How to keep up with technology changing?

Technologies have been changing greatly day by day, and how can we keep up with so many advanced technologies? How to use advanced technology properly for our academic achievement?

I have found useful blog, telling us how to integrate those modern technologies and offer some tips.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/integrate-tech-keeps-changing-todd-finley

Weekly Summary

Because of BC teacher's strike, my language training school is getting buiser and busier. Traditionally, chinese pay much attention on education. That's the reason why they try to send their kids overseas to get more latest knowledge and widen their horizon.

This week I don't have any jounal to write, so I did much work on posting topics and comment on the facebook.
I searched , searched and searched new topics for discussion on the PIDP 3240 forum. Frankly, it is really difficult for me to find more topics for discussion, because my instructors and my classmates have already posted more. 

I also tried to post some meaningful and interesting resources on SIE facebook now and then.
After commenting several resources, I twittered my instructor.

After the heavy work ,I have to work on my assignment every night. I felt tired, but when I saw my daughter, I immediately have a clear goal in my mind. Life for new immigrant is tough, but I have to keep on my choice and work hard.

Why Blog?

Blog is not a new way as a social media. However, many people would like to use it for several reasons.
First, after write several blogs, one can be good at writing and the writing skills will enhanced greatly.

Second, blog is a good media for recording. I use to write my mood to my blog, and sometimes I will upload some beautiful songs to it. Several years later, when I trace back to see my blog, everything emerges from my mind vividly. That feelings are really terrific. A good blog is just like a well-kept diary, conveying each aspects of our life with the time pass by.

Third, blog is also a good place to meet new friends with similar hobby or something else. I used to meet some online friend by blog just because we love delicious food and enjoy some English songs.  Besides, sharing some good information with friends known and unknown through Blog is an exciting experience.

Fourth, creating a blog is free.
Fifth, by browsing other blogs, I can learn more and think more. Gradually, I will be accustomed to critical thinking. In addition, my horizon will be widened and knowledge in different fields will be enriched.


 Reference:

 joshua becker     15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog       Retrieve from Sep. 3rd, 2014

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/15-reasons-i-think-you-should-blog/

Weekly Summary Aug.25-Aug 31

The weather of this week is pretty cool. I love this season. I want to have a rest, yet I have much work to do.
I read the last three chapters of PIDP 3240. I like that, and wrote my third Journal this week.

Gradually, I found that I am already accustomed to this kind of writing. After critical thinking and reflection, I learned more. Besides, reading such an academic English book do greatly enhance my reading ability.

To my surprise, my instructor of PIDP 3240 gave me a good grade, which made me quite happy, and I learnt that hard work is rewarding. I have to work harder and harder to get my local diploma.

This week I also participated in discussion of Social Media Forum, and I have read many interesting and profound comment. It is so nice meeting so many classmates from all over the world. Thanks for their help, I could work on my study smoothly.

Till this week, I have accustomed to use Twitter to my instructor Brian Cassell, telling him what I have done during this week. It is convenient, clear and easy.

Another important thing in this week is that My daughter was five years old. That's a big day for her to have birthday in Canada. I got many good wishes from my friends, hoping her grow happily and healtily.

I have found may useful worksheets for me to use in my class.
Although the technologies are so advanced that all of us like to use them in our class, worksheets are still a useful tools for students to remebmer and to practice.

http://www.eslpdf.com/esl_vocabulary.html
http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl-printables-worksheets.html

these two links provide some free useful tools for me to delivery in my ESL class.

Technology in Classroom

 The use of technology in Classroom is quite important.

Both the teacher s and the students are facing large amount of information online, and how to use technologies positively and how to establish good class environment is a key problem of most teachers.

Following is an article for technology in Classroom, including student-centered, teacher-centered, and also discuss the advantage and disadvantage of technology in Classroom.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5410187_uses-modern-technology-classroom-teaching.html

Google Glass 2

Beautiful Song--You Raise me Up!

I'd like to share this beautiful song in my blog.

