Studying Tech: Bit by Bit

This course is coming to an official end, and with it, my blog. I could lie and say that I will continue to update once this course is complete - but knowing myself, and the busy nature of life as a whole (and particularly the final season. yikes.), I probably will not do so. And, honestly, no one will read it either unless I email them to do so. Plus, there are much more fascinating blogs out there on the web. (Stay tuned for the next department newsletter for many wonderful recommendations... this is also my last opportunity for a newsletter plug.) I want to say a quick thank you to all the participants. The learning experience was much more worthwhile, as I found the collaborative discussions meaningful and thought-provoking. And of course, Avraham, thank you for putting the course together and making sure that it was both user-friendly and #relevant. It is important to note the end of this blogging chapter is not the end of my (or our) learning. Technology continues to adv...

Hello Fellow Students! Wow it has been a while... I think of all the tools that I looked at, the one that most excited me as a future English teacher was Simple English Wikipedia. The reason being, these are great options for texts that I could bring into my classroom. In a different course we are taking, incidentally with the same lecturer, we discussed the importance of differentiating content in our classrooms - one way being according to readiness level. Being exposed to this particular tool can help us in this seemingly time consuming pursuit.  As opposed to the regular Wikipedia, which is long-winded and has difficult collocations, these articles are short and to the point. You now have two text options on the same topic - both provided by Wikipedia. Regular Wikipedia and Simple Wikipedia. Let’s take Healthy Habits and Diets, for example. The famous Present Simple topic. Here are two text options that you can just copy and paste without much effort. Option 1 - S...

  In this week's unit, I was exposed to a very large amount of tools and how they can help us in our language teaching. As I read the words on my screen, the ideas of how to integrate the tools into my practice teaching (which after this semester is ending, but no worries, next year I will have the chance to implement them) starting dancing around my brain. So without further ado… the five tools and my opinion as to how it can be used in such a way that makes our lives as teachers easier. 1) Voice Chat - specifically - Whatsapp Voice Chat. You know how in the classroom not everyone gets a chance to speak? And how when we tell our students to create dialogues we never have enough time to go through them? Or how there are always those students who feel uncomfortable speaking in front of their peers? Whatsapp Voice Chat is a wonderful way to work on speaking skills that doesn’t require much class time, nor does it require public speaking. The great thing is that most if...