Week 13: Final Week

Hello again, everyone!

This is Week 13 of CALL's Technology in Education's on-line discoveries. See here for my introduction to CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning).

This is our final week of the course. As part of this week's project I created a crossword puzzle. The answer key is directly below the puzzle.

As the title indicates, this is my last post for the course. Not all of what we learned appears in my blog and all of the students blogs show only a small part of what we learned this semester.
May we all continue on our quests for inspiring discoveries!
Hadassa

Week 12: QR Codes, Treasure Hunt, Station 6, Final Station

Station 6, Final Station

If you did not arrive here from Station 5, go back to the last station you visited, or to Station 1 if you have no idea what this is (see station QR Codes below), and follow the clues:

What do you think? Do you like QR codes?

Please fill out the survey here:

Thank you for your participation!

Have a wonderful week of inspiring discoveries,

Hadassa

Station 1:

Station 2:

Station 3:

Station 4:

Station 5:

Week 12: QR Codes, Treasure Hunt, Station 5

Station 5

If you did not arrive here from Station 4, go back to the last station you visited, or to Station 1 if you have no idea what this is (see station QR Codes below), and follow the clues.

And who does not like QR Codes?

Find out here:

And then go to Station 6:

Station 1:

Station 2:

Station 3:

Station 4: 

Week 12: QR Codes, Treasure Hunt, Station 4

Station 4

If you did not arrive here from Station 3, go back to the last station you visited, or to Station 1 if you have no idea what this is (see station QR Codes below), and follow the clues:

Who else likes QR Codes?

How many results does a Google search of “Who likes QR codes” yield?
See here:

And now go to Station 5:

Station 1:

Station 2:

Station 3: 

Week 12: QR Codes, Treasure Hunt, Station 3

Station 3

If you did not arrive here from Station 2, go back to the last station you visited, or Station 1 if you have no idea what this is (see station QR Codes below), and follow the clues:

Does the type of presentation here look familiar to anyone:

After you look, go to Station 4:

Station 1:

Station 2: 

Week 12: QR Codes, Treasure Hunt, Station 2

Station 2

If you did not arrive here from Station 1, go there now (see QR Code below) and follow the clues.

He predicted the life expectancy of his invention.

What did he predict?

Go here:

And then to Station 3:

Station 1:

 

Week 12: QR Codes, Treasure Hunt, Station 1

Hello again, everyone!

This is Week 12 of CALL's Technology in Education's on-line discoveries. See here for my introduction to CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). This week’s topic is QR (Quick Response) Codes.

While I was looking for material for this project I found complaints about how QR Codes are used. Using a QR Code in a blog or article on-line defeats the purpose of the code. Someone who is on-line can simply click on an icon or a link. There is no need for a QR Code. For someone looking at a sign or a billboard or an ad in a newspaper (not that many people still read printed newspapers), scanning a QR Code with an iPhone is much easier than entering the address of a website using a small touch screen, and probably omitting a letter or backslash.

I did not have the opportunity to stage a treasure hunt by physically posting clues, QR Codes, in relevant locations. However I wanted to try the idea so I created an on-line treasure hunt.

I created all of the QR Codes here:

Working in a group might be a way to make the project more interesting. Participants working together could send each other to their respective blogs. Clues could be added even during a hunt. This time I worked alone, learned about QR Codes and created them too. Follow the clues and see what I learned.

Happy hunting!

Who invented the QR Code?

Go here:

And then to Station 2:

