Digital Storytelling

This is Randy and my's attempt to make a digital story about trips we've taken with pictures from the trips that we liked.

The Breadth of CALL

My first two weeks of classes have already past by and my knowledge of CALL has already grown exponentially. Before entering this class I had never really thought deeply about what types of resources constitute as CALL and what resources don't. When I thought about CALL I always just thought about the internet and how different websites could aide in language learning. I never considered Powerpoint presentations or Facebook as CALL resources.
After these last two weeks I have realized that CALL incorporates many more resources than I had originally thought. CALL includes anything electronic that aides in language learning whether that is a social networking site or software that helps students present their information to the class. This has shown me that CALL resources can help students with many different skills that are essential for their language learning. Their are websites that help students with the basic four skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Then there are also resources that help students learn different strategies to help make their time in the classroom more effective as well as resources that allow them to collaborate with their classmates or native speakers outside of the classroom. Some websites teach the students cultural content while they learn the language and some of them help the students just manage their assignments outside of the class. These resources all help the students with their language learning, yet, there are also resources to help teachers create lesson plans, manage their classrooms, provide supplementary material, and connect with other teachers to get advice and collaborate.
All of the types of resources explained above don't even cover all of the resources that are out there for students and teachers to use. One of the problems with the amount of information and different websites out there is because it can be hard to figure out which resources are good and helpful and which ones aren't worth using. This is why it is essential for a teacher to thoroughly evaluate any website or resource that they want to use in their classroom. The nice thing is that there are even resources out there to help teachers effectively evaluate the software or resources that they are going to use.
All of this information is overwhelming at first. I feel that this class will help me sort through the different resources and figure out what I might want to use in my classroom in the future. It is just nice to know that there are so many helpful resources out there for teachers and students to draw upon and it's great to start learning about them before I start my teaching career.

Evaluating "English Daily"

The website called 'English Daily' is a free online resource that allows learners to practice their reading and writing skills. The website has multiple sections that allow the students to read about different topics in English. Most passages are short and a question and answer section follows which tests the learners knowledge about what they just read. There is a section however that provides longer passages in English.  That section is called Comprehension which allows the learner to read a more extensive passage and answer comprehension questions at the end of it. The link to the website is http://www.englishdaily626.com/.  There are many different criteria with which a website can be judged. The criteria that I believe is useful in order to evaluate a language learning website for reading and writing skills are:

• ease of use and accessibility for teachers and learners
• amount of content that is beneficial
• variation of activities and motivating factors
• degree of interaction (communicative language teaching principles)
• improvement over non-technology/traditional means

This website is easy to use and is accessible to both teachers and learners. Teachers can use the materials to supplement their own textbook and teach them certain idioms or popular phrases in English. Learners can use the website to possibly find topics that interest them to read about as well as test their ability to comprehend passages by answering the questions at the end. The only problem with the websites ease of use is the ads that the website puts everywhere. These ads can make it hard to figure out where to click and what is part of the website and what is part of the ads.

The content provided by the website is varied and interesting which can be beneficial for students motivation for reading as well as allow them to learn more about the English language. The shorter passages would only be beneficial for the beginning learners while the longer passages could be used for a range of learners depending on the level of the vocabulary presented in the text. I believe the fact that the website shows different idioms and expressions that are common in English will allow the students to learn phrases that they wouldn't normally learn in the classroom. 

On the other hand, there is little to no variation in the activities that the website offers. They are all generally comprehension questions with a few open-ended questions added in here and there. Another problem with the activities is that the answers are given on the same page so students would just have to scroll down in order to cheat themselves out of the benefits of the activities. As for motivating factors I believe the website would get very boring very fast if no other activities are supplemented to the ones provided. Students would lose interest fairly quickly by repeating the same activities passage after passage.

There is no chance for interaction between students or between teachers and students while the are using the website. It is a website that one has to do by themselves unless the teacher prints out the activities and brings them to class in which case the students would be able to interact and talk about their answers and the passages together and with the teacher as well.

This website has a few improvements over traditional means of providing material. One improvement is that there is a lot of material all in one place. A teacher would have to buy multiple books or provide many many articles in order to provide the same material for the students that this one site has to offer. For this reason alone it makes it a good resource. On the other hand the teacher will still need to provide various activities and supplement the information provided on the site because it does not have the variation that students need to keep motivated and progress in their language learning endeavors. 

After looking at the criteria and how it applies to this website is it easy to see that this resource has both negatives and positives. It would be a good supplementary item to a class to help students progress in their reading and writing, but it is not a resource that can be used on its own as the only material for a lesson or a class.

Introduction to CALL

        I am a first year MA TESL student with a background in Linguistics and Spanish. I have had some experience teaching English as a second language, but this experience has been limited. I have studied many aspects of teaching second languages, yet, computer applications to language learning (CALL) is very new to me. The only place that I have had direct experience with CALL has been in my own experiences as a student in a second language classroom. My teachers used a program called Quia.com and on this site I had to take test that were all about rote memorization and fill in the blanks, with little opportunity for spontaneous or creative language use.
       In my undergraduate studies I focused on many areas of second language learning including pronunciation, reading comprehension, speaking skills, etc. but I only have heard about CALL in passing. None of the lectures in any of my previous classes have more than glanced over the areas of CALL and because of this I have a very limited understanding of what CALL involves and how it is best utilized in the classroom.
       Since my experience and knowledge with regards to CALL is very limited I am interested in many different facets of CALL for this course. I would like to learn different ways CALL can be used in the classroom and what resources are out there for teachers and students to make use of.  I am also interested in learning how to use CALL in ways that are more creative than I have seen it used in my past second language classes. I would like to invest time figuring out how to use CALL for more than just drills and fill in the blank type questions since they give the students little opportunity to express themselves.
      An area of interest of mine is second language reading comprehension. There are many factors that influence a students reading comprehension like the ability to use glosses while reading a text or not. I want to learn about how CALL can help students reading comprehension. Computers can provide instant definitions and much faster help than many textbooks or teachers and I believe that this can aid in a students reading comprehension by creating a less stressful environment since students would have more resources at their disposal while they read.  This can make them more comfortable with the task of reading in a second language. Reading is so important for the students to be able to improve their proficiency in the L2 so being more comfortable can help keep the students motivated to read as well.