Beril's and Özlem's storyboard

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New Friend- Goanimate.com

http://goanimate.com/videos/0Z9EufF4YRSY?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent

Atatürk

My ideas about Swiftkey

There are both disadvantages and advantages of using Swiftkey. Firstly, I will write the disadvantages. Its buttons are very small and I find this a bit challenging. For example, I tried to touch to ‘f’ but it pressed to ‘g’. Then, most of the times it predicted my words wrong and it changed them as wrong without my permission. To illustrate, I tried to say ‘göstereyim’ but it changed the word as göseriyor or ‘eyiyim’ (I am good) to ‘eğitim’ (education) without my permission and I think this is time consuming to correct the word again. Now, I will write the advantages of using Swiftkey. First of all, when I wrote a word wrong, it corrected it for me. For example, I wrote ‘kjtal’ instead of writing kitap but the tool corrected it for me. Secondly, most of the time it predicted correctly the word that I wanted to write as next. For instance, I wanted to write ‘nasıl gidiyor’ (how is it going) and I wrote ‘nasıl’ (how) and it gave me some options ‘bir’ (one) ‘gidiyor’ (is going) ‘yani’ (so), so I chose ‘gidiyor’. I think this saves our time and helps us to write quickly To be honest, I deleted the tool because I didn’t like it may be as I get used to my own keyboard, however, I will offer it to my students when I become a teacher because It predicts most of the collacatons cleverly right, so I think this help students to see more frequent collocations of words. Also, as it corrects the wrong written words, the students may learn their written forms correctly.

Storybird vs Storify

I enjoyed with storybird. It is a simple tool to use, but it is restricted in terms of visuals and colors(when you do a cover page). Actually there are several photos but you can use only few of them for your story or you need to create a context according to the visuals in the program. I also think that the program can be used for children because the pictures are childish :p. On the other hand, I found storify a bit chalenging. I tried to create a story but I just create a pile of words. However, there is a search buttom (even I couldn't use) and you can search for videos, pictures, texts from different sites like instagram, flicker, google and youtube and it also seems as a powerpoint show which makes it more attracting. Lastly, I think this can be used with adults unlike the storybird because you don't need to create just a story...

Tombul and his Surprise Birthday Party

http://storybird.com/books/tombuls-surprise-birthday-party/?token=vnshwtt3yn

Delicious Cherry :)

Colors

created by Özlem and Beril... :D

Here is my DDL smmry

TASK BASED LEARNING Task-based language learning is an approach which was developed in the 1980s by the Indian language teaching specialist N.S. Prabhu.

TBL is based on the idea that the acquisition of language and linguistic competence as well as language and language learning awareness can best be realised through tasks which encourage the learner not to focus explicitly on the structure and the rules of the new language.

AIM OF DATA DRIVEN LEARNING The principal aim of all teaching activities must be the creation of a learning environment in which learners are asked to carry out authentic tasks.

Providing the appropriate data, organized into suitable units of information and supported by relevant processes must be the foremost task of educational design of any kind of language learning and teaching resource in order to contribute to the success of any learning situation.

The traditional transmission model of learning must be replaced by models which emphasise information processing and knowledge construction as acts of learning most suited to the acquisition of the kind of skills needed for the knowledge society.

Learning is now perceived as a self-structured and self-motivated process of knowledge construction and the learner is regarded as a self-governed creator of knowledge.

In addition to the undeniable need to achieve instructional goals, the development of cognitive and strategic abilities suitable for the knowledge society is defined as one of the principle aims of a learning process based on knowledge construction and discovery learning.

Language Learning

Reflection of chapter 4

In 21th Century, .ı think the best way of teaching is using technology. Lessons with technology are very colorful and useful. For example, teachers can use the projector and the internet to show us a video related with the lesson. The video takes student’s attention and makes the subject memorable. However, in the past, most of my teachers used recordings for such exercises which were very boring.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, a few of my teachers were using technology in high school. They followed most of the steps in the ASSURE model while integrating technology in their lessons, but I don’t know if they were aware of such an existing system. Well, either knowingly or unknowingly, the teachers’ classes who followed the steps of Assure model were better than the teachers’ classes who didn’t.

If I compare my past teachers (who didn’t use tech in class) and my present teachers (who use tech. frequently and follow all of the steps in ASSURE model), I can say that my present teachers’ lessons are more effective.

Teach Starter

As everyone know, taking children’s attention is a bit difficult. They lose their attention very quickly. Therefore, teachers should use funny and handy materials to take their attention. Accordingly, I thought that this app for primary school children is very useful. Primary school teachers can use this app to be able to get printable teaching resources and find classroom games and education posters for our smart children. (The resources in this app are very attracting). This app is also useful for parents who want to help their children in learning. They can easily find required teaching resources and help them to become successful. Here is the link if you want to look at: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/teach-starter/kjckfjbbnjmginnfefjjbnfmgbflgohf/related?hl=en-US

Reflection of Chapter 2: Learning Theories

There are always different learning perspectives through the centuries and the perspectives will continue to be in our lives. Also, as the technology develops day by day, teachers develop and use different perspectives. Every teacher has his/her own perspective. In my high school, different teachers used different perspectives. For example, my English teacher had behaviorist perspective because she was giving a reward like a plus or a chocolate when we answered her questions voluntarily and of course correctly. On the other hand, my history teacher mostly gave importance to internal learning. His lectures were both student and teacher centered, so I can say that he was a cognitivist teacher. Cognitivists create a mental model of short-term and long-term memory and students are less dependent on teacher and more dependent on themselves. In contrast to my English and History teacher, my computer teacher was constructivist because he gave importance to experimental learning. Also, he encouraged us to create our own interpretations and he was usually giving us online authentic tasks as homework as he believes learning by doing. For example, he wanted us to explore the usage of excel program and create a table by using this program. I can say that his lessons were very effective because I learn better when I do and experience something on myself. I can give advice to the constructivist teachers to use blogger in terms of helping students to create their own interpretations by blogging or by commenting on their peers’ blogs. Moreover, I can suggest them to use Ted-Ed lessons in terms of effective discovery.

