chapter 6

The activities mentioned in chapter 6 were very interesting. Besides, there were tips for teacher that might be very helpful. The one thing I was thinking is that having students record themselves during class might be very time consuming, you can never predict how they will do that and how much time it will take. Another thought is that in order to do activities mentioned in the book a teacher has to know technology very well.

last class

When I downloaded iTunes in class I thought that it looks different from the one I have at home. When I got back I saw that it is the same, it has the same layout, etc. I've just never paid attention to it. I've never used podcast before, but I've heard about it a lot. It was interesting and fun to learn something new, though I had troubles saving link.

readings

The two articles were pretty interesting. I think that Internet is a great source for teachers and students. The internet can act as a motivating tool for many students. Young people are very captivated with technology and educators must use this interest, excitement, and enthusiasm about the Internet for the purpose of enhancing learning. Moreover, internet allows easy access to information all over the world; it complements the library.
It was also interesting to read about Standards for Foreign Language Learning. For me it was very helpful to read suggestions on hot to do search correctly, how to narrow it, and what keywords to use.

September 17th class

Last class was very relaxing for me. I really enjoyed Chris' presentation. I was very surprised when he started to use Spanish. What was even more surprising to me was that I could understand almost everything, though I've never learned Spanish before. Thanks to Chris, I've learned some Spanish!!!;)
This class was useful and fun at the same time.

class, September 10

The assignments we were supposed to do for the class were very interesting, but I felt overwhelmed, because it was too much. I would prefer to do them separately, justs because I didn't have time to prepare them how I really wanted.

As to the class activities, I liked them, even though technology was doing shabby tricks. I've never though of using Skype in teaching; our discussions on this point were very useful.

Kanel and Oishi

Using songs in teaching is an effective way to have students embed anything they need to learn for mastery or to memorize. Using this type of strategy might help in acquiring target language structures and vocabulary, it gives an opportunity to expose students to authentic language and native speakers. I also think that teacher needs to choose songs that are appropriate to students' proficiency level and try to avoid songs with lots of slang. Some slang might be inappropriate.

I really liked the "Mentos and Coke" video. It was entertaining and very creative.
I think that watching videos is a very creative activity that encourages discussion and planning, as well as communication, technical skills, and the development of ideas. I think it also inspires the ability to discriminate and to evaluate.

I believe that video should not be more than 10-15 minutes. Anything longer and students might get board and loose all the attention.

Appendix

Reading the appendix was very helpful. I was very excited to find out that I know a lot of computer terms. Though some of them I've never heard about:(

week 3 readings

I found the online articles very interesting. Warschauer & Meskill seemed to be very skeptical about using technology in class. They have mentioned that no one did a research on "whether the book or the library is beneficial for language leraning". I believe we don't need a research on that just because it's obvious. "Computer is a machine, not a method". I agree that computer is a machine, but it can be used as a method! Technology should be used, but within reasonable limits, and together with books.
I enjoyed reading Chapelle, it was very interesting and informative. I didn't know much about voice chats, text chats, etc. before. It was exciting to know that chat made students feel more prepared and more willing to communicate. This article was attention-grabbing for me.

reading

I really like John de Szendeffy book. There are lot of thing to read and learn about. I found ten tips for teachers very interesting and useful. To my mind if a teacher will follow those suggestions he might have less problems. I liked the idea about focusing on activities, not software titles. I know lots of people (not only teachers)who try to remember all the program titles and don't know much how to use them. I would also agree that paying attention to training is very important. Clear and understandable explanation will make things easier for both teacher and students.

CALL

When I registered for the Topics class, I wasn't sure what is it going to be about. I really liked our first class. I was glad to see my old and new groupmates. When I realized that is going to be about computers in language teaching, I was very excited (I still am). What I've leraned from the first class is blogging. I've heardabout blogs before, but I've never used them. It is a new thing to me. I'm hoping to know much much more and get used to blogging.