Title: Trends in Digital Media 2007
Journal: TESL-EJ Volume 11, Number 4
Author: Dr. Elizabeth Hanson-Smith, professor emeritus at CSU, Sacramento, was lead designer for the Oxford Picture Dictionary Interactive and pedagogical consultant for Live Action English Interactive. She wrote Constructing the Paragraph, a free, online tutorial for composition. With Mike Marzio, she co-moderates Real English Online for video-using students, and EVO Video 07, a group supporting language teachers using video. Author of many articles on CALL pedagogy, Hanson-Smith's books include Learning Languages through Technology (co-editor Sarah Rilling, 2006), and CALL Environments, 2nd ed. (co-editor Joy Egbert, 2007), both available from TESOL Publications. Website: Computers for Education.
Summary:
The article is about three major trends in digital media that can be important to language learning. The three trends are Convergence, Searchability, and Collaboration. Convergence is the fusion of different media (mobile phones, televisions, computers, etc) due to technological innovation, that can be used to mix media in new ways, such as uploading mobile phone-captured video into a computer an into the Internet, or watching television programmes from a mobile phone or other handheld device by remotely transmitting from a television equipped with a transmitting device (Slingbox). Users can also use this technology to transmit their own content to the internet (podcasting) Not only would this motivate learners, it also enables learning to satisfy a wider range of needs (text and video for the hearing impaired, etc). This also gives teacher in the near future new tools to construct language lessons (grammar exercises, listening/speaking practices) using instant content that is generated through television programmes. Also, through podcasting, teaching and learning becomes something that is not only limited to one classroom, but can be shared worldwide, simultaneously, such as done by a lecturer from the University of Oregon with two different locations in Thailand. Not only can it widen the context of a classroom, it can be saved and reused as material for future learning. The second trend, Searchability, uses a feature currently employed widely throughout the internet called Tagging, which enables users to bookmark content according to a keyword or term that they create. This feature enables much easier and smoother acquisition of information online, as typing a keyword into a search engine such as Google will result in a conveyance of findings that not only include sites that have the text that was typed but also content of websites that have been tagged by their creators using the same keyword typed into the search engine. in the future, this feature will enable users to share the tagged content with friends as well as store the tagged content locations as favourites. The third trend is Collaboration, which encompasses the use of combined media (audio, video, pictures, text) on the internet to create content that is more interactive, interesting and allows more information to be fitted into a single page through the use of readily-available and easy to use media editing software (Windows Movie Maker, Dreamweaver, etc). This would not only motivate teachers, but also students to integrate the use of their digital cameras, video cameras, mobile phones, computers and the Internet in their language learning environment. This method of learning would facilitate student centered learning, and develop long-lasting, even long-distance friendships. There are already a few websites and online communities that are doing this (EVO Video 2007)
My reaction towards the article
I believe that the author can be talking about how education would be shaped in the future. The use of classrooms may be replaced by the home environment through the use of computers and the internet. I feel that by using the three trends explained in the article, language learning can become a borderless experience where anyone can learn whatever they want and whenever they want. The use of video conferencing or podcasting can further enhance language learning as a meaningful experience as learners can learn language from a teacher who is a native speaker of the language, teaching from the native country of the language. They also inspire more learner centered activities by allowing learners to choose whatever content they would like to learn from an extensive list of available lessons online and material searching would be made much easier and faster through the use of tags, such as the ones featured in my blog! In my opinion, the use of the three trends would ultimately lead to a language learning and teaching experience that is more interactive, more meaningful, and more entertaining, which all points to the final goal of making learning, as a whole, more effective. And although it may seem like a stretch to expect learners and teacher of our country to reach a level of learning this technological, it is by no means impossible. Students nowadays already have access to computers and the internet. Not to mention the fact that most teenagers these days have their own mobile phones that are capable of capturing and transmitting media such as audio, video, text and pictures along with the knowledge of how to perform these actions. So, I believe that by simply creating awareness of the cast possibilities of learning created by the presence of these trends, learning can take on a whole new meaning in the future of Malaysia. I end this review with the ,ink to a video posted by the author that perfectly sums up the possibilities created by the integration of the three trends.
