What did I learn this semester?

The notions and vocabulary I have learnt :

tool

                      download

online

blog

           podcast

vodcast

                             feedback

blogroll

broadcast

                                    hypertext

digital

What is a good story?

intonation, rythm
gestures, mimes, facial expression
speak slowly and repeat
eye contact and participation
pauses
variations

input
output
beginning, middle, end of a story
conflict internal, external, environmental
resolution of the conflict
villain and heroes


The difficulties I had this semester :

I am not really good with computers, so it was difficult to go on iTune for the podcasts and to make it on my blog.
At the beginning of the semester, I felt lost because I was not in this class at the first semester.
I am not so interesting in technology and making the blog was difficult.
I don't have the access to Internet very often and it was sometimes hard to have time to go on the internet.


Conclusion :

Even if I am not interesting in technology, I have discovered and learnt many things as websites. I think I will use again Wordle, Voicethread and perhaps Blogger! I think it is important to learn such things for a teacher, and I hope I will use these tools with my students. I have the impression that I am better in technologies and I have new tools for the future.
I also have the impression that I have improved my English listenning the podcasts and I have new notions and vocabulary I think it is important to know as a teacher.
The thing I have prefered was Voicethread because I like working in groups and I love create and imagine stories, we were also really free for write our stories and we had the choice for illustrate it. I think it's a very good think to propose to students.
So my conclusion is very positive, I think we were considered as adults in this class and not as students. I have prefered the second part of the semester but the whole semester is very positive.

Podcast n°3 : University Club

This podcast is about the University Club of Oxford. You can watch it here.

The person which is speaking in this podcast is Melanie Maleham, the general manager of the club.
She explains that the University Club offers four accomodation facilities. This club is open to the member students and other academic visitors. It is situated in the center of Oxford and had opened in 2004.
The club offers many different sports as football cricket or tennis for instance but the members haven't to play sport only, they also can watch sport on one of the five TVs in the café. Many visitors come from all around the world for some sport events or other kind of events.
It is not only a sport complex, it is also a social center, there is a restaurant, a café... and the club is also presenting conferences. The building is also used for weddings, parties or any other events.

According to me, I really like this idea, this club is not only for sporties, it is for anyone who want to play sport, watch sport, meet people... Personnaly, I love sport and I would really like a club like this in Grenoble, even if there are many sports proposing here. The difference with the common club is that it is not only for the sporties and it doesn't offer only sport services. People can meet people, share their experience, watch matches together, I think there is a very good atmosphere in this club.
Moreover, many visitors come from different countries, and it is very interesting to be opened to the world and not only to the University of Oxford.
For the people who don't like sport, they can go to conferences, encourage their friends or create events. So it is a club opened to everyone and it's that that I like!

Podcast n°2 : Introducing digital OER into Zambian schools

This podcast is from Cambridge University website, it is a presentation about the first phase of the OER4Schools project. These are 20 questions and the answers are at the end.

This is the link.

1. Where is Sarah Hennessy from?

2. What does OER stand for?

3. What are the three different pillars of the OER?

4. Which words are linked to the three pillars in the presentation?

5. Fill in the blanks : "All the (...) changed their practice, they all developped their UCVCTs, they were (...) to incorporate new ressources. They accomodated the perspectives of (...)."

6. About who is Sarah Hennessy speaking in the question n°5?

7. True or false : the work in the classroom is individual.

8. True or false : interractivity and participation is important in this project.

9. True or false : the students only did written work.

10. What is different about the notion of noise?

11. Why?

12. Fill in the blanks : So we conclude that the shift toward (...) was a quite possible within a shortime with (...)."

13. What does the second phase contain? (give three exemples)

14. What does it focuse on?

15. Which are the partners? (give three of them)

16. True or flase : the teachers have to work separated.

17. Why?

18. How many phases there is in the year course?

19. Fill in the blanks : "So automatically we are hoping to (...) and to (...) in schools."

20. Choose the right answer : the name of the center which present this project is the Humanitarian Center, the Educational Center or the Helping Center?


