Discussion aboutt Blending Language Instruction and Online Feedback Practice

 

 

Open and Distance Learning

Weekly Discussions

In our 4 week long discussions, we held a discussion on "Online Teaching and Learning" in the first week, on "Importance Of Presence In Online Education" in the second week, on "Online Learner Engagement" in the third week and on "Flipped Classrooms" in the fourth week. As we held discussions every week, we realized that the topics actually consist of interconnected topics. Each topic was like a continuation of the other.

            We talked about online teaching and learning in the first week. We talked about the benefits of online teaching and learning, and discussed the aspects that needs improvement. We talked about online teaching and learning tools. We gave examples of useful aspects such as being economical and practical. We talked about the beneficial aspects to students such as not having transportation and other expenses, and being easily accessible from every home. Since every house in rural regions does not have internet access, we talked about the state's support and responsibility. As a Tool, we talked about the tools we learned and used in technology lessons in the education we received in the 2nd grade. We talked about applications such as Hot potatoes, Pexton, Flipkart, Pinterest, Socrata, Blackboard, Moodle, Kahoot and talked about what they do. In addition, we mentioned that students who are younger are not likely to use technology well and that they will have difficulties in lessons. In addition, we talked about the differences between new and old generation teachers. We talked about the fact that the new generation teachers are adapting to technology, but the old generation teachers cannot keep up with developing technology and the state organizes education programs for this. Finally, we mentioned that we have now received our education online, and we ended the discussion by talking about our experiences we gained from the lessons we gave in our internship.

In the second week, we held a discussion on “Importance Of Presence In Online Education”. We talked about Telepresence, Social Presence, Engagement and Presence. If we talk about these briefly, it can be called interviews in digital environment as telepresence. Social presence can be called face-to-face interviews with physically being in the same place. Engagement can be defined as participation in a lesson or activity. Presence, on the other hand, can be defined as being in the environment where the lesson or activity is held and the relationship between the student and the teacher. In addition, Sena asked she could not understand if one of her students was engaging in the course and do i have any advice on this matter. I said that she can understand this only by student’s looks and answering questions, etc. We talked about the pandemic we are in right now, and we talked about the good and bad sides of it. We talked about the examples we gave in the 1st week as good sides. In terms of being economical and practical. We mentioned that the teacher has more opportunities as a material. We talked about the negative aspects, again, from the examples we gave in the 1st week, that not everyone has access to the internet. In addition, we discussed whether telepresence or social presence is more efficient. 2 of us also decided that social presence is more effective. Because in telepresence, the teacher does not have the chance to fully observe the student. He or she cannot tell if the student has fully participating in the lesson. Adult students do not experience this problem much, but i experienced this problem in younger students in my internship. After that, we ended our discussion.

In the third week, we talked about "Online Learner Engagement" and its interaction types. If we go into details briefly. We talked about Learner - instructor, Learner - learner, Learner - Content. In Learner - Instructor, training is done between student and teacher. Learner - learner takes place between 2 students in. Both students are trying to learn the subject by teaching each other. In Learner - Content, a text or material is given to the student. The student learns on his or her own by making use of this text or material. Apart from that, we talked about Behavioral Engagement and Cognitive Engagement. If we explain them briefly. In Behavioral Engagement, the student or learner participates in the lesson with motor activity and mechanically. So, in a way, they attend the class on a superficial basis. In Cognitive Engagement, students go deeper in detail. They attend the lesson even more effectively. In addition, we talked about an assignment that Sena gave to her students. We talked a little bit about this assignment. Finally, we had to end the lecture because we had a few technical problems at Zoom due to the internet.

We had the longest discussion this week. This week we talked about "Flipped Classrooms". In addition, we took a look at Bloom's Taxonomy. We talked about what Flipped Classroom is. If we explain briefly, we can explain as the student's learning at home, reinforcing it with the teacher by practicing at school, and finally extending the learning at home. It’s basically flipping the teaching progress. If we talk about Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom's taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical models used to classify educational learning goals according to their level of complexity and specificity. The three lists cover learning goals in the cognitive, affective and sensory domains. Then we talked about the positive and negative aspects of Flipped Classroom and we talked about whether this method is successful or not is related to the learning style of the student. We said it was faster than other lecture formats for its positive side. We said that because the student does the learning process on his or her own, it causes the student to do research and gain more information than necessary. On the negative aspects, we said that this method will not work for every student. And we gave this example from me. I have ADHD. I can get distracted easily and understand something best when taught first in theory and then in practice. Therefore, we mentioned that there is no teacher to ask questions while the student is learning and also there is no teacher to correct the student’s mistakes can cause problems. And with that, we ended our discussion.

If we are to sum up, i mentioned above the debates we held for 4 weeks and the parts that i think are important in general. However, we must adapt to the ever-evolving world as a teacher. We should not limit ourselves only to the education we receive at school, and we should be in a constant state of development. Due to the pandemic we are in now, almost all of the world has switched to online education, as an instructor, we must be prepared for such unexpected situations and always be open to development.

