Wiki-Farm Wanderings

Wiki: "a web site developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content" (Merriam-Webster)

When we started this class, I had no idea what a wiki was, other than thinking that "wiki" was simply an abbreviation for Wikipedia. What's more, I had absolutely no idea how to go about creating my own wiki. However, through experimenting with both Google Sites and Wikispaces, I have found them both to be very simple to navigate. 

Wikispaces had an extremely user-friendly interface. The first time I visited the website and signed up for an account, I was still skeptical of the ease I was experiencing, but as soon as I logged in and clicked "New Wiki," a giant "Welcome to Your New Wiki" page popped up! This page was very helpful and informative as I wouldn't have known to think of all of the topics it covered, but it did get overwhelming. I noticed that I started skimming through the topics, rather than poring through them as I first did when I opened the page. As for the rest of the site, I enjoyed the various options it provides that Google Sites does not, such as: Favorite Sites, Inbox, News, Monitoring (sites you want to watch) and community. This allows the user to personalize his/her homepage based on personal interests. 

When it came to creating the actual wiki, it was really easy to create and edit as well; however, it took me a few minutes of clicking around on the site to find the "New Page" link, which turned out to be housed under the "Pages and Files" tab--go figure. I had a lot of fun playing with my test wiki. Inserting pictures and links used the same toolbar as Google Sites, but it was difficult to resize the images without ruining their proportions. 

Overall, Google Sites is really awesome for one's personal webpage, but Wikispaces seems to offer more for teachers. The features of the site that provide special access for K-12 and Higher Education teachers seem to open up a lot of options for including technology in the classroom.  Additionally, I found it fascinating that it allows for teachers to create a whole class' worth of student accounts without requiring any of the student information. This would save a lot of time in the classroom; if the teacher can simply provide the preestablished account information to the SS, then there is more structured time for the T to help the SS become familiar with the site and it's resources, rather than wasting a lot of class time trying to set up the accounts. 

Now that I have successfully navigated the world of two different "wiki farms," I feel very comfortable with my ability to create wikis. I came into this class with no wiki experience, and have successfully created one on both Google Sites and Wikispaces. I feel that the only way to really learn how to navigate web pages is to explore them, so before introducing wiki use to 

my students, I would make sure that I was well-versed in the demands of each site. Furthermore, once introducing the wikis into a classroom, I would give my students class time to become familiar with the sites. I would encourage my students to navigate the sites on their own so they become familiar with wikis in a relaxed atmosphere, and I would be available to answer any questions that could come up. Through this experience, I have discovered how useful wikis can be in a teaching environment, and I will challenge myself to incorporate them in my teachings. 

Nailing the Needs Analysis

Questions: 

Hmm... let's see. I guess I have a few...

 

1. What happens if I've contacted ESL teachers from various teaching sites, and nobody gets back to me? 

2. How does the title of this assignment relate to the needs analysis assignments we completed in English 125E, where we had to actually create and perform a test or survey of a student's English proficiency? 

Contexts for assignment: 

Ideally, I would love to teach in a community college ESL classroom, or in an Intensive English Program (IEP), such as the English Language Institute on Sac State's campus. However, since I have already worked in the ELI for the past two fall semesters, I am trying to branch out and gain some classroom observation experience in another setting. I am hoping to find a professor at one of the community colleges for my classroom observation-- I think this will challenge me to step outside of my comfort zone (ELI) and force me to make new connections outside of those I have already established in ELI. 

Prior Knowledge about Context: 

 As far as I know, community college (CC) ESL programs aim to help students increase their English proficiency levels through classroom teaching and assistance through other resources... However, my knowledge about CC ESL teaching and learning is very limited. I am hoping to gain a better idea of the challenges and student demographics that CC professors help, which will better prepare me for future teaching experiences. 

Steps to Completing the Needs Analysis: 

I emailed Professor Gabriella Nuttall, the ESL Department Chair at Sacramento City College (SCC) on Friday regarding setting up a classroom observation with her or any other ESL professors at SCC, and am currently awaiting her response. If I cannot set up a meeting at SCC, I will also contact other ESL professors in the Los Rios district. Another option I will pursue if necessary is finding a teacher in one of the Sacramento-area adult schools, and finally, if none of these options pans out, I will contact the professors I know in ELI to see if I could sit in on any of their classes. 

I plan on giving Professor Nuttal until Monday or Tuesday to respond, and if I don't hear from her by Tuesday at the latest, I will proceed by reaching out to other professors in the area as well. 

Overall: 

Although this Needs Analysis assignment varies drastically from that in English 125E, I think this assignment will challenge me to view ESL teaching from a completely different angle than I am familiar with. I typically tend to focus on teaching approaches and a lesson's context, whereas I don't really consider the technological benefits and opportunities available in a classroom and how they can help expand my teaching options. This assignment (and class in general) will help me consider and explore technology as a teaching tool and will challenge me to creatively find ways to include technology within my teaching.   

