Keeping Up With Educational Technology Trends From Your Desktop

Slide 1: Keeping up with Educational Technology Trends from your Desktop Alicia Cundell Qatar University acundell@qu.edu.qa http://del.icio.us/acundell http://qutechnews.edublogs.org

Slide 2: Why use technology in Language Learning?

Slide 3: Why Technology?  Today’s youth are growing up with constant digital stimuli  This constant interaction with digital stimuli has lead to different learning processes  These changes have resulted in physiological changes to the brain  We need to prepare them for their futures after their education

Slide 4: Technology: how?  As a solution  To be more productive  To do things we couldn’t do without them

Slide 5: Web 1.0 for professional development  Online journals & magazines  TESL-EJ  The Internet TESL Journal (ITESL)  Teaching English with Technology  Listservs  TESLCA-L  TESL-L

Slide 6: How is learning changing now? Students “can either be passive receivers of media messages or they can be digital content creators and critical thinkers.” Source: Retrieved January 18, 2008, from video in the classroom.com : http://www.needleworkspictures.com/vic/

Slide 7: Web 2.0: The Read/Write Web  anyone can be an author  no knowledge of programming necessary  connecting and collaborating with others

Slide 8: Web 2.0 for professional development: Blogs  What are blogs?  Individuals share their knowledge, expertise and experiences in practical applications  Organizational blogs as a means of keeping faculty updated  As a personal tool for internalizing your own experiences

Slide 9: Web 2.0 for professional development: Blogs  Example ELT Technology Blogs  Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day  Technology for QU Faculty  ELT Notes  Language Lab Unleashed

Slide 10: Web 2.0 for professional development: podcasts  What are podcasts?  Like a blog, but in audio format  Often follow interview or talk show formats with guests and experts  Can be downloaded onto mp3 players and played in the car, on the bus, etc.  Examples of ELT podcasts  ELT Podcast – The Teachers’ Lounge

Slide 11: Web 2.0 for professional development: wikis  What are wikis?  Web sites that can be written by a group of people  Facilitate collaborative learning  Draw on knowledge, expertise and experience of many people as opposed to one  Examples of wikis devoted to technology  QU Foundation Classroom Technology  The web 2.0 for EFL teachers  99waystouseapodcast

Slide 12: Web 2.0 for professional development: rss  Technology that works for you by pulling only new information from a blog, wiki or Web site and putting it all in a central location  Video: RSS in Plain English

Slide 13: Web 2.0 for professional development: rss  Aggregators that use RSS technology  Feedblitz - uses email to deliver content  Web-based aggregators  Google Reader  Bloglines  Netvibes  Learn more about RSS

Slide 14: Web 2.0 for professional development: social bookmarking  What is social bookmarking?  Saving your bookmarks online to a Web page and organizing them with tags  Most popular Social Bookmarking tool: del.icio.us  Watch the CommonCraft video

Slide 15: Web 2.0 for professional development: social bookmarking  How can bookmarking be social?  Having bookmarks online makes them public: anyone can see what you save  Follow your favourite professionals through rss to find out what they are bookmarking (use rss!)  http://del.icio.us/acundell

Slide 16: Web 2.0 for professional development: online videos & tutorials  Search the Web for tutorials or info using video search engines in YouTube, Google, Yahoo  Example Sites expressly for tutorials  Teacher Training Videos  Commoncraft – technology in Plain English  Atomic Learning – subscription required, but some free demos available

Slide 17: Web 2.0 for professional development: online conferences, lectures & workshops  Web 2.0 technology has made it possible to broadcast live events over the Web  Examples:  'The Web 2.0 for EFL Teachers: Podcasts, Blogs, Wikis , Virtual Worlds and Digital Games' Web- based conference Nov. 2007  Webheads in Action – regular chats & webcasts

Slide 18: Web 2.0 for professional development: Webquests  WebQuests are guided inquiry-based lessons where research is done on the Internet and then reported and usually applied.  WebQuests always have the same structure:  Introduction  Task  Process  Evaluation  Conclusion

Slide 19: Web 2.0 for professional development: Webquests  Examples of WebQuests as professional development tools  A WebQuest – Blogs and RSS  Digital Natives: Reading, Writing and Learning in the 21 st Century  A WebQuest on WebQuests: An Introductory WebQuest for In-service EFL Teachers  A WebQuest about…Creating WebQuests

Slide 20: Web 2.0 for professional development: Second Life (SL)  What is Second Life?  An Internet-based virtual world where residents where socialize, connect and collaborate with others.  What can you do in SL?  Buy, sell, rent property  Set up a business  Hold a conference

Slide 21: Web 2.0 for professional development: Second Life (SL)  Examples of SL professional development  SLanguages 2007 – hosted by Edunation  Free seminar series – Edunation  Language learning in Second Life – Lancelot & Eucation

Slide 22: Web 2.0 for professional development: other tools  Social Networking: Facebook, My Space, Twitter  Slideshare: online presenations  Yahoo!Groups  Discussion Boards  Online chats  Online paid courses

Slide 23: Example Technology Tools  Mainstream technologies: discussion boards, blogs, wikis, podcasts, multimedia production (PowerPoint, Photo Story 3, VoiceThread)  Students make comic strips or animated movies with dialogue boxes using Web 2.0 tools, such as make beliefs comix & Dvolver,  Students send speaking task audio files via email through springdoo as homework  Students share poems, stories online and share with others for commenting with: PowerPoint, VoiceThread, The Sims On Stage,

Slide 24: Follow up resources  Web 2.0 Tools  http://del.icio.us/acundell/web2.0tools  My blog:  http://qutechnews.edublogs.org