Cihanyesilmen’s Weblog

After this semester all of the course participants learned a lot about internet projects and new media in the classroom.  But when it came to the point, to write down my dream project, I found it quite difficult to do so. I thought about it….and thought about it…and although so many ideas came to my mind, it was not easy to make a decision.

I wanted to attach importance especially to include the new media as soon as possibe into the classroom. Then I remembered the blog task about searching an internet project with New Media of which we had to tell our readers aout: “Monster Exchange”.  You can read more about this project in my “Internet Project” blog.

This project can easily be involved  into “Unterstufe” , in which I think it fits best to invlve new media in their classes. But I would not use exactly this Project as it is preseneted in my blog. For example in the 9th grade or 10th grade  when the pupils have to deal with English literature, I think its a great idea to involve such a kind of project in to the classes.

The task would then be:

• schools pair together which are dealing with the same literature
• the students which get together in groups draw an original picture of one character of the literature they are reading, and a description about this character
• the partnered school sends the description of their character via e-mail
• the students are then challenged to use their reading skills to read the description and translate it into the character they think this description is about.
• the challenge is then to create a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible witout looking at the original but using only the description  of the character.

The written descriptions, the original pictures of the characters and  the redrawn character pictures have to be  scanned and uploaded to the Internet.

With the help of just one such a project, you can involve so many teaching aspects. But as I mentioned you can read these in my blog about internet project.

To get an impression how the use of  new media is realised at school, we are going to visit the Landschulheim Steinmühle. Hence we have to think about questions which may interest us.

1. What do the teachers theirselves think about the use of new media? Does the preparation of a lesson including new media dedicate much more time, than preparing a lesson without new media?

2. What about the financial aspect? How is equipment financed at LandschulheimSteinmühle?

Since I have to leave earlier, I hope to get the questions answered anyway.

OK, now after three weeks of holiday I come to the point of trying to answer the questions.

Where shall I begin… ok…

First of all to the first question:the teacher’s thoughts about the use of new media.

We had the chance to ask Mr. Nitzke and Mrs. Sperl who agreed to answer our questions. Both teachers appreciate the use of new media in their lessons. They see big advantages in using new media in class.  Especially in English and in Science classes it gives the chance to give interdisciplinary lessons, as in the Australia project about which the pupils will get to know everything about Australia both  in all lessons and in different ways virtually. As we heard, new media is used by a lot of teachers at this school, including Unterstufe up to the Oberstufe.  Of course the use of new media depends on the level of knowledge of the pupils, so that in the Unterstufe they start with the standardization with guided researches and in the Mittelstufe the new media is based on their computer science lessons. Only in the Oberstufe the pupils have to do unguided researches at school and also at their home. At this level then it is taken for granted that the pupils are able to give a powerpoint presentation.  So one ca say, that almost all teachers see advantages in using the new media in their classes and not just only in the Oberstufe but already in the Unterstufe. In ddition to that it is important to know that all the teachers at Landschulheim Steinmühle get well prepared to be able how to handle a beamer and other technical equipment they need.

Equipment:

Of course it is evident that every school has to provide the equipment to  use new media. Concerning the equipment at this school we got to know the computer-lab which is provided with 24 notebooks. Furthermore we found out that there are two more mobile stations which are also equipped with notebooks. In almost all rooms there are beamers installed and those rooms which are not yet provided with beamers will get one in the near future.  So one can say, that  the equipment matter can not be considered as a real excuse for not using new media.

Ok, now to the second question: the financial aspect.

This question was answered really quickly by Mr. Nitzke.  All the equipment is either financed out of the tax money or by contributions, as the notebooks in the computerlab for example which were dispensed by a company of the region Marburg.

All in all one can say, that it was really interesting to see in practice  how  new media is used at school. Especially the fact to hear  that teachers are not always afraid of using new media, but also see advantages.

a mobile laptop station

Find out about today’s use of computers in your old grammar school. Try to find information in the “Schulprogramm” or on the website, remember if and how your teachers included the New Media in the classroom. Describe your findings and your opinion about it.

Reading the blog task for this week’s session the first thing which came to my mind was ….”New Media at my old grammar school…did we even have computers???”