An interesting ESL teaching website

I have been searching the materials for students all the time.
This one will be good for those youth and who have basic English skill.
http://www.kidslearningville.com/spelling-worksheets/
And I will add this website to my link .~~~~

Blueberry Picking on Aug. 24

Last Sunday, I had some free time in the afternoon, then I telephone a farm to pick some blueberry. The farm owner is a kind elderly man,who kindly tell us which one is good and which ones are too soft. Althought it is already the end of the season of Blueberry, we still enjoy quite tasty blueberry with good smell.
 My daughter was quite happy with experience,and she said she'd like to pick another time.
After a tiring work for one week, I felt this is a good opportunity to enjoy family life and relax myself.

I find an interesting article about Social Media~!

Social Media is not a fashion any more, and they have already influence every aspect of our life.
I find this statistics and some opinion is quite useful.
http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/2013/11/04/higher-ed-41-percent-of-college-professors-use-social-media-in-the-classroom/

Week Summary Aug 10-16

This week I was pretty busy. Besides the work at daytime, I have to finish the assignments for my PIDP 3240. The deadline is coming, so I have to finish reading chapter 4-8. From reading these four chapters, I have learned much about class. I realized the importance of social media, which can be used not just for class, but for preview, assignment, and review.

I got to know that Potcast is better than lecture, and the traditional lectures are being challenged. Modern technologies have made it possible for students to get access to lectures from famous professors. therefore, only the presentations and the lectures are really good will students attend. Besides, virtual community is good for students to share information and comments. On one hand, it is easy for peers to communicate with each other; on the other hand, the workload can be greatly reduced for teachers.

Modern Technologies have influenced every aspect of our life. I must make good use of them to improve our teaching process and therefore the students' performance will be better.

Summary －－Week Aug 4-Aug9

This week is pretty busy for me. I have to work full-time everyday. And after work, I went back home to have late dinner at 7-8 PM. After that, I woud go to my study to study PIDP 3240. I carefully study the assignments 2,3,4, and reading some chapters for my journal.
Through posting resources and reading the Social Media Forum, I have learned a lot these days.
I have got some knowledge of different kinds of projected media, and the Google Glasses and Smart Board really have left me deep impression.
In addition, "whether PPT  has be outdated" is worth thinking. I have been using PPT for my teaching for many years, which really has facilitated my course. On the other hand, editing PPT is really time-consuming.

Furthermore, by reading chapter 1-3, I have changed my mind on Video Games. I taught a word"exhausted" yesterday, I thought this is a very difficult word. However, many boys said they have learned this word in their games. Suddenly, I thought what I have read in that book is great.

Why blog?

I used to use blog several years ago when I was still in China. At that time, there was no Microblog like twitter, Wechet, etc.  I usually wrote my stories and emotions every day during that period. My close friends can know what I was doing and how I felt that day. Besides, I would also post some beautiful music and my travel diary with video and pictures. They coud comment on my blog frequently.
I do believe this is a good way to share interest and stories with good friends.
Nowadays, we generally use microblog to communicate with my friends here in Canada and in China. Social media has connected the people all around the word, which seems we are living in the same time zone and an no barrier at all.

Lesson Planning

1. Characteristics of Adult Learners
    To be a qualified adult educator, I realized that having a clear understanding of the characteristics of adult learners are quite vital, who are quite different with young students.  In the following article, I found those characteristics of adult learners quite clear and straight,which makes me have a deep understanding of my students prepare my work logically in the future. For example, they all have clear aim of the study, they have their own judge of teaching  according to their own experience, etc.After understanding these features, we can teaching more effectively and efficiently.

http://www.assetproject.info/learner_methodologies/before/characteristics.htm


Work Cited

          Rhonda Wynne,Ireland,retrieved from LEARNER CENTRED METHODOLOGIES
                
                       http://www.assetproject.info/learner_methodologies/before/characteristics.htm

             

2. Creating a Positive Learning Environment
     First, in my opinion, I believe that positive learning environment means mutual respect between students and teachers. Positive environment can greatly enhance learning performance. I deeply find the following article is quite useful . the reason why I choose this article is because it is quite concise and explicit. After reading this article, I have a general idea on how to manage a good positive learning environment, such as, learning the students's name, knowing the differences among students, clarifying the rules and grading policies clearly, etc.  
(University of Delaware, Center for Teaching & Assessment Learning)

http://cte.udel.edu/publications/handbook-graduate-assistants/getting-started/positive-classroom-climate.html

Work Cited 

       University of Delaware, retrieved from Center for Teaching & Assessment Learning
                      http://cte.udel.edu/publications/handbook-graduate-assistants/getting-  
                                           started/positive-classroom-climate.html

