#8: Open Topic / Reflection

For your final blog post, please feel free to write about any topic related to the course.  For example, you can reflect on what you have learned about in the course and your e-portfolio project and also discuss any future goals or plans you have to use technology in your classroom.

- Computer became inevitable device in modern society. So it is beneficial if a person know how to deal with computer today. Taking CALL class of Hanyang University, I could know tons of tools that I haven't known before. I didn't know that there are a lot of things that I can do with computer. 

  Especially, I became interested in making Podcast. Actually, it was my first time to make podcast on my own. After listening to Quick and Dirty Tips: Grammargirl, I got a real tip to make one about a verb usage. 

  Next, Digital storytelling tool was really attractive to me. I was fascinated the vivid visual aids that such tools provided and thought it would be really useful when I teach young learners.

  After I complete this course, I have a plan to teach young learners as I originally interested in teaching that kind of learners. So I will try to make use of digital storytelling tools to tempt children. 

I really thank CALL class for informing me a lot of tools on computer, and a teacher Ryan, too!

#7: Mobile App Review

Search for a language learning application designed for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.  Provide a link to the application's website. Write a brief review of this application that includes information about the app's functions, which devices it is compatible with, and how it can assist or enhance the language learning process.

1) Link 

   TED: http://www.ted.com/

2) Function / compatible app

    TED means Technology, Entertainment, and Design. It promotes the motto, "Ideas worth spreading." All remarkable people around the world come out and give a speech. It deals with various but not serious topics, so it can be a nice mobile app for extensive listening. Making a digression, I listened to the speech of Korean guy in TED the other day, The topic was Korean archery. He showed how to make arrows and bows and  demonstrated their quality in front of the audience. I thought it was really interesting that he performed his exclusive skill in the world. Anyway, there are some supportive mobile apps derived from TED such as TEDiSUB (it provides subtitle), TED Air and so on.
   I think the app that is compatible with TED is YBM CNN listening training, which is run by YBM company and provides repetitive listening using CNN news. It has two sections: CNN Listening and CNN training. In the first section, we can listen the original CNN news. The second section consists of four steps. We can listen to the news, divide a sentence into a smaller part, shadow the news, and do dictation.

3) How it can assist or enhance the language learning process?

     In my opinion, TED can assist extensive listening. Listening skill cannot be improved all of a sudden. So it is important to listen something steadily. If a teacher uses TED in a English listening class, it would be helpful to train students' listening skills. On top of that, the teacher can make some extra activities like shadowing contest, after listen to one of TED speeches in class.

     

#6: Digital Storytelling

1. Write brief reviews about the two tools you used to create short lessons.

   - First, I used Zimmer Twins at School. This site enabled users to make a movie based on flash player. When I clicked "make from scratch," I could make a whole movie by myself. At first, I chose a character, its action, surroundings. I also could type lines in a speech bubbles. Also, there were four sections at the same page: talk bubble clips, action clips, close-up clips, and star clips. In each section, a sentence was given below the chosen one. When I selected "agrees" in the talk bubble clips, the sentence came up like this: "_____ agrees _________." It meant that I was able to choose subject, and adverbial phrase at my pleasure. As I filled in the blank with a subject and an adverbial phrase, the outcome reflected what I chose, appearing in the screen. I think Zimmer Twins at School is an advanced version of Flash Player. I have used Flash Player before, but I liked Zimmer Twins more because it showed detailed displays and was less simple than Flash Player, which consists of only boring line and flat-colored shapes. 

     Second, I used Pixton. I could start making a comic when I clicked "create a comic." While making a comic, I could choose several things such as layout, character, expression, and pose. Likewise, I was able to add speech bubble, props, background. This site was similar to Zimmer Twins but the one remarkable difference from Zimmer Twins was that I could change character's posture freely (I was very surprised to know that I could move even the joints of characters!). So I thought that users should spend more time working on it  but Pixton could provide broader room for expressing more detailed situation than Zimmer Twins.

2. How could these tools be used by teachers and students? How could they be incorporated into a class?

- Thinking about how these tools could be incorporated into a class used by teachers and students, I came up with two main things. This is an English grammar class. The target students are young learners who are able to use computers well. One session consists of two classes. The first  class is a time for teachers to use these tools. Grammar class might be bored to young learners because they have short span of concentration. So I think teachers can use these tools when making a preview as an introduction in the beginning of a class. If teachers shows an interesting intro using these tools, it would be perfect to draw children's attention. At the end of the first class, teachers briefly explain how to use these tools to make a movie or a comic. Then give homework to children to make one as a review work, noticing them that their products will be on an in-class movie or comic contest. The important thing here is the content of movie or a comic should include what they learned in the first class. 

   In the second class, the time for students, teachers let the children present what they made. The final products by children can act as a barometer showing how much they understood the content of the first class. After seeing end products one by one, teachers can evaluate each presentation, and reward for the best item.