My own experiences:

But later on when I did some research and I visited the website of my old school I did remember some scenes in which I was sitting in front of a computer doing some research for my language subjects. As far as I remember I’ve never sat in front of a PC before 10th grade. And even then it was just in really rare cases. We had one computer lab in whichthe subject informatik was held, and one small PC-room which was only used by the older students. I can remember when I had to do some research for my Spanish class and also for French and English we sometimes visited the computer lab. In addition to that I also remember how many times after having the chance to work with the PC finally , we had to disrupt the work because our internet connection was lacking, or the PCs did not work, or our teachers where not able to cope with problems which came up etc. This also shows how uneducated our teachers were at that time. The more I think about the use of new media in my old school, the more I come to the fact that we didn’t really have teachers which included media in their lessons. Thinking back now I come to the point that it would have been much easier for me, if I had learned about PowerPoint and other medial things already at school and not only at university.

Current status of including new media at Cusanus-Gymnasium:

Unfortunately the website  does not give any information about the use of new media at school.

Here is a link: http://www.cusanusgymnasium.de/index.php?page=home

So I had to ask a friend’s sister which is now in 11th grade at this school. I was surprised that it has changed a lot indeed. The Cusanus Gymnasium offers now two computer labs and one additional which is just intended for the “Oberstufe”. What was also striking to me is, that now the use of new media in class seem to be more extended. I ascribe this to the fact that my former school now has a lot of more younger teachers than to the time when I was at this school.

All in all I can say, that there is no escape from the more and more getting “Media World” to which we have to adapt to, especially we as a future teacher who want to prepare our students better in these technical things, than our own teachers did.

Find (online or in a magazine) a report on a teaching project with the New Media that you really liked and you think was a success (not the one you had in-class) and explain it to your readers.

Searching the web I found the internet project “Monster Exchange”. The first thing which made me curious was the name of the project. But this was not the only reason why I’ve chosen this project.

I liked especially the fact that with this project they’ve manged it to involve  several teaching aspects at the same time.

I think it is very important that one gets to know the internet and its technology as soon as possible and this project is made for children in Kindergarten up to students of the 8th grade level.   

Here is the link: http://www.monsterexchange.org/index.asp

This project was created first in 1995 by  John Thompson and Brian Maguire.

The aim was to to encourage the  the development of reading and writing skills by using Internet technology in the classroom curriculum.

1.  Many different schools worldwide are paired together and the students in each classrooms have to go together in groups.
2. Each of these groups have to draw an original picture an write a description of a monster.
3. The partnered classes then exchange their descriptions via e-mail.
4. These students are then challenged to use reading comprehension skills to read the descriptions and translate them into a monster picture.
5. The challenge  is then to create a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible without looking at the original and using only the written description of the monster.

 
The written descriptions, the original pictures of the monsters and  the redrawn monster pictures have to be  scanned and uploaded to the Internet using the browser-based Monster Gallery Builder. The Monster Gallery Builder is entirely form-based and does not require the teacher or student to know any HTML code.

Finally these pictures are published in the Monster Gallery where you can give feedback via e-mail.

Furthermore it is useful to know that there are a lot of tips and support provided for teachers, involving with lesson plans , timelines, resources etc.

“Since then the project has grown to incorporate many state and national curriculum standards and has empowered thousands of students from schools worldwide to tap into their creativity and develop their reading, writing and comprehension skills in a fun way.”

Hope you liked it.

Reading trough this week’s virtual session “Internet Research” the first point which came to my mind was: “there is much more possibility for an appropriate internet research than just using google“.  Namely, to be honest, the only  search engine I use when I need to research for a presentation or for any other task, is google.  I think especially this virtual session is very useful for us students who use the net daily for getting information. One gets to know the different search engines which one can use such as

• search engines
• meta-search engines
• catalogues

and their pros and cons concerning the searching for special information. You realize that sometimes it is more useful for your research to consider other search engines because the search engine you are using may  not distinguish between reliable and unrelable information.  Especially for students it is more comfort and easier to consider the first results in google. What we don’t know is, that these results may be conmpletly misleading for our research topic.

This is why I think that it is importtant for students to at least know where and how to use also different search engines.

I feel  a pressure as if I have to write about the practical task no. 6.

