Semester Finale

I can't believe this is the end of the semester already! I would like to say, what a journey around the literacy world! I still remember my wonder in the first class about if I would fit in the context of this class because my target audience is way beyond K-12. However, now that I'm close to the finishing line, I realized that I have my pockets full! I have been enjoying this class a great deal, mostly because this class itself is one sample class well fit into the TPACK framework. Technologies were not used for technology's sake. They are all well equipped with well designed pedagogical content knowledge. Moreover, Dr. Schmidt herself has also been modeling the teaching well within the TPACK framework. As Fulton (1989) state, "Teachers teach the way they were taught." Everyone in this class will be teaching the way that Dr. Schmidt has been teaching, which is the most important thing. In fact, I think it's one big gap to be filled in the professional development program for teachers. Technology education faculty should all be modeling their teaching integrating technology to facilitate their teaching and enhance students' learning. That way, the pre-service teachers will be teaching the same way!

The second piece is the resources that are introduced and put together on our class wiki. I'm mostly impressed with diversified online materials available for K-12 education. Along with the technologies introduced in class, such as Blogging, Ning, iMovie, Podcast, Etherpad, Kid Pix, online storybooks,etc., teachers wouldn't have to worry about spending too much time trying to locate appropriate materials for literacy development. Even though my target student are university level students, I can see myself using some of the resources in my classroom, such as Etherpad for collaborative writing, which I have already used for my tutoring project.

The third piece is the Blogging assignment, which has given all of us the opportunity to share with and learn from one another's experience. I'm also very pleased to know the use of Google Reader, which in fact has solved the biggest problem I have had when I first used Blogging to teach reading and discussion. With what I know now, I would have been able to plan the class more efficiently and effectively should I be given the chance to teach the same class again, of which I am confident students will benefit further.

As stated, this journey around the literacy world has been fruitful! This is the end of Fall 2009, yet, it's not supposed to be an end but a new beginning! What's truly critical is for everyone of us to continue doing what and how we have been taught and take the opinion leader role when you have your own classroom. That way, everyone of us will be able to make our contribution in teaching WITH technology, which we all know plays a big part in enhancing the learning among our students across all subjects!

So, dear colleagues, fasten your seat belt and Bon Voyage!

Google Site-a brand new look!

I am amazed by the new version of Google Site, fantastic! My first encounter was in Spring 2009 where it was introduced in a technology class. And I had build everything from scratch and it was very time consuming putting in those html commands/codes. It's all history now. Upon preparation for the CI201 class, I discovered the new look and features of Google Site, which is fantastic.

To begin with, it is provided a number of different templates for different purposes, among which some are great for classroom use, such as project wiki and classroom templates. With the preset templates, teachers and students will not have to spend as much time in page layout. Moreover, the improved tool bar makes it a lot easier to embed images, videos, and tables and the ready set links to Google Docs features makes it really easy to insert document and powerpoint presentation onto your Google site. One really cool feature is Google Forms, which you can use to create a test, have it inserted on the Google Site and collect testing results sorted.

What is Google Site good for in classrooms?

For Teachers
It can be used as a class management tool. Unlike WebCT or Moodle, Google site are free and you can easily build a literacy lesson with this new version that promotes and encourages interactive and collaborative learning. In fact, that's one tool that I have included for my Technology Lesson Plan. Moreover, like WebCT and Moodle, Google Site can be set as a private and secured environment where only people invited are allowed access to.

Here's one simple lesson plan that I have created for my CI201 lab on Google applications.
https://sites.google.com/site/ci201section8fall2009/Google-Application-Lab

For Students
It can also be a good tool for students to build their class portfolio upon. I know we are currently using iWeb for CI201 students to build up their portfolio, which is easy to use. However, with Google Site, students will have more flexibility to incorporate their creativity and build up high quality portfolio website for their credentials.

I'll continue exploring further how Google Site can be integrated into classrooms and put it to practice for my Listening and Speaking class in Spring 2010.

