The Last Post of This Blog

Hello everyone! Today, as you can see from the title, is the day I post my last words. Another term has passed and it's time to evaluate the whole 4 months and the course which made me start blogging.

For this task, our instructor wanted us to reflect back on what we have written about "teaching with technology" ( you can see my post by clicking here ). She wanted us to consider if there are any changes in out thoughts, and if there are, positive or negative differences? Have we improved ourselves? and such.

Well, I read my post and I can say that, my thoughts haven't change since I wrote the words. I still think in that way. However, I can say that I have become more informed than  the time I wrote my teaching with technology statement. This course helped me to improve myself and teach me the things I may use in my future classrooms.

If I am to talk about this course in general , I can say that, even though the course was a bit tiring, its outcomes are much more helpful than I expected before we started doing the tasks. This course has taught me so many things which I will, of course, use when I am teaching. I was happy while learning to use the tools and I'm sure that my students will also be happy that they will be using the tools and they will learn how to use these tools. I want to thank you to my instructor, who always helped us if we needed, gave feedback and wear a smile everday to the school. She has helped me love her courses. She is a great teacher and I am sure that every one of her students is aware of that. I'm so happy that I was lucky enough to take classes from her. :)

There is actually nothing I can suggest to improve the course. It's already well-improved and very well-designed. Its content is a bit intense but it doesn't contain any boring things. At least, I didn't get bored during the classes or homework processes.

Now, It's time to say good-bye. But who knows, maybe I'll come back with another course!

Take care.

Asya MUSLUOĞLU

P.S. Listen to the song please! Even though the title fits our course, the lyrics don't. Yet the melody is just too good so don't miss it!

The word cloud is from there .

AN INFOGRAPHIC ABOUT WEB 2.0 TOOLS

Hello everyone! In this post, I'll learn all about infographics one of which I created for my homework. It was a bit tiring but at the end, I was happy. I hope you like it when you see it! :)

What is an infographic?

According to Wikipedia, "an infographic is a visual representation of information or data". In my opinion, this definition explains it very well. But the question is,

Why we should use infographics?

1. Infographics are attractive and they attract attention so that people looking at it can remember the data for a longer period of time or may never forget it.
2. Infographics are accessible. Anyone can create one with much fun!
3. Infographics help you learn faster and better.

Now that I told you about this tool, I can tell you about my work.
For my task, I ws supposed to create an infographic that containts 4-6 web 2.0 tools. I chose to work with Blogger, RSS Reader, Padlet, Wiki and Edmodo. I told about this tools in my infographic. As It was supposed to be attractive, I didn't write long texts but briefly defined each tool. I hope both my teacher and my audience like this work. Here is the work.

  Thank you for reading! You can leave a comment below about my infographic. :)

Let's Learn About RSS Feed

Hello everyone! In this post, we will talk about what is RSS,  what are the advantages of using RSS and my RSS feed. I hope you like this post and I hope it's informative!

What is RSS?

RSS is "short for Really Simple Syndication and is a way to have information delivered to you instead of you having to go find it", according to Jessica Knapp (for the full text, click here ). I think the definiton itself tells us the advantages of using it.

Advantages of RSS

When we use RSS, we create a list, consisting of the blogs we follow. And when a blog on the list posts something, this shows up at the top of the list. So that we don't have to look at all the blogs to see if they posted something new or not. It's very time-saving in that way.

There is another advantage as well. As we create the list, we can publish it in our blogs.

As you can see, in my blog, the RSS Feed is on the right, below "about me" section. And when you look below, you can see the full list.

Which Service Did I Use?

The service I used was Blogger's. I tried to use RSS Online and I downloaded the real RSS (which was not online, I mean) and I couldn't make them work. So it was the best option for me.

