Creating a website

The homework for this week was to use one of the tools that we learned to use to help our students practice or to continue teaching them outside of school.  I made the following page with the intention of helping students learn the basics of English watching interesting videos, they are just an example of what we may use to teach.

Please copy and paste the following link to see it:

http://learningenglishiseasy.webs.com/

Week 6

I worked in a presentation with Anabel, Lorenelly and Pedro which was titled "Creating and using your own resources".  It was pretty interesting, because we introduced the different tools we can use to create material to the class such as wikis, podcasts, blogs and other websites.  They are very useful because they attract the students' attention to the class and we can get better results from this, it is also easier to prepare the class and students love technology, so why shouldn't we take advantage of that?  

I'm sure my classmates learned at least something from the presentation, if not, they found out that they can use it for their second language classes in the future.  Click on the following link or copy and paste it to go to the presentation:

http://prezi.com/tqmxlidtjior/untitled-prezi/ 

Week 5

We worked in the writing lab in some websites which can help us create materials for our Second Language Classes, between those, it's Quia.  We were able to create one or two activities of a random topic and post them here, in our blogs.  I selected the hangman and the cloze for the two activities I made, one about animals and the other using simple present verbs.  Students had to write their guess and then check if their answers were correct.  I discovered that at my work, we have some predetermined activities from Quia to help students practice more than only by using the website we have for our courses.

Quia Activities

The following exercise is a hangman game which has to be completed using names of animals.  Please click on the link to open it.
http://www.quia.com/hm/833075.html

Now complete the following paragraph with simple present verbs.
http://www.quia.com/cz/466654.html

Reflection on the video: "Ciberestrategias para la enseñanza del inglés"

As I mentioned in my week 4 journal, it was a very interesting video since we learned the uses that Second Language teachers give Wikis.  Teachers from Centro de Lenguas of UNAM include them as part of their classes.  They mentioned that they dedicate the first class to present the course objectives to the students and to teach them how to use the Wiki and what they will have to write or find in it.  

I believe it is a great tool for everyone, since the teacher will be able to cover more topics than the ones given in class or will be able to share with the students more information and/or exercises for them to do at home.  For students, it is very useful since they will be able to see what the class was about in case they were not able to go to the class.  

It is a little hard to include it in every language teaching program, however, I really hope we will be able to use them in the future.  

For our Wiki, I believe it is a good idea to do what the teachers said, to write about the class, what we saw and the homework, just in case someone has missed it.

Week 4

This was an exhausting week since we only went to school two days. :P  However, our Monday's CALL class was very interested.  We saw a video from UNAM that talked about the importance of having a WIKI in class.  We sometimes use them in different subjects and for me, they are a little confusing, however, they are useful.  We may have access to information outside of class, since of course, it is hard to cover all the important aspects of a subject in 4 hours a week.  

Teachers who have been using Wikis said they have been of great help since students have responded well towards using them.  Of course it was hard at first, because we all are afraid of changes, but now, as students practice using them (like we have been practicing too) it is getting easier every day.

I believe it is of great importance to be able to have access to the information covered in class.  Like the teachers mentioned in the video, if it was not possible for a student to assist to the class, he/she can enter to the Wiki and check the what the objectives of the class were, the exercise made in class and of course, the homework.  However, I think it is hard to include this kind of tool into every teaching program.  I honestly think it is not possible for me to have one with my students for policy reasons, however, I really hope that this may become possible one day.

Forms of Computer-mediaded Communication

Text Chat: Like the book says, it involves a synchronous form of communication.  Students use this tool in their regular lives to communicate from friends who live in the same city or with people from other countries.  They just have to sign up to an instant messaging program and add your friends to it.  You can have conversations with one person or with many at the same time.  
In Computer-Assisted Language Teaching, this is a great tool since students may use it for instant-communication to share ideas about the class with their classmates and the teacher in a fast and easy way.  It is easy for the teacher to give feedback since students will see it right away.

Video Conferencing: Video conferences are a great tool too, they are very similar to text chats, the difference is that with video conferences, you can see the person and listen to his/her voice.  They are more commonly used in the business market, it is cheaper than traveling to have a meeting and it is as instant as being personally. 

Language teachers can use them to communicate with their students, sometimes it is not possible to be in a classroom, this way, students can take the lesson wherever they are and it is also easy and cheaper than moving from one place to another for teachers and students.  With video conferences, students can participate and they usually also have a chat to share information.

Week 3

During week 3 of classes we continued talking about chapters 1 and 8 of the book, we reviewed our points of view dealing with "blended learning" and we learned that video conferences are excellent tools to communicate when learning a second language.  

We also have been presenting about the topics and which has helped us remember information from the beginning of the chapter.  I liked reading them because I learned a lot from them, the use, the advantages of using technology in a language classroom and many other things.