You have completed some activities using online technologies: setting up a google site in class, discussing and giving feedback in the ANGEL discussion forum, answering questions in a simulated conversation using CLEAR's Conversations program, and expressing your thoughts about the course in a blog comment. In this class activities are not only designed to get you to engage with the topic in the activity, but also to experience different tools from the perspective of the student. As part of that process and to prepare you for evaluating new tools for the classroom, you will be asked to reflect on your experience in various formats. At the beginning of class on 01/21 or before, I would like you to post your comments to at least some of the questions below:
- What was the purpose of the discussion forum activity?
- Did you discuss in the discussion forum?
- Did reading and writing in the discussion forum feel like a chore? Was it fun?
- For what kind of task would you use a discussion forum in a language classroom?
- What was the purpose of having you set up a google site?
- Did you experience challenges in setting up the google site?
- What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of a google site?
- What was the purpose of the Conversation on Blake?
- Did you experience any challenges?
- How would you implement this tool in the foreign language classroom?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of this CLEAR tool?
- Is there anything else you would like to add about this experience?
11 comments:
I personally really like the idea and use of discussion forums, both in seminar type classes such as this one and the Intro to SLA course I had last semester, as well as in language classes. I find it particularly helpful for my German students to be able to take time and negotiate meaning in a spoken-language-like context. It seems to slow down a conversation and make it more comprehensible for the students. Also, it provides opportunities outside of class for students to practice writing, reading and discourse abilities. One problem with discussion forums though is that sometimes people do not really "discuss" things, they just post their own comment and leave it at that. It is important to both require participants to comment on other students' posts as well as emphasize the importance and maybe even require posts to be submitted by a certain time and then have a required comment due a day or two later after students have had time to read each others' posts. I
In German 101 we usually use Conversations to do oral tests, which is nice, but they are not really "conversations" as such, but rather a list of questions with no real connection or specific order. I really liked the way the professor linked the questions into something that resembled an actual conversation. I think this helped in answering the questions because everything seemed to flow and comprehension and thinking about ideas for the next question was less sporadic.
I think we used the discussion forum to introduce each other to each other through reading each other's google sites and giving feedback. I wouldn't say that I 'discussed' much in the forum, I really just gave a short feedback to everybody consisting of only a few sentences, so in a way I can't say I really used it as a discussion. it was interesting for me to look at the google sites but because we didn't have a lot of time to make them, some didn't have much information on them and so I didn't really have any feedback to give. So then it seemed a bit silly for me to give that person feedback. I think I'd use a discussion forum for questions that can have many controversial answers, so really for issues that lend themselves to 'discussions'. I also like using it just for a general exchange of opinions.
I think the purpose of making a google site was to learn how to use google sites and to also get acquainted to the idea of making a professional presence for ourselves on the Web. I had never worked with google sites before so I liked the practice., although of course more time would be needed for me to make a really nice site. I didn't find it too challening to make the site it was really pretty self-explanatory but I have worked with other websites before to make a homepage and so maybe I had a bit of experience already.
I think the advantages of using google sites is the relative self-explanation (?) of the site, everything is pretty clear and you don't have to build a site from scratch. So it's nice for beginners. Disadvantages are that even as a beginner it's difficult sometimes to make good choices in terms of layout/color and so on/
The purpose of Conversation was to 1) get us to understand this tool if we haven't used it before and 2) check for our reading comprehension of the article. I wasn't able to access Conversations in class and forgot to try it again at home :( but when I did it in the past I didn't experience problems with it.
I use this tool for assessment of students' speaking skills in class and it works pretty well because students can do it at their own convenience and I can also grade it at my convenience. disadvantages are that it takes a looong time to grade if you really listen to everything, and also sometimes you can tell students are just reading the answers and that (in a language class) is usually not the purpose of the exercise. So sometimes I prefer the face-to-face oral tests where I can see the students do not write down their answers and then just read them. But I still like using conversations especially throughout the semester to give students more opportunities to practice speaking at home.
I do not have any further comments ;)
The discussion forum was used to help give feedback about our websites. It is useful because we were able to target specific members and give them feedback. They could also respond to the feedback. I like and dislike discussion forums. I like the fact that they are organized, but I find them hard to navigate. Especially because I cannot you the back button on my browser to navigate to a previously viewed page. To navigate through the posts, you have to use the built in tools on the page. Discussion forums are a great tool in the language classroom because they allow students to ask questions and receive feedback in a very open and collaborative way. Anyone can view the questions and the answers and see how they are related. Once again, the organization can be confusing if you are new to the forum and are trying to find a specific answer to a question. We also used the discussion forum as an informal way to meet other students in the class (along with the website). To me, this was a very novel approach, and I think students would be very open to doing similar activities in their classes.
The discussion forum activity should lead people to develop a certain written conversation (dialogue). I found that it works to a degree but once people are finished with the assigned tasks within it, they do not put any more effort to communicate on there. I never went back to see if anybody responded to my replies. Also, it was disappointing that I only had like 3 people say something about my sight, so I felt kind of discouraged.
I used a discussion forum for a reading class I recently taught. My students had to read a novel and then make a comment each week about something interesting they read. They then had to read another student's comment and reply. I was hoping it would make them curious to see what others said about their comment and generate conversations or debates, but they did not. However, I found that it did allow them to express their ideas to each other without me (the teacher) intervening. It also helped me to see what was important to them and then I was able to expand on those ideas in class.
I think the purpose of the conversation on Blake was to have us learn a new tool that can be used to practice oral language. What I liked about the activity was that it seemed to tap implicit knowledge (because we were responding orally in an online fashion) and that it could be done at home. Often, I think it's difficult to make sure that students get practice speaking outside of class because many students won't take the time to find people with whom they can speak in the target language. This is a good way to provide the students with that person and be able to listen to their responses. As we mentioned in class, it's also a great way to administer oral tests because the teacher only has to record the questions once, and they do not have to be present when the student is responding.
