Revising with Web2.0

Whilst trying to work out a way to embed some listening and speaking practice (Japanese) into our Yr9 class wiki, as their Yearly Examinations are fast approaching, I came across a link to Yodio in my delicious bookmarks. I had toyed with the idea of trying to add audio to google maps (I still have no idea if you can do it or not) and also creating another video like this one (with Windows movie maker) for listening comprehension but Yodio seemed to be what I was looking for.

Yodio is very simple to use. Once you've registered, it allows you to:

1. Upload images
2. Upload audio either from your computer or directly from your phone (to a US number, so best to only do this if you live in the US).
3. Combine the images and audio into "Yodios". Each yodio can contain several images with a separate recording on each.
4. Share your yodio via email, the website or embed them into your own website

Being able to add audio to images is a powerful tool for language learning. Not only can it be used to create simple listening revision tasks for students, as I have, but students could create all sorts of digital stories around particular themes. Voicethread is also a wonderful tool for this and has the added bonus of allowing for collaboration. I have not yet investigated the terms of use for yodio or fully examined implications for student use; however, a quick look at some of the yodios in the Education (Language courses) category, shows that there are students and educators out there using it.

Some ideas for using it:

• Describe your daily routine
• Take people on an audio tour of you school, house or neighbourhood
• Describe people / family members (physical description / what they are wearing)
  
• Describe what you did on your holiday
• Describe the weather
• .........
  

Here's one I prepared earlier...

Student task: "Strange animal"

I love it when students take an idea (or piece of work) and run with it.
On the class wiki page the "Task" came under the banner "Time to CREATE!!!", and they did. The task was given during a unit of work on descriptions and body parts and is as follows:

Scenario: You are a Japanese newsreader presenting the evening news. The item you are reading is in relation to a new species of animal that has been recently discovered in the mountainous forests of central Japan.
Task
Part A: Write the description of your ‘new species’ for the news report, before getting it checked by the teacher.
Part B: Practice reading the report before either (i) recording yourself saying it OR (ii) make a video of the news report.

Students were given the option to work in 2s or 3s. Below is one finished product. Admittedly, the students who created the embedded video chose to bypass the "before getting it checked by your teacher" instruction, but they were immediately forgiven. The video is in Japanese.

Creating profiles, name cards and more

This week was a week for exploring effective ways to use the simple introductions we have been doing in our Year 7 Japanese lessons (Year 7 only have 1 lesson per week of Japanese so we don't get through a lot of content). The ability to indicate your name, age, phone number and where you live is useful but there's not a lot you can do with it (I thought). In the first class of the week I went back to the trusted "business card" creation exercise on the laptop. In other words, use Microsoft publisher to create a business card that displays information about yourself in the target language. However, not satisfied that this was the best way to engage the students in an activity designed to create something with the target language, I had a look around...

For reasons since forgotten I came up with Yu-Gi-Oh (a Japanese manga that has spawned, amongst other things, a trading card game) and stumbled across what I was looking for: Yugioh Card Maker. This site allows you to very easily create your own Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards. The 'description' box was used by the students to indicate the name, age, phone number (even monsters have a phone number these days) and city in which the character lived - all in Japanese (roomaji).

In order to 'save' creations to the Yugioh card maker site you do need to register; however, we simply used the "PRTSC" (print screen) button on the laptops, pasted the image into paint and then trimmed the edges to what we wanted. My own 'masterpiece' is above. The act of creating the cards only took about 5 minutes as we had previously revised, and written down, how to indicate all the things they were required to include.

I knew this activity was going to work the moment I asked the students to explain to me what Yu-Gi-Oh was. Several were obviously right into it and ready to share what they knew. This proved infectious as before long some students had created 2 or 3 cards. My next task is to work out the easiest way to display the cards on the class wiki site.

The next step is to create dialogues and, having just discovered another comic creation website (Bitstrips), I have a couple of ideas...

Post ELH post

If there comes a day when we are able to plug a USB into our brains and download all that we have encountered over a period of time (a bit like Dumbledore’s pensieve) the experiences, conversations and ideas from the past couple of days at ELH would certainly be pushing any download limits.

