Week 7: Two Tools

Chapter 5

Communicating with Technologies

     This chapter discusses how students (and adults) can exchange ideas on an individual basis, or as part of a group working together on a project.  It explains how we can use discussion boards; they can be asynchronous (not in real time) or synchronous (in real time).  This is an excellent way for students to work on social studies assignments.  We just read about the Great Depression, World War II, and the Baby Boom.   By using discussion boards, students are not limited to the time allotted in class for their assignments.  This way, they have time to think and make more significant contributions to the group.

     Students and teachers can collaborate using community websites such as www.epals.com or ThinkQuest (which is covered in chapter 6).  This tool is especially helpful to English Language Learners because they are given the opportunity to express themselves in English, and in turn, read the responses of others, also in English.  A valuable feature in ePALS is a built-in translator tool, so that users may convert messages to other languages!

     Another tool discussed in chapter 5 is VoiceThread.  This application allows users to communicate with one another at their convenience (asynchronous).  They may share files, photos, slide presentation, and video using VoiceThread. http://voicethread.com/

     VoiceThread consists of two options: 1) single screen  and 2) recording and navigation options.

Single screen may contain a single file.  Whereas, the second application can contain a collection of items such as files, video, etc.



Week 6: Delicious Link

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el200904_clark.pdf

This article is from "Educational Leadership" .  The article is "The Case for Structured English Immersion" by Kevin Clark.  It is an excellent article that explains the use of English to teach English to speakers of other languages.  The first three states to initiate Structured English Immersion (SEI) are Arizona, California, and Massachusetts.  According to Mr. Clark,"...SEI programs shared two basic components: (1) teachers maximize instruction in English and (2) teachers use and teach English at a level appropriate to the abilities of the ELLs (English Language Learners) in the class (Ramirez, Yuen, & Ramey, 1991)."

Today, all core teachers in middle and high schools have students who are ELLs.  In middle school, all core teachers (and some elective teachers) are sent to a multiple-day workshop that trains teachers how to teach ELLs.  As our world continues to 'shrink' because of technology, it is important that students (and adults) learn a global language;  English is becoming our global language. 

Week 6 Delicious

http://www.goahead.org/
This is the Official David Crockett homepage.  It contains a link to a genealogy website.  Lots of events and conferences are included.  It's a good site to trace descendants of Davy Crockett.

Week 6 Delicious Results

Well, it looks like I need to go back and try again.  I received 367 responses, but none having to do with Texas history.  I will try again tomorrow.