I read one of Miriam’s posts, which is about Voicethread. Voicethread seems very useful in LOTE class. As Voicethread enable us to add sounds to images or videos, students may enjoy attaching their voice to, for example, Japanese people’s photos or Japanese cartoon’s pictures. I think Voicethread can motivate students to learn as they can produce language, record it, put it on images or videos and share their works with others. Providing a chance to share their works is one of factors to motivate (Wang & Han 2001).

Teachers also can put their voice to a certain images or videos in order to provide students with listening activities. As far as I observed LOTE class during my practicum, teachers seem to tend to use CDs for listening activities. It is one of great activities but students might get bored if teachers always use CDs for listening activities. In a point of providing various types of activities, Voicethread might be useful.

I found that youtube is useful in LOTE class during practicum. I showed several short videos to my students for example, a couple of TV commercials which focus on Kyoto as we learned about the city. The description of Kyoto in short video is so real, of course, and helpful for students to know what the city is exactly like.

I also showed a short video which is about overcrowded train, a typical thing in big cities in Japan, and students really liked it. Luckily, the short video had English caption, it was also good for students to learn real Japanese and get the meaning of what were spoken in the video.

The potential of Youtube for educational purpose is stated in this website. The author says that youtube has a power to draw students’ attention, which can be used at the beginning of a new topic. I agrre with the author that grabing their attention at the beginning makes easier to teach students rest of the lesson. If students cannot have interests, they won’t learn hard.

Teachers may be able to buy educational purpose-videos but it is much convenient to download videos from youtube and also it is much interesting for students to learn with videos from youtube. 

I would like to use youtube in near future especially I teach cultural things to my students.

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I read one of posts by Allanahk, which is about involving parents to children’s ICT learning. I think it is very beneficial thing to let parents know how their kids learn using technology at school, because there should be worry by parents that their children could be exposed to inappropriate website or they should be interested in their kids’ learning.

I think most of schools nowadays have security system on the Internet, and students’ access to website is limited. Therefore, there should be less possibility of students’ access to harmful websites at school. If teachers teach students how to use the Internet effectively and appropriately, their learning can be more meaningful and safer. Also if teachers make a chance to show students’ ICT learning to parents and how to assist their kids to take responsibility to use PCs, parents understanding on ICT would improve and also they may be able to guide how to use PCs to their kids effectively. Also it is a good chance to get parents together and talk with teachers, which is important communication between them.

I think it would be wonderful many schools can have such a chance.

I read Homemade Powerpoint Games: A Constructionist Alternative to WebQuests. This article points out the benefits of homemade PowerPoint games. I agree that PowerPoint games are easy to adopt in classroom. I think Power Point games are suitable for games in which students demonstrate what they learn. For example, in LOTE class, Power Point games can be used for checking the ability or understanding of producing sentences or the knowledge on the target languages’ culture.

On the other hand, WebQuests is suitable for researching cultural things in target languages’ culture. For example, students can research food culture or eating habits of Japanese when they are learning foods in a certain unit.

The author compares Power Point games with WebQuests and states that Power Point games can be used as alternative to WebQuest. However, I think these two could be different teaching resources rather than being alternative with each other and teachers can use both of them depending on its purpose. Richard Van Eck (2006) talks about the importance of using digital game-based learning considering when and how to introduce it. It seems that both types of digital learning are useful and effective in language class, so that I would like to incorporate both of them to my class.

References: Van Eck, R. (2006). Digital Game-Based Learning. Educause review.

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I read Digital Game-Based Learning by Richard Van Eck. This article underlines the importance of introduction of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games to classroom considering its context. As the author suggest, there are many games in the world but less educational games. However, the author introduced a couple of interesting websites such as Social Impact games <http://www.socialimpactgames.com/>, or GamesParentsTeachers.com <http://www.gamesparentsteachers.com/>, which include games for learning. Games in the websites seem more interesting than traditional materials in classroom such as textbooks or worksheets. I felt the same thing when I tried English-learning games with Nintendo DS. Learning could be fun if the way to learn is interesting.

However, it is important to consider the context to use games in class. I agree that meaningful and effective game-based learning occurs when teachers introduce relevant games in an appropriate context. The author states that being aware of what the games do and don’t include is necessary and gave an example of Conquest of America in which the Western point of view is included but the indigenous people’s view is not included. The author does not say it is inappropriate to use games like Conquest of America, but it is essential to consider how to follow up the missing parts when teachers use those kinds of games.

In LOTE class, what kinds of games are appropriate? As I wrote before in other postings, games are useful to drill new vocabularies and grammar when school has enough computers to all students in class individually. Also games such as Who want to be a millionaire created by Mark E Damon might make class more interesting and this game is suitable to introduce after students are able to produce their own sentences using new vocabulary and grammar.