Etherpad-perfect for collaborative writing

Etherpad is awesome! I have been using Google Docs and Wiki for collaboration writing for my classes and my own studies, however, there are some limitations, including problematic same time multiple editing as well as tracking of individual works. With Etherpad, these two problems no longer exist. One more advantage is that each collaborator is color coded, which makes it easy to identify the collaboration among peers in the group. The activity we have done in class was a great example. In addition to demonstrating individual's writing, it gives students to learn from peers. Having the group to complete the story together allows not only construction and creativity of writing but also peer editing to occur in the production process. Etherpad definitely is one great tools for teachers of all levels to incorporate into their classrooms in literacy developing process. The only concern is that it's not a secured or private environment. Anyone can join or intrude the collaboration as long as he has the url. Teachers have to be extra cautious while working with young learners. Other than that, I'm confident that it will work well into all literacy classroom.

TPACK Lesson Plan Project Helps Me See Clearer...

This assignment has given me the great opportunity to go back and revisit the classes that I have taught and those that I have planned within the TPACK framework. I realized how some technology advancement has made the use of technology more accessible and feasible in classrooms. I am speaking from personal experience.

The first class I taught integrating technology was a reading and discussion class where the Blogger was incorporated in my class for students to share their thoughts. I created a blog for this class. At the same time, each student also had to create his own blog. The biggest challenge I had was to track every student's blog and for each student to track others' blogs, which would have been solved with Google Reader as what we have been using for our blogging assignments.

Another class was a reading class where it is designed for students to enhance their listening and speaking English through American Cultures, which was hosted on the university customized class management platform. However, it didn't allow me to upload listening materials nor did it let student to upload their recordings. By the way, it was a lot of work for students to record their speech and for me to get hold of the recordings. Moreover, students were left with not much choice but PowerPoint for the final presentation they were required to deliver. This class would have been taught completely different should I teach it again now knowing what I have known. There will be more alternative tools that can be incorporated into my classroom that will facilitate my teaching and enhance studnets' learning, which is what technology is all about. In other words, it is critical for teachers to keep themselves up to date about what's available at all times so that technology can be incorporated nicely into the content and pedagogy of their classrooms. This is in fact a big help for me in the write up for this technology lesson plan assignment. :-)!

Kiss the Cow

While I was reading the book this morning, it just came to me that I should be able to use children books like Kiss The Cow with my adults students who are L2 learners. This book in particular focuses on past tense verbs as well as comparative and superlative adjectives. A lot of children books tend to have one particular theme or lesson to learn with specific focus on sentence structures or certain genre of vocabulary, which might fit perfectly for L2 language learners. I would like to start exploring this possibility of using children books for adult L2 learners.

On the subject of children books, I would like to say that I'm happy that I have learned about all the resources about online books. I had an opportunity to teach one particular class where all my students were mothers who would like to learn how to read English story books to their children, which is by the way a fascinating teaching experience for me. Back then, I wasn't aware of all the resources that we have. In fact, maybe there were not as many back then. However, I'll be able to plan and teach the class with a brand new pedagogy should I be given the opportunity to teach the same class again. I actually would love to teach again knowing what I have known now. :-)

Part II: Successful digital stories in language classroom

Digital storytelling can be used by language teachers at all levels in many ways, from introducing new vocabulary/phrase/grammar, structures to helping students enhance and synthesize language output, spoken and written. It also can help students organize thoughts/ideas as they learn to create stories for various audience and present their ideas and knowledge through target language in an individualized and meaningful way. Here are some successful stories to share with you.

Rance-Roney (2008) successfully took her students exploring English and their feelings toward US culture through “What Is an American?” digital story project. Learners’ first digital story production involved writing an “I AM” poem and producing that poem in a digital format. YuLing (Lucy) began her story by saying: “I am Lucy. Lovable. Kind. Open minded. I love nature. I hate complaining.” This project of restricted writing allowed learners to focus on learning how the technology works, mainly inserting digital images. Then, they moved from defining who they were to describing “Americans.” Sunwha, through search on Korean Google, found a website that contained sketched figures illustrating emotions, which fit perfectly with the message she was trying to portray. Her voice spoke:

“One tradition of the Korean culture is for people to take off shoes when they go into their houses. I moved to America. People do not take off shoes. One day, my landlady and her family came up to my room. They didn’t take off shoes. What a day! What a dirty shoes on my floor! I can’t imagine that there are dirty germs on my room….After they were gone, I cleaned up my floor, scrubbing, brushing. Finally, I’m down with my work and I enjoy it. Look at my shiny floor. Ooh-la-la.”

