Digital Storytelling

Travelling salesmen from Västergötland, Sweden, a photo by Swedish National Heritage Board on Flickr.

   Digital telling, as is said in The Educational Use of Digital Storytelling, is "its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories." It is such a wonderful website in which I can not only practice my English listening skills but also broaden my knowledge. Because in this website, the story is mostly told in English and then when you click the "explore stories", you will find all kinds of stories categorized by such kind as art, history and so on. It is basically another TED for me! Moreover, when you are listening to the story, there will be slides shown in the screen to illustrate the content concretely. So it won't make audience feel boring or get anxious once they miss something from listening.

  Digital telling is just a tool made for language learners in my opinion. Teachers could directly use the materials in the website to let students listen and take notes in order to practice their listening. And then they can write reflections based on the notes, and in this way their writing could be practiced. Or teachers can make their own story tellings, such as a preview or a review of the course so that students can have a blueprint of what they are going to learn or what they have learnt. Students can also make their own storytellings to share their experiences, opinions, and the most important things is, as a language learner, their speaking skill is practiced! Such a wonderful tool!

bookr : an amazing homemade printing press!

  I recently have found an amazing Internet tool to help students practice their writing skills and enlighten their creativeness: booker, with which they can make their own books. What an exciting thing!
  I have already made my own book "My Happy Life with Them". I myself feel proud when I looked back on what I have made. I think using my book in my teaching, I could let them first read it and then share their stories about the family with the whole class or just write a reflection about these book.
  I as a teacher will be quite excited to read the reviews from my students!

Selling flowers to raise funds for the Red Cross, Thargomindah, ca. 1916

Selling flowers to raise funds for the Red Cross, Thargomindah, ca. 1916, a photo by State Library of Queensland, Australia on Flickr.

Digital storytelling

  Digital telling, as is said in The Educational Use of Digital Storytelling, is "its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories." It is such a wonderful website in which I can not only practice my English listening skills but also broaden my knowledge. Because in this website, the story is mostly told in English and then when you click the "explore stories", you will find all kinds of stories categorized by such kind as art, history and so on. It is basically another TED for me! Moreover, when you are listening to the story, there will be slides shown in the screen to illustrate the content concretely. So it won't make audience feel boring or get anxious once they miss something from listening.

  Digital telling is just a tool made for language learners in my opinion. Teachers could directly use the materials in the website to let students listen and take notes in order to practice their listening. And then they can write reflections based on the notes, and in this way their writing could be practiced. Or teachers can make their own story tellings, such as a preview or a review of the course so that students can have a blueprint of what they are going to learn or what they have learnt. Students can also make their own storytellings to share their experiences, opinions, and the most important things is, as a language learner, their speaking skill is practiced! Such a wonderful tool!

Darfur is Dying

  Darfur is Dying is more like an RPG game for gamers to experience what you can experience in a third world refugee, in my opinion. It is more like cultural game than L2 learning game. I played it for just twice because everytime my characters died, I feel really sad especially when they are only kids. The two dimension cartoon of the game is coarse, but it does not effect its shock on my heart.
  If I would use this game in my teaching I would like to let my students write a reflection of the game, that is to say my teaching objectives is more on writing aspect and thoughts sharing. The assessment is obvious that I will first let them discuss with their peers and then collect their writings and give them feedback.

Gamification Education

  In my opinion, the gamification education refers to teachers fostering students to learn the knowledge and to meet their teaching objectives by let students play the game so that students can naturally learn what they are supposed to learn in an unconscious and relaxed way.
  To exam whether it is good for students to learn through gaming, I played a escape room game myself---Escape the Room 3. I have to say I am absolutely not an adventure game fan, and what I play most is online fighting or war game. I have tried about three times to get out of the room. All failed. So I just referred to the walkthrough. I do not really like this game but since I am required to write something about the reasons of using games in teaching I will force myself to think of some.
   In this kind of game there are many text instructions to help you to find the solution, which is helpful for learners to fill in their information gap. If I would use such game in my teaching, my objectives might be learn to think in a logical way (because English itself is a language of logics) and to expand their vocabulary (because every word in this game can be an important clue to solve the problem). In order to check whether students have met such objectives, I would first let them write down the procedure of their solving the problem to see whether what they have written is in a logic way and whether they are using the vocabulary necessary to solve the problem in the game.
  During their playing game, I as a teacher will definitely use a walk through when they are about to reach the dead-end, because, generally speaking, people will get frustrated and lose interested in a game if they are unable to solve them over and over again, which is what I have encountered when playing this game, while students' being inactive is the last thing a teacher want to face.  But I see no need to use the images of picture. Aren't the students playing the game themselves? Don't they already know the game?
   In addition, teachers in the gamification education should play a role of guide and they must pick an appropriate game that can overall turn the students on.
  Once again, I have to say I really do not like the escape the room  game, which is supposed to be one of the fittest games for students to learn something.