Mod 9 Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling is a computer-based tool to tell stories. It combines telling story with various multimedia, such as audio, video, etc. Compared with traditional storytelling, digital storytelling has a specific topic. It has different length but for education it is often 2 to 10 minutes. The topic in digital storytelling is very rich, including personal tales, historical events, literature, and so on.  John Seely Brown described digital storytelling this way: I’m particularly interested in Digital Storytelling, in new ways to use multiple media to tell stories and in the ability of kids, who are now growing up in a digital world, to figure out new ways to tell stories. They have the ability to build interpretive movies very simply and to lay sound tracks around the content. They condition or “sculpture” the context around the content. The serious interplay between context and content is key to what film—and rich media in general—are about.

I think I can use digital storytelling in my future teaching to introduce a topic like the history of English.   Digital storytelling is a new and advanced way for students learning and they may not feel boring. At the same time, they can learn knowledge. I think in this way, they will impress much more and can memorize what they have learned better.

Mod 7 (2) Reflection of the Game

For the serious game, I chose the Code Fred Survival Mode. I have played it for once and found it's interesting. The learning objective of this game is to understand the words and instructions of it and save the character from biting by the dog. There are a lot of words about organs and a demonstration of how to play before  starting each step. By playing this game, learners can recognize the name and place of organs so that they can learning while playing. For evaluation, teacher can give them all the words emerged in the game and let them point to the right place and also show how to spell and pronounce.

Mod 7 (1) Gamification and the Use of Walk Through

Gamification means teacher involves applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging. Using game in language learning is an attractive way for learners. By doing so, students can not only have entertainment, but learn English at the same time. 

I have played the Heart of TOTA once with the use of walk through. The learning objective of this game is to understand and finish the game with the help of walk through. Also, it aims to learn some new language structure from the game and apply it into daily life. I think students will feel very interesting and highly involved in the class after told by teacher that they are supposed to play a game and learn English through it. It is innovative and also a good motivation for students. When students are playing game, teacher can act as a consoler to help them and give instructions and hints when they meet problems. Also, teacher can be a translator in case they have some unfamiliar words. I think I will use the walk through game in my future teaching but only for beginners, especially for children. Since the instructions are relatively simple and it is a good way to grasp daily English by playing the game. After the completion of the game, I might give some explanation with the use of the pictures from the game. It might be a little difficult for me to finish the game perfectly in the first time since the unfamiliarity with the rules, images or words. I can play the same game for several time and if I can finish it faster than the previous, the learning objectives are completed. 

Mod 6 (2) The potential for Microblogging in education

From How to Use Microblogging for Education, I learned that teachers can share experience with each other through Microblogging. Several teachers with the same interests can make a research group and share information. It is a great idea that teachers spread different information through Microblogging and everyone can pick something he or she likes or needs. Besides, it is also a useful tool for students since they can write down what they are reading and the reflections. Teachers can also track their learning process by checking their Microblogging. Teaching with Twitter shows us 10 uses for education, which are beneficial for both teachers and learners.

Mod 6 (1) Feeling about Twitterchat

I followed #engchat on Monday and found a very useful article for non-native English speakers learning English. It talks about three mistakes L2 learners often have and I have the same problem with the first mistake the author mentioned. It is about the order of adjectives when a noun need to be modified by several of adjectives. There is a chart which list the order of adjectives we should say. I think Twitterchat is a very good communicating tool for us to learn and exchange our ideas with others.