My name is Turkan. I was born and raised in Turkey. Now, I am working on my MA in TESL and this is my last semester (hopefully)!
I have been teaching English and Turkish as a second/foreign language for several years. I think technology has great things to offer and as a language teacher I have tried to make use of it as much as I can. I took two classes one called "Internet for Educators" and another one called "Video Games as Sites for Learning". In these classes, I learned how to use many different tools. For instance, I have used igoogle, delicious and different wiki tools such as PBworks, Wetpaint and Google sites to create webpages. I also learned how to integrate VoiceThread into my teaching.
In addition, I am interested in the use of virtual worlds for teaching. I have been using Second Life for language teaching. I used it in my Turkish and English language classes and developed several tasks to be done in Second Life. Here is a picture of my avatar! :)
I believe that the efficient use of computers depends on the instructor's creativity as well as her/his knowledge. Therefore, it is important to know what is available and how they have been used previously. I believe that this course will introduce me with new concepts and tools.
It will also be useful to read academic papers on various CALL topics which I have not done a lot so far.
Overall, this is an area I am really interested in so I am excited about this course!
Turkan, it sounds like you have experimented with a lot of different Web 2.0 platforms. I'm curious to hear more about how you integrated Voicethread into your teaching. I was introduced to it through a course I took during my undergraduate studies. I experimented with it through that course, but haven't had a chance to use it since that time. What types of activities did you use with it?
ReplyDeleteI really liked VoiceThread and here is a link for one of the lesson plans I prepared
Deletehttps://sites.google.com/site/learnenglishbyturkan/
Under student activities, the third one is using VoiceThread so maybe it can give you an idea. I designed it like a game where one student gives directions and the others try to guess where that person is going..
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