Marian Faulkner
Social Action Projects and Keypals
Social Action Projects and Keypals
Social Action projects give students the opportunity to learn about a real world problem and then work to solve the problem. Keypals are activities in which students email each other to learn about different cultures or discuss common topics. Judi Harris, in her article Curriculum-Based Telecollaboration, has identified three types of telecomputing activities, which are interpersonal exchange, information collection and analysis, and problem solving. She suggests a number of activities and projects within each of these three. Keypals is a type of interpersonal exchange, while social action projects are a prolem solving activity. A number of the activities Harris mentions would be easily used and/or adapted for foreign language classrooms. I am interested, however, in using a type of keypal and a possible social action project in my classes.
Although Harris states that keypal were one of the first types of telecomputing activities and that they are a burden to manage, I think I would like to try them. EPals Global Network gives teachers a opportunity to try keypaling free of charge. It includes 35 accounts, which have to be used on the Global Network. Otherwise, you pay from $8 to $14 an account for their all access, high quality Epals School M@il (www.epals.com). I generally have less than 35 Spanish 3 and 4 students a semeser, so the free account may work well for us and I could have the students send me a copy of one email and reply per month to keep check on their progress. Additionally, once we started emailing we could develop questions to ask our epals and bring the answers back to class discussions.
The social action project that Harris discusses in her article about Nicaragua sounds like a wonderful experience for students. It is an I*EARN project called The Rope Pump Project Clean Water for Nicaragua where students from the United States contribute money for a rope pump and then communicate with the people it helped (Harris, 1998). After checking out the I*EARN website (http://www.iearn.org/index.html), there are a number of projects that would be ideal for our school, my Spanish classes and even the Spanish club. Friends and Flags is a multicultural learning project to promote cultural awareness and respect. For many of my students their foreign language and social studies classes are the only places they are truly exposed to other cultures. If I could give them the opportunity to communicate and work with students all over the globe on projects of peace and awareness, I believe we could foster an attitude of respect and understanding. Other projects include Operation H.O.P.E where countries in crisis are partnered with students who want to help and develop long-term relationships and other more laid back collaborations like an International Teen Scrapbook. There are a number of choices and most appear free. This may be an excellent way to get my Spanish club out of its stagnate meetings and into some worthwhile projects.
Harris concludes by pointing out the value of these projects that use technology, but where the technology is not the focus. Students are given the opportunity to collaborate, to construct their own knowledge and to be a part of something larger than themselves (Harris, 1998). It is my responsibility to give these types of experiences to my students. Now that I know about them, I do not have the choice not to share them with my students.
Posted at 10:32AM Jun 20, 2006 by mrfaulkn in General | Comments[0]
RSS and Podcasting
Real Simple Syndication and Podcasting
In Will Richardson's article, The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web, he offers ideas for RSS and Podcasting that would be wonderful in a foreign language classroom. RSS is Really Simple Syndication in which subscribers can order specific types of information, which is collected by an aggregator and stored until the subscriber is ready to read it. Podcasting is described as taping a radio show and airing it on the Web (Richardson, 2006). He says that students can use RSS to filter and store information on topics of interest as soon as they are available. Podcasting on the other hand, would then be used to share information from the student's perspective with the teacher, classmates and others on the Web.
Each of my classes will do some project which they must collect information on another country or culture. I think it will be an excellent use of RSS for students to set up a feed early on in the semester on a country or culture of their interest and then during our computer lab time they would have materials ready to read on the subject of their choosing with little effort in the collecting process. Depending on the type of project, I would have them collect certain information from the RSS and use it for writing, reading and speaking practice. I think the podcast could be used in conjunction with the RSS by having students do initial research with the RSS and then share their findings in the form of a broadcast. They could create a newsprogram, a radio show, a political speech, a poetic reading, etc. Students could do additional podcasts in lieu of pronunciation practice and submit it online to me. They could also listen to each others podcasts and offer suggestions.