3. Planing
    Good lesson planning is critical for good teaching, especially for adult education. We should manage to understand the background of each adult learners, trying to combine our teaching materials with their previous experience, which could impress them deeply and enhance the efficiency of class. I like this article because it quite systematically list lots of tips for how to make an effective lesson planing, such as the necessity of warming up at the beginning of class, generalizing the main content in items clearly, summarizing the assignments  and identify the outcome of course,etc.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8207583_create-effective-lesson-plans-adults.html


Work Cited 

 Gale Macaulay-Newcombe, eHow-contributor,   
                             How to Create Effective Lesson Plans for Adults
                   http://www.ehow.com/how_8207583_create-effective-lesson-plans-adults.html

4. Media (possible considerations)

     Under the background of globalization, the use of multimedia in teaching class has become a popular trend definitely. Students may find teaching resources more interesting as well as learn informative technologies at the same time. The following article explains the benefits of using multimedia in class and more links about how to design teaching materials. By using media technologies, such as PowerPoint, blog, simulation, online resources, which can satisfy the specific needs of adult students who are very busy and goal-oriented. 
(Encyclopedia of Educational Technology)

http://www.etc.edu.cn/eet/articles/adultliteracy/index.htm


Work Cited 

  Andrea Shepard, retrieved from encyclopedia of Educational Technology  

                              A Case for Computer- based Multimedia in Adult Literacy Classrooms

                                http://www.etc.edu.cn/eet/articles/adultliteracy/index.htm

5. Motivational Techniques
     Adult learners are quite different with those younger students. Some of them have left school for a long time, and most of them are forced to pursue study for living better. Therefore, as an adult educator, we must use some motivational techniques to stimulate their interest in study. Such as group discussion,game-playing, media technology,etc. The following article cited provides some tips for motivating adult learners and some useful links for reference. By adopting these suggestions,  I believe that the teaching process can be more interesting and effective and students can study more actively.

http://elearningindustry.com/17-tips-to-motivate-adult-learners


Work Cited 

    Christopher Pappas, Friday, 26 April 2013, retrieved from eLearning industry, 
                                                               17 Tips To Motivate Adult Learners
                                        http://elearningindustry.com/17-tips-to-motivate-adult-learners

Resources

Resources

Grammar

Grammar

Links

Links

Lession Panning

Hi

This is my new lesson planning....

About Web-conference

With the development of technology, communication among people has become more and more convenient. Especially, the technology of internet has changed our life greatly. We can share our photos, our favorite food, even the music with our friend on the web anytime anywhere. Thanks to the invention of web conference software, our meeting with colleagues and partners in distance has become available.

During my web conferencing with my partner Karin through skype, which was a quite pleasant experience, we shared our experience in teaching adult.  First, we talked about the role of “adult educator”, and we all agree that the “role of adult educator” in and after our regular classroom has changed greatly. As an educator, we should be able to build student’s confidence, listen to their feedback patiently, and constantly learn and explore new approaches for effective and positive teaching. For those adult with various background, who have their own views and attitudes, we, educator, should customize our teaching methods. We reached agreements that we must be a lifelong learner for being a qualified teacher.

My good classmate, Karin Carlson, has also shared her experience in teaching writing, which did inspire me a lot. She has used several methods to improve her students’ writing ability, such as one group exercise, asking them to do self-assessment or peer-assessment;  pair-share; one minute paper; or one- sentence summary , requiring them to use concise word for the best expression-- “who does what to whom”, etc.  

She also explained that her students come from different country, some are native, some are from India, and even some of them are Chinese. So, I believe it is more difficult to explain in class for those students with various cultural backgrounds.

She also shared one good and interesting article with me. She has briefly introduced the main idea of the essay—the teacher recorded his course by using video tapes and then, students can learn it according to their own pace. For the quick learners， they could skip some parts of the video; for the rest, they can easily repeat what the teacher say and then learn the course effectively and efficiently.

  

At last, Karin also shared a website for me to learn how to write reference correctly.

Web-conferencing is quite convenient and easy to get access to. Although we have encountered some troubles in connecting with each other, the whole process is quite fluent. In brief, Web-conferencing is a definite trend not only for individual communicate, but also for business to conduct meeting, which could greatly lower the cost.