Journal: TESL-EJ Volume 11, Number 4
Author: Dr. Elizabeth Hanson-Smith, professor emeritus at CSU, Sacramento, was lead designer for the Oxford Picture Dictionary Interactive and pedagogical consultant for Live Action English Interactive. She wrote Constructing the Paragraph, a free, online tutorial for composition. With Mike Marzio, she co-moderates Real English Online for video-using students, and EVO Video 07, a group supporting language teachers using video. Author of many articles on CALL pedagogy, Hanson-Smith's books include Learning Languages through Technology (co-editor Sarah Rilling, 2006), and CALL Environments, 2nd ed. (co-editor Joy Egbert, 2007), both available from TESOL Publications. Website: Computers for Education.
Summary:
The article is about three major trends in digital media that can be important to language learning. The three trends are Convergence, Searchability, and Collaboration. Convergence is the fusion of different media (mobile phones, televisions, computers, etc) due to technological innovation, that can be used to mix media in new ways, such as uploading mobile phone-captured video into a computer an into the Internet, or watching television programmes from a mobile phone or other handheld device by remotely transmitting from a television equipped with a transmitting device (Slingbox). Users can also use this technology to transmit their own content to the internet (podcasting) Not only would this motivate learners, it also enables learning to satisfy a wider range of needs (text and video for the hearing impaired, etc). This also gives teacher in the near future new tools to construct language lessons (grammar exercises, listening/speaking practices) using instant content that is generated through television programmes. Also, through podcasting, teaching and learning becomes something that is not only limited to one classroom, but can be shared worldwide, simultaneously, such as done by a lecturer from the University of Oregon with two different locations in Thailand. Not only can it widen the context of a classroom, it can be saved and reused as material for future learning. The second trend, Searchability, uses a feature currently employed widely throughout the internet called Tagging, which enables users to bookmark content according to a keyword or term that they create. This feature enables much easier and smoother acquisition of information online, as typing a keyword into a search engine such as Google will result in a conveyance of findings that not only include sites that have the text that was typed but also content of websites that have been tagged by their creators using the same keyword typed into the search engine. in the future, this feature will enable users to share the tagged content with friends as well as store the tagged content locations as favourites. The third trend is Collaboration, which encompasses the use of combined media (audio, video, pictures, text) on the internet to create content that is more interactive, interesting and allows more information to be fitted into a single page through the use of readily-available and easy to use media editing software (Windows Movie Maker, Dreamweaver, etc). This would not only motivate teachers, but also students to integrate the use of their digital cameras, video cameras, mobile phones, computers and the Internet in their language learning environment. This method of learning would facilitate student centered learning, and develop long-lasting, even long-distance friendships. There are already a few websites and online communities that are doing this (EVO Video 2007)
My reaction towards the article
I believe that the author can be talking about how education would be shaped in the future. The use of classrooms may be replaced by the home environment through the use of computers and the internet. I feel that by using the three trends explained in the article, language learning can become a borderless experience where anyone can learn whatever they want and whenever they want. The use of video conferencing or podcasting can further enhance language learning as a meaningful experience as learners can learn language from a teacher who is a native speaker of the language, teaching from the native country of the language. They also inspire more learner centered activities by allowing learners to choose whatever content they would like to learn from an extensive list of available lessons online and material searching would be made much easier and faster through the use of tags, such as the ones featured in my blog! In my opinion, the use of the three trends would ultimately lead to a language learning and teaching experience that is more interactive, more meaningful, and more entertaining, which all points to the final goal of making learning, as a whole, more effective. And although it may seem like a stretch to expect learners and teacher of our country to reach a level of learning this technological, it is by no means impossible. Students nowadays already have access to computers and the internet. Not to mention the fact that most teenagers these days have their own mobile phones that are capable of capturing and transmitting media such as audio, video, text and pictures along with the knowledge of how to perform these actions. So, I believe that by simply creating awareness of the cast possibilities of learning created by the presence of these trends, learning can take on a whole new meaning in the future of Malaysia. I end this review with the ,ink to a video posted by the author that perfectly sums up the possibilities created by the integration of the three trends.
