3/16 post- 7 things about wikis

Before starting this program, I wasn't too familiar with what wikis are, and what their many uses are. I can now see how beneficial they can be for group work, and how great of a tool they are for collaboration. The article mentions that they came about in the 90's by scientists and engineers who created them as knowledge bases. This seems to be the case with many online platforms, such as facebook.

The article mentions a few downsides of wikis, and one of them in particular has the potential to be troublesome for ESL students. If you are teaching a class that does not have much technological experience, the initial setups and modifications that wikis require may be difficult to deal with. This can be a time-consuming task for both students and teachers, and the benefit of the wiki must be worth the time spent setting it up.

What about the idea of creating a "class wiki," where the entire class collaborates on one page, in specifically assigned tasks. While the project has the potential to be chaotic, it may be easier for the teacher to monitor one giant wiki, as opposed to a bunch of smaller wikis. I'm still not behind wikis 100%, but I think they do have potential in ESL classrooms.

March 11th reading blog

This reading, Negotiation in Cyberspace, deals with some of the benefits of synchronous feedback and error correction with NNS. One of the interesting points was that implicit learning takes place when a native speaker drops a preposition, and a native speaker rephrases the comment, this time with a preposition, for example.

I think this type of communication and feedback is a great way to get students to correct their work, almost unintentionally. My question would be that since these types of activities can be time-consuming when completed outside of class, so will these types of activities take place in lieu of class time? I don't see these types of activities happening during class, so will this be extra work students complete outside of class?

Project Proposal

The intended audience of the project will be study abroad students in Chicago taking a required culture class to become better antiquated with the city and help ease their cultural transition as they will be staying in the Chicago for six months or longer. The CALL tools we will be utilizing for our project are wikis and blogs.

The blogs project is meant to be a weekly journal where students are free to discuss any experiences they have had in Chicago, or any feeling of culture shock, etc. It is intended as a more open-ended forum for the students to record their reactions and have a place to compare their experiences over time, and with peers. The benefit of using an online forum is that the instructor will not have to carry an arm load of journals home, and the blogs will be easier for other students to access and read. Also, the students will not be deprived of their journals while the teacher is evaluating/reviewing them. The main goal will be the cultural benefits and the secondary goal will be writing fluency as the blogs will not be graded for grammar errors, and again, the purpose of the class is to ease the students’ transition into US culture and to create a community of solidarity amongst the classmates. Creating this environment in the class will, in theory, help the students have a better overall study abroad experience and lower their overall affect so they can perform better in their other classes.

The wiki project will be assigned at the beginning of the semester, so the students will have all semester to complete their task. The students will be asked to perform two tasks. First, they will be asked to visit major tourist sites of their choosing from a list ranging from museums, to going to a sports game. Second, they will be asked to visit places that they might miss if they were to just visit museums and tall buildings. These places could include restaurants, or anywhere recommended by a native Chicagoan as non-tourist places that shouldn’t be missed. The students can choose to work in pairs or as individuals. Each pair or individual will submit two wiki pages, one for each site visited. Out of the two projects, this one will focus more on accuracy although the class is not intended to be a grammar/writing class. The main goal, once again, will be for the students to become more acquainted with the city and to help lower their overall affect. The secondary goal will be giving the students the opportunity to practice their writing skills. The wiki format will also provide students with a forum for submitting multiple drafts over time, so any evaluation will be more heavily weighted on the process, and not necessarily the product. The students will have a follow- up writing class where they can just focus on honing their grammar and writing skills.

The students will be using the following sites:

www.blogger.com
www.wikispaces.com

Podcast #2- Planning a Vacation

Podcast #2 - Planning a Vacation

The podcast can be found at the following link: http://ecrofford1.podbean.com/

This podcast was created for a beginning- intermediate speaking course. We have created a pre-listening activity and a post- listening activity for this podcast. This lesson is meant to introduce students to the vocabulary and dialogue involved with planning a trip.

Pre-listening activity:

Below is the vocabulary list for the unit we are about to begin. Before listening to the podcast at home tonight, work through this list and try to define as many of these words as you can. After you have completed your list as best as possible, get in a group with 1-3 other classmates, and share your definitions. Try to come up with complete, logical definitions for each of the words. If none of your group members can define a word, look it up in your dictionaries, and copy down the definition.

Vacation

Travel

Trip

Flight

Depart

Departure

Arrive

Arrival

Destination

Luggage

Suitcases

Airplane

Airport

Travel Agent

Reservations

Tickets

While listening to the podcast:

During the podcast, try to gather some information about the trip the speaker is taking. Some information you should listen for:

Where is the woman going?

Where is she leaving from?

When is she leaving?

What time is her departure?

What time is her arrival?

Is she traveling alone?

How much luggage can she bring?

What airport is she leaving from?

Is the travel agent helpful?

Post- listening activity:

Take the information you uncovered, and type it into your blog in summary form. Include the main points, using as much of the vocabulary list as you can.

For the next assignment, you may work alone or with a partner.

Choose a location you would like to visit, and do the following:

Come up with 5 questions to ask a travel agent.

Some examples you can use:

How much are your tickets?

What time is departure?

What time is arrival?

What is your destination?

If you buy more tickets, is the cost less?

You may use some of these questions, but also come up with your own questions to answer.

After coming up with 5 questions, try to do a little bit of research, and answer the questions yourself. If you have trouble finding information, work with a classmate to plan your trip together. Use the internet to answer your questions. Type up a short blog postt using complete sentences, much like the one you did after listening to the podcast, and give us the important information that you discovered. Use as many vocabulary words as you can.