My Favourite Blog On My Blog List

Now, I'm gonna give you some brief information about a blog which is one of my favourites and is of course on the list. It's Modern English Teacher. You can go to the page by clicking here. The page looks like this:

It's one of my favourites because it containts almost everything related to ELT! You can find about articles, exercises, lessons etc. This page is really helpful for not only English teachers and candidates, but also for the ones who want to learn English. I recommended it to my close friends as well.

And that's it! I think it's enough for today's post. I hope you like it. 

Thank you!

Digital Story Telling? What Is That?

Hello everyone! 

In today’s post, we will be talking about digital story-telling. 

What is digital story telling?

"Digital storytelling describes a simple, creative process through which people with little or no experience of computers gain skills needed to tell a personal story as a two-minute film using predominantly still images. These films can then be streamed on the web or broadcast on television."

It was our task for Instructional Technologies and Material Design course. Our teacher gave us 2 topics to work on. My friend Refika and I chose to create a “how to” video. In this video, we taught you how to wear contact lenses. Our instructor made this clear that we should be creative. As I am wearing contact lenses in my daily life and I never caught any viruses, we thought that we should show people how I managed to do so. 

If you wonder how to wear contact lenses, watch our video above. Thank you! 

P.S. You can take a look at my friend Refika’s post by clicking here.

The quote is from there.
The image is from there.

Rate My Magazine Cover!

Hello everyone!

Days have passed and we've not been seeing each other for 2 whole weeks!

In these days, I'm very busy, working on many projects and presentations. One of them is what you're gonna read right now!

This task was given to us from our Instructional Technologies and Material Design course teacher. In the task, we were supposed to create a poster. Either a poster of a film that is inspired by a book or a magazine cover. I have chosen to work on creating a magazine cover.

My magazine is about performing arts as you can see from the title.
It was both fun and stressful working on this task and I am very happy with the result. :)

Would I give this task to my future students?

I would definitely give this task to my students and if you ask me why, there are the reasons: It develops the twenty-first century skills(creativity, collaboration and communication -if, done in pairs-, critical thinking), it helps students see their capacity and also, it makes students work on the task until they are satisfied with the result.At least, these are what I have experienced or felt :)

You can tell me your thoughts about my work and rate it by commenting below this post. I hope you like it. Thank you!

Evaluating An ELT Website

Hello everyone! I'm back again. Wondering why I came back? It's because you will hear my evaluation of a website about English language learning.

Which website did I choose?

I am going to evaluate WYZANT. Click here to see the main page. This page doesn't teach English only, there are many other topics you may want to learn about such as mathematics, history etc.

Who authored the website? Is there any information about their qualifications or credentials? 

There are many authors publishing in this website. Each page is written by different people.(As you can see below.)

or

When we click the authors name, there comes a page, written by the author herself/himself, introducing the person who wrote the page.

What is the content of the website? 

As I said before, the site has many topics to teach you but we can look at the question a bit differently. The English part of the website consists of grammar topics, exams, etimological parts, writing exercises etc.

Who is the target audience? 

Everyone wanting to learn English can benefit from the website.

What is the purpose of the website? 

The purpose of the website is to teach English very clearly. There is nothing complicated. The teachers create the content according to learner needs.

Is there a date that shows when the site has last been updated? 

Unfortunately, there is no dates showing when the site has last been updated .

(Accuracy of the information)- Are there any errors?

I looked at the pages I could and I couldn't detect any errors.

Are there any broken links? 

 I couldn't detect any broken links.

Are the images of high quality and appealing to the target audience? 

There are no images used in the texts.

How can it be applied to EFL teaching?

If we look at how it can be applied to EFL teaching from the teachers' perspective, we can say that teachers can use the content of the websites in classes. The exercises can be given as homework. And if we look at it from the students' perspective, they can read the materials before coming to class and they can work on improving their skills by studying not only in classes but also other places as well.

So, you have read my evaluation about WYZANT. I hope it helped you to answer the questions in your mind and also to find a website when learning English. If you have any suggestions or if you want to state your opinions about the website or my evaluation, you can leave a comment below. Thank you!