I found it helpful to read in Richardson's article they way he describes the shifting role of teacher in the age of the Read/Write Web. He describes us as facilitators putting our students in touch with experts, teaching them methods for collecting and sharing information, and fostering an environment of collaboration and global connectedness (Richardson, 2006). I am not a native Spanish speaker, but by using RSS, podcasting and other Read/Write Web tools, I can put my students in contact with native speakers. I know a great deal more about Mexico, Costa Rica, and Ecuador than Spain, but my students can be exposed to Spain and other countries more easily using these new tools and in the process I can learn as they learn. He also shares risks with his readers and anyone who has seen any crime drama television show recently or listened to the news know exactly
what he means. As the technological climate changes, we as educators need to know the risks, but not shy away from technology because they exist. We can use these resources to help our student understand the dangers and take precautions to protect them as we employ these valuable learning resources. I think it is even more important for those of us in low-resource counties to work with our students to not only see the Internet as music sites, email, and encyclopedias, but to see it as information when and how we want it and an opportunity and vehicle to communicate with others.
Posted at 09:21PM Jun 19, 2006 by mrfaulkn in General | Comments[0]
Digital Archives - Endless Possibilities
Digital Archives
After reading Mark Hofer's article, Online Digital Archives, and doing a simple search on Google for digital archives for Mexico and Latin America, I have to say I am truly excited. I knew all this wonderful information was out there, I just did not know it was there in a format I could easily access and use to help my students do research and projects. I like the way Hofer presents the information about digital archives. He is correct, there is a lot of great information in digital archives, but it must be paired with student activities wherein they construct the meaning (HOfer, 2004).
Digital archives are sites which house collections of media focused on a specific topic, according to Hofer (2004). Those that are usually the best and most reliable are sponsored by the government agencies or universities. Hofer describes some digital archives and student-centered activities that can accompany them. He suggests using ideas and images from digital archives for writing prompts and poetry, following and contacting a NASA mission, arguing for mathematicians to be part of the Math Hall of Fame, student inquiry research projects, and developing digital stories (Hofer, 2004). After my simple Google search, I can see similar activities occurring in my classroom. I found a site for digital archives for Mexico (http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/mexico/resources/mexico-libraries.html) and for Latin America ( http://www.utexas.edu/lai/resources/). I could have students use these and other sites to find information about countries, culture, art, history, language, etc. They could then use any of a number of these ideas for writing prompts, writing songs and poetry. The Benson Latin American Collection found in the digital archive of Latin America Initiative from the University of Texas at Austin offers a site entitled Border Cultures: Conjunto Music which has information about the blended music of the borderlands of Mexico and the United States which includes photos, music clips and a journal. Students could read and view this information and compare it to some of their music, write about how music connects and/or divides people, or write some music of their own. Another digital archive, Digital Librarian Latin American Resources (http://www.digital-librarian.com/latinamerican.html) has too many sites to mention. One offers interactive exhibit objects from The Cultures and History of the Americas. Students could research this type of information and develop research questions about who used these artifacts, and why and how and if it was effective or if it is still used in some form today. There are also sites devoted to specific peolpe, like Pablo Neruda. Students could research these sites and make arguments for famous Latin Americans and Spaniards and why they should get into the Hall Of Fame for their work. CARE is also a website housed in the Latin American Resources digital archive. It offers virtual tours to Guatemala and Peru. One to Guatemala shows high school students working with a local community to fight poverty. Students could discuss similar topics after reading and watching the virtual tours. We could even make it relative to what goes on in our community, by comparing our town to the one on the tour and seeing what is being done there and in our town and if either place had an idea that may work in the other. I know everyone keeps saying it, but the possibilities are endless.
Hofer does discuss the importance of copyright laws and fair use issues. This is of particular interest to me because of the cheating epidemic at our school. After assigning a paper this past semester, I had almost half of my students turn in papers that were basically copied and pasted from websites. One student did not even bother to un-highlight the words from the website. I do not know if they did not think I would check, or did not think they did anything wrong, or if they are so used to doing it that they no longer think it is wrong, but I gave them all zeros and reported all of those in Honor clubs. I have already had to sit in on one Honor Society hearing. After reading the articles for this session, I believe I know now how to better design assignments to avoid some of this and I also know how to teach my students how to avoid this, if they so choose.
I like the digital archives for offering organization of information on the web and leading me and my students to more reliable sources. I am looking forward to all the ideas that will stem from exploring some of them.
