Week 15: Using Technology to Give Feedback.

The article for this week is called “Assessing Language Using Computer Technology”. The article is about the use of computer in the field of language assessment which is referred as Computer-Assisted Language Testing.

The article talks about that online quizzes can have some advantages as well as disadvantages.  For students and teachers immediate test results and feedback are an important advantage of using computer technology in the field of assessment. Teachers have fewer tests to evaluate and students don’t have to wait for having their results. However, that depends on the kind of questions they have to answer.  There are some questions that need that the teachers read carefully what students wrote to evaluate if it is correct or not. Also, the scoring system may fail, we have to remember that technology is not perfect and sometimes it can commit mistakes.

Furthermore, when teachers need to give feedback to students. Using technlogy and a computer is easier because using this tool teacher can just send feedback to each student quickly and the feedback is personal for everyone. In this way teacher do not have to be face to face with students in order to check feedback.

Week 14: Benefits of Participation in classroom.

The article for this week is called "10 Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in Classroom Discussions" by  Maryellen Weimer, and the second article is "Increase Student Interaction with 'Think­Pair­Shares' and 'Circle Chats'" by Kristina Robertson, I read about how to boost participation among language learners and the positive outcomes of doing it. Besides this, we had the opportunity of experiencing how technology can help us to promote participation with students.

The first article article was very helpful; the author exposes the benefits of making students participate in classroom discussions. Something that I learned from this article is how participation can provide feedback to teachers. When listening to the way students express their ideas, teacher can identify what areas of the language they need to emphasize to improve, for example. Moreover, a wrong answer from a student can help teachers know what is not clear enough for students, in this way they can try to focus more in that áreas.

In the second article Robertson's provides examples of two different activities that can be performed in the classroom in order to boost students' participation. These activities are "Think­Pair­Shares" and "Circle Chats". What I liked from this article is that the author explained the steps of each activity in a very clear and detailed way. Also, using this methodology students have the opportunity to increase interaction, and the teacher has an opportunity to hear and monitor many students including those who don’t usually speak in class

Week 12: Project Work Benefits in Language Learning.

The articles for this week are called “Maximizing the Benefits of Project Work in Foreign Language Classrooms” and “Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning” both share and  interesting information about benefits of project work.

 “Maximizing the Benefits of Project Work in Foreign Language Classrooms” is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges through activities that allows them to study, do research and act by themselves using their abilities and interests. This article mention recommendations for English as a Foreing language teachers and materials writers who want to integrate project based learning into their curriculum. Also, it is focused on how English language teachers can improve the benefits of project works.

The second article called “Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning” explains the essential elements of meaningful projects that make PBL different from “doing projects.” These competencies make the project to be a meaningful because they help students to be prepared for the future. In the article show us an element that was from the 21st Century Skills, such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology. These competencies will permit students to be confident people who are able to work effectively in teams and will enable students to take advantage of the opportunities of the new digital age.

In conclusion, both articles are very similar, they describe the steps that students must follow to create a project, and they provide examples of how project based learning has helped students to get very good results while learning a language.

Week 11: Using Mobile Phones for Language Learning.

The article for this week is called “Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom”. It is an interesting topic for this week. And at the same time is a good to use mobile phones to learn. As we know, nowadays it seems mobile phones are used everywhere by everyone.

The article described twenty ways to use mobile phones to support second language learning, inside and outside the classroom, Students now are using mobile phones more than a computer because with mobile phones they have the opportunity to take them everywhere. For this reason, this article mention some of the ideas that teacher can use to teach, using a mobile phone. As we know, students are aware with the social networks so teacher should take advantage of this situation by leaving homework or doing different activities using social networks.

 Furthermore, using mobile phones allow teachers to use and practice with four skills: Writing, speaking, listening, and reading. Mobile phones are not only to distract students, teachers can integrate mobile phones in education and get benefits from them. But at the sometime there are some challenges that can be presented while using mobile phones, for example:  lack of access to mobile phones, Cost of mobile phones and wireless services, Noise and disruption in class, and privacy considerations. But teacher have to think about this challenges and find a way  to use this tool.

