Try a game as a language learning activity!

   I believe that using games a great activity for students to learn a second language because it is easy to motivate student to get involved in the activity and, finally, they encounter the lesson which a teacher would like to teach.

For example, Phantasy Quest1 was interesting! Although I complete the tasks a little, I was able to see various vocabulary with having fun! Phantasy Quest 1 is a point and click type adventure game, where you awaken to find yourself alone on a beach. Nearby is the wreck of your ship. All I need to do is that using the mouse and clicking anywhere on the game screen. Some things I can activate simply by clicking on them, while others I may have to use an item that you have collected in your inventory. From this game, teachers might pick and teach some vocabulary or make students the sentences popped up and check the walkthroughs. To complete each tasks, students have to read the sentences so I believe that this is a good way for students to be exposed to new words or sentences. Also, by making this game as a pair work, they can negotiate and talk about the tasks which would lead them to practice the speaking skill.

    Also, the name of another game I played is ‘Juiceand Fruit’ and I played the game three times. At the beginning I could not connect to language learning, however, as time goes by, I recognize the vocabulary related to a serving beverage store. So this game is to show the skills as a juice maker and serve the beverages requested by customers within a limited time. If a user achieves the specific score, the number of customer is raised. I can choose some vocabulary related to such as a type of glass, fruit flavor, various straws, strip pattern, and so on. For the teacher’s role, we can guide or give more specific instructions when teachers encounter students who are in stuck by monitoring their performance. Above all, this game is very simple and addictive so I think that students probably enjoy this game to win the higher score. And before starting this game, I can encourage students to play this game with the competition. So the student who gets the highest score will get the juice as a reward. I will definitely use a walk through for the game because it can be helpful for students to learn the game. With a walk through, I can make them guess the walk through first and then provide the answers. Also, the images from the games are very helpful and simple for students to remember the vocabulary. To assess students, I can make some pop quiz of vocabulary like filling in the blanks to check their understanding or make them engage in a cooperative activity as a writing activity to create the instructions how to play the game. One more thing as an assessment, I can provide the images of each vocabulary and play the role as a customer to make the student pick the right image from my beverage requests. 

Performance Indicator - ESL.E. PK-1.4.1.8:
Students negotiate and manage interactions to accomplish social and classroom tasks.

Game Link: Juiceand Fruit

Do you know Gamification?

Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems and increase users' self contributions.

Gamification has been studied and applied in several domains, with some of the main purposes being to engage, teach in classrooms, entertain, measure, and to improve the perceived ease of use of information systems. A review of research on gamification shows that a majority of studies on gamification find positive effects from gamification. Gamification inspires students to develop competencies and skills as they focus on the activities of the game. And the game mechanics encourage students to compete against themselves, looking to reach a personal best or to satisfy their own learning goals. By participating in these types of activities, students acquire information and hone abilities while achieving interim goals that provide a clear sense of progress, rather than simply focusing on completing the course. Game mechanics reinforce the fact that failure indicates that more work is needed to master the skill or knowledge at hand.

According to Tom Chatfield, In terms of education, perhaps most obviously of all, we can transform how we engage people. We can offer people the grand continuity of experience and personal investment. We can break things down into highly calibrated small tasks. We can use calculated randomness. We can reward effort consistently as everything fields together. And we can use the kind of group behaviorsthat we see evolving when people are at play together, these really quite unprecedentedly complexcooperative mechanisms. He provides a video game called EverQuest(Killing dragons) as an example to support the importance of Gamification. This is a player-developed,self-enforcing, voluntary currency, and it's incredibly sophisticated player behavior. Also he emphasized that ‘engagement’ can be transformed by the psychological and the neurological lessons we can learn from watching people that are playing games. But it's also about collective engagement and about the unprecedented laboratory for observing what makes people tick and work and play and engage on a grand scale in games.

To use games in an L2 class, we need to consider 3 elements: commercial and educational games, to play or to design, and integration. Classroom activities using commercial games might include analysis of the game play experience targeting specific vocabulary, language functions, or cultural themes. For example, learners could be directed to keep a game journal in which they are asked to record relevant information such as characters, setting, language, and/ or reflect on their in-game choices. This experience then serves as background knowledge for other classroom activities such as speaking tasks or writing assignments. By creating goals, narratives, and content, learners must engage in the language at a level beyond that of playing the game Integration can include, for example, the use of game content as pre-writing content for a writing task or as an impetus for a classroom debate. In addition, a design task might take the place of a more traditional writing task, following the same multi-draft process to teaching writing skills and strategies.

※ References:

7 Things You Should Know About Games andLearning

Tom Chatfield: 7 Ways Games Reward theBrain

"Just Playing Games? A Look at the Useof Digital Games for Language Learning"

Twitter as an educational tool

It was a great opportunity to learn various technologies which might play a significant role in teaching including Twitter! Also by reading two articles, I have learn more details to use Twitter in quality. One of two articles I chose introduces the uses of the popular micro-blogging tool in the instructional setting.  Since that brief posting, the writer has come across a lot of articles containing examples and suggestions for using Twitter in instructional applications. While there’s still going to be some overlap in the concepts presented in these articles, they clearly meet the goal of providing a thorough set of ideas and examples for leveraging Twitter in the educational process. Also the writer provided “6 Examples” from last June’s post to review to learn more and plan your approach to using Twitter in (and out of) the classroom.

