Friday, November 4, 2016

Week 3 Blog Assignment



Week 3 Assignment 1

The first social networking technology I selected is Duolingo, http://www.fluentin3months.com/duolingo. Duolingo is a free language-learning app that offers 11 completed language courses for English speakers. For example, as an English speaker, you can learn Spanish with over 40 million other learners, Italian with 10 million learners, or even Irish, with just over 1 million learners. To use Duolingo, you set up a profile, choose your target language, set your weekly goals, and you are ready to learn a new language.

I selected this technology in that it is an excellent example of personalized learning. The course text mentioned learning a new language online using “Kan Talk, Spanish Pod, or LiveMocha. Duolingo appears to be more user-friendly.

Two examples of how Duolingo will be incorporated into my professional practice.

Within the online learning community, I may sue Duolingo as an icebreaker. The second utilization of Duolingo is collaborating with 2 to 3 other online instructors to learn the same language and post our experiences on a blog.


Edmodo is a free online networking application for teachers and students. It is a safe and controlled environment appropriate for schools. Unlike Facebook, Edmodo explicitly deals with school and teacher concerns about social networking for students. I selected Edmodo in that I can envision sharing this information with local teachers. Additionally, as an online instructor, I may be able to implement this safe and controlled technology within my online classroom. Communication between students can not be anonymous or private, which is a positive not found on Facebook.

References

Bonk, C. J. (2009). The world is open: How web technology is revolutionizing education.
            San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.


5 comments:

  1. LOL, suing Duolingo seems a little harsh. But all kidding aside I never thought about incorporating a language program into an online class in the manner you describe, it sounds very interesting.

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  2. Gloria, I think I will encourage my English Language learners to use Duolingo. Gloria this is really "out of the box". Great idea!!!

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  3. Gloria, Duolingo seems like a great application to use as an icebreaker. I would like to use the application myself. As a supervisor, I get a lot of none English speaker customers I come in contact with. It would be great to be able to speak to them instead of transferring them all of the time.

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  4. Hi Gloria,

    Excellent points, yet many times collaboratory strategies are not as simple as it is presented on paper. Thus, many students are accustomed to individual work as opposed to group work and sometimes can be reluctant to engage students. Some learners feel they are doing the majority of the work, and others are relying on them to complete the task. To overcome the challenge of resistance in regards to group work educators can employ written contracts in which roles are defined, and tasks are divided (Barkley, 2010). As well, positive interdependence in which this strategy entails specific elements by default causes each learner to rely on each other in which their performance has to be qualitative.

    References

    Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

    Thank you,

    David

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  5. Hi Gloria!
    I've heard of Edmodo! It's actually being used at the school where my daughter attends. It is a great site that allows teachers and students to collaborate, share content and notes. It reminds me of Moodle.

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