Podcast for Class

Happy belated Thanksgiving everybody!  I hope that you had a great, restful holiday with those you care for most.  I also hope you were able to move after indulging in so much food.

I think one of the more misunderstood audio technologies out there has to be the podcast.  I know for me, I used to think that you needed an iPod in order to listen to a specific podcast.  Also, I wasn't sure what the advantages of a Podcast were and since it was unfamiliar, I completed ignored this technology.  However, this week, thanks to this helpful video explaining what podcasts were in about 2 minutes, I was able to get a grasp on the benefits of this technology.  In short, it's the DVR of audio, allowing you to listen to a variety of broadcasts on demand.  And you don't need an iPod just to listen (note to self).  Just subscribe to the specific podcast you'd like to listen to and it's available to you.

In my quest to explore technologies that are useful in the 21st century Mandarin Chinese classroom, I found some examples of Podcasts that were enjoyable to listen to but also helpful for my future classroom.  One in particular is called "Popup Chinese", which is a podcast that is different from traditional "textbook-centric" learning methods, and has made them the highest rated Chinese podcast series on iTunes.  The particular podcast I listened to is for what they classified as absolute beginners and is called Let Me Do It, Myself.  This episode talked about the difference in pronunciation among particular speakers and is very easy to understand, even without any Mandarin background.

This could be used to help with a couple of specific learning objectives for Languages Other Than English:

• Model how spoken language, body language and social interaction influence communication
• Recognize that there are important linguistic and cultural variations among groups that speak the same target language.

The conversation and topics this podcast offers regarding the uses of Mandarin, along with teaching various phrases and words, are ideal for learning about HOW the language is used and not just speaking the language.  I'm looking forward to students being able to utilize these podcasts to learn more.

Comic Kids

I don't see it too often with this generation of kids but there's nothing that makes one reminisce on childhood like a good comic strip.  Though there are a ton of adults around that still read and collect comic books, most of them began their obsession with this genre when they were kids.  The comics themselves are fascinating in nature.  The animation accompanied with written narration and dialogue make it so much more visual than your typical book but also capitalize on one's imagination similar to well-written literature.  There's no doubt that comics can be a great way to tell a story.

So why not include them in the classroom as yet another way of engaging students?  I just tried another tool that enables anyone to create their own comic strip and do so relatively easily.  It's called stripgenerator and I was able to create a cool comic in a matter of minutes.  It was fun though it showed my clear lack of visual artistic ability.  The two strips I created, 日常生活第一 and 日常生活第二 (daily life parts one and two), are quick stories with one liners for each frame.  It details the daily life of a student and his schedule.  See if you can figure out what the Chinese phrases mean!

Similar to the performance indicators in the flipped classroom activities, students would be able to display their understanding of certain vocabulary words as well as being able to assemble phrases and/or sentences in Mandarin (to view the performance indicators, click here and go to page 12 of the PDF).  I would be able to assess their work by evaluating their vocabulary usage, relevance for the visuals displayed and for grammar as well.

Who says you're too old to enjoy a comic? 

Animoto

In my exploration of tools that are ideal for flipping your classroom (re-read my post about flipped classrooms here), I'm now utilizing photo story applications.  There are a number of sites and online tools available that can organize photos in a cool presentation format.  However, I tried out Animoto and really enjoyed it.

I created a photo story on food vocabulary using Animoto.  It was very simple and the final product came out great.  You can check out my Animoto post here.  I feel this would be something my students would enjoy and engage them at their level.  I also think that creating a photo story would be a good assignment for the students themselves.  Some performance indicators my students could demonstrate would be their ability to create and understand Chinese as well as being able to display their grasp of vocabulary comprehension (to see the specific performance indicators, click here and go to page 8 of the PDF).  I could assess their work by evaluating the complexity of their vocabulary as well as if relevant photos were used based on the topic and vocabulary.

I hope you enjoy the Animoto presentation and learn some Mandarin!

Serious Gaming

Last week, I wrote a blog post making the case for gaming in education.  If a teacher wants to increase engagement, enhance learning and explore new models of education, my belief is that gaming may not be a bad option at all.  Of course, Call of Duty or Halo probably won't help with any subject area unless your teaching a firearms course.  Therefore, the type of game you select for your students to play is of the utmost importance.  However, what if you want to simulate real-life issues and have students utilize what they've learned in class in those situations?  This week, I had the chance to explore the area of serious gaming and found that you can combine the fun of gaming while incorporating those real-life applications.

First, let me explain what serious gaming is.  It doesn't imply those marathon gamers that sit like zombies for days in front of a screen playing.  They are simulations of real-world events or processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem.  So developers take serious issues from around the world (ie earthquakes, persecution, etc) and put them in a gaming format for those participating in the game to learn and utilize their skills to solve problems.  While it can definitely be entertaining, the main purpose is to educate gamers and utilize problem solving skills.

I had the opportunity to play one of these serious games recently and was pleasantly surprised.  It was fun yet also thought provoking.  The game is called "Stop Disasters" and is described as a "disaster simulator game from the UN/ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction)".  The simulation places you as responsible for building shelters and various defense barriers ahead of a coming natural disaster.  You have a limited budget to do so, limited real estate to build on and only 20 minutes to build all you can before the natural disaster arrives.  You can choose a number of regions from around the world to play in and the natural disaster fits that area.  This game can be played in 5 different languages, one of which being Chinese, which is my subject area.

I found the game to be challenging at first (even though I picked the "easy" level) and fun.  I chose to have my setting be in the Southeast Asia region where the coming natural disaster is a Tsunami.  I built hotels, brick houses, sand barriers and other protective defenses in my first game.  However, it wasn't enough.  I needed to build much more according to the game, which I should've detected since I didn't use all of my budget.  Upon trying again, I was able to figure it out, spending much more money on ensuring all people had solid homes and that the defenses were much more secure.  In total I played twice but ended up spending around an hour on "Stop Disasters"

As I mentioned, I had fun playing this and found that the game also helps to meet some learning objectives for Languages Other Than English in New York State.  First, it aids with students needing to communicate in a language other than English.  Second, it also helps cross-cultural skills and understandings by allow students to experience the issues and life-altering disasters that take place in other countries.  One way to assess if the students have met these language objectives is to see how they scored in the game.  Another way is to follow-up with evaluations that look for understanding of the regions and the potential threats to them.