Another article is about a steady stream of educational Twitter use. It makes sense: Twitter is free, easy to use, and most high school students are already on it. The writer mentioned some examples of Twitter functions which might be effective and authentic: Hold Tweet Chats and Conversations, Elicit Peer Feedback in Real Time, Have Students Tweet in Character, Involve the Community, Follow News and Issues, and Encourage Group Work

I agree with two articles and Twitter is one of the most powerful mediation tool in our society and education as well. This is because that twitter is an excellent mediator for students to access learning with various ways available such as enhancing the classroom network and communication, instant feedback between a teacher and students, positive washback and so on. Thus, I strongly believe that Twitter is greatly helpful for teachers to develop their professional. 

※ Article:

Over 100 ideas for using Twitter in the Classroom

Teaching with Twitter

Twitterchat, How COOOOOL!

 It was an interesting and great opportunity to participate in Twitterchat! I have attended Breakfast 530 and we shared about "What are you doing to keep spirits up during testing with an increase in tension & anxiety?"

The Breakfast Club is not about 1 person or group of people, but about the power of the community. Each time a new participant joins the chat we become a stronger, more connected community and can provide each other even greater value as part of a dynamic PLN. Founded in July, 2014 by Scott Capro,  BFC’s goal is to ensure that every educator who has an interest is supported in building their PLN, and that everyone who joins our chat knows the power of sharing their voice. We believe through elevating these voices and joining together as a community education can become truly transformative. With the help of the phenomenal #BFC530 community, Jessica manages the behind-the-scenes work of setting up topics and moderators each week. She loves to support all educators, regardless of position, tech skill or comfort level so they can be empowered to take their practice to the next level through global discussions, reflections, and connections rooted in interests and edu-passions.

This enables me and teachers to share the ideas and get some ideas. And I think this can inspire teachers with various topics and apply to their lessons and curriculum design. So I would take a look other communities and might have a chance to participate in the chatting!

Explore ePals!

I would like to say that ePals connects students to amazing learning experiences

ePals enriches K-12 learning in the classroom and at home with innovative web-based tools and the highest standard of children’s stories, games and digital media on the Web.

Teachers use the free ePals Global Classroom to create real world, culturally- enriching learning experiences for their students. With ePals classroom matching, a high school class studying Chinese can connect with a class studying English in China, or the classes can work on a special project together.

There are some projects from ePals. One of them is Class in Vermont, USA Seeks Cultural Exchange for The Way We Are PowerPoint Project.

To be specific, they are currently studying culture, focusing on ancient India, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. The teacher would be interested in having the students communicate with other class to learn about the modern day culture as well as share theirs.

Also another one I was impressed is World War II on the Home Front: Civic Responsibility--Smithsonian in Your Classroom. In this lesson, students learn about life in a time of national emergency by examining five full-page reproductions of posters, each of which urges civilians to take some kind of voluntary action to buy savings bonds, to plant vegetable gardens, to conserve materials, to give their all at the factory. The class considers the meaning of citizenship by focusing on an essential question”: How does volunteering demonstrate civic responsibility?

The lesson is part of a unit created by the Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project of the Council of Chief State School Officers titled “Liberty and Citizenship.

Using the ePals/National Geographic Project, The Way We Are, students engage in a collaborative learning experience. Through email exchanges, students learn about the daily lives and culture of students in another region of the world. After exchanging four emails with a partner class, students work in groups to make a PowerPoint presentation showing the similarities and differences they have discovered and highlighting a selection of their ePals letters that they particularly liked. Moreover, ePals includes a diversity of programs like writing center and science center, which is almost a real school!

Through ePal, I will be able to utilize authentic resources provided by different centers. For example, I can introduce my students various thoughts from Global Citizens and make them read some articles so that my students would be exposed to global people and cultures! 

Explore ePals! Click this-> ePals

Let’s get involved in Social Networking!

Let’s get involved in Social Networking!

Let me introduce Classroom 2.0! 

This social network is great for people who are interested in social media and participative technologies in the classroom. I can participate in the great discussions here, to receive event notifications, and to find and connect with colleagues around the world. They provide various functions such as search engine, resources, and sharing information! 

Now visit the website! Click this -> CLASSROOM 2.0

Enjoy the privileges from Network!

Enjoy the privileges from Network! 

It is evident that in our current society network has a tremendous importance in our education. Some people side with that there is low correlation between network and education while others do not. I however, believe that network is playing a significant role in our education and will become a more powerful mean in the future.

Firstly, a learner is like a tourist. This is because we can see and learn the world through network. Network has become part of our life. It is true and, personally,, I always carry the network like my backpack to go to school every day. According to George Siemens for the video that I have watched, We have a technology available. Through social software, we are able to connect individuals around world. Like his mention and examples that he can connect to someone in Australia or Canada, our connection individually as well as collectively is broader and allows us to embrace the diversity. I think that our education should not overlook this flow in our current society and take advantage of this, because learning is also the important part of our life!

Secondly, a learner is like a cell of a human body because learners consistently need nutrition to grow. To be specific, the writer mentioned that “Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. I agree with this and network is one of the most powerful tools to facilitate this and I admit, therefore, network is important to forward the content.

Personally, it was the first time to encounter 'Connectivism' theoretically. Learning is not individual activity anymore and it is obvious that we are able to access to various knowledge on line around the world. This article and video motivate me to utilize Connectivism in my teaching in the future.

Article: Connectivism: A Learning Theory for theDigital Age, George Siemens
Video : The Network is the Learning,George Siemens