Week 10: Working with Research and Presentation Tools

Hello again, everyone!
This is Week 10 of CALL's Technology in Education's on-line discoveries. See here for my introduction to CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). This week's topic is Research and Presentation Tools.
The first site I examined was NoodleTools. The page was down so I followed my instructor's advice and link to the cached site. The home page is organized by categories with titles in very "human" language "I need to define my topic…", "I need to find quality results…", "I need opinions and perspectives..." etc. The subtopics are similarly phrased and one would have to ask an actual librarian in order to find more specific advice.
 My son could have received a controversial vaccine today so out of curiosity I chose "I need reputable health information" and then "Kidhealth", which has a Spanish-language site too. Out of the options given, "Parents", "Kids", "Teens", "Educators" I chose the first. "How Do I Know Which Vaccines My Kids Need? Find out what the experts have to say.." was a home page article when I entered the page so I thought that I had come to the right place. Unfortunately the article was a bit old, 2014 (of course I was looking at a cached site), and very short, not at all informative.
The articles in "School and Family Life" were short and gave basic information.
Then I chose "Educators" to see if that section was useful for teachers. I did find a good children's dictionary of parts of the body/medical terms.
I then examined "I want multiple perspectives on hot social and political topics" to test the extent of variation of the opinions presented by the search engine. I first chose "Social Issues" and within that "Opposing Viewpoints in Context".  And I was sent back to a previous page. I have a feeling that it is more difficult to extract useful information from the cached version of this site than from the actual site.
I decided to choose one last topic and settled on "Governments". I searched "Basque" . My search yielded nothing. However the Basques do not have their own government so I tried Spain. Still nothing. Either my search methods are faulty or the cached status of the site is the reason for my failure to find anything useful in this section. I will check later. (The deadline for posting this blog is looming menacingly over my head. And in fact I missed it by about half an hour...)
Even though these searches were not particularly useful, there are so many options on the NoodleTools site that I will not hesitate to try it again. Other sites linked to the site could yield better results.
I then looked at the Simple English Wikipedia site. For a project for another class I searched "Jerusalem Western Wall", and then compared the information with the standard Wikipedia site. For further comparison with standard Wikipedia I searched "cat", a subject which can be treated very simply, on both sites. The simple site is indeed much easier to read, but also, understandably has a much smaller range of information on the topic. The regular site could easily be overwhelming for beginning readers, rendering the simpler site a welcome aid in research. 
And to see how the site treats a controversial subject I searched "Basque".
"Its boundaries are complicated. " was all the controversy I found. Not surprisingly the main site for "Basque" goes into much more detail.
After perusing those sites that were new to me, I went to Google Scholar, which I have used many times. I have noticed that Google is kind enough to send users there when the search keys are sufficiently scholarly. This time I went specifically to the pages which advise users about how to use the site, which I had never done before. There is a nice overview here too. I will bookmark this valuable resource for students.
Have a wonderful week of inspiring discoveries,
Hadassa

Week 6 - Speaking and Writing Tools

Hello again, everyone!
This is Week 6 of CALL's Technology in Education's on-line discoveries. See here for my introduction to CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). This week's topic is Speaking and Writing Tools. I chose a variety of sites and tools in order to cover a range of skills, all of which are necessary to master a language.

Speaking - Debating

Debating is a great way to encourage opinionated and/or argumentative students to give a purpose to their skills and also prompts quieter students to give a voice – an actual spoken voice – to their ideas. The debatabase (database of topics) on the idebate.org site has many suggestions for students, including point/counterpoint lists with details and links to sites with more information. Students can also use the lists as models for preparing for a debate on a topic of their own choosing. A topic of general interest to the student body of a school would be an excellent choice, provided that it is not too controversial.

Spelling/Vocabulary/Grammar

Very often it seems like whatever rules English spelling has, there are more exceptions than adherents to the rules, so mastering the topic requires considerable practice, for some learners more than others. Therefore varied opportunities for independent work at an individual pace are very useful. The following sites are excellent for that purpose.

With the Interactive Spelling Bees on Annenberg Learning the computer replaces the traditional caller at a spelling bee. Learners can have words repeated as manner times as necessary, which would quickly tire most humans. The levels on the site range from first to twelfth grade.

The BBC has a rather addictive site for advanced learners – the site is geared towards adults – which teaches and tests grammar, reading comprehension and spelling skills. The subtopics of spelling are very varied (plurals, root words, prefixes, suffixes, common letter patterns and more) and the tests are trickier than one might think multiple choice tests would be. I think that this site is especially good for students who are slightly more advanced that most of their classmates and would welcome an opportunity to learn more at their own pace and test their progress.

Spelling City creates custom vocabulary and spelling tests from user-entered lists, including supplying definitions. The user can edit definitions, but all that is required is entering a list of words. This site is a time-saver for preparing tests and can also be used by students for self-testing or testing their peers. Didn't we all want to be teachers for a day when we were in school?

