TWICE (Two Way Interactive Connections in Education )

The Michigan Merit Curriculum's Online Learning Experience Guideline document has a great list of online courses, learning experiences, and ways to incorporate online learning into the classroom. My favorite of these was TWICE. It allows you to video conference with other classrooms on collaborative projects. One of my favorite ideas is reading the same book as another classroom and discussing it with them. However, this would be effective if the students simply communicated with other students in English. Monolingual classrooms often fall into the habit of translating because everyone can understand them. Being forced to talk with a speaker of another language would show them how to communicate when they can't slip into Korean.
The main pedagogical strategies I would use would be scaffolding until the students are comfortable using the technology, having the students work together collaboratively to check each other and make sure that they understand, and then having the students do the work on their own. I try to make my lessons as student-based as possible by having them use their own content and ideas.

I'm not sure which technologies would actually be hard to use with my students. In fact, since my students are in university, they're often more comfortable with technology than I am.  The main problem they face with technology is when they can't understand the texts. Therefore, the most difficult tool to use would be an RSS feed. However, there are RSS feeds for websites like breakingnewsenglish.com which might be useful. To be honest, I think all of these technologies would be useful and easy to use with my students.

Wikis

This week's topic was wikis. First, we had to build our own wiki. Building a wiki was surprisingly easy and fun. I wasn't sure what to write so I just started writing about the new apartment we're looking for since that's been on my mind. After that, I asked my friends to edit the wiki. They didn't really want to create new accounts. Luckily, PBWorks has an option for teachers whose students don't have email addresses. I was able to assign them accounts through my "education account" without them having to sign up. To be honest, I wasn't that excited about the result, probably because we were all sitting together while they were working on it. I can see the potential for student projects however - especially for writing collaborative essays. We also have students write scripts for presentations in our speaking classes. A wiki would be incredibly useful for that as well.
See my wiki here: http://missemilyreba.pbworks.com/w/page/39055415/Apartment

I also had to edit my school's wikipedia entry. I edited the UCR academies site rather than building an entirely new site for my school. This task was much more difficult for me.  I felt like the article was well written and I didn't want to add something for the sake of adding something. First, I fixed the broken links at the bottom of the page, most of which were outdated. Then, I edited the wiki to mention that students are encouraged to study at UCR rather than California because that's more truthful. I also added a detail about them getting a discount on tuition because it's something we really try to play up at our school. Here's a picture of the changes I made in the website:

Universal Design for Learning

UDL is the idea that learning school be designed to accommodate all kinds of learning. I'm a strong believer in this idea, so this assignment was both enjoyable and humbling for me. Our task was to take a lesson plan and see how well it stood up under the UDL guidelines. Here are my results:

UDL Guidelines – Educator Checklist Version 2
I.    Provide Multiple Means of Representation:	Your notes
1.     Provide options for perception
1.1 Offer ways of customizing the display of information	Feature: As the information is online, the students can change the size of the text. They can also change the size, color, font, etc in their responses. In addition, each student has a picture that appears next to their post which they can change if they wish.
1.2 Offer alternatives for auditory information	Feature: Instructions for how to use the forums are given in text and video.
1.3 Offer alternatives for visual information	Feature: There is a video with voiceover explaining how to use the forums. Barrier: It includes comments such as “click here,” which might not be useful if a student cannot see where here is.
2.     Provide options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols
2.1 Clarify vocabulary and symbols	Feature: There is a vocabulary list at the top of each document explaining hard to understand words.
2.2 Clarify syntax and structure	Feature: There is a video explaining how to use the forums. In addition, each forum includes text instructions on how to use it.
2.3 Support decoding of text, and mathematical notation, and symbols	Barrier: There is no text-to-speech.  Feature: There is a list of key terms they will need to use the forum.
2.4 Promote understanding across language	Barrier: There are no pictures. There are no links to definitions of words with pronunciation – although now I love this idea.
2.5 Illustrate through multiple media	Feature: There is a vocabulary list at the top of each forum task explaining difficult vocabulary.
3.     Provide options for comprehension
3.1 Activate or supply background knowledge	Feature: Each forum task is prefaced by an article or blog that the students have to read and respond to. The article provides vocabulary and ideas and shows which topics the students are expected to address.
3.2 Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships	Feature: The instructions are clear and concise. Barrier: No major ideas are highlighted.
3.3 Guide information processing, visualization, and manipulation	Feature: Each step is clearly written in sequential order.
3.4 Maximize transfer and generalization	Feature: The final forum task sends the students out to a forum used by English speakers in Seoul and requires the students to post on a “real world” forum.
II.   Provide Multiple Means for Action and Expression:	Your notes
4.     Provide options for physical action
4.1 Vary the methods for response and navigation	Barrier: Since the goal of the class is to improve writing, using voice recording or pictures would not serve the same purpose.

4.2 Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies	Barrier: This is actually completely out of my control. Everything about the computers is controlled by the Korean government. I can’t change any settings, hardware or software.
1.     Provide options for expression and communication
5.1 Use multiple media for communication	Feature: Online forums are being used as a tool for communication. Students can also upload pictures.
5.2 Use multiple tools for construction and composition	Feature: Moodle has spelling and grammar check.s
5.3 Build fluencies with graduated labels of support for practice and performance	Barrier: The goal of this activity is to allow students to practice freely without any pressure to perform “correctly.” However, they all tend to follow the same model since it’s the easiest.
2.     Provide options for executive functions
6.1 Guide appropriate goal setting	Barrier: The students are given a schedule but no rubric.
6.2 Support planning and strategy development	Barrier: This behavior is not modeled for or expected of the students.
6.3 Facilitate managing information and resources	Barrier: Resources for this are not provided.
6.4 Enhance capacity for monitoring progress	Feature: Each task has a list of what they have to do in sequential order.

 

III.  Provide Multiple Means for Engagement:	Your notes
1.     Provide options for recruiting interest
7.1 Optimize individual choice and autonomy	Feature: Although the teacher sets the topic, the students are free to address the topic any way they wish.  The only limit on the posting is that it include 150 words. They can add pictures
7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity	Feature: This is a real world task that students do everyday in their native language. Also, the final task is for the students to post on a real forum.
7.3 Minimize threats and distractions	Feature: Online forums have been shown to build community in a classroom. In addition, forums can give otherwise shy students an opportunity to express themselves openly.
2.     Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
8.1 Heighten salience of goals and objectives	Barrier: I usually expect the motivation for the forums to be intrinsic in the activity itself, but a formal statement of the goals would doubtless help the less motivated students.
8.2 Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge	Feature: The forums get progressively harder starting with the students talking about themselves, moving to talking about less familiar topics and finally to having discussions with native speakers.
8.3 Foster collaboration and community	Feature: Forums foster community and the sharing of ideas. Barrier: There isn’t any collaboration.
8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback	Barrier: The teacher does not provide students with feedback at any point since the goal is for students to practice freely without worrying about a grade or feedback.
3.     Provide options for self-regulation
9.1 Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation	Feature: Students in our program often lack faith in their ability to write. The act of posting on a forum helps to boost their belief in their ability to write.
9.2 Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies	Barrier: This behavior is not modeled or dealt with.
9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection	Barrier: Students are not given a rubric, nor are they asked to grade a sample forum post using the rubric.