Lai Chi Kok Primary School Project

A DST contest for teachers: DISTCO 2009

Good news, folks. There’s a digital storytelling contest for teachers, organised by Dr Bulent Dogan of the University of Houston, whom I know personally. Since you have already produced a digital story for me, why not enter for this competition (they now have an international section)? All you need to do is to submit a completed a digital story to them.  So give it a think!

Here is the DISTCO 2009 flyer.

Here is the contest website: http://www.distco.org/

Give it a think!

If you need any more information or help, let me know.

Redoing what we have undone; reliking what we have unliked

Many of us will know that one way to learn to use a software programme is to explore it on our own, by trying out and experimenting with the various functions. During this process, we will make mistakes, but making mistakes while exploring a piece of software can be a good thing, because we can always learn from our mistakes. And computer technology provides us with a great incentive for experimenting, and even for making mistakes: it gives us the ‘undo’ function.

This is a marvelous invention, because we need not fear making mistakes. In real life, it’s a different story. Mistakes can be costly. And very often, there’s no going back. As a result, most of the time, we’d rather play it safe, or stay in the comfort zone. “If I could undo this career decision!” “If I could undo this chapter of my life!” “If I could undo my choice of undergraduate major!” “If I could undo this relationship!”

Hang on! Now undoing a relationship can be done easily, on Facebook.

The word “unlike” was recently voted as the Word of the Year 2009 by the American Oxford Dictionary. You see somebody’s message or picture on Facebook, and immediately you decide to like it. You click on “Like”; voila, you have declared your liking for the message or picture.

A few hours later, when you re-visit the message or picture, you think that well after all, you don’t really like it that much. You can change your mind instantly, click on “Unlike”, and voila, you don’t like it any more.

Well, I’m not a social psychologist, and in any case, I’m an old-fashioned middle-aged person. I’m the least qualified to say what this instant Liking and Unliking say about how modern folks relate to things and people. (Notice that ‘unlike’ is not the same as ‘dislike’. To dislike requires mental effort; to unlike … well you just don’t like it any more.)

I can only say that once I like someone or something, it will take quite a bit of time to like them less, or to stop liking them, and this process will take place gradually. I’m unable to voluntarily unlike someone or something that I have liked.

How many people use the “Unlike” function on Facebook? If the answer is “very few”, why do they attach this function to every post?

Now, not only can you unlike someone or something at the click of a button, you can even “unfriend” someone by simply hitting the word!

Very soon, we may have “unteacher”, “unstudent”, “unspouse”, “unbrother”, “unsister”, “uncolleague” …. you name it. “I don’t like you for a teacher, so I unteacher you.”

Even the syntax is telling. You “make friends with” someone; but you simply “unfriend” them. “Making friends with” (3 words) someone is a longer process; “unfriending” (1 word) someone can be instantaneous. (Of course one day, English may have “I friend you”, since it already has “I unfriend you”.)

But perhaps I shouldn’t be too pessimistic. You can unfriend someone any time you like, but you can always “refriend” (another Facebook jargon term) them later. Soon, Facebook will give us “relike”.

Together we have achieved something great

… and that is, together we have completed a c ourse which has been entirely PAPERLESS.

Something you should be proud of, brag about, and remember for some time to come ….

You have helped to save the environment.

What do you think of the video lesson?

A ‘textbook’ on digital storytelling

This morning, Icy Lee sent me a link to a review of “Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity” on the journal TESL-EJ. Icy was alerting me to the book, but she didn’t know that I’d got the book already.

This book is like a textbook on the use of DST in education. Chung Chi Library has got one copy, and I’ve got one copy. So those of you who wish to borrow my copy, please let me know.

I’m delighted to learn from the review that National Institute of Education, Singapore, is doing some work on DST in their teacher education programmes. DST has flourished in ‘western’ countries for a variety of purposes: giving voice to underprivileged groups, art education, literacy education … Its application in TESOL has just begun to be explored. In Asian countries, DST is almost unheard of, in general teaching and in TEFL. So those of you who use it in your teaching will be pioneers in TESOL in the global as well as the Asian arena.

Here is the link to the review:

http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/past-issues/volume13/ej50/ej50r4/

And a reminder that if you wish to view Icy’s Opportunities story again, it’s on our WebCT homepage, inside “Completed Digital Stories”. Another story which I highly recommend is “A Postcard from Prague”.

See you next Thursday, and please make an effort to turn up punctually; we have a guest speaker.

 

 

Feedback on Term paper Proposals

Thanks to all of you for turning in your term paper proposals. Most of these are quite well thought-out. Some people have already started.

