New technology, new methodology, new ideas.

New technology
It may not be new technology for everyone, but for me everything related to the class has a new meaning. The part of technology has shocked me throughout the course. I thought that I am using a lot of technology in my daily life and my teaching and learning. But after taking this course, the answer is no. I am using only a small part of it, and I am not making full use of the parts that I thought I knew. I was able to understand multimedia and digital technology better with this course, especially when I had to do a software demo and sample mutimodal assignment. I also learned to use software that I have never used before, such as citeulike, blogger and website. Though classmates' presentation, I was able to learn open source software and wordpress, facebook. Though I have heard about these names, but I have never really understand them and never think about trying to understand them. Thanks to this course, I was able to get a better understanding of the term technology.
New methodology
I am amazed by the fact that how theories of technical writing could be built into the practical technology we could use in our teaching. Every old and new tools are given a new understanding in the ways we could use in teaching practice. When I was doing my seminar paper, I read several articles about using e-mail in ESL writing classes. I had used e-mail in my ESL classes as well, but the depth of using e-mail can't be compared with what they discussed in their articles. I could have used it more successfully and with better purposes if I had known these before. But it is never too late to learn. I have better understanding about the theories of literacy in the digital environment, and will be working on using technology in my future teaching. This course shows me the direction for future research in the field of ESL teaching.
New ideas
What I learned the most from this class is the idea of making use of what we have to learn what we need to. It is wonderful to be able to learn from my classmates the ideas they have about their assignments, seminar papers. Even class discussion gives me idea of what one person's idea could inspire other's work. All of these will not be possible without the excellent organization of Dr. Cadle. She designed the readings and assignments to guide us through the course. I could not believe how much I have covered and accomplished when I was preparing the final portfolio. I am inspired by all of you, thank you all.

What a semester!

This is my extended semester here at MSU. I should have gone back to my country in January. Because my second son was born here and he was too young to travel at that time, I had to change my plan to stay one more semester. I have always wanted to learn more about writing in English properly. But I was assigned to TESOL major before I came here. I was interested in technology and that is the reason why I chose this course. These days, when I was writing my seminar paper and composing my E-portfolio, I realized that how much I have learned through this course. Many things are new to me, for example, citeulike, blogger, and gmail docs. These are wonderful resources that I am sure I am going to use in my future teaching. I thought I knew how to use computer and technology, the fact is that I am using only a small section of the technology around me. I will recommend this course to my friends if they are working on their English major, especially L2 learners.
I am going back to China on June 1st and this is the last post here. I had a wonderful time for this extended semester. Thanks to Dr. Cadle and my classmates, I am able to learn so much in the field of writing.
Wish you all the best!

Help

Does anyone have the same problem as I do? I can't find the article of "CCCC. Position Statement on Principles and Practices in Electronic Portfolios." at the link. It says link can't be found.

Reading response

The article about computer gaming, sexuality and literacy is an interesting one to read. Especially the concentration on gay gamers and what we should learn from the situation. There are two things that make it difficult for me to understand the notion and ideas of this article. Since I don't play MMORPG or online games a lot, the things mentioned are all new to me. I will never understand why people spent so much time and effort in the virtual world. Some of my former students told me that the game world gave them freedom and joy. The gamers decide what they want to be and what to do. The game world has all they want and can't get in real world. But I still doubt that to what extent this virtual experience is going to have positive effects on the real life. Sometimes even younger players who don't understand the meaning of the words or phrases used in the game, they still learn to play, because most the games follow similar frame lines. I have seen some Chinese boys, who have no English, playing games of English version. They learn from their friends and their knowledge of other games guide them through. The other thing I feel difficult to understand is homosexuality. This is a less mentioned topic in my culture, at least a seldom mentioned topic in my community. Though younger generation accept the idea and there are more homos in China, it is new to most people.

Multimodal Assignment

Finally I decided to use the ELI international students in my class as background to design this assignment. The students are from different countries, and they are all coming here to study English. Sometimes it is difficult for them to communicate not only because their English is limited, but also because they lack the understanding of each other's culture. For example, a Saudi female student will feel offensive if a male is approaching her. Even in class, these female students sit at their corner. I just learned that alcohol is prohibited in Arab countries. Asian students are quieter in class and Saudi students talk more. I feel that the international students will work together better if they understand each other's culture. So, the assignment is for the students to present on cultures of their home country. They have the options of using PowerPoint or other softwares. They have to include in their presentation the following materials: pictures, audio, video clip and necessary words. The students can work in a group if they are from the same country, but each member has to take part in the presentation to introduce some part of the whole project.
In this practice, the students are working on something they are familiar with, and using English to present their work. The project could be used for other occasion when they need to introduce their native culture to foreigners. It is meaning work for students. By searching for the right expression for the part they want to present, the students is learning by doing. It is a learning experience for everyone.