From the student's point of view, however, I thought the assignment was a little nerve-wracking. I don't mind speaking to people face-to-face at all, but for some reason knowing that my answers would be recorded for all of eternity did worry me a bit.
OK, this is Sujie's google account. I'd like to say something about the discussion forum activity. Although I missed the first class and didn't participated in that forum discussion, last summer I was enrolled in a on-line summer course in which most class discussions were held online. I think the primary purpose of discussion forum activity is to offer students who are not able to communicate face-to-face a place to exchange their ideas. Moreover, it also encourage students to discuss and reflex topics which are not covered (in details) in classroom. Moreover, it do helps students who are very quiet in class (like me) to express theirselves in a less threatening way. It's a great fun to read and write discuss in the discussion. You never know who will support or against your opinion and their reasons, and sometimes, you can read people's ideas between lines.
I generally find the discussion forum to be a bit "clunky," regardless of topic or what's being discussed. No matter how I set up the view (nested, threaded, etc.), it seems there are a lot more steps that go into making a comment and responding to other people's entries. While I appreciate the value of the discussions, the system itself sometimes feels a bit counter-intuitive and it's kind of a pain to use.
That said, I would use a discussion forum for my students for various topics, like culture or history or things of that nature, where students could use a bit more time to reflect on what they want to say and how they want to say it.
Setting up a google site has several different purposes. First, it gives us a chance to learn a new technology, if we hadn't yet set up a google site. Second, we have some semblance of a web presence we can use for our careers. Finally, we can learn a little about one another, and also glean some new ideas of what others have done to put themselves "out there".
Google sites are nice because they're free, they quick to set up, and they're easy to access. However, it can be difficult to "perfect" a Google site and get it to look how we really want it to look. I'm still trying to get mine to LOOK how I want to to look, while still working on the content I want to include. I found the Help site, by Google, to be less than helpful while I was doing this.
- Hanna O'Neill
The discussion forum was easy to use and did not feel like a chore, but it also did not lead to much "discussion". I found out about people in the class through their Google sites and was able to leave comments, so it was interesting to see what sorts of comments people left, but I only responded to a few of them and the thread usually ended there.
The Google site was frustrating for me at first, but became much easier when I worked with it a little more. I also noticed a difference in where people had their information stored. All of my data (such as CV, photos, background info) is stored on my computer at home so I could not access it to post to the site. I noticed that by having things stored on Google Docs, others in the class could easily access their info. That seemed to be an age/technology gap that I didn't know existed.
The Google site seems like an advantage for interfacing with others in the academic field. I already have a blog, but it is, of course very personal and family oriented. It's nice to have a place to keep my academic self separate from all of that.
The purpose of the discussion forum activity was to give and get feedback about the google sites that we created during class. We were able to post comments about what we thought about people's sites, and we also were able to ask questions in order to get to know each other more. At first, it was difficult to figure out what buttons to push in order to write a comment or see a comment. So at the beginning it felt like a chore, but once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed it the activity. A discussion forum would be a good tool for students to comment about a video assigned for homework. Students would be able to watch the video and then post comments on the discussion forum.
I guess the purpose of the discussion forum was to make us get to know each other in a different format that what we are usually used to, and at the same time introduce us to what forums are. I think that I am already quite comfortable with forums and I usually enjoy writing responses, so I did not simply comment on my classmates' google sites, but also replied to the comments they wrote about mine. I used a forum in my LLT 361 class last semester but I realized that the students would not read each other posts, but rather just write their comments in separate threads (most like in the fashion of a blog).
As for the google site, I really enjoyed creating it because I had been planning to create a professional site for a few months already. I guess it took me quite some time to understand where to click in order to add pages, but eventually I think that the site is simple enough that by clicking a bit everywhere I finally found what I was looking for. When it comes to technology, I usually adopt an exploratory approach and try to find stuff on my own rather than relying on the help section or on forums. From what I know so far about google site, I do not really see any disadvantage since it can serve my needs. I noticed that one can add videos so I assume that the site can handle large files.
Finally, a few words about the CLEAR tool. I honestly got panicked after the first question because I did not realized I had to click "stop" to move to the next section so I waited for a few seconds in front of my laptop thinking that Senta's voice would start automatically. I think that once you know the tool this is not a problem anymore, but maybe a short sentence at the top should inform the speaker to click "stop" once they are done recording their responses. Also talking in front of the webcam made me uncomfortable although I am used skyping with my boyfriend.
I was missing this question, so I am sorry to post this late.
I feel so pleased to be able to create my own page in the Google site as I was thinking of making one for my job search, but I was unsure of how to do it. I am familiar with wikispace, so I was planning to use that one, but it is not a site where other people should contribute; so I was sure there was something else that was better than that one; I just could not find it until now.
As I started to use for my job search, I began to see some other possibilities; so now, I added a page for my class where my students can freely download the files that they want to get electronically. Besides, I put a link to the class blog that we are using. I think it is up to each person how to use it, but the more creative you are, the more versatile it becomes.
Because I just started to use the site, it is difficult yet to state advantages and disadvantages now. But one thing that I wish that I could change is that all the attachment files are assembled at the bottom, and I wish I could add some comments on each of them, putting them in the text. But it seems that I don't have that option.
Also, this site can be used for language learners. For example, each student can create their own site, and then read each other's site and give feedback. Or a class can create a collaborative site together. I have used some kinds of technology in my L2 teaching, but I have never tried having them create sites. I may try it in the future.
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