Internet-Based Project

Hello everyone! We haven’t seen each other for two weeks. It’s a bit long, isn’t it?

Today, I’m here to talk about a project of mine, which was for the Instructional Technologies and Material Design course. We were supposed to create a Padlet page for our internet-based project. There were two options about the topic. The first one was a global problem while the second one was about freedom. My friends and I chose the first topic. We studied endangered species.  As it was a sensitive topic, we thought that we could work on it and  make people aware of this problem with the questions we asked.

Do you want to learn my thoughts about Padlet?

 
(Picture is taken from here )

Negative and Positive Sides of Padlet

Working with Padlet has both negative and positive sides. For example more than one person can contribute to the work simultaneously and every author has its name at the top of the text. So that everyone can see who wrote what. Also the design of the page looks well. Yet, as we cannot insert photos among the text, it may look weak. We put some videos at the end of our texts but having access to insert few photos would be better.

My Thoughts About Padlet

If I am to make a comment about Padlet in terms of its contribution to the development of 21^st  century learning skills, I would say that it’s a good site to work with groups. As I said before, more than one person can contribute to the work and everyone contributed can be seen. Using technological gadgets in education, as we all know, helps students to be on lesson as today’s children are born to the technologic area and very familiar with technology.

Have you ever worked with Padlet? If yes, how was your experience? You can share it with me! 

If you want to take a look at my friends' and my Padlet page, you can click. here

Thank you! .

I Created A Wiki Page!

Hello everyone! How are you?

This week, our topic is wikiing. For our Instructional Technologies and Material Design course, we created a wiki page in which we gave general information about a book. I have chosen Serenad by Zülfü Livaneli. He is one of my favourite authors and the book is one of my favorite books as well. There aren't any close friend of mine to whom I didn't recomment reading this book. Really.

There is the original cover of the book.

 I will leave the link for you to take a look at my page.

Thank you!

Click here to go to my wiki page.

P.S. If you haven't read Serenade für Nadja, then go to the nearest book shop, buy it and start reading it as soon as possible. You won't even realize how fast the time flies when you are reading it. Believe me.


Photo taken from there.

Podcasting

Hi everyone! 

Today, we will be talking about podcasting! For our Instructional Technologies and Material Design course, my friend Refika and I recorded an audio file. But before sharing it with you, I will first explain what a podcast is.

A podcast is, according to Wikipedia, an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download in order to listen to. It can be used to talk about any topic. It's very helpful to develop your language skills. That's way there are so many podcasts for learners of a foreign language in each level.

In our podcast, we told you a story. After you listen to it, you can find out what the story is about. Let's listen to it with subtitles. Thank you! 

P.S : You can take a look at my lovely friend Refika's blog as well :) ( to do so, please click here.  )

Source

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Teaching With Technology

Hi everyone! Today's topic is, as you saw in the title, teaching with technology. First, let me explain why we will be talking about this today.

This is my homework for my Instructional Technologies and Material Design course, and is very important for me, for a 21st century teacher candidate. Before going into details, I will define the key words first, which are teaching and technology.

According to INFED, teaching is "the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and intervening so that they learn particular things, and go beyond the given". On the other hand, technology is defined as about taking action to meet a human need rather than merely understanding the workings of the natural world, which is the goal of science", by OpenLearn. When the two meets each other, it makes technology much more useful and teaching much easier.

Today's children are born to the arms of technology. They know how to use it far better than adults. Besides, as they have always been familiar with technology since they were born, anything that doesn't include technology bores them. So, when we are studying with , mostly, young ones, we may need to use technology more.

You may ask, why? Why are you telling us all of these? Doesn’t it have a reason? Of course it does. When technology and teaching are  together, the outcome is unbelievably successful as both students and teachers spend less energy when they use computers or telephones. They have access to information anywhere. They don’t have to write many papers on hand, they just print the texts. These are some of the the positive outcomes that mostly concern students when technology and teaching meet. There are also many more when we look at them from the teachers’ perspective.

