Digital native or digital immigrant?

After watching video "Digital Native vs. Digital Immigrant" by Sree Sreenivasan, I feel, most of the time, I am a digital native. Sreeivasan defines digital natives as those who "Are born into a hyper-connected world and they believe everything should be on demand in real time." I do born in this kinds of hyper-connected world, know the potential of technology, and feel frustrated if the technology is not used in both my studies and real life.

However, in the meantime, I would rather say I feel a bit uncomfortable (not frustrated) with not knowing how to use technology myself. I am afraid of embracing technology, but sometimes I am a bit lazy to learn how to use a new technology if there is nobody showing me how to use it. Therefore, it is a bit difficult for me to keep up with the latest technology.

To sum up, I like the conclusion made by Sreenivasan, "Let's look at each individual one at a time and consider what they bring to the table no matter what the age is." Indeed, what matters is not what age a person is or where they are coming from, but what a person can do to make this world better.

WHAT and HOW Can Podcasting Do?

Podcasting gives learners opportunities to access to any information they are interested in even when they are busy. Learners can also gain knowledge through listening Podcasting even outsides the classrooms. I believe Podcasting can meet students' learning needs and help them move from their current competent level to the next level.

The Podcasting software I chose was NPR. This Podcasting website covers a wide rage of topics from global issues, common knowledge to different types of music genres. Among those topics, I chose the episode named The World Is A Family Tree 'In Its All Relative'. I would use this as an after-class activity for my ESL students to practice their listening after having lessons about intercultural interactions.

The learning objective of this lesson falls under performance indicator- ESL. C.9-12.1.1.2: Students read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, interpret, and analyze information related to academic content areas from various sources. When students are listening this Podcasting, students cannot only gain content knowledge on this topic but, in a meanwhile, develop their English competence and skills while engaging in content-based learning.

To sum up, I believe Podcasting can meet the needs of diverse levels of learners and can be applied to different kinds of lesson based on the chosen Podcasting topics. Podcasting enables learners to gain content knowledge almost anytime and anywhere, which is conducive for their learning.

TED-Ed: Flipping Your EL Classroom?

This is my first time to use TED-Ed to create a online lesson and I do think this is a good way for teachers to provide instruction to students outside of the classrooms. Students can not only gain content knowledge through watching videos but check their own understanding on those discussion questions, multiple choices questions and open-ending questions. My first TED-Ed lesson, The 5 Reasons Why You Should Visit Taiwan!!!, is aimed at providing insights on Eastern culture of Taiwan and developing students' multicultural competence.

The learning objective of this lesson fall under performance indicator- ESL. C.9-12.5.1: students will demonstrate cross-cultural knowledge and sensitivity in communicating with others of varied social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. They will develop and use culturally appropriate behaviors, and a knowledge of local and U.S cultures and practices, in their interactions with others in their new cultural environment. In this lesson, students will be able to compare and contrast Taiwanese culture with their own culture, and gain knowledge on both two cultures.

With regard to how I would test whether the objectives had been met by students, those multiple choices questions can be used to check students basic understanding of Taiwanese cultures, and discussion questions allow students to think deeply and gain cross-cultural knowledge by watching the video and reflecting their own cultures.  In this lesson, students can gain input of Taiwanese culture and stretch out their knowledge based on what they have learned in this lesson and their own cultural experience.

To sum up, I would definitely use TED-Ed in my future classroom. Teachers can both provide input to students through this tools and create a pleasant learning environment to students.

Flip your classroom

The concepts of flipped classroom seem totally opposite from the traditional classroom practice. After reading articles about flipped classroom, I think flipped classroom creates a more student-centered learning environment and, therefore, students will feel more motivated to learn comparing to  the traditional teaching and learning approaches. 

Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer provides insights on how flipped classroom works. Flipped classroom moves instruction outside the classroom. In other words, students access content knowledge outside of the classroom. After students access those content knowledge, they interact with their teachers and peers for deeper comprehensive input. The role of teaches is not just to instruct content knowledge to students but to scaffold students' learning when they need help. 

Another article named Three Reasons To Flip Your classroom focuses on benefits of flipped classroom and how flipped classroom can benefit students' learning. After reading this article, I find flipped classroom provides more opportunities for students to take control of their learning. Moreover, through in-class interaction with their peers, students can clarify their misunderstanding on the concepts due to the fact that their peers can use the similar "ways of talks" while explaining, applying, and creating the new knowledge. Peer interaction can make the complex concepts more understandable, and teachers can check for students' understanding in in-class interaction. 