#5: Corpora, Concordance, Collocations, Word Frequency

1. Compleat Lexical Tutor 
 
    http://www.lextutor.ca/

- In Compleat Lexical Tutor I can analyze texts and check word frequency or analyze concordance and then find collocation. Speaking of word frequency, I think this site could be useful for teachers when they are to design appropriate material for class. For example, in a biology class, a teacher can let students go get dissertation or articles and input them to word frequency analyzer. This could make students be aware of what the main terminologies or target vocabularies are without relying only on text.

     In the aspect of concordance, I believe this site would be used when students try to find collocation by checking concordance. For instance, for the students who want to speak or write like a native speaker, teacher can get them to analyze concordance and then figure out collocations. Since collocation is a combination of words that frequently occur together, being well-informed of collocation will benefit students: they can have a good command of English more naturally. 

2. Corpus of Contemporary American English

     http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/

-  As I visited Corpus of Contemporary American English, I could plan four different kinds of lessons, knowing that there were four main categories in a "display" section: list, chart, KWIC, and compare. "List" shows the number of frequency and, as the name implies, a simple list of the sentences that collocate with the target word. So a teacher use "list" to simply explain how many times the target word is used and with how this word can be used in a sentence along with what kind of other words it goes together.

     "Chart" displays bar charts that indicates in which field or in what ages the target word is used the most. Also, it shows the matching words or phrases with the target word if a teacher clicks one of bars. Thus a teacher could use this tool in teaching the history of a target word.

     "KWIC" is an abbreviated form of Key Word In Context. It shows a target word in a sentence surrounded by possible context with colorful marks. Therefore, a teacher can view the concordance by using this option and use this tool when teaching concordance in writing class.

     In my opinion, the most useful tool is "Compare," that shows which word collocates better with the other following word. For example, I wondered about which word would better to collocate with amount. So, I typed "small" and "tiny" in the first two blanks, and then "amount" in the blank below. And the result said "small" is more suitable for "amount" than "tiny". So this tool could help non native teachers teach writing or speaking in EFL classroom.

3. Wordle 

    http://www.wordle.net/

- The most remarkable thing of Wordle is that it displays the result as a visual aid. Since it didn't work at computer lab of TESOL class, I did it by myself at home. When I went to "create" section and typed two to three paragraphs then clicked "go," the picture below came out. The fun thing was that in the picture, the word of high frequency was marked big, and the word with low frequency was marked small. Since this tool showed vivid visual aids, I thought this would be effective when a teacher is to teach young learners about word frequency.

#4. Podcast Review

1. Listen to one or two of the podcasts.
   - I listened to Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing: 326GG "Jealousy"   
       Versus "Envy" on iTunes.

2. Provide a link to the podcast on your blog. Give general information about the content
      and quality.
   - https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/grammar-girl-quick-dirty-tips/id173429229?mt=2
   

     The name of the podcast I listened to was "Quick and Dirty Tips." As I went to the link, I could see the grammar girl standing at the left side of the screen. At first, I simply clicked one of the list called recent tips, and it was "Donut Versus Doughnut." After I moved into that page, I found that there were a lot of ways to subscribe, download, email, print, and share at the right side of the text. Clicking an iTunes button among those, I decided to search something that I confused before in using English. In the next page, I picked one of podcasts titled "Jealousy" Versus 

"Envy," and then clicked "View in iTunes." 

 

     It was a roughly 5-minute-long podcast and about the difference between "envy" and "jealousy." In the podcast, the grammar girl talked about a word "jealous," which is used when a person has an element fear that (s)he might lose someone with an example, "A man is jealous of the best friend of his girlfriend, who is a dude." And then the grammar girl kept talking about "envy," a word for being used when a person wants what someone already has, giving an example, "A man envies his girlfriend's upcoming trip to Hawaii." 

   Thanks to the Grammar Girl, now I'm able to tell the different usages between the two words.
    

3. What do you think about the podcast? Which type of learners could benefit 

      from the podcast?

-  I think Grammar Girl was really beneficial to me because it helped me find out something unsure about grammar before. Also, most items of Grammar Girl ran within 10 minutes so it was very interesting to listen to when I was to kill time or just listen for fun. It would be useful again and again later whenever I try to search for uncertain things about grammar. 

      Basically, podcast enables learners to listen to the same material on multiple devices. Thus, podcast is suitable for the learners who are able to play with a variety of technical devices. Considering that Grammar Girl is an audio recording for the better writing, I would recommend this to the learners who are confused about little grammatical things that hinder their English writing. After all, it can bring about Grammar Girl subscribers' acquiring higher score on writing tests to some extent if the learners can catch out confusing things and use the correct grammar. Next, once Grammar Girl is downloaded, learners would feel really convenient because they can subscribe it without directly going the website everyday. So, it is fit for learners who are willing to study grammar on a regular basis but without inconvenience. Next, Grammar Girl can be played multiple times as many as the learner wants. So, if learners are exposed to it over and over again, it will decrease the possibility of forgetting important grammar tips.