VNU EFL537 - Day#3 - May 20, 2008

I wish I was there to help you in person, but  because I'm not please help each other as much as possible.  If you do not understand an assignment, please ask a classmate to help you.  If you're computer is not working  properly, please share with someone or take turns using the one that does work.

Todays' Agenda

1 ) Class Roster
Please look at this class roster.  Make sure you name is on it and the infomration is correct.

2) Technical System Check
From reading your comments, I'm not sure how many of the lab computers are capable of playing screencasts and recording audio comments.
To help answer these questions, please complete the Computer Question Survey here
(if this is not accessible,  I will ask the questions in the skype chat)

3)  Discuss Updated  Course Objectives and Assignments
After thinking about what you have told me about your teaching situations and goals for this course, I think it would a good idea to focus on the things listed below for the rest of the course.

  •  Preparing  Computer-based Learning Materials 
These are text, audio, & video materials you can use in your teaching situation without accessing the internet.  They can be saved from other websites or things you create using Powerpoint, Word,or other tools.

  • Creating a list of websites and online resources that will be useful to you in the future
Even if you don't currently have internet access at home or at school, you hopefully will eventually.  When you do, you can use this to find what you're interested in.

  • Creating a Website (for you or your class) 
Use Edublogs or Wikispaces to create a website that you can use now and in the future

   We can  also practice additional skills like creating presentations, producing audio files, editing graphics, and creating games & quizzes.  Which skills we practice and how much time we spend developing those skills will depend on student interest and abilities.


4) Practice Saving Files from Websites.
  Watch this screencast (on the projector if possible) about saving files from learning website resources.
http://www.efl537.com/screencast/saving-files-internet

To save files from the internet, RIGHT click/Save Link as


Types of files and programs that open them
Types of File Programs
.ppt or .pps  Powerpoint or OpenOffice Impress
.doc or .rtf Microsoft Word or Open Office
.pdf Foxit or Adobe Reader
.mp3 Windows Media PlayerVLC, and other Media Players
.htm or .html Firefox, MSIE  , or other browsers

 Sites that contain free learning materials that you can download.
 Please visit these sites, find files you would like to save, and save them to your computerr.
5) Social Bookmarking - Using Del.icio.us

Try to use Del.icious - a social bookmarking site that helps you find, save and share links  to sites of itnerest
Guides: Watch the Delicious Screencast   Additional help here
Task: Register at Del.icio.us, install the browser plugin, and bookmark at least threee sites (they can be the same sites you blogged about above). Add the URL of your del.icio.us account (i.e. http://del.icio.us/jefflebow/) to your profile  (Login to efl537.com , click my account, Profile, enter URL)






Assignment:
Continue saving files and adding websites to your Del.icio.us account.

Since some students are having problems with Edublogs.org, let's try another blog hosting site - Wordpress.com . You can register here.  If you're already setup with Edublogs, you can use that. Try to experiment with writing a post and changing the design.  We will work on this tomorrow.

Please Read: Using Technology to Teach Reading Skills
You do not have to do the activities or answer discussion questions that are part of the reading.  However, please write a blog post (EFL537.com, Edublogs, or Wordpress.com) about how the ideas contained in the article relate to your approach toward reading English?  Also, look at the websites linked to in the article - which might be useful for your students?

reading

I discorver a lot of useful websites that will help me in the future because now I can't immediately read all of them. I am impressed by Using technology to Teach Reading skills. for a long time most people have thuoght that reading skill is boring and mechanical because it is difficult to make the lessons more interesting and attractive, but now with computer we can design many useful activities and games to teach. we also exploit many websites and information related to the texts we will teach to motivate learners to be attracted to the topics or the situations the teachers create. If you want to know more about how to use technology to teach reading skills, take a look at the English Reading from E.L. Easton, you will be interested in it.

Using Technology to Teach Reading Skills

Yet, Every one finds that technology plays more and more important role in teaching. It is not only good for teachers but very useful for students to grow their reading English everyday. For teachers, it depends on the level of students and sometimes depends on their thinking and their interesting, teachers can design the best lesson with suitable words and tasks to make students learn alots, want to discover and use English in any where and any time. Foe example: may be some links help you more in practice English through game: 1. http://www.manythings.org/wbg/ 2. http://www.englishclub.com/esl-games/ One thing for teacher is how to design a good lesson ? How to choose the suitable materials and make it simple, easy and motivated to students is an art and it is a process of learning more and more and apply in the useful way.

Useful websites for students

If you have read Using Tecnology To Teach Reading Skill, you will find many websites linked to the article that are useful for students to go and read. They can get information in Course Introduction or Course Content to know about their levels. Based on the lessons, they can do Interact Exercises, look up new words in Online Dictionary. They also find many things in Webresources or their ideas , experiences in Student Blogs or Discussion forums. It is obviously that students are able to learn creatively if they use Students Projects. They will know the Role of Reading in SLA so they would be in learning process.

Using Technology to Teach Reading Skills

In modern society,technology plays an important role so that using technology to teach is one of present tendency. As we know there are many advantages in using technology in different stages to teach reading. we can teach vocabulary, languagecontent information in the text that students will read By using computers, projectors, websites,.... the teachers can exploit a lot of information related to the reading they will teach or they even help the teachers enrich knowledge about other aspects. While they are accessing to the websites that server for learning better, students will increase their ability of reading fast and doing tasks they are required to do. Nobody can deny that it is easy to store lessons, information, pictures, sounds,... in computers, blogs, websites,... so they are able to be used and reused many times in different lessons. they can share their experiences to teach better. if the languages sometimes are shown on the table, it is easier to compare and get language in lively ways. Although there so many challenges for the teachers to overcome like us nowadays, their lessons will attract students a lot because they are motivated in discovering new things and learning positively as their teachers hope. To use technology to teaching reading effectively, the teachers should be creative and flexible in selecting as well as combining suitable methods, languages, texts, tasks,... in each lesson. The more challenges we face, the better we will be if we can pass them