Creating WebQuests to Guide Students' Language Learning

WebQuests are an eResource teaching approach that helps teachers balance the need to:

1. guide students' language learning;  2. apply what they've learned to practical, integrated tasks and activities: and 3. give adequate opportunity for independent learning.

Using Webquests is an eLearning approach that is compatible with a variety of a variety of other eLearning pedagogies, including the Flipped Classroom, a Task-based Approach, SALL and Project Learning.

Here is a presentation to help you create your own WebQuest. There are links to many useful WebQuest websites on the last slide. Click on the link: Introduction to WebQuests 

Create a WebQuest with your group to share with your classmates during a brief Prezi presentation on 7th March 2017. It is recommended that you use either PowerPoint or Google Sites to format your WebQuest. Follow the presentation guidelines in Lixun's Webquest:

Webquest: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Sample Prezi: Cool Cats Gone Wild 

Adapt the topic, tasks, objectives and language level of the WebQuest to the grade level(s) you are likely to teach. Be sure to integrate all the components of a WebQuest:

1. Introduction to the task

2. Interesting and manageable tasks that requires students to find, use and transform information

3. Clear instructions on what kind of information to find

4. Set of information resources (links) – these are embedded in the WebQuest

5. Evaluation of the products, tasks or learning outcomes, including a self-assessment for students and assessment for teachers

6. Conclusion reminding students what they have learned

Here are some model WebQuests:

1. Anti-Smoking (Secondary 3)

2. Transportation (Primary 5)

Introduction to Prezi

Prezi Presentations

Freshen Up Your Presentation Skills

The era of eResources involves developing a vast assortment of digital literacies. Digital literacies, for language teachers, are integral to both how they teach and what they teach. Teachers have been making oral presentations for millennia, blackboard presentations for centuries, and PPT presentations for decades. Try to freshen up your presentation approach by developing some new ways to share information with your students. Prezi presentation is a good way to get started.

My First Prezi 

Give Prezi a try and share at least three things that you gained from your discussion group. 

Paste the link to your Prezi in the comment section of this post and give it a title.

Looking back to move ahead

Technology moves so quickly that it's easy to get lost in its wake. Today let's take a break and unplug a little bit to see how far we've come. As I've mentioned on more than one occasion, we have the unique opportunity to take a break from our schools and get a chance to actually get some perspective on how to navigate the way forward.

Today we're going to reflect:

• Mix up groups (just for this activity) and go to the Library Lounge
• Discuss the things that you have learned, skills that you have practiced and how they might fit into your school. It is also a great opportunity to talk about what works in your school and what doesn't
• At 10:30 We'll come back and take a look at Prezi
• Make a short presentation about three things that you would like to share with your colleagues at school and how you might go about it
• Share your link with us on Seesaw (I recommend shortening it)

To shorten a link go to http://goo.gl or watch the tutorial

Sharing a link on Seesaw

10 Questions to Ask Before Installing an Educational App

This is a great article on questions that you should ask before installing a new educational app. Making sure you have solid answers to these questions will really help you save a lot of time before you get stuck.

Using iPads and Tablets in the English Classroom

In recent years, there has been a strong swell in the number of mobile learning devices in local Hong Kong schools. As a platform have many things going for them. The devices usually come equipped with a large high-resolution monitor, a camera capable of capturing still images and video, a microphone and a touch screen. Best yet, it can be held in two hands and taken around the classroom and beyond.

Many of the challenges that teachers have when adopting a new technology into the classroom is looking for ways to make use of the technology in the first place.

This problem is two-fold: 1) many teachers are not aware of the technology or apps that exist out in the wild; 2) how can we find ways to use apps in the classroom, if we don't know how to use them ourselves?

In this lesson, we will explore some distinct ways in which apps have been used.

1) Get an idea of what's out there

2) See how people make use of them

3) Identify an app that you are interested in and figure out how it works

4) Share with the rest of the class what you've found

1. What's out there?

Source

In this section, I will also model the use of my three favourite apps

• Book Creator
• Adobe Spark
• Explain Everything

Alternately, you can take a look at some other sites to see apps that are out there:

• My 35 Favourite Free Apps for Teaching

2. How people make use of apps:

Source

• Free Technology for Teachers

3) Identify an app that you are interested in and figure out how it works

• Use this link to go to a shared Google Slide.
• The first slide has a list of app names for you to choose from.
• Each slide after the first has a template on it.
• With your group choose an app that you've never used before and 'cut' and 'paste' the title of the app on a slide without an app name on it.
• Research what the app is and how to use it and save the information on that template

4) Share with the rest of the class what you've found

At the end of class, we will present the information that we've found, explain what the app does, and how to use it. An iPad with all the apps is available for you to do a quick demonstration.

Seesaw

Seesaw is an online learning journal that allows teachers and students to capture and share work. Seesaw allows everyone in the class to submit evidence of their learning and post it on the class feed. When new evidence is submitted, the teacher receives a message and may accept or reject the evidence. This is an efficient way for teachers to prevent individuals from posting inappropriate material as well as alerting teachers of students who may need support. 

Currently, Seesaw is a free service but makes its money by providing premium features to teachers and extended parent access to students work. 

Seesaw is a walled garden in that the teacher has complete control over the class's feed and parents only have access if the teacher allows them access and only items where their child is tagged and was approved by the teacher. 

How do we install Seesaw on our phones or tablets?

On your mobile device, use your browser to go to http://web.seesaw.me/ and look for the links page. You can also use your device's respective app store and download "Seesaw Class"

Here is a playlist of tutorial videos for teachers

Here are some videos for students

Here are some videos for parents (English)

In this course, you will use Seesaw to document your evidence of learning through pictures annotations with audio and video.