Rance-Roney (2008) stated that at completion of project, each student had captured a slice of life in the United States that was a keep-sake memory, but more than that, they had acquired and practiced a great deal of languages. Moreover, they become entranced by the power of their own voices and their own images.

Another effective example occurred in Even Start, a family literacy and parenting education program at Three Oaks Elementary School. Bamibi Fischer teaches immigrants to increase literacy using digital storytelling successfully. Fischer stated that she felt that digital storytelling was a unique and progressive way for the adults to learn. She said, “Because of the process of writing and speaking, it was a winner in promoting the acquisition of language skills.” (Feldman 2007)

The third successful story is in Anna Bowe’s French class at Lely High School in Naples. She stated that learners’ reaction went from tentative to very positive and they seemed proud of what they were able to pull together. Most importantly, the production process brought a diverse class together and she subsequently saw one of the more reserved learner started regularly offering to help other. She concluded that digital storytelling has revealed its potential in language classroom because it helps create a genuine community among learners where the language of the written word is embedded and enriched by visual image and aural elements, so catchy for today’s students. She said, “They never mumbled at the idea of editing and re-editing, because their product is real and they see the reason it should look good, sound good, and feel good.”

Hazel Geier, a retired Lee County teacher who has been chronicling use of digital storytelling technique in local high schools, took part in the National Writing Project at FGCU in 2004-06. She found that students in three different high schools all have embraced the new approach of writing, learning new technology skills, demonstrated creativity and critical thinking, and have developed social skills that involve supporting one another, listening and evaluating and appreciating one another’s efforts.”

Iannotti (2006) employed digital storytelling in her digital storytelling projects for ESL students. Through the process of creating the story, students were developing an understanding of story organization and transition. It is also brought to light the contrast between spoken and written English. Moreover, Iannotti used students’ digital stories for diagnosis on individual pronunciation problems which was included in the lesson plans targeting on discrete sounds that students have the most problems with. The scripts were used to explore sentence-level stress, encouraging students to consider what words and ideas should be emphasized, contrasting function and content word stress. She concluded that digital stories rule one: keep it simple. Iannotti stated that she has learned two very important lessons as an instructor: first, you need a manageable project with realistic goals to ensure success for the students; second, a young wife trying to make crab soup for her mother-in-law’s birthday makes for an amazing digital story.

The digital story made by Meg Garcia, a high school English and Art History teacher from southern California, is an outstanding example of authentic, object-based storytelling (Springer, Kajder, and Borst Brazas 2004). Meg's story revolved around the child she hopes one day to have - a daughter, to be named Matisse after the French early Twentieth Century artist. His colorful, decorative paper cutouts provided the visual foundation of the narrative. The story starts as follows:

Matisse Margaret Garcia will be the name of my daughter. I want my child to be unique and use her personal pair of scissors to craft the shape of her life. I want her imagination to be as vivid as gouache on paper . . . I want her to be named after Matisse, who, in the face of crippling arthritis could not keep the sea snail in the depths of the ocean . . .

Several factors make Meg's digital story successful. First, she chose a subject that she is comfortable enough in her knowledge, Matisse and his work to allow her personal reflections to remain center stage. Second, she strikes exactly the right emotional chord throughout. Her sensitivity to the artworks is keen and the associations gleaned from each personal and real. Third, words are chosen with a precision and economy that allow the individual images to carry the force of the story. Last but not least, what cannot be conveyed here, in writing, is the expressive power of her own voice, which, in fact, is the most powerful element of digital storytelling.

The same factors can be found in some of the digital stories that Dr. Schmidt showed us in class last week. Some of them are absolutely powerful, which is the kind of impact a traditional written story can never achieve. In fact, I have made one based on my first midwest adventure in summer 2008, which has been a fascinating experience for me. I know how much impact it will have on students through the production process because I have gone through it myself, which is one critical step for teachers to go through. I will continue exploring and I have to say that digital storytelling has definitely found its place in my classroom.

Why digital storytelling in language classroom?

