Archive for E-Notebooks
ESL, EFL, ESOL Lesson: Does Liberty fit into your lesson plan?
Posted by: | CommentsCan Liberty Fit Into An ESL, EFL, ESOL Lesson?
ESL, EFL, ESOL teachers live in the reality of their students’ everyday lives. With our students we rejoice when there’s a holiday – just as much as they do – especially if it’s a beautiful spring day!
Liberation Day!
April 25 is one of those special days! Today we recall how precious the gift of
British POWs near Nettuno, south of Rome, 1944
freedom is: 2o1o makes the 65th anniversary of the overthrow of the Mussolini government and the beginning of the fall of the Nazi regime in Italy. Today we remember all those who fought, suffered and died for the liberation of Italy from tyranny.
As the President of the Republic laid the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier, The Altar of the Country, at Piazza Venezia in the heart of ancient Rome this morning, we remembered all the victims of that horrible occupation and war: the foreign soldiers who sacrificed their mind, bodies and lives that the Italian people might be free, the Italian Resistance movement, the many civilian deaths, victims of atrocities, friendly-fire and bombings.
World War II – Echoes in Everyday Life
The Ardeatine Cave, Rome
But World War II is not just a memory in a history book – the scars of that bloody war are still with us: every year many unexploded ordinances are still being unearthed; whole sections of cities have to be evacuated as the deadly bombs are diffused and removed. And here in Rome and its environs we have the sharpnel walls of the buildings on Via Rasella, the Ardeatine Caves where the horrific massacre ordered by Hilter of 335 Italians was carried out in 1944 and many military cemetaries to remind us of the horror of aggression and war – and the cost of our freedom.
ESL, EFL, ESOL Lessons Bringing in History with Social Media
For an EFL/ESOL teacher days like April 25 are an opportunity to bring in photos, film footage, old press releases of the BBC and BBC radio broadcasts - all of which are available for free online.
On YouTube there are several videos of actual footage from the WWII period that bring those past events to life again and commemorate the value of freedom.
Here is one with US General Mark Clark who explains the hardships of the Italian campaign and dedicates a documentary by John Huston to the memory of all those who fought for freedom.
For classroom discussions, teachers can talk with their ESL, EFL, ESOL students about their families’ memories of these events and the value of freedom. They can write in their e-notebooks or publicly blog about those family stories and the liberties that they are now enjoying.
In our modern consumeristic world, we have perhaps gotten a bit soft. We take the freedoms we have for granted…. we forget the liberties we now enjoy were bought at a horrific price: the lives of thousands of people who sacrificed what was most precious - their lives - so that we may be free.
And you, my reader - what days do you want to remember and thank those who sacrificed their lives that we might be free?
Happy Liberation Day to all – may we also prize and protect our freedoms from any tyrant….
Eileen
Blog Posting & Commenting in ESL Lessons
Posted by: | CommentsUsing blogs as tool and content in ESL lessons
An ESL Lesson can get exciting – and sometimes a bit heated – when the students are using social media by posting on their blogs (in our ESL|EFL class we call these e-notebooks) and commenting on other students’ blogs (e-notebooks).
Today I wanted to share with you a blog conversation that began between “PaulaInRome” and “Material Man”.
PaulaInRome had written a reflection on her blog wondering about the impact too much money might have in one’s life. Another student, who ended up calling himself “Material Man” disagreed with her position and commented on her blog to let her know. PaulaInRome politely but firmly responded….
Benefits of Using Social Media
The conversation continued both on and off-line and led to a new outlook for both….
And I feel that this is one of the great benefits we receive when we use social media correctly: they can help broaden, clarify and enrich our horizons as we politely and respectfully engage others with different positions in conversation…. and is that not what relationship-building is all about?
And I found that using blogs in ESL/EFL lessons as a tool and content can help students express themselves orally and in writing and – as in this case – stretch the students to areas of ESL/EFL language learning they might not have attempted without the desire to express themselves clearly on a topic they felt deeply about. Material Man is at a much lower linguistic level than PaulaInRome but he felt deeply about his position and wanted to make this clear to Paula. She in turn respected his language abilities and adapted her response to his capabilities.