For me personally, the conference was not only about gaining new ideas and seeing how other teachers are experiencing ICT in schools but also about strengthening the online connections that I have made in recent times. Meeting people face to face that I have ‘tweeted’ with on twitter and strengthening that connection through conversations has been invaluable and has again inspired me to pick up the pace and to try and inspire other staff members within my department and beyond it.

A tweet from Jenny Luca this morning has further inspired me to try and encourage more people within our school to see beyond our school and the potential for extending learning that connecting and collaborating (beyond the school walls) will bring. Not only student learning but also, and perhaps more importantly, professional learning. Professional learning that can be done in classrooms, in the staffroom or at home. You don’t need to travel far or be taken off class to do it.

I attended a variety of sessions at ELH and was aware of many of the tools that presenters were discussing but it is always important to see how others are using those tools (like prezi) and being inspired to use them in different ways. However, I was not only interested in the content of the sessions but also in the way the presenters were presenting (i.e. teaching) the information. I felt I could learn a lot from my teaching peers by simply watching them and seeing how they presented the information, the tools they used to do that and the manner in which they did it. And, I did – I learnt a heaps. I was also inspired by their passion, their knowledge and the tools that they used to get their message across. I learnt a lot through the presenters’ use of ICT and am sure that my students can benefit from ICT if used for the right reasons and in the right situations. ‘Tech for techs sake’ will not add value to the classroom and…

The question now is how do we spread ‘the message’? How do we get teachers using technology effectively? We perhaps need to try to get more teachers into each others classrooms as part of their professional development. Team teaching, mentoring and sharing in the classroom. There is no simple solution but this surely is part of the process. The next image needs to be read from the bottom tweet up.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from KGS-ELH09

WhyCT?

Why use and teach how to use Information & Communications Technology in our classrooms? After all ...

• I've been teaching for years without the need for it
• All the students need to do is pass the exam and get into the right University course
• They need to write exam papers not type them
• Social media is "social", it's not educational
• .....

Yeah but ... hang on ... What if we don't integrate technology into our subject area? Are we not doing our students a disservice?

• Will our students be engaged in the classroom (they are certainly engaged outside of it)?
• They may pass the exam but will they survive University?
• They may pass the exam but can they think critically?
• Don't we learn through engaging in conversations (face to face or otherwise)?

Social media is everywhere. For me, it has opened up my world on an educational level and made me think critically and analytically far more than any professional development day could ever hope to have achieved - BT (before technology). Now, the professional development day (with social media included) is a winning formula. It enhances PD by allowing us to learn, connect, interact and engage in thought provoking conversations.

If our classroom is the student's "professional development day", why not include those ICTs that enhance the thinking, sharing and collaborative process that will help our students to think critically and analytically. Students use social media already, but we need to show them how to use it to help them learn and grow. There are many applications, sites and tools that can be seamlessly woven into lessons to enhance learning, not simply to satisfy ICT outcomes. Our plan is to show you as many of these as we can and hopefully also the results of these.

But first...

Consider this ...

 

Posted via web from I.C.Teaching

Untitled

Posted via web from JClass2012

The story of Hachiko / ハチ公

Rummaging through the internet in an attempt to find the latest on pets in Japan, I was reminded of the story of Hachiko. This is the true story of a loyal dog that, for years after its owner had died, continued to turn up at the same time each day to Shibuya station in Tokyo where Hachiko had regularly met the owner on his return from work. The story of this faithful dog (Akita breed) spread and eventually became a well known story that came to symbolise loyalty and faithfulness. 

A reminder of this story continues to wait patiently outside Shibuya station, in the form of Hachiko's bronze statue, and is a popular meeting point. Further testiment to the importance of this story to the Japanese is that the stuffed remains of Hachiko are preserved in the National Science museum of Japan (Ueno in Tokyo). Every year on April 8th a rememberance ceremony is held at Shibuya station in honour of Hachiko and "man's best friend".

In 1987 Hachiko's story was told in the successful Japanese movie "Hachiko Monogatari".

 

とうとう(meaning finally - with some negative connotation) the American version of the film was released in Japan on August 8th - the Japanese number 8 is pronouced 'hachi'. Here is the Japanese trailer for that movie, starring Richard Gere as Hachiko's owner.

 

 

Posted via web from Js Nihongo