For my culminating project for the course, I chose two tech tools to incorporate into a lesson: YouTube and Blogs. I will admit upfront that I personally have used both of these tools in the past but have never married the two with students. Both tools are free to use and easily accessible for students to utilize.
The lesson objective was to have students watch videos in the Target Language (TL), interpret and understand what they are watching, and then to compose blog posts about what they watched. In their posts, they could write a brief summary of the video, their reaction to what they saw, and possibly a list of important vocabulary from the video viewed. These blog posts could then be shared with the class. YouTube has multiple German language channels publishing current video content from German speaking countries in Europe. I will introduce the students to two or three channels that I feel are great and have them subscribe to them for future reference.
Here is a link to the lesson plan covering this lesson.
I think that my lesson incorporates the TPACK philosophy. It combines Technical Knowledge through the introduction and use of YouTube and Blogs, Pedagogical Knowledge through my ability to introduce the lesson and create a setting where the students are able to successfully complete the task, and finally Content Knowledge of both the instructor and students. Students will hopefully quickly realize that by watching videos in the TL, that their TL understanding is better than what they thought. Also through the use of the writing reviews of the videos they will be able to demonstrate understanding and write/create a final product in the TL that will display their abilities.
The ACTFL standards that are addressed in my attached lesson plan are nicely incorporated into this lesson. Hitting three of the national standards in one lesson is a lofty goal, however I truly feel that students will be able to achieve the standards. They will definitely be able to achieve 1.2 and 2.2. With the use of their blog we will be able to address 5.1 and also have the ability to share their work with anyone in the world who has access to the internet. That definitely takes it beyond the school setting.
Here is a link to one of my German 4 student's BLOG. She has finished reviews of two TL videos already.
The lesson, I feel, went really well. This is an ongoing process. Since I chose two relatively user friendly tools, the students had no issues with the technology. They quickly were able to set up their blogs and most already had YouTube accounts. Once they were set up, they enjoyed the freedom of being able to choose the videos that they reported on. I think that there would have possibly been a different reaction if I had made them all do the same video. Most of the students really seemed to enjoy this. I do plan on making this a "thing" in all of my middle and upper level classes starting at the beginning of the next school year. I hope that the students will really appreciate the blogs as a digital portfolio of their work that they can check anytime throughout the year. One thought I had was at the end of the year when I do my end of the year interviews, they could pick their top three blog posts to review with me. They could tell me why they chose those three and discuss further.
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Friday, March 4, 2016
Reflection on Tools that I am Learning About
The following five tools I have been using and looking into are:
YouTube – I have personally been using YouTube for years,
but have not really incorporated it into lessons except for sharing the
occasional video. What I plan on the doing in the future is having my upper
level students subscribe to various German channels. I especially want to have
them access Deutsche Welle (a German news channel that posts several videos a
day). I would like to have the students get into the habit of choosing one
video post a week to blog about. The videos not only give them practice in
hearing the TL, but it also keeps them up to date on what is going in Germany
and also within Europe.
Blogs – Blogger – I learned about Blogger from taking this
class and am very glad that I did. I plan on making all of my students next
year create a blog at the beginning of the year that they will maintain
throughout the year. The blog will serve as a place to post all writing
assignments and also will serve as a digital portfolio of their work. It will
allow them to see how much their writing abilities improve over the course of
the year. It also helps to eliminate paper in the classroom and the need for me
to worry about having students turn in work. They can simply email me a link to
their posts. It is also an awesome way to share their work easily with the class.
Google Hangouts – I got to experience Google Hangouts via
our videoconference in the course. I was blown away with the ease of this
program. I have already started using it for purposes outside of school. I
would like to try to implement the use of Google Hangouts for speaking and
review opportunities. I could foresee a set of prompts that students would
prepare for ahead of time and then join the hangout to actually discuss the
topic with me there to oversee it. I love the ability to hold actual chat
windows as well as audio and video feeds. I also see the power of this program
with students who are out for extended time due to illness or medical issues. I
could also use this with potential homebound students that I might have in the
future. *** I plan to use this with my AP European History students in the
future as a way of reviewing outside of the class for the AP Exam.