Your Position
And you what is your position… do you agree with PaulaInRome that perhaps too much money is not good or do you agree with Material Man that behind every balanced Material Man there has to be love?
As I noted above PaulaInRome began the conversation so here is the link to her blog PaulaInRome’s Blog - but in case you need it - here is Material Man’s Reply on his Blog
Eileen
ESL, EFL, ESOL E-Notebooks: Are They Blogs?
Posted by: | CommentsI have been asked recently for greater clarification about E-Notebooks: are they a computer? software? a blog?
To answer that let me share with you the reaction of my clients/students when I first told them that I had set up a “blog” style digital notebook for each of them so that they could record their written English, audio and video recordings and we could monitor their progress in the various language skills ….
Their initial body language: horrified, scared, taken aback, distressed ….
As I read these reactions in their face, I knew that something was a miss. Had I overstepped an invisible boundary? Walked into quicksand?
I reflected on how I had explained the concept to them and started looking to see which words carried the extra baggage. I spotted one.
So, I asked them to explain what they understood when I said the word “blog”.
“obligation” “time-consuming” “does the company allow us?” “I don’t do that…” were some of the explanations.
So, the problem was with what they understood by the word “blog”. So I dropped the word blog and just call their digital notebooks, “E-Notebooks”. (I could have used D-Notebooks – but that might have had other connotations for English language teachers!)
E-notebooks are a concept. They are meant to be a virtual place where students can keep their written, audio and visual language exercises in a digital format. It is not meant to be a blog in the current sense of the meaning. The students are totally free to chose to keep their material private or to publish it. Nor do we use them in every class. They are worked into the lesson plan and accessed when needed. At this point, in fact, all the students have opted to keep their audio and video productions private. And that is fine: an e-notebook is a teaching and learning tool in this case – not a publishing platform.
I chose to use the WordPress blogging platform because I felt it was easy to use in its most basic form, allowed the students to personalize their own digital notebook to a degree, gave accesible to students and teacher wherever there was a computer internet connection and provided us with the needed controls to protect students’ work and privacy.
So is the “e-notebook” a blog? No. It’s a learning tool where what is practiced and learnt is stored digitally.
Does it use blogging software? In this case, Yes.
Can it become a blog or website? If the person wants it to be.
Now, if you are reading this post, then you are blog-savy…. But how do your family, friends, clients, students see a blog? Do they read blogs? Do they want to write a blog?
Here’s to Using Social Media in ESL, EFL, ESOL…
Eileen
ESL/EFL/ESOL Social Media Learning Tool: How to Set Up E-Notebooks
Posted by: | CommentsLearning ESL/EFL/ESOL with an E-Notebook helps students actually work with new media. While younger students take to the social media like bees to a flower, older people in the business and professional world can seem a bit mystified by all and overwhelmed by social media.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, E-Notebooks are a a joint electronic website where students can keep and monitor their English language learning efforts: written work, as well as audio and video recordings.
So how can you go about creating these e-notebooks?
It is not that difficult a process. This is how I did it. There are various other possibilities as well which we will discuss in later posts.
- I purchased a domain name.
- I got a web hosting provider.
- I installed the free WordPress.org onto my main site.
- I created a sub-domain for each student and installed the free WordPress.org onto each sub-domain.
The e-notebook is basically a WordPress.org blogging platform. I chose WordPress.org because I am familiar with the platform, and it gives me and my students the control that we need to use it as a learning tool.
Some of the strengths in WordPress.org that I found particular useful for creating e-notebooks are:
- it has a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processor;
- it has both blog and static pages (which are website-style pages);
- it can be adapted and expanded with widgets as and if needed;
- each student can decide if they want to publish, password protect or keep private for themselves and their teacher whatever they post in their e-notebook. I found that giving students the power to keep their language learning efforts private gave many a sense of ease with this new form of communication.