Fun Brain's Spell Check requires choosing the one misspelled word out of four choices AND correcting it. At both the "easy" and "hard" levels the tests remind one that the relationship between sound and spelling should not be assumed. Stay Afloat is a guess-the-word game which allows one to play "hangman" without finding someone else who wants to play. Grammar Gorilla grabbed me because of the name, and the banana prizes. It's a good review of the parts of speech. Find more of Fun Brains's games here.

Writing – Pre-Writing

My brainstorm map, titled Stormy Brain, is here on the WiseMapping site. I could not think of a topic for a map, and then I realized that I was brainstorming about brainstorming, and hence the stormy brain. (Plus my brain felt like a cloud had blown in.) I took a break and then resumed a calm weather pattern.
Rigid, confining boxes were the best choice for trouble spots and the good things brainstorming brings out I put into rounded shapes, the kind that expand well. This site is particularly good for visually-inclined students who think in charts and images. However anyone brainstorming should give it a try. One never knows what a new tool can do until one tries it.

Writing - While Writing

I tried the British Council's story maker. The user chooses the type of story, fairy, horror or science fiction, and enters a few details, either by choosing one of the suggestions or entering a suitable word or words (number of characters is limited). A very short story is then generated. This option does not allow much creativity and therefore I would use it only with students who would benefit from the satisfaction of seeing their own story in print, but are not yet ready to fully compose one.

Writing – Post-Writing

After the British Council's story-maker I tried making a book (My Garden – Cacti and Cats) with Story Jumper. I have not finished it yet, but I am enjoying the process. The site allows users to freely enter text, upload photographs, and add sound, in addition to being able to select items from a variety of backgrounds and props. This site encourages creativity! Students who are comfortable writing their own stories and want the freedom to add whatever images and sounds they desire will love this site. The site can also be used for diaries and travel logs. Writing about what-I-did-during-vacation is much more interesting with images and music.

Have a wonderful week of inspiring discoveries,
Hadassa

Week 5: Working with Oral and Aural skills

Hello again, everyone!
This is Week 5 of CALL's Technology in Education's on-line discoveries. See here for my introduction to CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). This week's topic is oral and aural skills. Students benefit from on-line resources such as hearing letter sounds pronounced correctly, e.g. on this British phonemic chart.  American and British English are compared here. For some activities and projects sound effects will be more appropriate than phonetic utterances.  Freesound offers a random sound of the day on its "browse" page and requires the user to search by topic. FindSounds offers an extensive menu on its home page, including a "mayhem" section.
Other sites, such as Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab, ello and Real English feature dialogues with accompanying exercises and quizzes.

For this week's assignment I created an oral skills activity based on a "grammatical video".
The activity is student interviews with a focus on the verb tenses and vocabulary learned in class. (The activity is not designed to be completed in one class hour. The time required will vary based on the number of students in the class.)
The activity is based on Real English, Lesson 46: "Yesterday"
"A 'grammatical video' featuring 16 people using the past simple forms. Includes the use of ago."
The website is called Real English because the people featured are "real people", native speakers of English in everyday settings, who agree to be briefly interviewed and filmed. The interview question in Lesson 46 is, "What did you do yesterday?"
The video clip in this lesson is just under three and a half minutes long and is followed by 19 exercises. Each exercise is a very short excerpt from the clip, followed by a question or two about the excerpt. The excerpts may be replayed as many times as is necessary to understand the content. The questions are accompanied by guiding hints and/or explanations.

To start the activity, the video will be projected onto a screen for the class to view together and some, whatever the class can do in 20 minutes, of the 19 exercises will be completed. For the current activity the main purpose of the exercises is to give the students guidance for their projects. If more computers are available for student use, or if the Real English Lesson is being used as one of several stations, then students may work in small groups or individually.
After the exercises, the class will discusses possible questions modeled on "What did you do yesterday?", vote on a question and separate into groups of four or five, depending on the number of students in the class. If the class is capable of quickly deciding on several questions, up to as many questions as there are groups, that is an option.
In the Real English interviews in Lesson 46, the grammatical tense is controlled by the question, "What DID you do yesterday?" Not surprisingly a varied selection of responses using the past simple tense was the result. For their projects students will tailor their questions, and answers, to a tense they are studying. Students may put themselves in a setting and invent answers.