In conclusion, the article offer a lot of opportunities for language learning by taking advantage of a tool that students are intimately familiar with and carry around at all times.

Week 10: Using wikis for writing Skill.

This week I have the opportunity to read the article “Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis”.

The first article is “Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis”. A wiki is a website where anyone can edit anything anytime they want (Richardson, 2006). Wiki is a great tool for online collaborative writing activities. This article was trying to find out how applicable wikis are with ESL learners; a group of students were chosen to work with wikis. It say that at the beginning the result of using this source was not the good, the result were slow and that happen maybe because the tool was new for them. Then students were only adding their ideas to their group page. Well at the end of the process students were motivated and excited about the writing project throughout, because of the following reasons:

·         The wiki was a new medium for them to express their ideas in writing.

·         It was easy for them to learn and work with wikis.

·         Their group report would be read by other groups; there was a real audience for their writing.

·         They enjoyed the process of sharing ideas.

·         They enjoyed the online contact with each other outside of class. The writing project led to a visible product on the Web: the completed wiki.

In conclusion, know we already know that Wikis have a great potential in promoting collaborative writing by learners outside of class. This tool is very helpful for teachers and also, for students. Using wiki, teachers the opportunity to practice and develop the writing skill with students. This tool is very useful because students or even teacher have the opportunity to use it because it has a large range of formatting features were they can practice to improve the writing skill.

Week 8: Using Online Dictionaries and Technology to Develop vocabulary and Reading Comprehension.

The articles from week 8 are: “Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning” and “Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension” both articles are very interesting and instructive because they focus on online dictionaries and vocabulary. As we know vocabulary is very important to learn because is one of the essential things when learning a language.

The first article is “Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning”. This article let us to know the importance to help students to introduce dictionaries for language learners. There are different dictionaries that students can use and get familiar with them. The dictionaries have features such as, a corpus-based compilation of words, word frequency data, collocation guides, authentic examples of words, and vocabulary. Some of the most common dictionaries are: Merriam-Webster.com, Dictionary.com, oxford dictionary, Cambridge dictionary, etc. Furthermore, something I learned from this article  was that building vocabulary it does not consist only in knowing the meanings of the words, but it also consists in using the words in context.

The second article is “Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension” it is shown that nowadays multimedia plays an important role in the improvement of acquiring vocabulary and reading comprehension. Technology includes a combination of text, audio, images, video, graphics, animation, and interactivity content forms.  Vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension have a reciprocal relationship because when learners have a large vocabulary, they decode more words automatically and they can comprehend a text easily. If they have a larger vocabulary is going to be better to perform with reading comprehension tasks. Learning vocabulary is very important because is useful and beneficial for reading comprehension. What do you think about the importance of learning vocabulary for reading comprehension?

Week 7: Using Internet to Develop Reading and Writing Skills.

The articles from this week are called “Using Internet Based Children's Literature to Teach EFL” and “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction” both areticles are very interesting and informative at the same time. The first article show as that using a web is a nice tool and not only to find something we need but it helps as to create our own material talking about students and teachers. As we know, nowadays, students do not like to read and we as teachers have to find a way to encourage them to do it.

 The article talks about the extensive reading and it says that is an important and a benefit for students to develop reading habits, but it mention the importance of using technology to get the attention on students to read. Some of the benefits that extensive reading allow students to develop or improve are the following skills: vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension and writing. It is important to mention that students and teachers can find webs that are inexpensive or free that help you with materials to read. But, not only have that, the use of web allowed you to use materials that illustrated books or short stories that present to you audios. This is a good methodology to encourage students to read. Furthermore, Mikulecky mentioned that there are some websites that allow students to get literature in English to practice their reading skill, and at the same time it allows them to overcome some barriers that were common in the past, like problems of access, and expense

The second article show us that we can use technology for students to get interested in the  writing skill. It told us the we can use Websites, blogs, and emails to help students in writing. Using this tools, students have the opportunity to write and publish their works, but at the same time they have the chance to receive comments and corrections about their writing. Nowadays, teachers and students have the opportunity to use technology to improve their learning process. There are so many ways or tools that help us with different materials to practice your skills, but at the same time you enjoy the activities.