“Prerequisites: Advanced communication skills in the target language; basic knowledge of computer use (LI 110 or ISTE competencies for K-12 students); EDSS 300F, or concurrent enrollment, or consent of instructor.
Introduction to computer-based technology in the teaching of Languages Other Than English (LOTE). Production of basic multimedia presentations and web-pages using authoring software. Legal, ethical, privacy and security issues. Meets the Single Subject Credential Program Level I computer proficiency requirement for LOTE students.
Letter grade only (A-F).”
Artifacts
Integrated Lesson Plan
The Integrated plan was intended to give us the chance to create a lesson plan where technology was the primary means of teaching the target language. My lesson plan an assimilation of a lesson plan that I had created for my second semester German class. Technology portion of my lesson plan entailed having the students go out in groups and film a quick interview with a German Faculty member. Due to the requirement that the interview take place outside of class and during the office hours of another German instructor the 4 of the 5 Cs were part of this activity. The mere interviewing of the faculty members and working outside of the classroom meant that Communication, Connections, and Communities were automatically included. The Comparison element came into play when the students had to formulate appropriate questions and take into account that they would be receiving a response to what they were planning on asking the German speaking faculty members.
Integrated Lesson Plan: Communication (1.1, 1.2, 1.3) Connections (3.1) Comparisons (4.1, 4.2) and Communities (5.1, 5.2)
I found that in creating the Lesson Plan required removing about 1/3 of the material that I had previously taught using the unmodified lesson plan. This was a result of having to provide the class with extra prep time and making sure that they had the appropriate syntax down. Even-though it significantly reduced the amount of material I could cover in that day, I think that this would be a fantastic opportunity to show students that they can speak German. This though would require finding out when the office hours for the German faculty members were as well as finding out if there are other German speaking faculty members outside of German, which would give the students the opportunity to see that there are German speakers through out the entire campus.
PowerPoint Presentation
The PowerPoint presentation was created for ETEC 444. The purpose/goal of this project was to “Teach A Lesson.” The presentations were supposed to be between 5-10 minutes long, but no longer than 10. This was supposed to show our ability to both teach a lesson as well as show our proficiency with power point, which included adding transitions and having ample animations and sound. The version that I posted here culled of all sounds and some of the animation. There were simply too many in my opinion and they distracted from the presentation, although I’m sure the sounds would work effectively in recapturing the attention of easily distracted students. I opted to remove then, since when executed properly this lesson shouldn’t allow students the time to be distracted.
The PowerPoint I decided to construct was an adaptation of the lesson plan I used for the 1st day of the first semester German class. The first day primarily entails constantly calling on students to say their name, age, age and name of those in the class as well as family members. Since this lesson is designed to get everyone involved, the students are constantly having to ask others questions to respond to my initial question or those of other students as well.
I found that this activity encompasses all off the Cs but Communities [Communication (1.1, 1.3) Cultures (2.1) Connections (3.2) Comparisons (4.2)] since it is a basic German class and the first day. it cannot be ascertained if the students will be asking others outside of class for their names and ages in German. When teaching my “mini” lesson in class the students were constantly communicating as well as attempting to form answers to the questions I had asked with out knowing any of the vocabulary for family members. They were comparing the German language that I was showing them with that of the English as well as figuring out the differences between the 2 or any other language my fellow classmates knew. I found that cultures also was included by the fact that some of the items that I was covering (numbers) are a crucial part of the Culture since it is quite distinct in comparison with English.
Multimedia Presentation
The Multimedia project required that we make a story board and limit it to 6 frames. The Goal was to examine, modify and/or develop multimedia projects which promote language acquisition for a variety of learners. I decided to create an activity where students have to go to a German Website and then find an apartment to rent, with the stipulation that they are not to spend more than 1,000Euros. After which they also then have to furnish it by visiting the German Ikea site and buy furniture for less than 1,000Euros. On 2 of the slides I used Jing to record my self giving students instructions on how to find an apartment as well as purchasing furniture. This project was originally made as a PowerPoint presentation, but I decided to convert it to a website, because I was unable to embed the video files into my PowerPoint file. This also allows me to easily share this presentation with others.
Multimedia Presentation website
The Multimedia Presentation was similar to the WebQuest below, but it was designed to be an activity where the student would work by themselves or perhaps with a neighbor. For this reason I determined that the activity didn’t quite also include enough elements to fall under the category of Connections. Since the Students aren’t actively working with each other they don’t have the opportunity to compare the things that they are learning in this exercise with what they have learned in other classes or through life. Communities are also not covered since they don’t really get to use the German they are learning via this activity immediately with others. The Cs that directly apply to this activity are: Communication (1.1, 1.2, 1.3) Cultures (2.2) Comparisons(4.2).
This activity though, much like the WebQuests puts students in the position where they have to apply the German they have learned thus far in navigation they websites they are viewing. The activity also forces them to use the vocabulary that they have learned in the chapter covering furniture to navigate the site as well as listen to the instructions in the video clips since they are in German.
The Multimedia presentation could have been improved to include more of the Cs if it were assigned as an activity that were done in groups. In addition there could have been an added learning experience if the recordings were done by a native German speaker as well as including the same video clips, but having the speaker use their dialect of German in addition to High German. This would allow the students to not only hear a native speaker but also give them the opportunity to compare a standard pronunciation as well as a dialectical pronunciation.
WebQuest
The exercise was on how to incorporate a WebQuest into an integrated lesson plan. For the WebQuest we had to either create a new one specifically for this assignment or adapt an existing one. I decided to do both. I used a pre-existing website template and transferred over the information on the WebQuest that I decided to use. I quickly learned that I need to learn more HTML. The first problem I stumbled across was that when I created a link back to this site it ended up opening in the frame that the link was clicked in. I discovered the “target” option in html. It’s been a while since I had to code anything.
The WebQuest addresses the following standards due to the amount or research and interaction that the students need to complete as well as share with their fellow groups mates both in and outside of the school environment: Communication (1.1, 1.2, 1.3) Cultures (2.1, 2.2) Connections (3.2) Comparisons (4.2, 4.2) Communities (5.1)
I found that the WebQuest came out fairly well and I have even done similar activities with my second and first semester German classes at the university with great results. The students tend to enjoy actually being able to navigate German websites and find furniture and apartments. Completing a fully functional site for as well as to meet the traditional definition of a WebQuest is an awful lot of work, but the product that the students produce is quite rewarding for both the instructor and the students.
Reflection
This class completely different than ETEC 444. The main goal of this class was to use web 2.0 technologies for teaching our foreign language. I found this class to be rather useful since we were able to use blogs and wikis to create our activities, which ranged from creating integrated lessons plans, to making e-portfolios, and webquests. This class was definitely geared towards integrating technology to aid the learning of foreign languages.