References

Chapelle, C. A., & Sauro, S. (2019). The handbook of technology and second language teaching and learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Hiver, P., Al-Hoorie, A. H., & Mercer, S. (2020). Student engagement in the language classroom. Multilingual Matters.

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching: How to "Be there" for distance learners. John Wiley & Sons.

A systematic review of research on flipped language classrooms: Theoretical foundations, learning activities, tools, research topics and findings. (2020, November 13). Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2020.1839502

(n.d.). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hLOUlbAgs0

Virtual Reality

 

                                What is Virtual Reality?
Virtual Reality can be considered an extremely immersive experience that you can enjoy safely and simulate something real. By using a virtual reality headset or applicable application, you can enter into special simulations. These simulations are designed to be extremely immersive experiences which the user can interact with and explore. The viewer controls the environment and has the power to look around at any scene as well as potentially interact with the objects in the scene.
Virtual Reality usually take place in computer-generated simulations in which an entire 3-D environment is rendered in the closest thing to a simulation. A person can then use a variety of electronic equipment to interact with the scene and control the environment.
Overall, virtual reality means creating a simulation of a real world experience that a person can enter and leave at any time using technology. As VR continues to develop, we will only see these simulations getting more in-depth and real. The technology also continues to miniaturize and grow cheaper, bringing VR to a position where almost anyone could have the chance to try it.

                                Virtual Reality in Education
Virtual Reality and Education. You’ve probably heard these two words combined before. But how is VR actually put to use in the classroom? And is this new medium really beneficial to learning?
It is hardly news that the way we teach our kids in schools is going through a digital revolution. What is new however, are the tools teachers now have access to, and how easy it can be to implement VR creation as a part of the class curriculum, in ways that support the study material being taught.
If you’re a teacher, should you follow the trend and look into getting a VR viewer for your classroom? Will this actually be useful to your teaching and helpful to your students? And if so, how can you get started easily and without the hassle of having to go through technical difficulties that will make you wish you had a PhD in computer engineering?

                        Our Virtual Reality Experince in Classroom

Augmented Reality

What is Augmented Reality?

The word "augment" means to increase, extend, or make better. Augmented reality can be understood as a form of virtual reality where the real world is expanded or enhanced through the use of virtual elements, usually overlaying those elements on the view of the real world through the use of a visual device.

AR can work in several different ways and is used for many different reasons, but in most cases AR virtual objects are overlaid on and tracked in a view of the real world, creating the illusion that they occupy the same space. AR devices have a display, input device, sensor, and processor. These devices can be monitors, head-mounted displays, eyeglasses, contact lenses, gaming consoles, and even smartphones, among others. Sound and touch feedback can be included in an AR system as well as through other non-visual methods and devices.

 I tired those AR app's below and i want to talk about JigSpace App today.

JigSpace is a AR camera application as you can guess. It is the best AR application for education i guess. It actually resembles the items at teaches you how they work. Basically here is some screenshots from the application.

It is far the best teaching AR application in the business. It is very usefull for engineering and medical students. But not too much usefull for us English Language Teachers. Because we don't have to teach how the electronic items work or the organs work. We have to teach grammer and vocabulary and etc.

We can use Augmented Reality apps to teach words. When we scan the word "Train" a train can appear and this is how we can use it to teach words. Other than that we can use it with gamification.  There would be items popped up on application and we can match it with the description on them. As a alternative, teachers can play a game where each day a student has to record a difficult word he learns. These difficult words could then be attached to the word wall and anyone could scan them with their smartphones. This will improve the vocabulary of students, thereby making the learning more exciting.Along with incredible advantages to industries, such as construction, museums, manufacturing, and entertainment, AR in education can make the teaching and the learning process more fun-loving and satisfying.It would make the lessens more fun and attract students attraction.

And as last... Here is our group work prepared via LeoARCamera APP.

Padlet

Padlet is an application to create an online bulletin board that you can use to display information for any topic. Easily create an account and build a new board. You can add images, links, videos, and more. You can return to add more later. Installing Padlet Mini in your browser allows you to add the page you are browsing to your Padlet and gives you a shortcut to view your Padlets. Settings allow you to make your wall completely open for public contributions, completely private, or moderated by you (you approve all contributions before they show). Free accounts allow you to make 11 Padlets that include search, themes, stats, premium wallpapers, and cross-device support for uploaded videos. You can always delete an old Padlet to make a new one. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly.