Examples:
Pretending to stand on the street, as in the video:
Where WERE you GOING before I asked you for this interview? (past progressive)
I was going to my office.
I was walking to school.
I was jogging to the park.

Using vocabulary about professions:
What WILL you DO after you graduate university? (simple future)
I will be a doctor and work in a hospital.
I will be a teacher and teach in a school.
I will be an actor/actress and perform in plays.

The question can be changed slightly but significantly if students do not want to vary their projects much from the Real English model: What did you do last summer, last week, during your last vacation, etc.
The four/five members of each group will take turns being the interviewer, interviewees and video-camera (Smartphone) person.
Using the exercises in the Real English Lesson as a guide, each group will compose three questions based on the members' responses to the original interview question. Each group will present their video to the rest of the class and ask them the three questions.
All of the questions asked by an interviewer are in the second person singular and all of the answers by an interviewee are in the first person singular. The questions asked ABOUT the interview provide an opportunity to utilize other conjugations:
What was she doing before the interview?
Who will be a doctor after graduating university?
Was (student's name) jogging to the park before the interview?

Have a wonderful week of inspiring discoveries,
Hadassa

Week 4: Blogs to Follow

Hello again, everyone!

Welcome to Week 4 of CALL's Technology in Education's on-line discoveries. See here for my introduction to CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). The course's topic this week is "Working with Images". I learned what a linguistic landscape is. Then I added a banner to my blog with the help of a Word it Out word cloud created not from a text, but a list of words I compiled specifically for this cloud, and the "Open Book" effect (one of 526!) from PhotoFunia.

The Teaching & Learning Center, Using Visuals and Visual Learning, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville will be a valuable resource too.
My blog topic this week is the three Technology in Education blogs which I have chosen to follow on a weekly basis. I will not be posting every week about the blogs, but when I do, the title of the post will be the current week followed by "Blogs to Follow".

Alice Keeler, Teacher Tech, recently hosted a guest blog, Kleenex is Not Proficiency, by a language teacher, Nicole Naditz. I will admit that the title caught my eye, and would not let it go: What connection could facial tissue possibly have to proficiency in anything? (It has none. In some schools students receive grade points, under the category of "extra credit", for maintaining the classroom's supply of tissue.) The blog, which deals with the importance of directly relating grades to language proficiency, is well worth reading for language/future language teachers so I linked it in addition to a post specifically about technology in education.

Now for technology: In Google Classroom: Turn in Group Work with a Google Form, Keeler offers a plan, in the form of hacks, to circumvent the fact that, "Weirdly, Google Classroom is not designed for group work." Her suggestions are detailed and she includes clearly labeled examples.

In Learning is the Reward, Eric Sheninger of A Principal's Reflections, points out that "Learning, not grades, should be the reward for students. Helping them recognize this is the challenge we must all accept." Sheninger explains the positive aspects of James Nottingham's The Learning Pit (see the image below) and why students should not avoid struggles.
As R' Yitzhak said in Tractate Megilla 6b: "If a person says to you... 'I worked hard and found', believe him."

Image credit: http://francinemassue.weebly.com/

In 3 Ways to Combat Recipe Learning, Steven W. Anderson of Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom – A Blend Of Technology And Education, warns teachers not to "assign recipes" which will yield identical results from every student who successfully completes the assignment, but rather to assign projects which will genuinely foster and assess learning.

"Choice In Content, Process and/or Product- Allowing students to discover their own paths to content and process and products helps invest them in their learning. While content may be set by standards or expected outcomes, students can get creative in how they learn that content, the methods by which they connect that content to already known knowledge and especially in how they demonstrate their understanding."

Anderson provides examples of worthwhile projects and directs teachers to the resource section of the The Buck Institute for Education, "for example problems, assessment ideas and project guides" of PBL. The acronym is defined as both Project Based Learning and Problem Based Learning.

Perhaps every problem should be considered a project?