Assure Model (Ted-Ed)

To tell the truth, there weren’t many well-prepared or conscious teacher in my school, so there are lots of missing. However, there was a teacher who was my school counselor and I think she was the nearest to ASSURE model. She was my favorite teacher because she was very thoughtful, and cheerful, not as she is a school counselor because there were 2 more school counselors in the school but they weren’t like her. When she first came to the class, she introduced herself and she asked us to introduce ourselves as well. She observed us carefully and asked some questions while listening. Then, she gave us questionnaire to be able to analyze us better. I think this is the first step of ASSURE model. She was also good at stating objectives because she wasn’t only depend on the curriculum but also create her own objectives that she wanted to achieve. Moreover, she was selecting good and related materials except for our book like pictures and videos. When we had questions or when we didn’t understand the subject, she was doing her best to be able to teach us clearly. However, she wasn’t successful in requiring student participation. Actually, this wasn’t her mistake because the students didn’t like the course (not the teacher). She also wasn’t good at evaluating us because she was so thoughtful, so she gave good marks to both good and bad students. Although she wasn’t good at all of the steps in ASSURE model, she was the best teacher in our school. I wonder Is there any teacher who exactly follow the ASSURE model in other schools?

Technology Integration

Technology! What an interesting thing. You cannot stop it! It is like a giant. It develops and grows day to day. I don’t know how I will keep up with it. I am sure I will use it (tech) when I become a teacher, but I don’t know what level of technology integration I will be able to achieve when I start teaching because I cannot imagine the changes will be in tech. May be, I will use the newest technology, may be, I will use the oldest. I don’t know. There are also lots of possibilities. For example, I will want to use the newest tech. but the school will not have the enough budgets for it or while I am using it I will face some obstacles like internet connection and problems that I have never faced. Actually, in order not to face such obstacles, I don’t want to use technology in every field. I think to use it only when I need visual things to show them to my students and to make the subject stable. Lastly, even I don’t like technology as it is unreliable I probably will use it when I start teaching because you cannot keep yourself away from technology as you always need it...

Today's Teens

My Comments on Digital Literacies (Ted Ed)

I think that there will not be a big difference between I and my students in terms of digital literacies because today’s children grow with technology and they can easily adopt themselves to the technology. Also, they learn quicker than us (adults). I remember that when I was a child I just had a Sanal Bebek (virtual baby ) as a technological toy and a computer, but today’s children even 5 years old, have smart phones, notebooks, tablets etc. and they use them interestingly well. Also, in my high school, we only had some smart boards, but we just had because we used them rarely. On the other hand, today’s schools have smart boards, projectors, and tablets in classrooms and they use them more often. Therefore, I hope that my school will provide the necessary environment for me and my students. However, I am not sure because technological tools like tablets are a bit cheap and I don’t know if my school budget will be enough for the tools. I hope it will have. To be honest, I don’t like technology but when I become a teacher, I will encourage my students to use their mobile devices or the current technology they have as it is very useful, but limited because if I don’t limit their usage, they may lose their attention to the lesson.

Literacy Skills

I can say that I wasn’t well-prepared for the demands of academia when I started METU. I had limited knowledge about some of the literacies like text literacy, general literacy, video literacy and computer literacy. However, these literacies weren’t enough for my university education. They were insufficient. For example, our computer teacher taught us to use Microsoft word document to write a paragraph in high school, but he didn’t taught us how to add a chart on it. Fortunately, I have learned more about these skills in METU. Also, I have been taught other literacies which are distance-learning literacy, cyber learning literacy, media literacy, visual literacy, and audio literacy. I haven’t known anything about these literacies, but I learned them thanks to the METU. However, to be honest I still do not know much about distance-learning literacy, cyber learning literacy, and media literacy, but I know what they are. I think I am good at visual literacy because I believe it is God’s gift, but I want to improve my distance-learning literacy and cyber learning literacy because technology develops and I need to cope with it as I will be the teacher of next generation. Therefore, I think the teachers should give more importance to these literacies and teach them more clearly to their students so that they don’t have difficulty like me while using technology.

Current Use of Technology in Cyprus and Its Future

Because of advanced technology, there are lots of changes teaching (in technology) in Cyprus compared to the past. For example, in the past we just used recordings for listening skills or when we needed to watch a video, we needed to use a television with a CD (we had a television room). Additionally, when we had research homework, we needed to go to a library and search for the several books as the internet wasn’t common. Also, we were using blackboards. I didn’t like blackboard because they were very inconvenient ( they were dusty). However, if we look at the today’s schools, all of them use white boards with no dust  and smart boards. Moreover, most of the schools have the internet connection. This means that whenever you want, you can access to everything with endless data. I think that these changes in technology in teaching will continue to happen. I predict that when I graduate, most of the schools will start to use I Pad or tablet computers instead of using books and notebooks. Furthermore, I think that most of the teachers will prefer to make their exams online. Finally, I want to say that although I don’t like technology, I think it is very useful and I believe it will help me when I become a teacher. For example, if I become a teacher for young learners, I may need to prepare visual and funny works. To be able to prepare such works, I will need to use the internet and a computer. Even I don’t become a young learners’ teacher, I will always need to use technology in terms of making research, sending e-mails, preparing work sheets, connecting to my colleagues and my student etc.

technohology

graphic showing technology in some countries...