Go to either the App Store or Google Play store to download the class app

Go to the class moodle to download the QR code to join our Seesaw class feed.

Feed back on eBook Drafts

Please leave your feedback in the comment section below:

Group 1
Feedback 6&7

Group 2
Feedback 1 & 7

Group 3
Feedback 1 & 2

Group 4
Feedback 2 & 3

Group 5
Feedback 3 & 4

Group 6
Feedback 4 & 5

Group 7
Feedback 5 & 6

Making an eBook

With teacher-made eBooks, you can decide on your own book title, topic, look, language, and length of the eBook - and even more. You can also decide to translate books from another language to another or make them more interactive or even use them as part of a flipped class. And you can decide exactly when, where and how they should be shared. But before we move on to eBooks, let's revisit types of books we use in English language learning.

https://goo.gl/HyLHw0 

Task 1

https://goo.gl/npCq5a

Submitting your draft eBooks before your group presentation
Your eBook should be posted in the above link before the lesson on Tuesday the 22nd of February.
To submit your eBooks:
1. Upload the eBook files (Slides, PowerPoint or Video) to your Google Drive account.
2. Share each eBook file files and paste them in the Design Your Own eBook "Process" section


Class Schedule

(Tues) 21 February – Self-directed learning, creating one eBook (details below). Everyone is welcome to come to class anytime during the 9:30 – 12:30 block in our classroom. If you do not have an iPhone or iPad but want to use Adobe Voice, two or three will be available. 
(Wed) 22 February - Group presentations of eBooks and critical evaluation of eBooks
(Thur) 23 February - Group iPad app

What is Digital Citizenship?

source: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/47/85/48/4785483623880b067b6991975dfc14c3.jpg 

As teachers, we are often viewed as models of behaviour for our students. In what way might this apply to the use of technology. What behaviours might we be expected to demonstrate for our students and why? On the other hand, what would happen if we didn't?

In giving students access to the world, and the sum of human knowledge, we forget that we also provide the world and the sum of future human knowledge access to our students.

This post has been divided into three sections, two videos and one question. The first video demonstrates the consequences of having a digital life and what is really happening with our data. The second looks at how we use and share information and what proper consumption and creation are with digital assets. The question that I pose to each of you is: What happens if the consequences for how we use and share information last long after we are aware of their impact?

1) Consequences:



2) Consumption of media and behaviour:



3) Question:
What simple things can you do to be a model to your students what safe and ethical behaviour is when using technology? Write your answer in the comment section of this post.


* Extension: Here is a longer video about personal privacy on the internet: https://youtu.be/KGX-c5BJNFk

Respecting Creators - Creative Commons

Just as we wouldn't steal art in a museum, we shouldn't steal other's creations even if they share them online. One way in which we can do this is look for works that use the Creative Commons License.

The Creative Commons License allows people to pre-approve the conditions under which their work can be used by others.

Quoted from the creative commons website:

License Conditions
Creators choose a set of conditions they wish to apply to their work.
 Attribution (by)All CC licenses require that others who use your work in any way must give you credit the way you request, but not in a way that suggests you endorse them or their use. If they want to use your work without giving you credit or for endorsement purposes, they must get your permission first.
 ShareAlike (sa)You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first.
 NonCommercial (nc)You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivatives) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permission first.
 NoDerivatives (nd)You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first.

License Conditions by CC is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Here are some sites you can use to find CC pictures to use online

• https://www.pexels.com/ (CC0 photographs)
• https://pixabay.com/ (CC0 photographs)
• http://foter.com/ (CC photographs with copy and paste licenses)
• https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons (CC photographs)

The Surprising Truth About Learning in Schools | Will Richardson

Based on many group's responses we might look to this video to see that we're not alone in seeing the future of education as being different to now.

How to make a paper airplane

Photo credit: David Avecilla Rosales (Dsk135) via Foter.com / CC BY-NC

In this activity, we will investigate three aspects of how you might use technology in your classroom. We will explore different activities that use technology in three distinct ways to support new opportunities for students to learn.

This activity will require you to use google drive:

Please download it for your phone here

iOS (iPhone or iPad) 

Android Phone

Here is a copy of the presentation for future reference

Sugata Mitra - School in the Cloud

What might learning look like in the future? What do we need to do as teachers to help prepare our students for a future no one can predict?
What can we do to initiate this change for our students?

The Past, Present and Future of e-Resources in English Teaching

Photo credit: Neo-grapher via Foter.com / CC BY

The Past

What is your own experience of using e-Resources in learning English as a student? Did e-Resources help you improve? And - if so - how? Provide your answer in the comment section of this post. The minimum length of your comment should be 50 words.

The Present


The state of using e-Resources in education is undergoing rapid change. While change in the use of technology is nothing new, it is the pace of change that is increasing dramatically. The present state is characterized by diversity, uncertainty and trial-and-error efforts. At the same time, the community of educators with successful stories to share is increasing. 

"The future is already here -- it's just not evenly distributed.

The Economist, December 4, 2003"

-William Gibson

The Future

Many English teachers in Hong Kong were students and pre-service teachers in the 20th century. Today, walking into a classroom can be like travelling in time back to 1986. Yet many teachers have kept up with the rapid changes through professional development programs, collaboration with innovative colleagues and proactive self-development. One way to prepare for the changes in education is to envision them.

Discussion Question:
What will Hong Kong English education be like in the year 2046, less than thirty years from now? Discuss your vision with a group of four classmates, and write your answer in the form below. Begin your essay with the sentence, "Learning English in Hong Kong in the year 2046 won't be like when we were young, back in 2016." Answers should be at least 100 words in length.