Year 12’s First Impressions of Twitter.

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Friending Students on Facebook

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Convincing The Kids

I wrote recently about a project I did with iPods, mobile phones and Year 8. It wasn’t an entirely successful venture, but not a complete failure either. My main aim was to engage Year 8 more with their Chinese language learning, and I don’t think that happened. They liked using the iPods and phones, but that didn’t get them to create any more or any better quality work. This has really made me think about what I’m doing and why.

It is becoming a bit of a cliche, but I’ll say it anyway – the technology is only a tool. We really need to be thinking much more deeply about the quality of the content we are working on with the kids. The content is paramount to motivation and no matter how fun the technology is, the kids will still get bored if they aren’t interested in the content. Introducing technology will not magically engage kids – well, it might for the first couple of classes, but the novelty will wear off and they will see through it all!

I have found that students still want lots of teacher direction, but they are still very quick to criticise when something is boring. Sometimes that is a bit confusing as to what they really want, and I have had the impression from a couple of my classes this year that no matter what is put in front of them, or what they get to choose, they still aren’t going to be interested. Admittedly, the two classes I have in mind have not only been difficult for me, but other teachers as well. Our Year 7 class has turned their noses up at many things – complaining about having to do Voicethreads and big deal about a video conference with Manila. A few of them even asked their English if they should be learning how to read and write more!

I think the big thing for me to realise is that it is not only the staff who often need to be ‘convinced’ that this technology is great and can have huge impact on our students, but the kids need to be shown explicitly what the benefits are for them too.

Students at the Centre

I ran this blog through Wordle and this is what I got. I’m glad to be reminded that my students are the centre of what I do – even if some days I get caught up in so much other stuff!

After School Creativity

Last week I gave a couple of English classes to Senior 3 students here at Nanjing Number 1 Middle School. At the end of the second class I put up my email address and told the students that if they wanted to they could email me for help with their English or if they just wanted to ask questions about Australia etc. I also asked them to send me the short videos I had been getting them to make on their phones – just recording themselves speaking English. Time and bluetooth technology prevented me from getting the videos from them during class time and I was really keen to see what they had done. Only one student actually emailed me, and he didn’t send me any footage from the class, but he did send me a video that he and his friends had made. It’s a music video to a popular Chinese song and it’s hilarious!

I have asked him in a couple of ensuing conversations about the technology they have, what they like to use and the fact that they don’t use any of it in class. This particular student, who calls himself Jefferson, really likes to make videos with his friends and would love to make some for classes, but that is never an option.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the music video they made. I would love to get hold of his class for a few weeks and really see what creative things these kids could come up with. It’s all got me thinking about doing research on educational technology in China. Ah, where to start!

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