Reflection of my blogging experience

At the very beginning, I really disliked the idea of blogging as I doubt how it can be used in my language classroom. However, after using it throughout our course on New Technologies in Language Teaching, I have discovered the effectiveness and usefulness of this tool. First, it allows us to share our thoughts with our students and vice versa. Second, quizzes and exercises like Hot Potatoes could be embedded in my Blog to check my students' understanding after a grammar item or a topic has been taught. Third, useful links and videos can be embedded for sharing and for illustrating students' errors in writing and speaking. Forth, students could share what they have read about on language with their classmates. Fifth, learners who do not like sharing their views in class could also have a space for them to voice what they think and talk about their experiences in language learning. And most importantly, a language community would be developed when more and more learners have become frequent bloggers to the class blog.

Hot Potatoes

The name 'Hot Potatoes' first sounds weird to me. I can't imagine what kind of tool it is by just reading the name. Actually, it is a tool which enables teachers to create web-based materials. It's really user-friendly. I think we can use Hot Potatoes when creating our school E-learning materials and also we can use them in our class blogs so as to give some challenges for our learners after teaching a textbook unit. After using it for a serveral times in class, I find the most difficult part is to embed a video because we need Dreamweaver for help. However, for the rest, they are really easy! So, why not give it a try?

Can learners use concordance feedbacks for writing errors?

This is a reflection written after reading my classmate 'Connie's Blog' about the use of concordnace feedbacks for writing errors. I think it is a great idea for having this kind of tool which allows learners to learn by themselves and retrieve authentic data base for their self-correction from the Internet. The tool has provided a one-stop solution for learners who would like to improve themselves. However, I believe the use of it would only be limited to a few types of learners:
1. Highly motivated learners who do not mind reading a lot and choosing the appropriate information from the retrieved data base for their own use (I doubt how many learners fall into this category!)
2. Learners with good English level (Otherwise, the concordance feedbacks are useless to them as they do not understand the retrieved data which is written in English.)
3. Professional writers, editors and language teachers
Then, what about low achievers? Anyway, it's difficult to invent a tool which can suit everybody's needs. Personally, I think it is very useful for my job as I can collect explanations from the Internet for my students' errors. I hope future developers of CALL could bear the low acheivers in their mind when inventing tools which are for their needs.

Use of Twitter in language classroom

Is it possible to use Twitter in language classroom? Or is it possible for students to use Twitter out of their classrooms to communicate with their classmates in English? I think it is possible. The reason being is that Twitter a good platform for students to communicate in English with one another as it looks less intimidating than Blogs. Also, through the daily exchanges among students, their English fluency can be improved.

Wikis Vs Blogs

A funny and informative video about Wikis and Blogs. Which comments made by Kennedy and Nixon do you like most?

How to embed a Youtube video into my blog

YouTube can become our Saviour sometimes. Now, I know how to embed a Youtube video into my blog after a few failures. Thanks to the video sharings by millions of people from all over the world! Here is my Saviour.

WebQuest

This video is about WebQuest. The speaker of this video, Bernie Dodge, is the founder of WebQuest. According to his explanation, 'the goal then, and now, was to create lessons that make good use of the web, engage learners in applying higher level thinking to authentic problems, and use everyone's time well'. Now, please enjoy the video.