To conclude, flipped classroom definitely motivates students' learning; allows students to learn on their own pace; enables students to practice their use of language in meaningful communication. I believe flipped classroom provides a new effective way for students' learning. 

ePals: Learning on A Global Community

Not until this mod did I know there is such a useful website which allows students' to learn in a global community. ePals provides a platform for students to learn differences and similarities of areas world wide without boundaries. Besides, students can learn about local and world wide issues of both countries when interacting with each other. I would incorporate ePals in my future classroom as follows:

To begin, I would incorporate Pen Pal Exchange into my classroom. I would invite students to have one to one message with other students from a different cultural background. In this Pen Pal Exchange, I would invite them to have project and share local problems and issues of their own countries. After expressing problems of their own countries and knowing issues of other countries, students should think about possible solutions for those problems for their pen pal. Through this project, students can not only practice their writing skills but improve their critical thinking skills. 

Besides, I believe it is also practical to use ePals when teaching about race issues. For example, after reading articles about America, students can truly get in touch with Americans and discuss about race issues from both American and Taiwanese perspectives. From this project, I believe students can learn differences and similarities between two nations concerning race issues. Also, students can learn those issues not merely from textbooks but from real interactions with those people, which will leave a deep impression. 

To conclude, in this global village, our learning community does not need to be confined to an area. Through using ePals, students can not only improve their writing but learn global issues from different perspectives and, thus, become a global citizen. 

"A learner is like a..."

It takes long time to think about the analogy to describe the learner of today. After reading the article and watching those videos, I think learner of today is like a leaf on a tree. Leaf cannot stay healthy and strong without helps from others, such as sun, water, and branch. Similar to learners of today, hardly can they gain knowledge without building connections with each other. In other words, learning can only happen when learners form network with others.

Likewise, Siemen (2005) gives an insight into learners' learning nowadays. According to Siemen (2005) Connectivism: A Learning Theory for Digital Age, "Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within in an organization or database), is focused on connecting on specialized information sets, and the connections that make us to learn are more important than our current state of knowing." The term connectivism can explain learning is not an individualistic activity anymore but a collaboration and connections with each other.

Also, one of the videos from Siemen, the changing nature of knowledge, clearly illustrates that due to the fact that knowledge is being changed so rapidly, it would be difficult for us to learn it merely from books. To gain this fast-changed knowledge, Siemen considers both internal and external networks as critical elements for learners of today. Internal network is defined as how learners' mind create learning itself. As for external network, it emphasizes when learners form and make connections with each other, knowledge exists external to the individuals. In short, knowledge cannot be gained if learners fail to make connections with others but when learners form networks with others.

To conclude, back to the analogy: A learner is like a leaf. A learner cannot gain knowledge (as a leaf which needs soil, water, sun, branches) if he or she fails to make connections with each other. How can a tree grow healthily without connecting to soil, getting close to water and sun, and having strong branches?

A comparison: Pinterest vs Diigo

What kinds of social media have you used? Which social media platforms are more preferable for leisure business? After using Diigo and Pinterest, I found out both of them provide useful but different functions for users. The followings are about those usefulness and differences on Diigo and Pinterest.

First, both of them give users a platform to organize information they are interested in for future use.  Diigo, a social bookmarking, allows users to save links, write down notes, and highlight texts if needed. It is time-saving for users of Diigo to look back for important information. As for Pinterest, users can use it as a curating, create various boards to organize topics. In short, users can use Diigo and Pinterest to categorize information that they are into. 

Moreover, though both of them enable users to save information that they are interested in, I would say Diigo seems more academic than Pinterest. Diigo is more suitable for the professional to save links for future use because users can just look back those notes that they have taken. Also, users can get main points of articles by viewing descriptions they made. Unlike Diigo, Pinterest can only show images associated with the page. Users will only see images at first sight and, therefore, it would be difficult for users to show and get too many details or information on merely an image; however, it would be good for users to share and follow what they like in their daily lives, which, in my point of view, is more similar to Facebook or Instagram-- for leisure use. 

The following chart compares distinguishing features of Pinterest and Diigo :

Can you highlight text in saved sites?	No.	Yes, users can highlight texts and write down notes.
Can you use multiple tags?	No.	Yes.
Can you copy and paste from original article to appear in comments about site?	Yes.	Yes.
Can others post comments on your site?	Yes.	Yes.
Can you follow others?  Can they follow you?	Yes.	Yes.
Can you message people you follow?	Yes.	Yes.
Are you offered suggestions for related articles?	Yes.	Yes.
Would you continue to use either of these?  Which?  Why?	I would use Pinterest to record what I am interested in for my leisure time. As for Diigo, if I am a master degree student again or doing some research for academic purposes, I would definitely use Diigo.

To sum up, both Pinterest and Diigo provide interaction environment for users to share resources and make comments. It is definitely beneficial for teachers to gain information they want, and for students to interact with their classmates through either creating a group on Diigo or commenting on classmates' posts on Pinterest. I believe both of them have potential for educational use.