In setting up their sites, I asked each student to focus on something they enjoyed talking and writing about: hobby, interest, passion. Then, I walked each student through the basic steps of setting up their site, answering any questions or concerns as we went along: username, passwords, personalizing their site with a free WP theme, giving it their own title and tag line, and writing a post.
Most chose to keep their first posts private, which was fine. I fully respect my students’ feelings and needs. This is, after all, an ESOL language course, not a website/blog creation course. However, I found that before the next class a number of students had gone home, signed into their dashboard, explored the site, played around with the name of their site, categories and tags; some even chose a different theme. I saw this as a good sign as they were becoming comfortable with this new medium on their own turf.
A few brave souls decided to publish their posts for the world to see. I asked these students if they would mind if I showed their sites and posts to the other students and if these could write comments. All happily agreed – after all, they had made their posts public because they wanted others to read what they wrote.
As students have begun commenting on these public student e-notebook/websites, as the original writers have begun replying to their fellow students’ comments – I have seen a “green light” go on. They are getting it: these English language learners are experiencing what social media is all about – sharing ideas, stating opinions, creating relationships – and they are doing it in their target language!
As I mentioned above, this is one method to create an e-notebook. Can you think of others? What would fit with your students’ needs and the equipment you have available?
If you are interested, here is another example of a student’s e-notebook.
Enjoy using social media in ESL/EFL/ESOL lessons,
Eileen
ESL/EFL/ESOL Social Media Learning Tool: E-Notebooks
Posted by: | Comments“Tweeting?”, I asked.
“Yes! Yes!” Patrizia* responded. “She showed me how she has to type in… Oh, what is it? a 100 letters? Oh, I don’t remember, … and then the other person sends back a message… just like with the sms – only now she’s chatting with a girl in England! “
Patrizia, one of my business English clients, was keen to know about Twitter. Her 15 year-old daughter, who is studying English in an Italian school, was using it to “tweet” with others - in English!
Patrizia was delighted that her daughter felt confident enough in English to try to carry on a conversation with a native English speaker. Now Patrizia wanted to learn how to use social media, too.
The personal and professional world we live in is increasingly using the social media to network with people around the world. Nevertheless, some of my students were familiar with these new media, many had only heard of them, and most did not use them.
However, their children were using them – and these parents wanted to know more: they wanted to know what their children were getting into. Using social media became a hot topic for discussion. But to fully understand social media and to use the new CMC (computer-media-communications) lingo, there is nothing like actually rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty….
So, I suggested that it might be a good exercise to use these new media as tools in learning English. For example, why not create a blog which we could use for their writing exercises? This idea went down like a cold shower on a cold morning.
My clients/students’ coolness towards these new means reflected a number of causes: some felt that their English language skills weren’t adequate enough to write comments on other people’s blog, let alone write a post themselves. Others had heard of local negative news coverage of Facebook which left them feeling very leery of getting involved. For others, Twitter was an unknown entity and its 140 character count too limiting for their vocabulary and grammar capabilities. A few had commented a few times on blogs in their own language but had been ignored by the blog writer and other readers. In general, they felt ill-at-ease with these new media and how to communicate with them.
So I came up with the idea of “E-notebooks” for each student.
An “E-notebook” is a joint electronic website where students can keep and monitor their English language learning efforts: written work, as well as audio and video recordings. It is a joint electronic website because both I, as their instructor, and they, as the learners, have full access to their individual sites. It is a site that they can access either in class or from their own computers.
Here is an “E-notebook” from one of my Giovanni students. He has given me permission to show it to you. Take a look at it. It is a tool where teacher and student can note areas to work on, as well as improvements. How do you think he handled his qualms about writing a post?
In another post, I’ll describe to you how I set up the E-notebooks for each student and how we use them in an ESL/EFL/ESOL lesson plan.
But for now: How do you feel about using social media, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, etc.? Do you think that it is important for parents to be familiar with exactly how the new social media function in order to be aware of what their children could be getting involved with? If you use social media, which ones do you use and how has they enriched your life?
Till the next post, enjoy using social media in ESL/EFL/ESOL lessons,
Eileen
*not her real name
