Pod Cast, it's useful technology for English learning!

There are a diversity of technologies that contribute to ESL teachers and students for effective teaching and learning!

A Podcast is a digital medium that consists of an episodic series of audio, video, digital radio, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed on-line to a computer or mobile device. The word is a neologism and portmanteau derived from "broadcast" and "pod" from the success of the iPod, as audio podcasts are often listened to on portable media players.mp3

    

 I think that English language podcasts are one of excellent ways to learn English efficiently. First of all, students can listen to them anytime anywhere they want! This allows them to save time and money, which is beneficial. Also, with a little dedication, English language podcasts will help learners quickly improve especially their listening skills and proficiency. Podcasts often provide transcripts so learners are able to listen and read at the same time, or look at the transcript if they miss or fail catching some part of the listening.

For example, there is an episode about having a picnic. By listening to the conversation between a man and a woman from the podcast, students will be asked to find the vocabulary related to picnic objects such as picnic blanket, sandwiches, basket, dishes and so on. I will check their answers and provide supplementary explanation some vocabulary and expressions that they might encounter the first time. As a pair activity, they will draw a picture to imaging the circumstance. After the activity, they will be asked to display their pictures and see other groups’ pictures to choose the best one. For the homework to assess their understanding, I will ask them to write the journey related to a picnic they had or they want in the future with using the vocabulary they have learned. I believe that this lesson will help students develop 4 skills effectively and they definitely enjoy learning English with this pod cast!

※ This episode of pod cast links is : Having a picnic by ESL Pod

※ Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

                  https://www.commoncraft.com/video/podcasting

Serious Games as language learning

   According to Wikipedia, serious games are simulations of real-world events or processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem. Although serious games can be entertaining, their main purpose is to train or educate users, though it may have other purposes, such as marketing or advertisement. Serious game will sometimes deliberately sacrifice fun and entertainment in order to achieve a desired progress by the player. Serious games are not a game genre but a category of games with different purposes. Serious games are primarily focused on an audience outside of primary or secondary education. The game that I chose is ‘The Garbage Dreams Game’ which goes inside the world of Egypt’s Zaballeen(“garbage people”). This game invites players to take on the role of the Zaballeen, who impressively recycle 80% of the trash they collect. At beginning it starts with one neighborhood, one factory, and one hungry goat. Game users have 8 months to build their recycling empire and get Cairo’s total recycling as high as they can. The users have to put any garbage they can recycle into the correct processor by clicking and dragging. Send the rest to the landfill within limited time.

   I played three times to make the cities in Egypt clean by sorting the recycling items! Also I have learned a lot such as we cannot put coffee paper cups in paper recycling. I think this game is very educational as well as authentic and I would definitely choose it as a learning tool out of the classroom. This is because the game would allow students not only to get new information but also be exposed to different people in the world and the many different ways that they live. Moreover, considering language learning, they may have many chances to be exposed to the vocabulary or phrases related to recycling while doing the game. One more interesting thing is that, although it is not focused on language learning, students might have a chance to study management because they have to manage money that they earn from recycling and time to conduct the game more successfully. 
 In my lesson, I will introduce today's topic(recycling) to students and hand out KWLS chart in pairs so that each pair can writes down what they already know, what they want to know before conducting the activity with the serious game. And then I will provide some news or articles related to the topic before students play the game. This will lead students to think about the topic but, I won't take time too much for this reading part because they might get bored. After talking about what they have read, I will group them in pairs to participate in the game. Finally, students will have time to write the rest of KWLS chart and two pairs will be a group to share their ideas. 
 To assess what they learned, I will use two task types which are problem solving and telling a story. After sharing their ideas with the chart, each group would be asked to have a presentation to summarize their ideas and this can be a way to assess their understanding by listening to their oral production. Or, teachers can ask students to write their thought about recycling and then collect their writing to assess.

※Game: The Garbage Dreams Game

※Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.16:
Students apply learning strategies to acquire information and make texts comprehensible and meaningful.

A Game in ESL Class

     I would like to introduce a game as a tool of ESL class. Pollekes Blue Room Escape is a click type room escape game created by Ruud for EscapeGames24. In this game, I was locked in a blue room and tried to escape the blue room by finding and using items. There were three spaces such as a living room with a sink, a front entrance and a computer room and I had to solve puzzles to escape. While playing the game, the game provided some instructions or hints. I played twice because the first time, it took long time and actually, I could not complete the task. So, I checked the walkthroughs before doing it the second time. 

  If I use this game in the class, I will teach some vocabulary provided by the game like a balloon, a fishnet, and so on and definitely it will be a good way for a speaking group work(three or four members).  Through this game, students would be able to be exposed to various vocabulary and some instructions from the game. Before starting the game, I will set the context to warm up the activity and introduce some vocabulary they might not be familiar. Also, I will provide a sheet of walkthroughs with a couple of sentences for the beginning part and have students complete their own walkthroughs with their members. This will allow students to practice speaking and writing to solve the task. During the game, I will walk around and monitor their performance to check their understanding and how they are doing the task. To motivate their participation more spontaneously, I will provide some rewards to the winner who escapes the room the first or I will limit the time to escape the room. After they finish the game, I will give the walkthroughs to compare their own walkthroughs and collect their walkthroughs to assess their performance. Also I can use walkthroughs as an assessment like filling in the blanks to check their learning.

Performance Indicator - ESL.E.2-4.4.1.8:
Students negotiate and manage interactions to accomplish social and classroom tasks.

Try this game! -> Polleke's Blue Room