Here is the content i've prepared via Padlet;
https://padlet.com/ksk_berke_1912/n8udx36wcyvh

Podcast and Vidcast

Here is my vidcast;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iK6Jv8PpZM&feature=youtu.be

Script;

Grammar isn't the fun thing in learning a language but it is one of the most essential things in language learning. Can we understand a language without grammar? Yes we can but when we want to speak, things can get complicated very quickly. In an important businees meeting we have to impress the associates so we cant speak meaningless and funny things to them. So why grammar is so important? Languages can change from nation to nation so language rules can change from language to language too. As an example you can add adjunction at the end of a word in Turkish and change the meaning of the word and the sentence but you can't do the same in English. You have to change the location of the word to change the meaning of the sentence in English. So we can't just speak the language by learning vocabulary we have to learn grammar to speak it. To me vocabulary and grammar are the most difficult things in learning a language. Both of them require memorization and my memorization is awful. But this didn't put me back from learning a language. With plenty of practice and hard work there is nothing impossible.

And here is my podcast;
https://soundcloud.com/user-148241014/podcast-1/s-Zyg1l

Script;

Listening is one of the main section of learning a language. If you can't understand what you're listening you can't communicate with the speaker. And main reason to learn a language is communicating with other people.

In the past, people used to refer to listening and reading as ‘passive’ language skills. However, effective listening and reading require active attention, not passive reception. So one way to increase your listening skills is to make conscious use of the context in which you are listening, and not just the words the speaker is saying. The context provides a wide range of additional information. Some isa vailable to the ear (in the form of background noise, voice quality, accent, and so on), and some to the eye (for example, the speaker's facial expression and gestures, and actions in the background).

Flexibility of this sort is an essential skill in listening. Research has shown that we are more tolerant of uncertainty in our own language than in another language. We make an initial guess at what a conversation is about, then listen for more information to confirm or disconfirm that guess, and change our interpretation if we need to. When listening to a foreign language, we are more likely to keep to our original guess at the conversation topic than in our own language, even when we realise that some later information seems to conflict with it.

The techniques in the list below are shown in random order. As you read them, think about what they involve and group them into similar types of practice. Listening to a tape and writing down exactly what you hear is very helpful. To listen very specifically and in detail means you have to pay attention to sounds which you have some problems with yourself. Seeing what the gaps are in your dictation tells you what your listening problems are. I listen to the news on television or radio and then try to discuss the topics with friends. This is very useful for me to know whether the news that I have heard is correct and does not give different perspectives than mine. I improve listening by meeting a lot of friends and talking to them on any topic. The best way is to make them give explanations when I don't understand something and then to tell them what I have understood from those explanations. I think it's good practice to listen to other foreign speakers talking about your field. You have to get used to their accents, in the same way as you have get used to British people's different accents. In fact, there are bigger differences between British accents than between foreigners, I think. So it's all good practice and helps to find out more about the subject. By listening to different dialects and speeds, my English improved quite a lot. I am a member of the Greek Dance Society, so I go to their meetings once a week and spend about 2 hours per week talking English to other students there. 
 

Pinterest

What Is Pinterest?

You can think of Pinterest like a web-based pinboard or bulletin board—but with greater organizational functionality. You can also think of it as a bookmarking tool.

People typically pin or save images they found on the web (or on Pinterest itself) to different boards (used to categorize their image collections). Many of the images saved on Pinterest are clickable, and open up in a new tab to the original web page where they were found,

For example, Pinterest is a very popular tool for recipes. People can browse through images of delicious looking food, click on an image that looks good and be taken straight to the recipe instructions when they click on it. They can also save it to their own recipe board so they can access it later.

Pinterest is also a social network. Users interact with each other through liking, commenting, re-saving each other’s stuff and private messaging each other.

Here is my profile on pinterest.

https://tr.pinterest.com/babakkal/ingilizce/

And here is my infographic.

https://cloud.smartdraw.com/share.aspx/?pubDocShare=244E1FDFEA54E6990B9AAAF2D77FD77A54E

Flipgrid

 

The Flipgrid blog and Twitter feed are full of great ideas for using Flipgrid in your classroom. Or search the topic library, to discover topics in any subject shared by teachers around the world. Use Flipgrid to further classroom conversations by assigning questions as homework assignments and then continue the conversation in class the next day. Ask students to weigh in on a critical current event for a social studies or civics class; use it in a math class to ask students to describe the process they used to solve a complex problem. You might also use Flipgrid as an opportunity for students to post reviews of books, movies, or television shows. Consider using a "grid" as a way to collect a range of students' responses on a single topic: Perhaps ask students at the end of a unit to reflect on what they've learned and what they'd recommend to other students.

Here is the video i've prepared via Flipgrid

https://flipgrid.com/eaa0a5f4

Pixton

 

Pixton is a cartoon creation tool that allows its users to create awesome comics. Pixton has also a growing community that anyone can access to contribute with their own comics. This tool is very easy to use and does not require any artistic skills to work on it. You can introduce it to your students and let them create their own comics and share them with each other.

Here is the comic i've prepared via pixton.

https://www.pixton.com/tr/schools/comic/xp7v2b4l