Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Embedding Twitter Hash Tag Feeds

While I was keeping up to date with the events in Egypt, an idea struck me. Wouldn't it be great for students to apply the theories that they learn in class to real life through the meidum of Twitter? For many, what we learn in class is far removed from our daily lives and we can't always make the connections between what we study and what goes on in the world around us.

During the Egyptian revolution, ordinary people were tweeting from Tahrir square, while, at the same time, news agencies were reporting on what (they thought) was going on. Through Twitter, we were taken into the complexity of real life events and we could view these from an objective and informed standpoint - in real time.

Twitter have made a widget available so that you can stream a Twitter hashtag feed in your webpage (for example #Egypt). I've made a video of this, in case anyone wants to use it for themselves.

Embedding a Twitter Hash Tag Feed into a Website from Digital Spaces on Vimeo.

Babies learning languages

The talk by Professor Patricia Kuhl in this video describes a series of experiments investigating what goes on in the brains of babies as they learn languages. They show that human interaction is vital for babies to learn a language and also, that babies can process sounds from different languages innately - a skill we seem to lose dramatically as we get older.

She also states that babies learn languages better than adults. I have to say I don't think I agree with this. It takes a child five years to become proficient in their native tongue, whereas it is possible for an adult to become proficient with hard work in a couple of years. Certainly, an adult would speak with an accent, but grammatically and lexically, they could become native speaker-like far quicker than a baby learning their first language. First language and second language learning are two overlapping yet distinct processes and evidence on how babies learn languages may not always hold true for adults learning a second language.

Child language acquisition is absolutely fascinating though :-).

Informal Learning and Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales talks about how Wikipedia is used for informal learning. For many people it's the first port of call on the web if they want to know something. I may be a bit of a geek, but I have often been watching something on the TV then gone on to look on Wikipedia to find out more about it, often going on tangents and finding out about things I'd never heard of before, from the Wilhelm Scream to the Mandelbrot set.

There are still doubts about the veracity and the validity of Wikipedia however and most universities would often rightly question the use of Wikipedia as a secondary source for students. 

Nevertheless, the more it gets used, the better it becomes and the more refined the peer review gets. There may be a time when Wikipedia becomes the main portal for all knowledge.

The Cornell System

Nobody is taught how to write notes, and even at Master's level, it may be difficult for students (especially disorganised ones like me) to know exactly how to organise their ideas. The Cornell System of note taking, developed in the 1950s and becoming more popular, is one way of taking notes in a way that can aid the retention and use of information. In the left hand column, the writer writes cues and the main note taking is done in the right hand column. The bottom part also has a reflective function. Once the notes have been written, you can add your own thoughts, questions and ideas which haven't been mentioned in the lecture.

Click here to download:
advancednotes.pdf (2 KB)
(download)
The four Rs

Record

Take notes during a lecture using abbreviations and paraphrasing.

Recite

Cover your notes and test yourself from the prompts.

Reflect

Reflect on the notes. Be critical, and question the importance of the information and how it fits with your own ideas

Review

Review your notes. Your ideas and opinions may change over time as you learn more. 

Isaac Asimov on education

This videos shows Isaac Asimov talking about "the future of education" in 1988. He mentions a lot of things we are now familiar with; access to libraries from our own homes; lifelong learning; 

 

 

I particularly like what he says about how we think of education as something we can finish. Technology, and access to information, changes all this. It's good to see that we are in a place nowadays where we much of what Asimov says is a reality.

Language learning and informal learning

The concept of informal learning has been around since antiquity. In its modern context, it is rooted in post-war development where there have been two main movements. The first movement aimed to empower underprivileged learners in developing countries and was primarily political. The second was borne out of work-based learning such as internships or voluntary work.

Informalapproach_cartoon

In recent years there has been a tendency to formalise the informal through externally prescribing objectives and testing, while, paradoxically, there have been moves towards informalising the formal through the adoption of less structured approaches to teaching. This is particularly true in the language classroom; the number of people taking formal language exams such as IELTS has risen at the same time as a rise in the adoption of more informal approaches to teaching.

In one study, Stephen Krashen (1976) argued that formal and informal environments both contributed to different aspects of second language competence: formal environments help learners with language learning (the grammatical and phonological rules) while informal environments contribute to language acquisition, the subconscious process similar to the way children learn their first language. Krashen argues that active involvement in an environment where language occurs regularly (what he calls an intake intensive environment) is necessary for language acquisition. 

With the development of web 2.0 applications, it is now much easier to create an "intake intensive" environment away from the classroom. Students have access to real-time updates (Twitter), they can share links, photos, music etc.These applications were not intended for educational purposes, though there is clearly value in them for education. However, the educational nature of these applications do not necessarily correspond to the learning objectives of educators. Moreover, students do not necessarily want to use web applications in an educational setting and there are concerns about e-safety and the variable quality of learning that users experience. Despite the immediate appeal of web 2.0 applications, there is a need to explore the opportunities available.