Already in class, when we were looking around to make our own opinions about the topics on the posters of the other groups, this poster was eye-catching to me. It´s not the appearance of the poster which is striking me, NO, it´s the statement which is bothering me :

A 1996 poll of US teachers found that they ranked computer skills and media technology as more ‘essential’ than the study of European history, biology, chemistry, and physics; than dealing with social problems such as drugs and family breakdown; than learning practical job skills; and than reading modern American writers such as Steinbeck and Hemmingway or classic ones such as Plato and Shakespeare. (The Atlantic Monthly, July 1997.)

How can someone who has studied for many years be that ignorant and that arrogant to affirm that computer skills and media technology are the most essential things to learn at school?

I think those who talk big aren’t really  clear in their minds, what they are talking about. It is unbelievable that there exist so called “teachers”  who  are able to rank computer skills and technology more essential as social behavior. I wonder how the world  would look like if really every single person would have this opinion.  People would not be the same as they are today. Humans do have social aptitudes. This is what  differentiates us from other creatures. I think  you will only get the best results in competence and specific skills, such as computer skills, if you have a problem-free head. And this head is only producible when we talk to each other, to solve the probems.

This declaration is for me a kind of provokative statement. If this statement would be the reality I wonder how Einstein and Shakespeare and others had a chance of becoming genies at all. What about the past in which there was not such an easy utilisation of computers and other technical equipment? Were they all stupid just because they prioritized differently?

Learning Theories& Principles

After reading the virtual session on Learning Theories & Principles, I recognized how complex the topic of computer science is.

In this virtual session the three most important learning theories

• behavorism
• cognitivism
• constructivism

and its pros and cons are introduced.

Behavorism brings out that learning is nothing else than the acquisiton of new beahvior by filling a blank mind with knowledge. According to behavorists this new gained information should be memorized by repeating and practicing it over and over again, what is also called drill&practice.

The second learning theorie cognitivism clarifies that the information we try to memorize is easier to acquire if it is learner-constructed. The learner is seen as an individual who has to understand and not just memorize the information in their own way. This is achieved by the method of explorative learning, especialy in educational sofware and simulations which are learner- centred.

The last learning theorie, which is discussed in this session, is the so called constructivism theorie. It declares that the learner is left within a complex learning environment and has to make sense out of the given information himself, be it in the sense of using prior kowledge, or using additional material etc. Here it is also important to respond on the role of the teacher, because the role has changed immensely from the role of a teaching person, to that of a person who provides information, to a person who arranges learning.

With respect to the use of New Media in education, it is also important to get to know so called learning priciples . Next to multicultural learning, in which you learn about the differences and similarities of other cultures, and cooperative learning, in which students interact purposely in structured groups to support the learning of every member of the group, the most important principles are distance education and aquisition of certain skills. Distance education has been used for centuries and nowadays has extended to a enormous offer of almost every course you want to have access to. To ensure successful distance learning, learners have to be able to learn autonomously and have to be capable in using the internet.

You recognize that as a teacher for foreign languages you might believe that the field of informatics rather belongs to scientists or mathematicians, however. We live in a century in which media defines our daily life and we have to know about these issues too especially if we want to teach our pupils about the use of New Media.

See You Cihan

In this week’s class session we discussed about the video on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzNkW2eyR-I) in which Mark Bauerlein discusses the current situation of the kids which belong to the younger generation . Mark Bauerlein has the opinion that all kids of the current greneration are dumb and that they are not able to prioritize in the right way. He points out that all kids spend their whole time on things which in his opionion are not worth it, like watching to much TV, surfing on the internet, and using their mobile phone instead of going to an museum, or reading a book, or concentrating on their education. We agreed that the situation he described may be the case becaue it is true that the kids of nowadays rather enjoy social network than studiying for school or going to university. But Mr Bauerlein exaggerates in that way that he generalizes his opinion. One cannot universalize all kids. In addition to that Mr Bauerlein has to observe that the time has changed. He cannot ecpect that the children remain the same person athough multi media and social networking via internet has increased ore and more. New Media in Foreign Language relates to this topic in that way, that it will show us, how useful multimedia can be used,if it is used in the right way.

The increase of multimedia should illuminate not only the negative aspects which are shown by Marc Bauerlein, but also the positive things, such as learning from the internet, using multimedia to represent something etc.

Hello and welcome to my  first weblog!

My name is Cihan Yesilmen and this blog is for the course “New Media in Foreign LAnguage Education”