Incorporating Technology into my L2 Classroom

Salvete omnes. In my last post I introduced an increasingly popular education concept known as a flipped classroom. As I’m sure you, my sweet reader, have realized by now is that I am a very curious person. I always enjoy try out the new technology, or the new ways to use already existing technology, that I discover as I am working my way through my graduate studies. So I hope it does not surprise you to learn that after I posted my previous blog entry, in which I gave a general introduction to flipped classrooms, that I went out into the wilderness of the Internet to try my hand at creating a lesson for a flipped classroom. It was during this journey that I was lead to TED-Ed.com , where I was able to create and publish my lesson. It was a relatively easy process. I searched through the videos provided on TED-Ed, and with the topic of Roman engineering and technology on my mind I settled on the idea of creating a lesson on aqueducts. Really I think choosing the video may have b...

Salvete omnes and welcome back! Before we delve into this week’s blog topic, I need you to do something for me. Imagine with me please, you’re sitting in math class doing everything you are supposed to do. You’re paying attention to the teacher, you’re taking comprehensive notes, and you’re raising your hand to ask questions about concepts that seem a bit confusing. By the time class ends you feel like you have a pretty good grasp on everything you just learned. Now jump ahead with me a few hours and imagine that you are at home. You’re sitting down and beginning to start your math homework. You take a look at the first question and .... nothing.  Everything you learned has flown out the window and you are left confused and frustrated. My sweet reader has this ever happened to you? Because, if so you are not alone and if I’m being honest with you this was my experience with all my math classes throughout high school. But what if I told you there was another way? Acknowledging t...

Salvete omnes and happy Ides of October. Because of my recent experiences with Twitter chats, I have become increasingly eager to learn more about the potential of using Twitter for more professional and academic purposes. In the article titled, “ Using Twitter for Professional Development ”, Brian Paul Hill states that as educators, “We have to be consumers of information. Constant consumers of information. Information that is current and important. If we aren’t doing this, then we become stagnant in our work and complacent in our profession.” It is clear to me, through the conversations I took part in and the articles I read, that Twitter could possibly be one of the most accessible and effective tools available to educators.  Similar to Mary Poppins’ magical bag, once you get involved using Twitter professionally, the possibilities available to you are practically endless. You are suddenly able to network, collaborate, and share tips and resources with educators all over the...

Ah Twitter. The social media platform where users can quickly post their thoughts for their followers and the world to see in 140 characters or less. The place where I wasted countless hours throughout my youth scrolling through my news feed and tweeting about just that. I thought I was being so #deep. My high school CIS teacher, (computer information systems, for those of you wondering), called this life tweeting and explained that this is what the majority of individuals used Twitter for. But what would you say if I told you that Twitter can be used as more than a megaphone to update everyone on your life with hashtags? That it is possible to use Twitter as a platform of personal development? Salvete omnes, today I want to share with you my adventure that was my first experiences with Twitter chat. But first, what is a Twitter chat ? A Twitter chat is when a group of people, who are interested in a similar topic, assemble under a designated hashtag, to discuss a topic. ...

Salvete omnes! How we receive the News changes almost as frequently as Ancient Rome changed emperors?. Starting with an oral tradition, moving to the written word, and shifting again with the rise of the machines. There is no escaping the News. Not that you would want to because as humans we have an innate desire to be “ in the know ”, and how we receive the News today completely depends on our browser history.   Earlier today, I was watching a TEDTalk featuring Eli Pariser, titled Beware Online “Filter Bubbles” . In the video, he states that, “ There is no standard Google anymore ”. For reasons I was not quite sure of at the time caused this statement to stick with me through the rest of my viewing. I guess it might have been because I had never considered that my google search would be any different from that of my Fiance or of a classmate if we were both Googling for information on the same topic. But nevertheless, during his presentation, Pariser describes having asked a bun...

Salvete omnes, I know it hasn’t been very long since we last spoke, but I’ve never had a penpal before so I hope you can forgive my overbearing enthusiasm. I’ve always really liked the idea of having a penpal, especially in a foreign language classroom, because there are so many benefits to being able to practice your second language with a native speaker.   The most amazing, and possibly most scary, thing about technology is its ability to affect even the most ordinary aspects of our lives. Snail-mail is steadily becoming a thing of the past, soon to be reserved only for Amazon orders and unwanted bills. While I personally think that is a little sad because I love snail mail, I can acknowledge that many life skills needed in today’s world and in the foreseeable future will require computer literacy. This brings me to a website called ePals which is an online education platform that allows teachers to connect with other educators and classrooms from all over the world. I...

The first rule of fight club is to…. Oh wait! Wrong club... Beware the Ides of March Salvete omnes! I was visiting YouTube the other day, my home away from home if you will, and in between my usual viewings of cat videos I was able to watch a video titled, New Media Consortium . In the video the presenter, Adam Levine, discusses the importance of establishing a network of colleagues, both in and outside of your discipline, to experiment and explore new techniques of integrating technology in the classroom. The most important thing, I think, Adam says in the video is, “ it is really important for us to stay connected to people who are smarter than because we can’t know everything ”. I think it was important for me, and for other people who may be like me, to hear that it is okay to reach out for help. Being someone who wants to be able to do and know it all, this is not something that comes to mind easily. Adam’s whole video really emphasized the necessity of having a Perso...

Salvete omnes! For today’s post I want to discuss the concept of connectivism, but first, have you ever heard of Moore’s Law? For those readers who have not, simply put, Moore’s Law states that processor speeds, or overall processing power of computers will double every two years. This statement was coined in 19 6 5 by George Moore who is one of the co-founders of Intel and is still a popular trend that can be observed among technology today.  If at this point you are thinking, “well that is a neat fun fact, but what does that have to do with education?”. I’m so glad you asked because to me, a learner is like technology. We’ve all heard this saying before but I’m going to say it again now, what students are learning today, and how they are learning it, has drastically changed from when I was in school. So too has technology. Just as we have discussed before on this blog, changes in policy, the incorporation of technology in our classrooms, and the amount of informatio...