Have a wonderful week of inspiring discoveries,
Hadassa

Week 3: Word and Text Tools

Hello again, everyone!
This is Week 3 of CALL's Technology in Education's on-line discoveries. See here for my introduction to CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). I invite you to experiment with me on some of the various "word and text tools" websites our lecturer, Avraham Roos, has suggested to our class.
Warning: I am a logophile (Greek: logos, meaning "speech, word, reason" –  philos, meaning "dear, friendly") who has been translating for over 20 years. Dictionaries and thesauri are some of my best friends. Assigning "word work" to me is tantamount to setting a cat loose in a field of catnip.
The topics covered in this blog post are numbered and written in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS. Scroll down until you see a topic that interests you.

1. WORD CLOUD
2. WORD-A-DAY
3. TEXT PROFILER
4. QUIZLET FLASHCARDS
5. CLOZE
6. CROSSWORD PUZZLE MAKER
7. TEXT SUMMARIZERS
8. DICTIONARY SKILLS
9. ETYMOLOGY
10. FLIP BOOK

Have a wonderful week of inspiring discoveries,
Hadassa

1. WORD CLOUD I started with a "word cloud" generated with Tagul - Word Cloud and the words to a story I wrote while inspired by James Thurber. The "cloud" is a house–look to the right–which suits the story much better than a cloud. In addition to Tagul's shapes, users may create their own and upload them to the site.
I posted my story separately with the image for comparison here.
2. WORD-A-DAY Out of the choices for word-a-day websites I subscribed to two sites with which I was completely unfamiliar.  One, Wordsmith, has a weekly theme which I think will be useful for advanced student projects. The words and their themes are archived, allowing students to search for a particular topic. The second, Wordthink, caught my attention with the offer of "Insightful and persuasive words you can use every day!"
3. TEXT PROFILER Text Profiler sorts texts according to four types of words in order to gauge their complexity. I profiled a technical article about ornithologists with Text Profiler. Then I simplified the text, profiled the abridged version and compared the profiles. See the abridged text and both profiles here. There is a link to the original text.
I chose a word that sounds complicated, ornithologist, in order to show that sometimes a "big, scary word" is not difficult to explain: ornithologist = scientist who studies birds. "Scientist" can be replaced with "person" for students who balk at the sight of the word "scientist".
4 QUIZLET FLASHCARDS I chose a theme from Wordsmith, Americanisms, and created Quizlet flashcards with the words, both English-English and English-Hebrew. When I taught an after-school English class to a group of neighborhood girls one of the highlights was a completely unfamiliar to them (and sometimes to me too!) slang word, courtesy of my American nieces, introduced at the end each of each session. With that, and the fact that the main purpose of my first set of flashcards is for me to learn how to create them, in mind, I chose unusual words.
5.  CLOZE From the word puzzle options I first chose a "Cloze", because I had no idea what it is. After looking at edHelper.com's examples I created my own "unseen"story. See here for my story, word bank included.
6. CROSSWORD PUZZLE Then I created a duck crossword puzzle for my duck-loving daughter with The Teacher Corner. See it here.
7. TEXT SUMMARIZERS
Text Compactor allows uses to "set the percentage of text to keep in the summary" with a slider from 0-100%. Text must be entered in text form. (Some other summarizers take will text from an URL.) Text Compactor is based on the Open Text Summarizer mentioned below.
Splitbrain is "a webinterface to the Open Text Summarizer tool" and will accept either text or take text from an URL. It gives the choice of a summary or a list of key words. The summarization ratio is not as flexible as the Text Compactor's slider, but does have a wide range: 5%, 10% and then in increases of 10% up to 80%. Splitbrain accepted a significantly longer text than Text Compactor did.
The Tools4noobs summarizer will accept either text or take text from an URL. Like Text Compactor Tools4noobs has a slider, from 1-100%. for setting the percentage of text to be kept. Other features include setting minimum sentence and word length. In the results Tools4noobs gave "best words", and highlighted key words the same way that the "word cloud" did, by changing the size of the font in proportion to the frequency of the word.

I had fun with the websites but, quite frankly, whenever I read a summary I fret over what I am missing. The basis for choosing sentences is logical on all of the sites so if I ever had to use a summary and did not have time to write my own, I suppose I would have the computer do it.