Posted at 09:03PM Jun 18, 2006 by mrfaulkn in General | Comments[0]
Hypermedia Documents
Hypermedia Documents
The study of cultures lends itself nicely to creative and multi-layered projects in which students are given guidance as to which basic information should be included, but are encouraged to follow their interests and explore all types of information. Within the foreign language classroom, I see hypermedia documents as a way to integrate technology while continuing to foster understanding and knowledge of other countries and cultures. Hypermedia documents are cards or screen displays that offer information in a multimedia format and have additional links to further related information. Instead of students creating a posterboard presentation of information about a country, bringing a CD with music from that country and sharing other pictures or artifacts with their classmates, students can use hypermedia documents to present all this information and more on one display screen with links to music, pictures, and more.
In the article, The Evolution of Critical Standards As Students Design Hypermedia Documents by Erickson and Lehrer, they discuss how middle school students used this approach in social studies classes and how critical standards developed with respect to hypermedia design as well as questioning skills and information gathering (1998). They make the point that it is both creation of a final product and the learning process that are important. Through their research study which lasted two years, they found after the first year improvements in designing research questions occured and after the second year students were able to reflect on and discuss the value of research questions. Over the two years the design of the cards also changed from simple information presentation to an approach with more communication with the intended audience. As this study was done with 6th and 7th graders, it is my hope that 11th and 12th graders may be more advanced in the area of developing research questions (not fact, hope) and through concentrated lessons on what is worthy of investigating may move to the reflection and discussion stage more quickly. Erickson notes how difficult it is to create and continue this type of learning environment with student inquiry steering the class. I believe I have a few things working in my favor with implementing an environment such as this with projects like hypermedia documents. I often teach students for more than one year. I teach Spanish 2, 3, and 4, so I often teach students twice and some even three times. The opportunity to establish this type of environment as students take Spanish 2 would help to insure level 3 and 4 students are more prepared for student-based inquiry, discussion and reflection. I also have more flexibility with integrating technology and making changes to my classroom environment because my students are not tested on an End-Of-Course State Test, although most go on to college and must take a placement test and further language courses. Early in this course we discussed how strategy matters, not the hardware or software. I could see a teacher saying hypermedia documents sound great and giving the students the assignment to make one on a country or culture (I could have seen myself doing that a few years ago), but the importance for student growth lies in the teacher making the process worthwhile and teaching students how to learn in a way they can translate to other disciplines and to life learning. The Erickson article speaks to that idea, so I found it important not just to discuss the tool, but the learning environment that should accompany it.
In the courses I teach I hope to work more towards the type of environment where cultures are taught with student-inquiry at the forefront. In my Spanish 4 classes I have always had students choose a country and do weekly projects in Spanish on different aspects of that country (history, people, plants, animals, travel, music, food, etc.) culmunating in a final paper which brings it all together. I would love to start using hypermedia documents for this semester long project. A card could been done for each week's project and the final week students would show how it all comes together through links, ordering of cards, and overall design. Then their final paper would be one of reflection on the project and what they have learned instead of rewriting projects into a paper.
Posted at 11:36AM Jun 18, 2006 by mrfaulkn in General | Comments[0]
Conversation Tools - Software Part 2
Conversation tools are an excellent way for foreign language students to practice reading, writing, speaking and interpreting writings and speech in the target language. In his article, Computers as Mindtools for Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking, David Jonassen suggests conversation tools as a way for teachers to engage learners in constructing knowledge. He mentions three types of conversation tools interpersonal exchanges, information collections, and problem-solving projects. Within these types are email, global classrooms, electronic field trips, information searches, simulations and many others (Jonassen, 1998). I believe using these activities with my students will provide them with more exposure to native speakers, cultures and technology. I
searched the Internet to find resources for conversation tools with foreign language students. One site I found was the Global SchoolNet Foundation. It was founded in the 1980s by teachers to promote global classrooms and students. It is a free resource with a wealth of resources, support materials and project-based
learning scenarios (http://www.globalschoolnet.org/index.html). It includes online expeditions, geogames, projects, awards, and strategies to support online learning. I also found a website entitled Resources and Lesson Plans for World Languages, which includes internet activities in Spanish, cultural activities, and an electronic field trip, Hispanic World Unit (http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/edwor.htm#spanish). The author of the Hispanic World Unit shares lesson plans for trips to many Spanish-speaking countries via the Internet and suggests using Shareware or free software to facilitate these field trips. This is helpful in my teaching situation. These activities will give my students the opportunity to explore these worlds and then construct their own meaning. Jonassen says with Mindtools, "learners are actively engaged in interpreting the external world and reflecting on their own interpretations (1998)."
