I have read blogs
containing information on many different technologies, websites, and
applications over the past several weeks. While I think that most of this
information is interesting and useful in its ability to help me function as an
educator, there are three (written about by my colleagues) that I have found especially
interesting and beneficial.
These three
“technologies” are Marcia Oyanadel’s choice of Glogster, Adam Pierre’s
discovery of WatchKnowLearn, and Shirmen McDonald’s suggestion of Talking/Audio Books. I also believe Debra Beebe’s selection of Augmented Reality to be a technology that definitely has a place in education’s future, so I am
going to give this one an Honorable Mention.
Glogster is an
application that allows for the creation of multimedia posters. An educator can
use Glogster to make posters that contain photos, videos, images, and text for any learning
subject (Glogster, 2015). In fact, Glogster is a great tool for helping to teach ESL to non-native speakers, since the
instructor can place an assortment of resources on one “poster” for the student
to study.
If my students were
learning about prepositions, I could use Glogster to create a poster of images, such as boxes with a cat in them, a table with a
vase on it, and a bridge with a car under it to show the visual aspects of
these particular prepositions. I could also include text boxes with each word
being used in a few sentences next to the images and each photo can be clicked
in order to activate a video of someone pronouncing the word and using it in a
sentence. This all would give the student a multi-sensory experience to greatly
enhance their ability to learn a new language.
WatchKnowLearn is a database filled with educational videos that can be used to learn about pretty
much any topic. While mainly for grades K-12, WatchKnowLearn does also contain video material that would be appropriate for any age of ESL
student. A quick search will yield several thousand videos that would be useful
in teach English to the non-native speaker, including grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation,
among many others (WatchKnowLearn, 2015).
Since all of the
videos have already been created, the ESL instructor can spend the majority of
their time instructing their students rather than spending it making resources
for them to use in class. By choosing one (or more) WatchKnowLearn videos that are related to the day’s learning topic, the instructor can use
them with in conjunction with handouts, lectures, and other materials to teach
their students how to read, write, and speak English.
Audio and TalkingBooks are
voice recorded versions of printed books, including textbooks, magazines, and
novels (Audible, 2015). There are talking books available for
any age group or topic and they have been recorded in a pretty much every
spoken language (Audiobooks, 2015). While originally created for the visually
impaired, audio and talking books are excellent examples of how older technology can be successfully used by
modern educators to teach their students.
For the ESL
instructor, talking books can be used to help their students hear English being spoken in an
entertaining and contextual manner. There are even audio books that are were “written” for teaching English to non-native speakers available
for listening, such as Learn English: Word Power 101, English in Situations – Listen & Learn to Speak, and Keep Talking English – Ten Days to Confidence: Learn in English. While some of these types of audio books are not free to use, there are
plenty available from a variety of different sources that are free.
This brings me
to my honorable mention, augmented reality. Augmented reality (AR) is a boon to the educator, especially one that
teaches languages (including ESL). Through the use of applications on an
iPhone, smart phone, or iPad, etc. or special visual device aids (like Oculus Rift
and Google Glass), AR can allow a user to interact with their environment in ways never thought
possible (Widder, 2014). Some examples are the use of AR to overlay various businesses on a street so that a tourist can turn on their
phone’s camera and see what reviews others have given them or a student can use
their device to scroll around a room and the English names for items
(furniture, doors, animals, foods, etc.) will pop-up as words overlaid on them
(Widder, 2014).
Emerging
technology (these and others) are making the field of education easier and much
more interesting. For the student, emerging technology is making learning fun
and helping to keep their, often easily distracted, attention focused on
learning.
References
Audible.
(2015). About Audible: Our mission. Retrieved from
http://about.audible.com
Audiobooks.
(2015). Let us tell you a story. Retrieved from
http://www.audiobooks.com/about
Glogster.
(2015). Make it personal with interactive multimedia posters. Retrieved
from
https://www.glogster.com/
WatchKnowLearn.
(2015). Free educational videos. Organized. Retrieved from
http://www.watchknowlearn.org
Widder, B.
(2014, March 14). Best augmented reality
apps. Retrieved from
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-augmented-reality-apps/
