Gamification in language learning

Gamification, as I see it, is using games to let users get involved and make progress when they focus on the activities. There are several features of game that can be used for other fields according to Tom Chatfield, such as measuring progress, rewards for effort, clear feedback, etc. Some elements were also mentioned in A Comparison of Computer Game and Language-Learning Task Design Using Flow Theory. The author believes the key points for a sucessful game/task should be (1)goals, (2) feedback, and (3) a skill/difficulty balance. Educators can use such features to motivate students to overcome challenges.

Gamification seems dominant in early childhood education. For the young kids, they cannot focus on the study for a long time. Therefore, playing games is the best way to teach kids. One common way to review words is to ramdomly point the word and the students say it out loud. I think one of the game's feature, the element of uncertainty, is the factor that interest the kids. In addition, many teachers love to sent out stickers to praise the kids. In the end of the semester, they children will get little presents according to the number of the stickers. It is the "reward" and "feedback" in the gamification. So I think gamification is not just playing games, but use the game's feature to teach.

Some think that playing commercial games is wasting time. However, Julie M. Syke argues that both educational and commercial games as potentially useful for language teaching and learning. Only, teachers need to aware that if the game can corresponde to the desired learning outcome. The games in the classroom should not be designed for purely entertainment purpose. In the article 7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning, it says that nowadays games and game mechanics are increasingly being employed at colleges and universities. Teachers need to learn gamification and apply it in the classroom.

Twitter in ESL classroom

Unfortunately, Chinese government blocked Twitter as well as Facebook, Youtube, etc. Though we have Chinese version of Twitter, they are different in some ways. If China no longer block Twitter, how can I use Twitter in teaching English?

In the article How Twitter Can Be Used as a Powerful Educational Tool, it mentions hashtags. By searching hashtags, we are able to see what the world are saying about the topics. Also, we can join the discussion by adding hashtags. As a teacher, I will tweet a question with a hashtag and then ask my students to answer it with the same hashtag. It could be asking their opions towards a event, or finding solutions to a problem. In addition, I will let my students attend some Twitterchats, such as #21stedchat, #ESL. They will be able to share their ideas from a student's aspect with the world.

 Teaching with Twitter says that students can give instant feedback of a presentation or a video on Twitter. I think it is a great idea for those who unwilling to give opions in class. Students have to summarize their ideas in 140 characters, which is challenging. But for those have not much to say in a foreign language, it could actually release their pressure and encourage them to express ideas.

Twitterchats

I attended a Twitterchat whose hashtag is #asiaED. It is a slow flow chat with one question a day so that members could write down their opions without one-hour time limit. I checked out other Twitterchats and I think this one is the best for me.

This week's topic is about computering. I found it difficult to understand the abbreviation in other attendants' Twitters:

Then I realized abbreviation is so important due to the 140-character format when I wrote my answer.

 

Some of the attendants gave links of their blog or other websites to express their ideas. I would say it is a better way than tweeting several times to answer one question. I do think Twitterchats is a good way to communicate with other educators even experts, but attendants should find the best suitable group for them. Some enjoy the fast flow discussion while some believe a good answer should be well considerated.

 

I think Twitterchats could be a good form of professional development for me. It provoks thoughts and expands horizons. Discussing different topics encourages me to think deeper and wider. Exchanging ideas with educators from all over helps me see things in different aspects.

ePals

 

ePals is a community connects students and teachers all over the world for interactive projects. It develops the Peer-Assisted Learning Theory. Students would feel more comfortable to communicate with peers instead of teachers. Students from different countries can help each other in language learning, culture understanding and many other projects by sending emails. It is also a great opportunity to make friends. There are many wonderful projects in ePals, I would like to introduce three educational projects:

Who Are We? A McGraw-Hill World Languages Project
This project is designed for native speakers of English who are learning Spanish, and native-Spanish speakers who are learning English. Only classes that meet this description will be accepted! Classes will be paired together for project collaboration so that students have the opportunity to practice the target language with native speakers.

 The Way We Are--A National Geographic Project
In this introductory project, students will engage in a collaborative learning experience. Through email exchanges, students will build friendships and learn about the daily lives and characteristics of the local environment of students who live in another region of the world.

Let's Paint the Globe Green!
This project aims at connecting the eco-clubs of various schools and providing them with a platform where they can share their green practices in their cultural and environmental surroundings. It will not only help develop friendships across the globe, provide an understanding of various cultures, but also give them a global understanding of the Go Green concept.

Apart from the projects, I found that the in2Books program very useful. The program has students from around the world talking about their books and authors, posting their comments, writings, and reviews. However, the in2Books program is only available for schools in the U.S. If I have a chance to teach in the U.S. I will encourage my students to join the program. Students would develop deeper comprehension and thoughtful writing in the program.

 

 

Classroom 2.0

The networking website I chose is classroom2.0.

I think it is a great tool for new teachers like me.

I did not find the forum section helpful. Most of them were not very active. Most of them are from last year or even older.

However, I do think the member section is helpful. I can easily get access to other teachers' blog and learn from their skills and experiences. There are blogs and videos for you to chose. I think it is a very good platform for us to get to know other teachers who are more experienced. Seeing what they have been doing in their classrooms can inspire us or give us tips on similar situations.

http://www.classroom20.com/

A Learner is like a spider

After reading the Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and watching the video "the network is the learning", the first thing that can be compared to a learner popped in my head was a spider.

As mentioned in Siemen's video, the network is the learning. In that sense, learners are like spiders working on their webs that connects to others and other sources. Learning is no longer an isolated activity thanks to the technologies we developed. Learning is continuous and associated with many other aspects. Nowadays, learners are facing the challenge of getting the ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts.


Siemens G. claims that Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual. A spider can sense everything through its web. Same with a learner who stays current by many different ways: networking, friends/family, the internet, books/journals, etc. A spider without a web can not survive. A learner without sources to stay current can't learn.

Diigo & Pinterest

How to manage tons of information? What's the efficient way for sharing them? Two tools named Diigo and Pinterest can help.

From the table we can see the differences between Diigo and Pinterest. In my point of view, Diigo is more academic. We can highlight text and make notes in sites. On the other hand, Pinterest is more visual. But that also means if a site do not have a good picture, we’ll overlook it. I like Pinterest better because it’s easy to use and it’s enjoyable to look through the colorful pin broad.

I would continue to use both tools for different purposes. When I am working on projects or writing essays, Diigo is definitely useful for managing the websites I need. However, when I want to look for ideas of the subjects that interest me, I would search in Pinterest. For example, I want to add a tattoo so I can search “tattoo” and the beautiful tattoo pictures would come out.