I can’t over-emphasise the importance of starting your teaching project as early as possible. If you have read my Lai Chi Kok project blog, you will recognise the importance of starting early, as you may run into technical problem after technical problem.

The proposals you submitted can be categorised into two types:

(a) Focussing on one tool or activity  (eg., wikis, DST, radio drama) for developing a particular aspect of language learning (eg., speaking, writing, grammar, pronunciation).

(b) Incorporating technology (eg., PPT, Mind maps) into a normal lesson to see how it can raise the effectiveness of teaching.

Both approaches are fine.

Two reminders, though:

(1) ‘Means’ vs “End”.  The technology is the means. The end is language teaching and learning. In your planning and implementation, ask yourself again and again, and again, in what way this technology or computer-assisted activity, can help me achieve my language teaching/learning objectives.

(2) Criticality.  At the Master’s level, it’s not just trying out something. It’s trying out something, and then reflecting on and critiquing your project. So, throughout the project duration, make a note of how things go. My Lai Chi Kok project blog is one example. (Blogging is one form of journal writing.) Sometimes, you may even have to record (video/audio) your lessons so that you have a record of how things go. You may talk to the students from time to time to find out their difficulties or thoughts. You may administer a questionnaire during or after the project to collect your students’ perspectives more systematically.

Remember: In the term paper, you do not only tell me what you have done; you have to be able to reflect on, discuss, and critique, what you have done.  This is part and parcel of Master’s level training.

 

 

 

 

Public lecture by Craig Mundie from Microsoft

Attended this afternoon, a public lecture by Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft, and one of the three most senior executives at Microsoft who succeeded Bill Gates after he retired.

This was quite an eye-opening lecture. Mundie pointed to the next phase of computer technology development, which is NUI, Natural User Interface.  This is moving from interacting with computers through keyboards and mouse’s, etc., to more humanlike modes of interaction, like ‘talking to, and with, computers’.

Mundie also showed and demonstrated the next generation of computers: a ‘computer work table’ which allows several people to stand around a ‘computer table’, and key in commands using their fingers; a foldable computer the thickness of cardboard paper….

During the Q and A, one member of the audience asked whether further advances in computer technology might further take away people’s jobs. Mundie said he had been answering the question for 30 years. If computers can take over some human beings’ work, then people will be able to find other kinds of work. In fact, he wouldn’t want to see human beings trapped in low-level, mechanical, work all the time. If computers can take over the more mechanical, mundane work, then human beings can move on to work that is more creative and challenging.

I immediately thought of marking compositions, especially by secondary teachers. (The mechanical grammar exercises that teachers of primary and secondary students are marking day in and day out: I think this should have been taken over by computers long long ago.) At the moment, computers are still not clever enough to mark compositions for teachers. But as computers become more and more powerful, theoretically, that day will come. (At least, marking compositions on the grammar and vocabulary level.)  Teachers may still mark a few just to keep a feel for their students’ writing and progress, but it is absolutely unconstructive that teachers should plough through piles of compositions after piles of compositions, when they can spend their time more constructively in planning more interesting and effective lessons.

It isn’t right that teachers should spend their all their weekends marking compositions.

Your proposal for the term paper

A reminder to submit a brief proposal to WebCT before this Thursday’s class. It is not a formal proposal, but a paragraph outlining the project you wish to do for the term paper. So just keep it informal. Use point-form if you wish to. This is to compel you to start working on the project soon. Otherwise if you run into difficulties, you may not have enough time to adjust your direction. If you have read about my Lai Chi Kok project blog, you will know what I mean.

I can understand that for those of you teaching in a primary school, you may not be able to do something which is highly student-initiated. You may find that your project is more about how YOU use technology in your teaching, rather than how THE STUDENTS use technology for learning. This will be especially the case, if you have only lower grade levels to teach. This is OK.

Be realistic about the scope of your project. You may be very ambitious and wish to do a very big project. But this will require a lot of time, planning, and preparation. At the end of the day, it is how you present your work in the term paper itself that counts the most. What I mean is, allow enough time for the writing up. This means that you should strike a balance between the scope of the project and the time you need to write it up.

If you are not teaching now, you may either (a) evaluate a computer-based/online learning package (e.g., Tense Buster), or (b) choose a topic related to computer-assisted language learning and write a conventional literature-based paper.

If you need clarification, do not hesitate to email me or talk to me in class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audacity

Just a reminder that Audacity is freeware. It is not perfect, but good enough for general use. Plus, there are some tutorial videos on Youtube (search “Audacity” on Youtube) that explain how to do things with Audacity. One cool thing you can do with Audacity is to convert an MP3 song into its karaoke version.

To get Audacity, google “Audacity”, and follow the links and instructions.