ANSWERS


1. The Center of Commonwealth Education, University of Cambridge, UK

2. Open Educational Ressources

3. ICT, OER and pedagogy

4. ICT = money, peace, internet, computer, power ; OER = downloading ressources, getting ressources, discovery ; pedagogy = classroom strategies, lesson plans, enquiry-based learning

5. participants ; able to search on the Internet ; their learners

6. About the teachers

7. False

8. True

9. False

10. Here, it is not a negative notion

11. Because it means questions, discussions and answers

12. new teaching approaches ; limited ressources

13. video clips, lesson plans, classroom activity sheets

14. mathematics and science

15. iSchool, ministry, UNZA

16. false

17. because they create ressources from their colleagues

18. 6

19.  inform professional practice ; promote learning

20. the Humanitarian Center

Podcast n° 1 : making teaching more affordable

As it is said in the tittle, this podcast is about a program which wants to make teaching more affordable.
Efundunke Hughes is a teacher in Berkley Maynard Academy but she decides to go to Stanford to become an engineer, she thinks that more black engineers are needed. Deborah Stipek is a teacher in Stanford and speaks about the program called STEP (lands for Stanford Teacher Education Program). Stanford reduces his student's loans to give money for teaching in undeserved communities. During the first week of the program, students are asked what they want to do after. It is also mentionned that working in group and be confident is the most successful way.

Wordle

I've just downloaded Java on my computer to use the tool Wordle I learnt in class. I really enjoyed making my Wordle, I think it's a very good tool that could perfectly be used in class. Last week, we started talking about stories, that's why I've done my Worlde about tales...

 

And you, what does the world "tale" make you think about? Please comment!

Fruit party !

- Hello ! Who are you?
- Hello, I'm Mister Lemon, I look like to Miss Mandarin but we are not the same color. And you, who are you?
- I'm Miss Watermelon, I'm very fresh!
- Nice to meet you. Do you know this girl on the dancefloor?
- Yes, it's Miss Banana, monkeys love her! And this brown one?
- It's Mister Coconut, he comes from an island.
- Oh, yes, as Miss Grape, doesn't she?
- No, she lives in France or in Italy. And who's this one, she seems being alone...
- Oh, it's Miss Apple, she's very strange.
- Yes, I see, she empoisonned Snowhite! And who's this one dancing as a pumpkin?
- It's Mister Pear, he's very nice but a quite stupid...

This is a little story Aurore and I did in class, I wanted to share it ;-)

Facebook as a tool to teach English

The question of using Facebook to teach English as a foreign language was asked in class, I'd like to share my ponit of view about that.

In the one hand, Facebook has many tools : we can share photos, videos, write articles, play games, chat, make groups... It could be a very interesting tool to be used to learn English. It could be a really good way to learn English having fun : students could share photos that the others would watch and comment... But the teacher too!

In the other hand, I think Facebook is not really private, we have many photos we don't want our teachers to watch. We choose our friends on Facebook, so we can put on whatever we want, knowing that our friends are the only who can see or comment it, these photos are personal. That's why I think Facebook is not a very good way to teach English, it belongs to our private life. Therefore, I don't think every children have Facebook today, I have some friends who haven't got it, and even the Internet!

Technology

Computers, innovation, communication, Internet... So many words come when I think about "technology".

According to Wikipedia, technology is described as "the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function."

In my words, I think that technology means the progress, it is constantly evolving and taking a more and more important place in our society. Technology is not just the Internet, the computers or any other new technologies, I think these technologies belong to the third industrial revolution ; technology is really older. Indeed, in the science for exemple, technology has been using for many years before the creation of the Internet.

Technology is everywhere, technologies are used in everything we buy, everything we use, everything we do. Currently, the people need technologies, we couldn't live without it. And new technologies are growing and growing in our society, nowadays, in class students have a pen, paper... and a computer!