When teachers  use technological materials during classes, they have the videos that may help them. If students get bored during class, they can open the  videos and attrack their attention. Also, there are online classes, in which teachers can leave notes or homework for the students so that they cannot say “I forgot we had homework” or such.

However, we cannot say there aren't any disadvantages of technology at all. Some examples are as followed: if students bring their own technological gadgets such as mobile phones, tablets or computers, they may be distracted easily as they may get a text from a friend or they may say "I'm searching for some information" and they may surf on the Internet. The teacher may not be able to control all of the students.
So, when technology is used correctly, the benefits of it cannot be counted as there are so many.
If you ask me if I will use technology in my classes, I will definitely use it. Because why not! A teacher must not ignore all the help the technology provides. If they do, they will be very tired at the end of each class, believe me... And if they take the precautions that may prevent the students from surfing on the Internet, they will surely enjoy the class. 

I will close the post  with a question, do you think every student  would want to mix learning with technology? Why?

Thank you for reading ! see you on my next post! 

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Historical Development of CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) and Technology in Education

In this post, we will talk about how did technology integration in education proceed. What you will have learned by the time you finished reading this post is the historical development of CALL. If you ask why I'm writing this post is to show you how luckier we are than students or teachers in the past in terms of language education.

CALL has been developing gradually for the last thirty-fourty years, and has focused on different aspects in different time gaps. Behavioristic CALL, communicative CALL and integrative CALL are the names given to different areas, respectively. Now, we can look at them one by one.

Behavioristic CALL dominated the 1960s and 1970s. It was based on habit formation and contributed to teacher instruction. However, by the end of 1970s, communicative CALL replaced behavioristic CALL, because it was meaning focused and there were no assistance to the instructions which in turn makes learners more active in learning environments and at that time, microcomputers were invented and created many possibilities for learners as well. But these were also not enough. Today's CALL, integrative CALL arose in the middle of 1990s because still, teachers were the main characters in classes. It has everything the learners need in order to learn actively. The students' needs, the skills they need to develop and also the environment where interaction can happen meet in one model. With the help of the developments in technology used in education, learning takes place more easily and learnt items stay in mind longer.

If you want to see the developments in a more detailed way, you can take a look at the time-line below.

Let's stop here with a question. Have you ever thought that if these technological items have never been invented, at what stage would you be?

 Leave your comments below this post. Thank you for reading. :)

Sources

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Twenty First Century Learning and Technology Integration

Today, we will briefly talk about the twenty first century learning. This is something we hear from the students and the teachers the most these days.

Twenty first century learning has become a very important phrase that concerns mostly teachers and students. It can simply be defined as the context in which students are capable of doing things that are learnt not only in a classroom but also in an environment where teaching and learning take place non-stop and is completely  different from the traditional education system. A framework for the twenty first century learning has been created with the help of educators and experts to clarify student needs.

 The framework mostly focuses on the skills the students need to have and the key subjects needed to be learnt. 

In the framework, the skills are divided into three groups. These three groups are listed below as:

1-Learning and Innovation Skills (4Cs- critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication)

2-Information, Media and Technology Skills

3-Life and Career Skills

But what these skills can be used for are the key subjects, which refer to world languages, arts, mathematics, science, geography, history etc. These are not enough for learning to take place, though. Only if the standarts, assessments, curriculum, instruction, professional development and learning environment meet the key subjects and the skills required, can students be educated.

See you on my next post, thank you!

Inspired by this. 

Welcome To My Page!

Hello everyone! This is the first post of my blog. This blog will be all about  instructional technology, educational knowledge and English. The three of them are what you will find in every post.
I hope you enjoy reading them and while reading, if you have any suggestions or ideas, do not forget to leave a comment below. Thank you!