Through this reading, I thought it is true that games are beneficial to introduce to class, but all schools do not have enough new technology and all teachers may not have enough knowledge and skills to introduce games in class. It seems to take time to introduce games to class in all schools.

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I read Teaching, Learning and Technology: Research, Reform, Realise the Potential. In this article, two scenarios are planed based on the matrix which interact two themes; technology and teaching and learning theory.

Scenario 1 gave me a lot of thoughts on technology. Introducing advanced technology does not always mean that the quality of teaching and learning improve. If teachers just use it and rely on it, students cannot learn meaningfully. Furthermore, students might lose motivation and lose the ability of self-regulation as the author states. Technology has potential to lead students to meaningful learning but I realised that it happens only if the teachers are capable to incorporate technology in teaching so that teachers and technology can facilitate students’ learning.

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I read What’s a meaningful learning?, which underlines the importance of using technology as partner rather than teacher.

I agree that technology can assist learners to construct their knowledge, present their knowledge and collaborate with others.

 I saw an interesting activity using technology when I observed Japanese immersion lesson during practicum. That lesson was for Year 3 students, in which students were asked to introduce themselves using cartoon pictures and audio. They chose one character and put their introduction in balloons and record their introduction sentence and put on it. I found this activity was interesting and, in fact, students were excited. Popular cartoon characters seemed to attract students. All characters were from Japanese cartoon so that this activity seemed to be helpful to learn Japanese culture as well. Also they seemed to enjoy recording their own voice. In the end of lesson, all students showed their works in the whole class, and students seemed to enjoy it. I found all students were engaged in this activity, which is vital to occur meaningful learning (Wang and Han, 2001).

 Technology can help learners to present their knowledge in a creative way, which seems to increase students’ motivation to learn. As the activity I observed was designed for Year 3, their knowledge on Japanese was limited. However, they could make a beautiful introduction by using technology in short time, which might lead students to build up their confidence of Japanese as well.

References:

Wang, S. and Han, S. (2001). Six C’s of Motivation. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved 16 October, 2008, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

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I read an article about how to increase students’ motivation. I agree that we may increase students’ motivation if we can consider 6 C’s of Motivation: choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing meaning, and consequences. I assume that it is hard to include all elements of 6Cs in one lesson, but I think it is advantageous to be aware that those 6Cs could make students motivated to learn.

In language teaching class, we can make lesson more meaningful by implementing relevant and realistic activities. For example, how to use transportation in a country where the target language is spoken would be useful and relevant to students, because they may have a chance to use transportation in the country in the future. How to order in restaurants would also be beneficial for students. Students who are planning to visit the country may be keen to learn these things.

Having a chance to show their work can possibly increase students’ motivation, as the article states. In language class, for example, we can present research project on the country where the target language is spoken. We can also make a video by interviewing or doing research regarding culture of the country and put it on website. I think technology can make the way to present work more creative and unique. For example, we can include back music or telop into their interview or report with technology. I think students would be more excited to do those activity, if they get a chance to use technology.

As the article mentioned, language class can be boring if we just implement drills. Depend on how we organize a lesson, students can increase and decrease motivation. When I recall my school days, I realize that I tended to like a subject which was taught by teachers who motivated students by using those 6Cs. Thus, I’d like to keep in mind the 6Cs when I do lesson.

Reference: Wang, S. & Han, S. (2001). Six C’s of Motivation. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved 6th Feb., 2008, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Six_C%27s_of_motivation

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I reacted to one of Kayla’s posts.

The video you linked in your page was interesting. After reading your post, I think I understand better than before what Net generation is. I myself maybe in Net generation, but as my parents did not like computer things, I did not have much chance to learn about PCs until I turned 20. (Although I had computer classes, when I was junior high school student.)

I thought the quote was interesting that “Learning is participatory; knowing depends on practice and participation. Digital resources enable experiential learning—something in tune with Net Gen preferences. Rather than being told, Net Geners would rather construct their own learning, assembling information, tools, and frameworks from a variety of sources.” It is quite understandable that Net generation can construct their own learning as they have PCs. Thus, it appears more important to facilitate students’ learning rather than teach.

I reacted to Vivian’s post.

I agree with you that the Internet is a double edged sward. While it is very advantageous to look up information or make learning more interesting, the Internet could threaten people by cyber-bulling or crimes through the Internet or could provide bad influence on children with such as pornography. As you say, some regulation should be implemented in order to protect teenagers. I think it is also important that parents try to watch their children’s usage of the Internet.

As anyone can put anonymous comments on websites, I believe netiquette needs to be concerned by everyone. I personally think the role of teacher is important in order to make children be aware the issue of netiquette. Thus, I’d like to teach my students in the future that they should consider the netiquette when they use the Internet.