what I know today is going to be changed because the knowledge is changed rapidly, if I am not continually learning I'm obsolete in my particular field or in a particular knowledge space...None really are as effective or adaptive as network. Because network continually evolves and continually reforms itself. So, I talk about the network is the learning I am essentially referring to that's constructed we as individuals make and enable us to continue to stay current and continue to learn."  

In light of his emphasis on network, I also believe that learners should make a ceaseless effort to expose themselves to the networked world and develop their knowledge for the future in stead of being satisfied with the current state of learning until they complete a decent whole picture they want.   

Social Bookmarking: Diigo vs. Curating: Scoop.it.

I had a great experience to use social bookmarking multi-tool Diigo and curating tool Scoop.it. Both tools have practical and useful features. 

First, Diigo helps users to collect a wide range of information easily from the web browsers, iPads, iPhones, etc. 

As the logo of two people facing each other hand in hand shows above, it provides an easy-to-use social bookmarking function and readily interconnects people with each other in the digital world. 

 

Users can take notes on the webpage while reading online using a sticky note and retain the webpage using a digital highlight tool for reading later or future reference. Also, they can easily find bookmarked articles or pages later using multiple tags from the archives of cloud-based information managing space My library. Besides, Diigo users can follow others whose interest areas are similar, or be followed by them. For more information, users can watch the Diigo video tutorial as follows:  

Next, Scoop.it.provides users with a good tool to create their own topics and curate social media contents under each topic using Scoop.it. Bookmarklet. As for various Scoop.it. features, I can post my insights about the articles or webpages and comments copying and pasting from the original article with multiple tags. Also, other users visiting my website can post their comments on my scooped or rescooped webpages. Similar to Diigo users, Scoop.it. users can follow others and vice versa. What's more, suggestions are offered for related articles or webpages under the curated topics. As you can see from the image of the Scoop.it. website below, this convenient and time-saving suggestions button directly links users to the relevant websites or webpages without efforts to search for pertinent information. 

 

To sum up, both Diigo and Scoop.it. have their own unique functions and advantages. I think it is a wise way to use each tool depending on the situation and purpose. If I am asked to choose only one of the two, however,I will say that Diigo is more convenient and comes in handy for me because I prefer taking the whole in one view neatly to being distracted by the different-sized columns full of too many images and letters. Also, I love a sticky-note and digital highlight tool for reading later in a short time.

Speak Up with L2 Learning Tech!

I watched two videos of future learning and teaching as follows: 

Future Learning Documentary

A Vision of 21st Century Teachers
 

World-class education system for everybody of the next generation?   

The first video starts with the message that making the world-class education system for everybody is a key to the prosperity of the next generation. How? The answer is so simple and predictable: Keep learners self-motivated, engaged in, and interested in class.

However,it is not that easy to draw learners' attention to class with only a textbook fully packed with small fonts and no images. This is why the latest education technology is inevitable and essential in current and future classroom settings. Using the Internet information or multimedia tools, learners can teach themselves anything in and out of the classroom. A wide range of eye-catching and informative high-tech learning tools encourage the learners to find how to be self-motivated and store up self-directed knowledge. Also, collaborating with teachers and other learners, the learners, even shy ones, can express their intention and share ideas in the easy-to-access online discussion forums as I do now in the discussion board of UB learns. Surely, I must say that blogging is a very efficient way to connect and communicate with teachers and other learners when solving the problems or writing reflections on the topics.

To sum up, it holds true that useful and handy education technology tools (e.g. Blogging, Voice Thread, Google Docs, etc.) are fundamental elements of future learning and teaching.
   

   

 

We can do more with technology!

"Adapting and evolving, teachers digitally empower diverse learners to connect, communicate, collaborate, and create in an interactive technology-rich environment." - from A Vision of 21st Century Teachers

The second video shows what the 21st teachers and learners can do with diverse technology tools (e.g. digital cameras, videos, e-books, blogs, etc.)through the messages on the sketchbooks. More specifically, with technology learners can understand numbers, words, the wonders of science, analyze literature, make music, and share their opinions on the blogs. 

The most impressive part of the video is a female teacher's message that "on our blog, my students SPEAK UP, even the shy ones." I think this aspect of digital telecommunications is the most useful and appealing in that I do not have to feel anxiety to say what I am thinking in front of a teacher and the other classmates in face-to-face classroom settings. So, I think online learning like LAI 590 is as good as face-to-face one.

In short, as the Wordle image that I created above, the 21st teachers can do a myriad of things for their students to do more together in the technology-rich education contexts. Hence, I believe that teachers should keep in mind the following statement: 

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn" - John Cotton Dana from A Vision of 21st Century Teachers 

Why Blog for L2 Learning?

Good Evening,

My name is Jeeyoung Min, It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance. It is my first semester here at University at Buffalo and I am a TESOL graduate student. Below is listed the exercise for Mod 2. I look forward to working with you all.

Sincerely,

Jeeyoung

Two ways that I have read about concerning the usage of blogs in education are as follows, blogs make it easier for teachers to communicate to their students on a broader level while also ensuring that all the course material and tools are available to all students. A second way in which blogging helps the professional is by cataloging the process of learning and reflection for future review.

The below listed standards are taken from ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language).

Standard 1.1: Students engage in converstations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.

Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics.

Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.

Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied.

Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied.

ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages)