Powerpoint, Prezi, which has more power?

It is universally acknowledged that powerpoint is closed related with presentation nowadays. Every time when students are required to make a presentation, they will be offered with several evaluations about their power points. There have been some problems  when my students were required to give presentations with power points. Firstly, the format of the powerpoint is over emphasized, deserting the importance of the content itself. Secondly, some students believed the main function of powerpoint is like the readable transcript, so they usually typed many paragraphs of their speech, even including “Good morning, I’m gonna introduce…” these opening words. It literally makes the powerpoint and the whole presentation boring and pointless.

Edward Tufte, in his “PowerPoint is Evil”, challenged the overwhelming powerpoint, deliberating that school students have fallen into the powerpoint cognitive style, regardless of the main aim of writing a report. It makes me to reconsider the question ” Have these powerpoint templates made our presentation simpler, or our presentation has been simplified, or oversimplified, by these powerpoint templates?” The most skeptical issue of these powerpoint templates is that the reasoning could be barely shown from the straightforward table. It is true that students including teachers have descended from the notion that writing or giving a presentation is to demonstrate how students reason, and more importantly, all the tables, pictures and even videos should facilitate the process of reasoning. However, we are kind of lost, on the road…

When it goes to Prezi, I was totally amazed by the more extensive use of images and movements, and by the effectiveness of embedding videos and the straightforwardness of using space on the screen. Most importantly, users are endowed with more sense of creation by using the Prezi.

There is my Prezi project about Chinese culture:What Do You Know About China?

There is another merit worthy to be mentioned, is that Prezi could be edited together, which could be an effective tool to organize students’ teamwork.

Distracted or Engaged?

The role of technology has been shaped and reshaped in the process of education, no matter how educators embrace it or deny it. These two weeks the study concentrates more on the function/ the role of the wireless in classroom teaching.

Frankly speaking, there has not been updated to the wireless setting in every classroom in China. And I  have been amazed by the convenience of the wireless here, including the classrooms. However, there has been a common issue that Chinese students and American students may look into their cell phones in the classroom learning. It has been a tough question for me, and I often discussed with my co-workers how to avoid this evil distraction. The answer is, as predicted, that teachers have to ban the use of cellphone in class. However, it is not as effective as planned, everyone could not prevent how technology influenced teaching though.

David Parry, in his “Teaching in the Age of Distraction”, proposed a more positive point, that is,

“And this is one of the things that I see as my role as an educator: to teach students how to participate in an academic community, to both model this behavior and illicit it from them. ”

Learning itself is a process of sharing and improving, and the wireless setting and other technology itself could boost the process of sharing and improving. The reason why it could be regarded as distraction in the classroom learning, is that teachers could not adapt themselves to the newly-set environment. Teachers/instructors could try to redesign their lesson plans and, more importantly, to make students realize they are in part of the academic community. I know it is easier said than done, but it is the revolutionary idea to mark the role of the wireless/ the technology in the process of teaching/ learning, that is, the wireless/ the technology could be the trigger to make students more engaged, rather than being distracted.

google maps– map the education

There are some issues concerning the application of goole map, though I could not find the lecture posted by Dr. Tryon.

I have to say, honestly, that I ‘m a fan of google map, since I may always lose myself when I go to a new place. With the google map, I can plan my trip and estimate the time I will spend on it.

It was my first time to approach google map as a pedagogical tool to help teach EFL students when I was in the orientation at Michigan State University last August. The professor demonstrated in a teamwork learning directions. She marked some noticeable places at MSU, like the library, the stadium and the tower in a printed google map. Then ask A to offer B with direction guidance, and B would follow the direction to find the place A intended to go. Compared with other direction exercises, it was more practical and intriguing.

Suchi Grover, in his article “Map Your World: Google Maps in the Classroom,” has enlightened some applications of google map in education.

• “in geography (maps with geological information; and for developing spatial and directional skills),
• in literature and language (“literary field trips” on google maps),
• in science (animal and plant habitats around the world),
• in social studies (map neighbourhoods and local communities),
• or simply have students document their field trips or holidays with their personal photographs and narratives (a great language arts activity).”

I ‘m quite intrigued in the second application in literature and language, tough I’m not quite confident I have mastered the explicit application or not. Anyway, literary field trips on google maps would be great try. I would supplement other requirements when I assign students to do the “field trip”. For example, students can be assigned to introduce Transcendentalism, and two representative writers Emerson and Thoreau. Students can firstly google map “Walden”, started to know why Thoreau stayed there to propose his theory. Then, they are encouraged to do “I map”,  posting other information they collected. And finally they will give a presentation about the project.

The last issue may carry a sense of post-colonialism. Christian Kreutz in his article  “Maptivism: Maps for Activism, Transparency, and Engagement,” enlights the function of googlemap could be more for helping the underdeveloped countries and areas to come to the stage so that these underdeveloped areas would be helped. It is skeptical that the natural resources would be overdeveloped once these areas has been exposed to the outside world. And the posting of pics, videos and other information of these underdeveloped areas is apparently done without considering the issue of  privacy of local people.

scratch

We had a face-to-face talk about the tool “scratch” and some impact it may bring.

I have to say it is my first time to try the tool scratch, luckily, it is straightforward and not very complicated to approach.

Some pedagogical applications of the “scratch” :  Students could be assigned into a teamwork of 3-4 people, to make a short video and practice conversations with the “scratch”, which could be some theme-related conversations, like greetings, going to a hospital, going to a restaurant. Furthermore, students could be assigned to make a video based on the literature which they approach, like some classical literary scene. Last but not the least, students can even practice their pronunciation and imitate the local tones when they learn the second foreign language with the help of the “scratch”. They can dub the mute video , or even try to figure out what has happened in their conversation with the blank of conversations.

When it goes to the evaluation, I still believe there will be some controversy: Should we value students’ technology skills more or their understanding of the context more? I did have some experience in evaluation on students’ presentations in powerpoint when they are doing their literature assignments. Some students DID an excellent job in making their power points, making it elegant, clear, outlines popping in and out, illustrating explicit pictures, however, they sometimes overemphasized the function of the technology tools, forgetting the the tool is to help people understand the context of the literature better. As far as I’m concerned, students should not be lost in the forest of fully-advanced technology. Therefore, the setting of the rubric  should be the balance of gaining context and mastering technology tools, e.g. be  fully-informative from the original text and be skillful about  the technology tools.

“Branding” education

There are two issues based on the lecture “Branding Education”.

Firstly, as a teacher wishing to be a technologically informed one, I, sometimes in China, found some students have already been placed on a technologically disadvantageous position. They came from some remote villages in China, and they have never got accessed into internet when they were in High schools. It was apparently more difficult for them to do some assignments related with powerpoint or video, when I offered them some teamwork related with technology. They have had the sense of inferiority towards the technology assignment. The whole situation just reminds me of the TV talk show I watched two days ago, where a city girl passionately and pathetically encouraged all the audience to donate iPads to the poor kids in remote villages, so that every kid can read textbook online! The host ironically interrupted her and challenging her,” Dear Miss, do you think there would be wifi in remote villages?” Yeah, when we talk about the term” technology education”, there have been a bunch of kids left behind already.

Secondly, the discussion of Farmville’s use of political advertising really intrigued me a lot. I do admit that some preference may reveal one’s potential political bias, but I have never thought a game can tell something. Last year, I did find different grocery stores target differently related customers, like Wallmart targets lower-income customers, and Harris Teeter targets middle-class customers. When students are assigned to do their projects with different tools, teachers should try to encourage them to experience them all, without conveying their preferences.

storify–make the story yourself

I have to admit that it is my first time to step into storify. I started to like it, as long as I got to know how to use the tool.

The storify tool is, for me, like a platform collecting all the related information, including articles, links, videos and pictures, to form a topic. These related information could support the topic in a rational and sensible way.

My tentative storify posting 

Pedogocially speaking, for the storify, it could be an amazing tool to collect the related information concerning the topic and put them on the same platform. Or, it is an entralling way to collect two opposite opinions on two pages, eg. the heated discussion about the selection of American President, how do these donkey and elephant argue, etc.

weebly, blackboard

Weebly is a completely new tool for me, which is a very simple, yet powerful online wesite creation one. Once registered, it is very straightforward to drag these elements–the building blocks to the main page, with videos, links and pics. And it could be more convenient to apply to these templates with diverse appearnces. When it goes to the pages tag, I can add some pics into other pages to supplement the main topic I want to discuss.

Pedogocially speaking, it is an effective way to apply to offer the resource to students, especially to offer some related information about a historical event. It could include some descriptions, some videos about the historical event, and some picture albums.

When it goes to blackboard, I have been adapted to it now, and began to like it better and better. The blackboard has been created with a systematical frames, with the whole system of learning. In another course, we have been required to hand in assignments through blackboard, and the professor printed them out and graded to us, which is time-saving and more effective.

google docs–sharing and editing in a collective way

It is my first time to experiment google docs. There are some features which google docs have beating down other technology applied in classroom teaching, in terms of cooperation and colleboration.

Straightforward. It’s easy to apply for teacher and students. Teachers may share some materials and students can read and edit them easily. There is one tool worthing to be mentioned, that is, “revision history” which Dr. Tryon talked in his lecture. It could be more effective in measuring students’ individual job in a  team work,  compared with twitter. There is the possibility that twitter can be applied to the student’s team work, eg. everyone is assigned to write a fragment of the story and try to make the story plausible, or, everyone is required to translate some sentences in his/ her version, as there’s not only one best tranlation in a piece of work. However, there may be some problems when students all reply the original tranlation sentence, and it will be hard for teachers to trace everyone’s replies, especially it is a big class. When it goes to goole docs, it is more straightforward, because the “revision history” can specify everyone’s job. Furthermore, every student can modify his classmate’s, which has become more interactive.

 

 

 

Googling– to be shaped or shaping?

Google is the frequently used search engine for me and my students in China, especially when we are searching for some international information. As for me, I may apply to Baidu as my search engine when I need to search for some national information, usually the searching result could solve my problem. However, when it goes to the American and other international information, I may apply to google, and it usually offers me more effective information than Baidu.

As Dr. Tryon talks in his lecture on Google Search, there are several points needed to be contemplated in googling.

First, Google is a the largest social bookmarking. The frequently searched information may not be the most academic, however, it must be the one which most people are interested in. It may cause a problem–less academic and more public-interested. It may help the student to grasp the recently new concern about one issue, however, it may lead students less academic-conscious and may deprive students of their independent thinking ability.

Secondly, as followed by the first problem, the “first page” problem. As the searching engine is a social bookmarking, apparently, there would be different entries about one key word in different search engine. Dr Tryon mentions another reason for the diverse entries in different search engine is that advertising-supported results, which I never thought of before. I have compared google and Baidu these two search engines, and apparently the entries on the first page are different with the same key word. Pedagogically, students usually go through the first three pages, and leave the rest of the pages unread. Therefore, the first page plays a significant role in students’ searching, which is not objectively placed. It may mislead students searching process.

I put “Syria” in google and Baidu,  and the first page, apparently, is different.

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Thirdly, as Halavais mentions the problem of information overload.  And Marshall Mclulan proposed that googling “shapes the process of knowledge”. I can’t agree more. Even if all the entries are offered by people, most of the people are shaped in the process of knowledge unconsciously. People have lost most of  the ability to think, rather, to be shaped by google!

updating favorites in a easy and social communicating way

Jamie, in her blog “Ditching the “Add to Favorites” Button“, has declared her addiction to RSS, saying she’s trying to abandon the old-fashioned “Add to Favorites” function. Actually, it is what I would like to echo.  Before the lecture from Dr. Tryon on “RSS and Social Bookmarking”,  I used to pigionhole my favoriate websites by adding to favoriates. Everytime when I start my computer, I always go to my diverse favorites–blogs favoriates, social networking favoriates, news favoriates, email box favoriates, etc. which almost has become the essensial part of my internet life. Furthermore, these favoriates include the Chinese version ones and English versions, which makes my internet life wander between the two worlds with a lot of fun.

However, with the assistance of RSS, I can make my initial internet life easier and more convenient. I think the nickname of “personal newspaper” is very suitable for it.

I am still experimenting the social bookmarking websites concentrating on delicious, as diigo is blocked in China. Pedegogically, it is more effective for teachers to assort the teaching materials in different perspectives. Furthermore, with the  tags and network pages students can find more related information.