Voki – I learned about Voki via our videoconference and a
post on Twitter. It really seems like a neat free tool that the students would
enjoy using. Giving students the freedom to create their own persona/character
adds so much ownership to the students. I envision using this with my lower
level students. They could create a Voki to introduce themselves and talk about
their likes and interests in the TL. I could envision sharing some of the Vokis
with the class. They could create and record their Vokis on their own at home
without worrying about classmates hearing them record the vocal parts. This is
helpful for students who are shy or reluctant to speak in class.
Weebly – I learned of Weebly through a Twitter post. Weebly
is a free website that allows students to create quick and easy websites for
presentation purposes. I found the program to be very user friendly, clean, and
easy to navigate. My German 3 students do a unit on the German Federal States.
I could see each student creating a Weebly for the state that they are
assigned. Weebly allows them to embed photos and videos. This allows the
students to find TL material to help in describing the state that they are
presenting on. It also gives them a clean and easy way to present and share
their information with the class. I already did a quick test run with the
program with a few of my National History Day students. They enjoyed using and
it really helped them produce first-rate presentations.
#Langchat on Twitter
I participated in the #Langchat on Twitter on Thursday evening, March 3rd.
Before the chat began, I took sometime to reflect on my
relationship with Twitter. I am relatively new to Twitter, having an account
for only a year. I find Twitter hard to use because a lot of time it moves so
fast that I can’t seem to keep up. Many times it just seems like a lot of noise
with no substance. This opinion has changed over the past few months. I had
never participated in a live chat on Twitter before tonight so I was very
interested in experiencing it firsthand.
As the chat started the speed of responses was unreal. I was
blown away at the pace that I had to maintain to read everything being tweeted.
To be honest it was frustrating at times. Quite a number of people were sharing
APPS that they were using or looking for more info on. I felt that I didn’t
have time to check them out and stay in the conversation. We also discussed how
we give feedback to individual students. I have never seemed to have that
problem. I always give personal feedback on each writing assignment. Sometimes
more than others, it depends on the assignment. It was nice to see other
teachers doing the same things that I am doing. It made me feel validated. I
also realized that many teachers are doing even more in their classes that I
was. That was also humbling.
One other concern that I had during the chat was that many users were using abbreviations that I had no idea what they were! It was like reading a foreign language sometimes! Since the #Langchat takes place every Thursday and Saturday, I do plan on participating in future chats. I have also brought one of my colleagues on board to participate as well.
One other concern that I had during the chat was that many users were using abbreviations that I had no idea what they were! It was like reading a foreign language sometimes! Since the #Langchat takes place every Thursday and Saturday, I do plan on participating in future chats. I have also brought one of my colleagues on board to participate as well.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Collecting Resources
Here is a list of the Language Teacher Blogs/Sites that I chose to follow:
1. Teacher Effectiveness for Language Learning
2. 3 RS 4 Teachers
3. Edutopia World Languages
4. Language Teachers' Cafe
5. Creative Language Class
Instead of talking about each of these individually, I will address them and their pluses as a whole. I personally like blogs that are to the point. I found all of these to be very clean and easy to read and navigate. All of them had something within their first few posts that drew me in. They all hooked me which is what an effective blog post should do. They were all full of helpful links and project ideas. I am very interested in following these blogs in the future to help me create to lessons and to improve upon what I am already doing in my classroom.
I have been using Feedly for years as a way of reading news online and thoroughly enjoy it. I have already added these blogs to my Feedly Feed. Now while enjoying my morning coffee, I will be able to read about the upcoming presidential election and new ideas in Tech and World Languages. I also like that Feedly has a very nice APP for my iPhone and iPad allowing me to access my feed no matter where I am.
1. Teacher Effectiveness for Language Learning
2. 3 RS 4 Teachers
3. Edutopia World Languages
4. Language Teachers' Cafe
5. Creative Language Class
Instead of talking about each of these individually, I will address them and their pluses as a whole. I personally like blogs that are to the point. I found all of these to be very clean and easy to read and navigate. All of them had something within their first few posts that drew me in. They all hooked me which is what an effective blog post should do. They were all full of helpful links and project ideas. I am very interested in following these blogs in the future to help me create to lessons and to improve upon what I am already doing in my classroom.
I have been using Feedly for years as a way of reading news online and thoroughly enjoy it. I have already added these blogs to my Feedly Feed. Now while enjoying my morning coffee, I will be able to read about the upcoming presidential election and new ideas in Tech and World Languages. I also like that Feedly has a very nice APP for my iPhone and iPad allowing me to access my feed no matter where I am.
