#8: Open Topic / Reflection

        Though I admit that growing importance of software tools in a language classroom, it has not been always easy to me to adjust myself to the rapidly changing teaching environment. I've had a kind of phobia in technology and been afraid of using the new gadgets and computer programs. However, as I took the CALL class, I began to grow interest in various kinds of tools. They were not that hard to utilize than I had expected it would be. Although the amount of tools introduced in this course is a little beyond than I can take in, I'm sure I will get used to them if enough time is given to practice them.

        Above all, the tools that I dealt with in the CALL class are readily applicable in the classroom. Prezi is sure to be used widely instead of PPT, sooner or later, because of its dynamic feature. Especially, I liked the function of zooming in and out. Along with that, a language class that employes Audio, Video drop box or Voicethread will encourage students to speak out and share their ideas, commenting on each other's opinions. It can be sort of embarrassing for students to record their own voice or shooting themselves and posting it on the web page in the first place. However, I believe students will eventually really enjoy talking over the online space because the topic of conversations and feedbacks from students are real and alive. In addition, digital storytelling softwares  absolutely intrigued me. Assuming that I am a student, I enjoyed making a personal story, choosing from different characters, actions, facial expressions and other settings. Since I made the story for myself, It is more relevant and meaningful to me.  Lastly, Hot potatoes will bring a lot of benefits to teachers. As one of the teachers working at school, it would have been better if I had known the tool earlier. It saves time to make a comprehension quiz or survey. Above all, what I liked most about the tool is it is free.

        Overall, the CALL lesson so far was effective and informative. I feel confident that I could use some of the tools that I've mentioned in my classroom to make the lesson more exciting and inspirational. Whatever tools I use, there is no doubt they will contribute to enhance communication among students and between students and teacher. Still, it remains a shame on this CALL class that we didn't have much time to talk over the classrooms using smart phones, that are now in trend.

     

#7: Mobile App Review

Duolingo

    What I find most attractive of Duolingo is it turns learning a language into a game, more so than the other apps. You are given a few hearts (representing your health pool) that you don't want to lose during the learning levels. Hearts are lost by answering questions incorrectly. Once you finish a lesson with hearts remaining, you'll earn an achievement to track your progress in the app. 

 

    Another merit of Duolingo is that language selection is very Eurocentric; you'll find Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, and Italian as your choices. Reminders that the app sends to your e-mail and device are probably one of its best features (aside from teaching you a new language, of course). If the reminders are too bothersome, they can be disabled. The vocabulary sections are similar to other apps with picture-matching, but there is also a heavy focus on grammar. When using Duolingo, you'll be putting together entire sentences in the first lesson, even if you haven't really had a lot of time to learn all the words needed for the sentence. Above all, this app is free. Also, it is now tablet-optimize,which use to be unavailable.

#6. Digital Storytelling

   I'm certain of saying that the CALL class this week was the most impressive to me since I found the digital storytelling tools fascinating as well as educational. There is no doubt that students will enjoy learning, using the tools for themselves trying out different functions. In fact, there were few chances using these kinds of tools in a language class.

   Among the tools introduced this week, the one that I first tried was zImmer Twins at School. (http://zimmertwinsatschool.com/) Using this webpage, you can create a free animated, unlimited films with little effort and time. In fact, I used this site to make a short cartoon animation to utilize it during a conversation class. The movie is aiming to teach the importance of living honestly and doing nothing harm to others. While watching the movie, students need to guess the lesson of the story in a group and present it to the teacher. Later on, the teacher introduces students to how to create an animated cartoon movie, requiring them to make one that implies a moral lesson. Students are allowed to make a movie in a group and asked to share the movie with other groups.

   Frankly, the process of making an animated cartoon was so easy to follow that I didn't know time was passing by. I'm assured that students will be also totally immersed in making a movie just like me. When deciding upon the setting of a movie, you may choose from a wide variety of places, characters, speech bubbles, facial expressions, actions and special effects. These various functions enable you to make your movie more colorful and lively.

   The next tool that I enjoyed a lot was Storybird. (http://storybird.com/) This webpage owns hundreds of high-quality-images that stimulate artistic sentiments. I think this site will be definitely useful for learners to create a group-based story or an individual-based story. Creating a story as a collaborative work is really fun and enlightens one's imagination along with creativity. During the process, learners will be totally emerged in trying out different layouts and designs for their book. Also, there is a space for entering texts. Therefore, students are naturally led to focus on forms while their main attention remains on content. The completed book can be shared by all the classmates and read over and over again. Since learners have made the book by themselves, all the contents and grammar are going to be truly memorable. The designs that were created and provided by many artists are of high quality and beautiful enough to excite students. You may also read the books that had been already made and leave some comments on it.

#5. Corpora, Concordance, Collocations, Word Frequency

1. Compleat Lexical Tutor: http://www.lextutor.ca/

 

   What is attractive about Lextutor is once you insert a larger text in the given blank, the program automatically transforms the text into a complete concordance index for every word, with the collocations that appear in the left or right of the word. Also the words are hyperlinked to matching frequency list.

   Through this operation, you are able to identify word frequencies and appropriate words for your class, eventually modifying the text according to your

student’s proficiency level.

 

2. Corpus of Contemporary American English: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/

 

   The tons of words that appear in this corpus software stem from spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, and academic texts. The corpus is also updated regularly so that it is suitable for looking at current, ongoing changes in the language. 

   In addition, the corpus allows you to easily limit searches by frequency and compare the frequency of words, phrases, and grammatical constructions. Furthermore, you can also easily carry out semantically-based investigation of the corpus. For instance, you can contrast and compare the collocates of two related words―large and big, to determine the difference in meaning or use between these words.

 

3. Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/

 

   Wordle seems to be the most entertaining and intriguing software among the three of the softwares that I'm reviewing today. I'm sure this program will attract students' attention, especially visual learners, at the beginning of a reading-based class. Wordle allows its users to create a cluster of words from the text that they are reading. The images of word clusters can vary depending on the purpose of its creators. You can change fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Whatever the form is, the completed image gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. Best of all, you can print the finished word cluster out, or save them for a later use.

 

#4. Podcast Review

http://www.voanews.com/media/video/1694016.html

   The podcast that I enjoyed listening to was about a significant co-relationship between yoga and mental illness. As many of you predict, yoga is more than a mere sport. Not only does it strengthens one's body it also helps one recover from mental diseases. Due to the positive healing effects, yoga is actually being loved by many people as one of the methods to stay healthy as well as to purify mind.

   According to the podcast that I watched, it seems like that the poorer, the more  are not willing to move one's body, becoming more powerless both physically and mentally. However, with the help of social workers and support from local health care centers, the people in the podcast news are having weekly yoga lessons for free. The consistant yoga practice has changed their lives significantly. Many of them accept that yoga has helped them relieve stress, cope with chronic depression, and get over side effects of alcohol addiction. Also, yoga is playing a positive role in alleviating the symptoms of schizophrenia. Given these advantages of yoga lessons, the more free yoga classes will need to be given to those who are so poor that are not able to sign up for a fitness program.

   Personally, I believe this podcast will be a lot beneficial to those who are doubtful of the advantages that yoga brings about. In addition, this kind of information needs to be spread among the people who are concerned about their mental stability.