Jonassen does bring up a concern that I share, "Online communication presumes that students can communicate, that is, that they can meaningfully participate in conversations (1998)." I will need to ensure that my students are prepared to communicate online appropriately in English and Spanish. Jonassen suggests supporting students in their attempts to communicate. He shares information about the Collaboratory Notebook which is a hypermedia system for science students. This site scaffolds conversations for participants. I feel I can offer the same type of scaffolding for my students by comparing my students' needs in online communication with the types of scaffolding offered by sites such as Collaboratory Notebook. The Global SchoolNet Foundation requires participants adhere to Acceptable Use Guidelines for Good Global Citizens, which details what is inappropriate in online conversations (http://www.globalschoolnet.org/gsh/pbl/citizens.html).
I am interested in exploring these conversation tools in my classroom. I believe I can use aspects from Jonassen's suggestions and the aforementioned websites to engage my students in the Spanish language. With my Spanish 2 classes, I would like to do international emailing and parts of the electronic field trip Hispanic
World Unit. The emails would give students a chance to experience real-life communication in Spanish with someone their own age and the field trip would expose them more fully to the cultures we study and give them the chance to explore areas of their interests. In levels three and four, because of our smaller class size, I could use more of the geogames and online explorations. I would also like for these students to email and do some electronic field trips. More advanced students could develop their own electronic field trips, after doing some of the online ones. They could evaluate what they liked and disliked and then tailor their "eTrip" to their liking. I could then use these trips with my Spanish 2 students.
I like the ideas put forth by Jonassen in which conversation tools are used to engage students in the social aspect of learning and constructing meaning. Learning a foreign language is generally more successful when it is shared with others and relative to our lives. I believe the use of these tools will help to make it both for my students.
Posted at 12:22PM Jun 16, 2006 by mrfaulkn in General | Comments[0]
Digital Storytelling
Digital Stories in Spanish
In Session 10 on Tools for Student Production, I found the Kajder article entitled Constructing Digital Stories interesting and feasible for my classroom. The strategy involves using pictures along with a narration to tell a story using computer software for making movies. Kajder offers a seven step process based on research for using digital storytelling in the classroom. The seven steps include writing a script, planning a storyboard, discussing and revising the script, ordering the images with a program such as iMovie or Movie Maker, adding the narration, adding special effects and adding music (Kajder, 2005).
In the article, Kajder suggests a story of only one page in length. She states that this length makes the task seem less overwhelming to most students. This would be helpful for my students at different stages of language learning to write a story without having to write so much. The step where discussion and revision take place would allow my students time for help with grammar and spelling in the target language as well as a chance to talk with peers in Spanish about opinions and suggestions for improvements. Kajder repeatedly mentions how these strategies have been suggested because of limited computer time for most classes. As this
is true in my case, I can see based on the steps when we will need to be in the lab, what work we can do in the classroom, and how to best have my students pace themselves.
I believe I could use digital storytelling with students in Spanish 2 to review material from Spanish 1 and introduce themselves to their classmates. We spend time reviewing who you are, where you are from, using adjectives to describe yourself, present tense and basic past tense. As we review, students could start
collecting picures from their childhood and present day to use as the pictures for their digital story. After the review, students would write the one page biography of themselves in Spanish and then plan the storyboard with their own pictures. This would help students avoid breaking copyright laws, which Kajder notes as a concern. Writing about themselves would also keep the story the most important part of the assignment, which Kajder notes as important. She states, "Do not let the technology get in the way of the story (Kajder, 2005)."
The North Carolina Standard Course of Study for second languages has seven goals which include interpersonal, interpretive and presentational communication as well as culture,comparisons, connections and community. This project would allow students to meet objectives in interpersonal and presentation communication, make connections to technology and community through their digital story presentations.
I also think I could use this with levels 3 and 4 to present different cultures within the Spanish-speaking world to each other. Students would be able to meet objectives in all seven goals as they researched and read about cultures, made comparisions with their own culture and made connections to history and technology. They would be able to work on all three types of communication through research, writing, and presenting in Spanish.
I like the way Kajder describes digital storytelling as a connection to students' talents in other areas. This will give my students the opportunity to showcase what they do well and enjoy, such as writing, using technology, drawing or designing, and music. This project will allow for using technology while having the students
communicate more in the target language. I look forward to trying digital storytelling this fall.
Posted at 11:37AM Jun 14, 2006 by mrfaulkn in General | Comments[0]