ACTFL, Connected Learning, and 21st Century Skills
The statement from ACTFL's Position on Tech that connects the most with me is: "However, because language is one of the most complex of all human activities and interactions ACTFL also recognizes the pivotal role of a qualified language teacher to incorporate and manage the implementation of technology so that it effectively supports the language learning experience." In all honesty, there was nothing in the statement that I would alter or add. I think that ACTFL states tech's role clearly for all parties involved. It addresses the role of tech for the teacher but also gives advice to administrators in how tech should be used. I am glad that they emphasized the importance of not allowing tech to be used solely in place of an educator. For me personally, I see tech as another tool for me to use in my classroom. The internet and sites like YouTube provide a wealth of current target language material. Being able to incorporate tools like these hopefully assist me in making what I am teaching relevant and applicable to my students. As I look to the future, another goal is to make the integration of tech a very smooth process into my everyday teaching.
Connected Learning is a new concept in how we view education. Taking the traditional American approach to teaching, according to Connected Learning, is no longer an effective way of preparing students for success and jobs in the 21st century. Through the implementation of Connected Learning, we can utilize all of the technology that is available in our world and combine it with the current culture, student interests, and academics. All four combined will/should make learning more applicable to students and combat apathy.
One thing that I do with my German 3 students at the beginning of the school year is that they create a biography "Etwas über mich" in the TL. Up until now, these have just been hand written or typed and then displayed in the classroom. Using ideas from Connected Learning, I could see them using tech to research something about their future potential careers in the TC or have them interview someone currently in that career and then translate some of the conversation into the TL. Finally, they could create digital projects which could be uploaded to a neutral site where other students in the class could then see and interact with each other about their projects.
21st Century Skills call upon the four major skills that students need to master in order to be successful in our global economy. They center on the 4 Cs of Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity. Addressing these four topics together in regards to instruction will hopefully make our students not only more productive but also push them into higher order thinking skills....which as many teachers know, are difficult to reach with many of our students.
In my German 5 class we look at the various dialects spoken throughout the German speaking world. We listen to examples of native dialect speakers and read various texts in those dialects. Students then choose one of the dialects to research further and in the end try to produce a short passage in that dialect. One new idea that recently came to me after reading some of this material is a definite way to introduce more tech into this unit. Given where we live in Pennsylvania, my students have access to native PA Dutch speakers. They could reach out to them to create audio/video recordings of them speaking in the dialect and create oral histories of how the dialect was used in their families and how it and its use has changed over the years. Online tools like Skype or FaceTime could be used to hold the interviews and iMovie could be used to create videos of their interviews. It is tough to say how long a project like this might take since it would depend on who we could get to participate with our class. Their availability would partially determine the length of the project. Given that I am a native dialect speaker, I can see my ability to connect students with other speakers as a positive. One issue I could also foresee is that some older speakers might not be the most interested in participating at first.
Connected Learning is a new concept in how we view education. Taking the traditional American approach to teaching, according to Connected Learning, is no longer an effective way of preparing students for success and jobs in the 21st century. Through the implementation of Connected Learning, we can utilize all of the technology that is available in our world and combine it with the current culture, student interests, and academics. All four combined will/should make learning more applicable to students and combat apathy.
One thing that I do with my German 3 students at the beginning of the school year is that they create a biography "Etwas über mich" in the TL. Up until now, these have just been hand written or typed and then displayed in the classroom. Using ideas from Connected Learning, I could see them using tech to research something about their future potential careers in the TC or have them interview someone currently in that career and then translate some of the conversation into the TL. Finally, they could create digital projects which could be uploaded to a neutral site where other students in the class could then see and interact with each other about their projects.
21st Century Skills call upon the four major skills that students need to master in order to be successful in our global economy. They center on the 4 Cs of Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity. Addressing these four topics together in regards to instruction will hopefully make our students not only more productive but also push them into higher order thinking skills....which as many teachers know, are difficult to reach with many of our students.
In my German 5 class we look at the various dialects spoken throughout the German speaking world. We listen to examples of native dialect speakers and read various texts in those dialects. Students then choose one of the dialects to research further and in the end try to produce a short passage in that dialect. One new idea that recently came to me after reading some of this material is a definite way to introduce more tech into this unit. Given where we live in Pennsylvania, my students have access to native PA Dutch speakers. They could reach out to them to create audio/video recordings of them speaking in the dialect and create oral histories of how the dialect was used in their families and how it and its use has changed over the years. Online tools like Skype or FaceTime could be used to hold the interviews and iMovie could be used to create videos of their interviews. It is tough to say how long a project like this might take since it would depend on who we could get to participate with our class. Their availability would partially determine the length of the project. Given that I am a native dialect speaker, I can see my ability to connect students with other speakers as a positive. One issue I could also foresee is that some older speakers might not be the most interested in participating at first.
