CALL and I (Final)

Final Reflection!

I still remember that I was a bit worried when I first attended this course as my IT knowledge was quite limited. Throughout the course, we had learnt different ways of incorporating IT in English language teaching and learning. I was inspired by all these amazing ideas as I could imagine how excited my students would be if I incorporated IT in some in-class activities. In the last few weeks, I had tried several activities with my students and they were ecstatic. I had used the Who wants to be a millionaire powerpoint file to revise the vocabulary items and the inspiration mindmap to help students organize their ideas for a composition. I had also asked my students to use Audacity to record their own voices for the listening and speaking practice. This week, my students have to use Audacity and Window Movie Maker to make their first digital stories. They are all very excited and they look forward to finishing up their videos.

 

Incorporating IT in English language teaching and learning is definitely a good way to motivate students’ language learning as IT brings in contemporary and interactive elements in the lessons. For sure I will continue to use IT in my teachings. Thanks Paul for introducing different ways of using IT in English language classroom!

My first digitial story

Reflections on creating my first digital story

The topic of my digital story 

 I have chosen ‘My happy memories’ as the topic of my video as this theme can be incorporated in the F.1 English syllabus.  The form-one students learnt about different adjectives of expressing their feelings in the previous lessons.  This is the reason I would like to ask the form-one students to create a video about their happy memories so that they can recycle the adjectives they have learnt in previous lessons.

The process of production

After choosing the topic ‘My happy memories’, I started to search for photos and the background music. Then I drafted my script.  I kept revising my script to match the selection of pictures and the length of my narration.  The process would have been more difficult if I had written my story without the pictures as I would not have any visual cues to rely on when preparing my script.

Challenging and meaningful, but not difficult at all!

The technical process of producing the story on a computer was not very complicated to me as I had experience using window movie maker to create videos.

DST is reflective and creative!

The DST activity is definitely a reflective task as I could reflect on what had happened in my life when I created my video.  I could also get a better understanding of my students after watching their videos. The DST activity is also creative in the sense that we have to use our imaginations and creativities when producing our scripts and videos.

Implications of using DST in language teaching and learning

The experience of producing a digital story has changed my views regarding language teaching and learning.  By creating the video, I had added in a personal touch to the lessons and this motivates my students in their learnings as they are always interested in knowing about their teachers.  My students were also excited and interested in producing their own videos.  Throughout the production, they could display what they have learnt in classes and practise their speaking and listening skills as well.   The digital-story production has made students’ language learning become more interactive and meaningful.

Time for sharing DST in class!

My students generally loved the idea of sharing their videos in classes as they would like to know more about their classmates.  I think this is a good practice as this motivates students to learn from each other and it helps to set a good learning atmosphere in English language classroom.

 

Here comes my first digital story! Please enjoy! ^.^

The Lego Storyboard & Digital Storytelling

Potential benefits of digital storytelling for ESL learners

1. For the weaker ESL students, they can practise numerous times to achieve correct pronunciations before recording their voices for the narration.  This allows students to build up confidence and proficiency in speaking and listening.

2. The digital storytelling activity is an integrated task which involves writing practice as well.  Students can learn the forms and functions of different genres when making videos of different topics.

3. Students are encouraged to use their imaginations and creativities when producing their own videos. This brings in personal touch to their learnings and helps to motivate students to learn in English language classroom.

4. Easy access to computers enables ESL students to create videos at their own paces. They can always go back home and continue with the production of their videos if they don’t have enough time to finish up the production in classes.  This makes the learning process more flexible to students.

 

Enjoy reading my story board! ^.^

Lego Boy Story Board

The Fox and the Mask

Reflection on the use of technology-assisted speech activities

Yesterday, I gave a story to my F.2 students and ask them to use Audacity to record their own voices.  It turned out that most of them used a monotonous voice which shows no rising or falling tones.  The students noticed the problem and they did improve when they went for the second recording. 

 Using technology-assisted speech activities such as Audacity can definitely raise students’ awareness in achieving better speaking and listening skills.  Most students noticed their own problems when they were given the opportunity to hear their recordings.  Students can also do numerous recordings until they are satisfied with their own performances.  This allows students to build up confidence and proficiency in speaking and listening.

 

Here comes the read-aloud of a short story. Enjoy! ^.^

http://ihome.cuhk.edu.hk/~s0802866/The fox and the mask.wav

The Fox and the Mask 

A Fox had by some means got into the store-room of a theatre. Suddenly he observed a face glaring down on him and began to be very frightened; but looking more closely he found it was only a Mask such as actors use to put over their face. “Ah,” said the Fox, “you look very fine; it is a pity you have not got any brains.”

Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.

“Who wants to be a millionaire?”

In this lesson, we have to create a “Who wants to be a millionaire” powerpoint file which revises grammar, vocabulary, phonics, or any area of language learning.

I have created a powerpoint file which revises vocabulary words about disasters and tragedies.  I will use this powerpoint file for the revision of vocabulary items for the Form 2 Dictation test.

Millionaire template.vocabulary

Using Wikis in my teachings

I was impressed with the wiki website after Paul had shown us the functions in class.  It is an excellent site to promote process writing and encourage students to engage in collaborative writing.  I am actually doing process writing with my students now, but I would definitely like to add in collaborative writing by using the wiki website.  I can already forsee that my students will be very excited in the collaborative writing as a lot of my students love writing in their blogs.

I will also encourage my students to get involved in my wiki webpage by posting up some grammar exercises.  I will invite them to post up a few questions after I have gone through some grammar rules in class.  I guess they will be more active in their learnings  once they are invited to be the ‘student teachers’ who have the powers to post up questions to test  their classmates.  Let’s learn and explore more about Wiki!

Here’s my Wiki page:

http://vmatsu.wikispaces.com

Lingonet tasks and my artefact

Today, I have tried out the Lingonet tasks with my F.1 and F.3 students. Most F.1 students find the tasks interesting and challenging.  However, a large number of F.3 students find the tasks boring.  They realize that they only need to regurgitate the spellings of different vocabulary words.  Hence, the Lingonet tasks may only look attractive and challenging to primary students and junior-form students.

Last week, we had tried out several Lingonet tasks in Paul’s class.  There are certain strengths and limitations of the design of the tasks.

Strengths

1. The pictures are eye-catching.  These colourful pictorial cues are      attractive to students.

 2. The software program is user-friendly.  It is easy to use and is always accessible to any internet users.

 3. The vocabulary words have been categorized under different themes.  This helps students acquire semantic clusters efficiently and build up theme-related words which enrich their world knowledge of different fields.

 Limitations and ways of improvement

1. The tasks are simply for testing students’ memories of the spellings of different vocabulary words.  Other cues (such as contexts, pronunciations) are not provided.  Some students may find the tasks difficult.  Teachers can encourage students to visit some ‘online talking story’ websites so they get themselves familiar with the contexts, pronunciations, meanings and spellings of the vocabulary words.  This allows students to learn theme-related vocabulary words through engaging in different contexts.

 2. Students have no ways to check the meanings of the vocabulary words from the Lingonet website.  A link which connects the lingonet tasks to online dictionary websites would be a better option for the students.

 3.  It would be much better if teachers can go through some passages with theme-related vocabulary words before trying out the Lingonet tasks.  The passages provide students with prior knowledge which enhances students’ performance in the Lingonet tasks.

 

Here comes my artefact of the inspiration mindmap!