Good technology means good writing class?

I find Hoy's article very easy to read and I really like the way students, teachers and pedagogy are put. The success of writing class with technology depends on the understanding of the students and students' need. The teachers' position is also important to facilitate effective and efficient learning. Traditional classroom attracts the attention of students with little or no help of technology. The focus is on the teacher, and the students have to pay attention or draw attention to the class. Comparing with technology rich classes, the traditional classes are boring and don't get students' full participation in the learning process. On the other hand, technology rich classes offer the teachers new methods to conduct the teaching. Students are exposed visual, audio resources that are easy for them to get interested in. But the control of technology to work for, not against the class objective might be problematic for some teachers. There are times that technology will not work, there are times teachers are not ready to make the switch from the traditional pedagogy to new ones. With all sorts of problems that may happen in the class, it is not easy to say that good technology will guarantee good writing class.

Seminar Paper

Both writing theory and computers seem to be new to me. I am trying hard to catch up with my classmates. They know so much that I don't. When I was reading the requirements of the paper, I kept thinking that there might be something that I can write about the using of computer or internet in the ESL writing classes. I am teaching at ELI this semester and I found that all levels of ESL classes are using computers in their writing classes. They have regular classes that concentrating on processed writing without using computers, but the final product of writing is always computer based. Teachers there do not accept handwritten assignment for writing classes. All comments are electronic based by using Microsoft Word review tools. Students use emails to communicate with their teachers instead of paper based writing. One of the teachers told me that electronic documents are better for ESL students because they are easy to read and get their attention better.

Understanding pedagogy and technology

Markel argues that pedagogy and technology should be clearly seperated from each other, while Selber suggests that technological facilities or resources are not neutral to pedagogy. It is impossible for pedagogy to be formulated in a vacuum without the influence of related circumstances, for example technological resources. A good lesson for teachers of digital age is that we should always get ourselves ready with self-education if needed to reach the most needed technology we may need to integrate with our pedagogy. But the problem is: to be equiped with up-to-date technology for our job will not happen in one day. It is a long process that teachers have to go through, and usually on their own. Personally, and in a selfish way, I would try to bend the rules of my pedagogy to suit the technology I have.

A new understanding of blogs, bulletin boards and wikis

I am not a big fan of using blogs, bulletin boards or wikis. I have to admit that I heard about them and knew about them, but I have never thought about them seriously. Barton's article allowed me to get a better idea of what they are and what we could do by using them in composition teaching. I like his idea that "wikis emphasize a progressive, democratic aspect of writing,... the god of wikis is freedom, not efficiency". I agree with him that "wikis challenge notions of traditional authority and traditional academic legitimating criteria." This active ongoing discussion method will get to the points in the long run. At least, the change is constant, and traditional method of printing is hard to keep up with the fasting changing world. Who knows, it may become the future of real time encyclopedia.

On technology narrative

I organized my narrative around how technology has affected and changed my way of English learning. I collected ideas from the very early desktop tape recorder days in middle school to short band radio and portable tape recorder time in college, then TV programs and Video tapes and later on VCD(Chinese version of DVD in early days when DVD were so expensive). The change from audio to video, from recording to real time news on the radio and TV. Nowadays with the help of internet and computers, mp3, the way of English learning is changed greatly. I find it much easy to brainstorm with picutres and stories in my memory and then to build around the theme piece by piece. I was shocked to find out that with better technology at hands, I am getting lazier and not making full use of all the conviency of it.

About Selfe's Article

I enjoyed reading the article and was glad to learn the facts and numbers about the Clinton-Gore project. I am convinced that literacy eductation is a political act. The part that I am interested in is Remembering our own role in the literacy cycle. "Computer-using teachers instruct students in how to use technology-but, all too often, they neglect to teach students how to pay critical attention to the issues generated by technology use. Teachers who choose not to use technology in their classes content themselves with the mistaken belief that their choice to avoid technology use absolves them and the students in their classes from paying critical attention to technology issues" Both groups come to the same end by neglecting technology and taken it for granted.

It is good to learn this

I have been using the internet since 1993, starting from dialup modem to play with emails and internet surfing. Life has been much easier with the help of internet and computers, but I have not tried bolgging and not willing to try it since I heard about it. I have seen blogs of other people but have never thought that I would have one myself. Thanks to ENG526, I could have this learning experience and it is always good to learn new things. I found that it was pretty easy to set up this and the instructions are a great help. I could follow the instructions to do a step by step process to get this done. Green is the color I like, and that is why I have chosen this theme. I know my blog may look simple, but this is a solid step for me to move into this, and I am sure I am going to love it.

This is a picture of my 3-month-old son, I just love his smile.