Monday, February 8, 2016
Tech Assessment at My School
After talking with some "tech savvy" colleagues, I quickly realized that even though they think that they are utilizing tech effectively, they are only on rung 1 or 2 of the SAMR model! This is something that I thought given what I had heard from students of mine and how they were being asked to use tech in these classes. Both colleagues sung the praises of Schoology as a platform to use with their students. Schoology provided them a means to use tech to reach students no matter where the students were in the course or if there were physically in school or not. I really felt that after talking to these teachers, their lack of knowledge of the power of actual tech integration was holding them back. I must fault our district partially though. They do provide awesome tech tools to our staff but not the training necessary to know how to affectively utilize and integrate them.
Because of the teachers' lack of knowledge, I found that often the students are way ahead of the teachers in their use of tech. However, these students are often not ahead of the teachers in knowledge of the tech and its possibilities. I found that the teachers were also frustrated at their lack of professional development and feel that they are blindly figuring out how to use all of this tech. As one teacher said: "God bless YouTube tutorials!" That speaks volumes to the problem. How am I or my colleagues ever to reach that magic TPACK triangle consistently?!
We all agree that the infrastructure is in place for successful integration, and we are very lucky and grateful for it, but we lack the basic knowledge of how to use it. Another problem our faculty faces is that we are provided little to no time to collaborate with fellow faculty members. If there are staff members who do know how to effectively integrate tech, the rest of us never get the opportunity to learn from them. This is really a shame.
On another note, in regards to websites being blocked, the teachers that I interviewed and myself all feel that more sites need to be blocked instead of "whitelisted".
One final point that I find odd is that our district, despite the amount of tax dollars spent on tech, does not have a goal or list of goals for using tech in the classroom. I am not sure why that is, but it is. Maybe if we were given goals or directives, it might be helpful to the entire faculty and help facilitate the integration of tech into the curriculum.
Because of the teachers' lack of knowledge, I found that often the students are way ahead of the teachers in their use of tech. However, these students are often not ahead of the teachers in knowledge of the tech and its possibilities. I found that the teachers were also frustrated at their lack of professional development and feel that they are blindly figuring out how to use all of this tech. As one teacher said: "God bless YouTube tutorials!" That speaks volumes to the problem. How am I or my colleagues ever to reach that magic TPACK triangle consistently?!
We all agree that the infrastructure is in place for successful integration, and we are very lucky and grateful for it, but we lack the basic knowledge of how to use it. Another problem our faculty faces is that we are provided little to no time to collaborate with fellow faculty members. If there are staff members who do know how to effectively integrate tech, the rest of us never get the opportunity to learn from them. This is really a shame.
On another note, in regards to websites being blocked, the teachers that I interviewed and myself all feel that more sites need to be blocked instead of "whitelisted".
One final point that I find odd is that our district, despite the amount of tax dollars spent on tech, does not have a goal or list of goals for using tech in the classroom. I am not sure why that is, but it is. Maybe if we were given goals or directives, it might be helpful to the entire faculty and help facilitate the integration of tech into the curriculum.
SAMR vs TPACK
SAMR: a ladder for educators to use to evaluate where their use of technology falls on a scale. This scale can be used to figure out if the tech is helping to achieve higher order thinking skills. The scale can be easily applied to any use of tech and the teacher can quickly see just what role tech is playing in the lesson and the student's achievement. The four categories are neatly named to reflect just what role tech is playing.
TPACK: unlike SAMR, TPACK is an approach to tech integration that allows the teacher to see how their teaching style, content knowledge and tech intersect and overlap. TPACK allows for a much deeper understanding of how tech can make one a better teacher when one realizes how all three focus areas overlap and meet. This is not only true for the learner, but more importantly, for the educator.
For me personally, I find that TPACK is makes more sense. For someone who is just starting out integrating tech into their lessons, SAMR is definitely a great tool. It helps the educator evaluate just what role tech is serving. Since I have integrated tech before, I find that TPACK is geared more towards me. It allows me to not only evaluate the role of tech in my lesson but also just how tech is merging with my content knowledge and the knowledge of my class and students.