It is commonly said of ESL/EFL practitioners that we are constantly looking for new ways to teach language as well as new materials and new tricks to keep learning interesting for the students and for ourselves (Iannotti 2006). Technology offers a number of opportunities for connecting classrooms to the world and learners have many options for learning and communication ranging from instant messaging to blogging to podcasting. Why digital storytelling? I have personally experienced the power of digital storytelling, undergoing the whole process, from pre-production, production, post-production, to showcase, I have realized that digital storytelling can be a powerful tool from the applied linguistics aspect. Digital storytelling can be a compelling and satisfying process that helps learners explore the meaning of their own experience, give value to it, and communicate personals experience on multiple levels to others through the production of their language output, both spoken and written. Moreover, it is learner-centered in the best way imaginable as it asks learners to make meaning out of experience we acknowledge significant. I have a strong passion about what digital storytelling can bring to the language classroom and would like to share the literature review that I have done, including some successful stories.

Digital storytelling has been found facilitating the convergence of four student-centered learning strategies: student engagement, reflection for deep leaning, project-based learning, and the effective integration of technology into instruction (Barrett 2006). Moreover, Gils (2005) suggested many advantages of using digital storytelling in education, including personalizing learning experience and improving the involvement of students in the process of learning. Furthermore, Combs and Beach (1994) study indicated that storytelling improves learners’ communication skills as well as creates a class bond through shared experiences.

Studies have also found that digital storytelling facilitates the language learning process. For language learners, producing a digital story engages them in creating, using, and perfecting all of their emerging language skills in remarkable synergy (Rance-Roney 2008). In other words, in the process of storytelling, learners become more creative, gain speaking skills, and improve their verbal organizing skills and ability to empathize. Moreover, with the advancement of technology, it is made easier using digital images to enhance the visual communication and appealing of storytelling, which involves planning, writing, editing, illustrating, and producing the components so that we communicate “the heartfelt essence, not just the events.” (Benton 2006)
Tsou, Wang & Tseng (2006) found that integrating digital storytelling into language curriculum is a creative language learning technique that can improve learners’ level of learning in reading, writing, speaking and listening. In addition, it also enhances the teaching in the language classroom. In Ohler’s DAOW of literacy, four major literacy components involved in the process of digital storytelling, including digital, art, oral, and writing, blend well in a digital storytelling environment where all components can reinforce each other and lead to improvement in learners’ literacy and expression in all area. In a language classroom, the emphasis should weigh more on the last two components even though the former two definitely have added value to the performance of language output. The writing may not be the final product of a digital story, however, the writing skills that students employ in the process of creating their digital story embrace many aspects of writing that are considered important in school as well as the world outside school. The oral literacy, an important role in digital storytelling, usually shows as the final outcome which provides learners varied and abundant opportunities to learn, produce and acquire spoken language. In other words, digital stories require students to synthesize the techniques of both creative and expository writing as well as compelling narration (spoken output) in order to produce a successful piece of media, therefore, are considered as an effective and efficient tool in language learning.

In addition to findings of the previous studies, whether to use digital storytelling in language classroom should lay on learners’ responses, which may lead to strong motivations and have an impact on learners’ outcome. Students from an L2 language instructor, Kristy McGeoch’s class appeared to respond positively to their digital storytelling experience.

“You will remember it if you see it in two year, I will remember every single person and funny moments – I think that was the motivation for everyone to work that hard.” ~Juergen, Austria
“So when I showed the digital story I was very proud of me. Also I thought I got the best present from AU.” ~Betty, Korea
“ I really feel like we are a family, to do the whole thing and show each other our own story – it make each other feel warm. I really think we have been close friends. So that’s why I loved these classes.” ~Nicole, China
Retrieved April 28, 2009 from http://www.kirstymcgeoch.com/

I personally have incorporated digital storytelling in the curriculum for one writing class. The digital story about one Taiwanese Mythology, the Origin of Moon Festival, was made with no narration but only key vocabularies to go with each digital image. The assignment for the students was to write a story based on their interpretation of the visuals, music, and key vocabulary, which had generated quite amazing quality works, both in content and language. Then, the follow up assignment was for students to tell a digital story from their own cultures, which had given students another opportunity to not only demonstrate their language proficiency level but also bring their cultures to the awareness of the peers. I consider it a successful evidence of what digital storytelling can do in language classroom. Even though my students are at university level, I am sure that digital storytelling can work effectively for younger learners. In fact, through the literature review process, I have not found many studies or research done among university level students, which actually makes me excited because it means that there’s plenty for me to do!