8. DICTIONARY SKILLS Words are treasures. Therefore a dictionary is a treasure trove and looking for definitions is a treasure hunt.
Wordsymth dictionaries I chose to explore the dictionaries (Beginner's, Intermediate, Advanced) on Wordsmyth, which were new for me. A tool bar on the left allows searchers to look-up the same word in the three levels of dictionaries without re-entering the word, which is good for comparisons. The pages clearly illustrating how to use each of the dictionaries are very detailed. My first-grader decided to make a glossary about "color words" with the Glossary Maker. See it here.
Graph Words online thesaurus I used Graph Words online thesaurus to create a

word map for "school". All it takes is entering a word and the thesaurus does the rest. Words are color-coded by part of speech. A click of the mouse on each word in the map creates a new map for that word.
9. ETYMOLOGY Words have more than meanings and definitions. Each one has a history, sometimes a long history, sometimes an etymologically rich history and always one worth knowing in order to choose "just the right word". Most dictionaries give the etymology for each word; the Online Etymology Dictionary  specializes in the field. Have fun learning the ancestry of common words (They might surprise you!) and rarely used terms also. Knowing the etymology of a word generally helps with remembering its meaning and spelling so there are many worthwhile reasons to take the extra step, or steps, from definition to etymology.
10. FLIP BOOK I could not think of a topic for a FlipSnack flip book, but my 13-year old son agreed to create a flip book with me. As soon as we have finished I will post a link to it. Here it is.

Week 3 - "Unseen" Story

Word bank: cheese   farm   swim   cows   farmer

Shavuot

Part 1

It is almost Shavuot. We will make a ____________ cake for Shavuot. We will go from town to

the ____________ in a car to get ____________ for Shavuot. We will see Aharon the ___________.

He makes good ____________.

Part 2

Now we are going to leave for the ____________. We will ____________ in the lake on

the ____________, then we will get _____________.

Mother said, "Here we are at the ____________. Where is Aharon?"

"Look! Ducks ____________ in the lake!" said Sara.

Ben said, "The chicks run in the yard!"

Dan said, "The horses are on the hill!"

"Where are the ____________?" said Shira.

Mother said, "Do you see the barn? The ____________ live in the barn. But where is Aharon? We 

came to see Aharon."

Part 3

"Shalom!" said Aharon. "Here I am. Have you come to get ____________ for Shavuot?"

"Yes," said Mother. "Do you have some ____________ for us?"

"Yes," said Aharon. "I saved the best ____________ for you."

Mother said, "Thank you, Aharon! Have a good holiday!"

Aharon said, "Have a good holiday! Do you want to ____________ in the lake?"

"Yes!" said Shira, Sara, Ben and Dan.

"Then ____________," said Aharon. "I have to feed the ____________ now."

We swam in the lake and then we went home to make ____________ cake for Shavuot.

What do you do for Shavuot?

Week 3: Text Profiler

Photos: Screenshot of text profiles from Test Profiler.

The actual texts follow the images.

Profile of original text

Profile of abridged text

The original text is here.

When I simplified the text the percentage of Type 1 words, the 2,000 most common words in the English language according to the Nation's British National Corpus (BNC)-based list, increased from 59.5% to 89.06%. 

Abridged text:

What is an Ornithologist?

An ornithologist is a scientist who studies birds. Ornithologists study how birds act, what their bodies are like, and where they live. Some ornithologists study many kinds of birds and some study only a few kinds or even only one kind of bird. There are other jobs that an ornithologist might do. Some are teachers or tour guides.

What Do Ornithologists Do?

There are many parts to an ornithologist's job. They study what birds do and what is in the places where birds live. They record how many new birds hatch (come out) from eggs and how birds act as a group. Some follow how birds fly south when it is too cold and then come back when it is warmer. Some work in special parks, nature reserves, where birds are protected.

Where Does an Ornithologist Work?

Most ornithologists work at nature reserves or similar places. Some teach or research at colleges and universities. Some work at zoos, parks, or as veterinarians. Ornithologists sometimes have to walk a lot following birds outside or travel far from their homes to study birds.

How to Become an Ornithologist

Most ornithologists start out studying many kinds of animals or general ecology. They need to study math very well also. Ornithologists write lots of reports about their work so they must know how to write well. After studying a lot, students must also work with birds a lot before becoming an ornithologist.

There are about 6,000 ornithologists working in the United States.