1. Currently I feel that there are some lessons/projects that I do that fall into that magic TPACK triangle and then there are some that don't. I would like to hit the triangle more consistently.
2. One thing that I could very quickly implement would be how I handle formal writings with my upper level students. I would like to start making my students each create and maintain a blog for all of their various formal writings throughout the year. Currently, the students do not always get to read what their peers are writing in the target language. Blogs are free and very user friendly, presenting no costs and something that can quickly be integrated into my classroom, especially since every student has a laptop. After posting new writings, I could make the students view each other's work and comment on their pieces. The major issue that I could foresee would be students not completing the comments or even their own formal writings. Possibly given the new tech and new approach to formal writings, students might be more engaged than I think. Attaching a grade to comments would be another avenue for me to hold students accountable for doing the work.
TPACK: unlike SAMR, TPACK is an approach to tech integration that allows the teacher to see how their teaching style, content knowledge and tech intersect and overlap. TPACK allows for a much deeper understanding of how tech can make one a better teacher when one realizes how all three focus areas overlap and meet. This is not only true for the learner, but more importantly, for the educator.
For me personally, I find that TPACK is makes more sense. For someone who is just starting out integrating tech into their lessons, SAMR is definitely a great tool. It helps the educator evaluate just what role tech is serving. Since I have integrated tech before, I find that TPACK is geared more towards me. It allows me to not only evaluate the role of tech in my lesson but also just how tech is merging with my content knowledge and the knowledge of my class and students.
1. Currently I feel that there are some lessons/projects that I do that fall into that magic TPACK triangle and then there are some that don't. I would like to hit the triangle more consistently.
2. One thing that I could very quickly implement would be how I handle formal writings with my upper level students. I would like to start making my students each create and maintain a blog for all of their various formal writings throughout the year. Currently, the students do not always get to read what their peers are writing in the target language. Blogs are free and very user friendly, presenting no costs and something that can quickly be integrated into my classroom, especially since every student has a laptop. After posting new writings, I could make the students view each other's work and comment on their pieces. The major issue that I could foresee would be students not completing the comments or even their own formal writings. Possibly given the new tech and new approach to formal writings, students might be more engaged than I think. Attaching a grade to comments would be another avenue for me to hold students accountable for doing the work.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Introductory Post to World Language Tech Integration!
Guten Tag! I'm Douglas Madenford and I teach German and AP European History at Central Mountain High School in Mill Hall, PA. I instruct 9th through 12th graders in German covering levels 1 through 5. I am also a native Pennsylvania Dutch speaker and author. You can check out my PA Dutch Blog here.
I try to incorporate tech into my lessons when possible. To date the two most "techie" lessons that I do are:
German 3 - Creating Digital Children's Books. After learning about the narrative past, each student creates their own digital children's book all in German. They have the possibility of creating the projects using various formats ie. Power Point, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker.
German 5 - Creating a Class News Broadcast. As a completion to German 5, the entire class works together to create a full newscast covering national and international news, weather, sports, personal interest stories, a does it work segment, and an interview with someone. The kids do all of the script writing, acting, directing, filming and editing. Some filming is done in school in our media room and other segments are completed by the students outside of school.
A goal for this program is to learn more ways of incorporating tech into my classes especially new ways to enhance the communicative actions and opportunities for my students.
Here is a photo of my awesome family: my wife Jessica, who teaches art, my daughter Estella and my son Oscar.
I try to incorporate tech into my lessons when possible. To date the two most "techie" lessons that I do are:
German 3 - Creating Digital Children's Books. After learning about the narrative past, each student creates their own digital children's book all in German. They have the possibility of creating the projects using various formats ie. Power Point, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker.
German 5 - Creating a Class News Broadcast. As a completion to German 5, the entire class works together to create a full newscast covering national and international news, weather, sports, personal interest stories, a does it work segment, and an interview with someone. The kids do all of the script writing, acting, directing, filming and editing. Some filming is done in school in our media room and other segments are completed by the students outside of school.
A goal for this program is to learn more ways of incorporating tech into my classes especially new ways to enhance the communicative actions and opportunities for my students.
Here is a photo of my awesome family: my wife Jessica, who teaches art, my daughter Estella and my son Oscar.
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