Optimus Prime & Optimal Language Learning Environments

http://images.wikia.com/transformers/images/9/95/Transformersnewpic1.jpg

     While Optimus Prime may be known as a character in the popular Transformer movies, I thought of him when I read the section about optimal language learning  environments. Through reading about the eight conditions that are covered in the first chapter of CALL Environments (Egbert, Hanson-Smith & Chao, 2007), I was able to identify the conditions for optimal language learning  environments that helped me feel like Optimus Prime in my language learning experiences. 

I took three years of Spanish in high school, and recently embarked on a mission to reclaim my Spanish language skills by adding a Spanish minor. By reflecting on my language learning experiences, I found that conditions #3, 5 and 7 were the most influential in my language learning.

The third condition stipulates that, "Learners are involved in authentic tasks" (Egbert, Hanson-Smith & Chao, 2007, p.5). Looking back at my high school Spanish language learning experiences, the lessons that stood out the most were those that involved Task-Based language learning. Every week, my teacher held "Fun Fridays," where we would visit various workstations, rotating through a different one each week, such as cooking, film, music and arts & crafts. Each station required us to rely on a different set of skills- for example, at the cooking station, we had to follow a recipe written out in Spanish in order to make the targeted food; however, through the incorporation of fun activities, we didn't realize that we were being linguistically challenged.  

The next most influential condition was #5, which states that, "Learners have enough time and feedback" (Egbert, Hanson-Smith & Chao, 2007, p.5). All of my high school Spanish teachers were very patient and willing to give their students as much time as needed to ensure that we were learning at our full potential. I didn't realize how important this element was to our language learning, but in July 2009, I spent three weeks in Mexico after not doing anything with the Spanish language in over three years since graduating high school. I was shocked to find that I was speaking and thinking in Spanish within a day of arriving! ... My high school Spanish 1 teacher had been a native German woman who taught Spanish and French. At the time I was enrolled in her course, I thought the notion of having a woman with a thick German accent teaching us Spanish was ridiculous; however, I now realize that as a quadrilingual, she was probably one of the  most-qualified people to be teaching us a second language. I now believe that she was very aware of our needs because of her first-hand experiences with language learning, which helped strengthen and solidify our basic language foundations. In my case, I returned to Spanish three years later after doing nothing with the language, and was still able to recall all of my Spanish 1 learning (and some Spanish 2 & 3 aspects), which I accredit to her great teaching and patience. 

The last condition that has influenced my own language learning was #7, which says, "Learners work in an atmosphere with an ideal stress/anxiety level" (Egbert, Hanson-Smith & Chao, 2007, p.5). While my teachers pushed us to stretch beyond our comfort levels, we always felt comfortable testing new vocabulary and verb tenses because we understood that our teachers would correct us as necessary, but were always supporting us in our language learning endeavors. Overall, the 3rd, 5th and 7th conditions helped me feel like Optimus Prime in that they helped me feel like I could tackle anything that came my way in the Spanish language.

The use of technology could help support the establishment of the conditions for optimal language learning environments by enhancing the lessons already in place. In the case of my Spanish teacher's "Fun Fridays," she successfully incorporated technology into her lessons by creating different workstations that included a variety of technological inventions. For example, the cooking station required kitchen gadgets, the film station relied on a television and DVD player, and the music workstation required a stereo. Through the incorporation of technology in teaching, students have more opportunities to make meanings, "interact in the target language with an authentic audience," and are "exposed to and encouraged to produce varied and creative language" (Egbert, Hanson-Smith & Chao, 2007, p.5). 

While the inclusion of technology in one's classroom can have many positive effects on student learning, one problem that might arise could be a technology overload, which could overwhelm students and lead to a sub-optimal learning environment. This could occur when students are hit with input from too many technological sources in a short amount of time. A good way to prevent this from happening is to limit the exposure the students have to technological input--a good example of this is how my Spanish teacher structured "Fun Fridays." She set it up so that each group rotated through one workstation each week, rather than having us be overwhelmed by cooking recipes, music and film all back-to-back. This would have resulted in an overload of language input, which would have led to a decrease in the amount of language knowledge/vocabulary gained. The inclusion of technology definitely helps lend strength to the optimal classroom language learning, but should be used in moderation. 

Reflections: Blogging Beginnings

     When we first received the syllabus stating that we would have weekly blog assignments, I immediately felt my stomach start to knot. Start writing blogs? Me? I couldn't fathom the idea. I had previously established my Blogger account to follow friends during their study-abroad adventures, but hadn't created my own... until now. Creating a blog was surprisingly simple- all I had to do was log in to my account using my Google account information and then click on the button that read, " New Blog." While creating the blog was simple, deciding on a title for it was impossible. I wanted to find something quirky, something fun, something inoffensive, and the list goes on and on. After finally settling on "My CALL Contemplations," I have determined that blogging is even easy enough for my technologically-inept self to use, and given Blogger's user-friendly interface, I am confident that I could teach students how to use and create their own blogs.