Wiki

This is the first time I have ever created a wiki site. It is an exciting and interesting experience. With the help of the Atomic Learning tutorial on Sites, I finally figured how to create a simple wiki site. Here the link to my wiki. I have been manipulating the different format options, such as Heading, Sub-heading, and Horizontal Line, setting background picture, color and so on. I added Twitter and Google + Share button as my gadgets. I also learned how to setup external links, insert images into web page, if I want, I can also insert table of contents, Google Document, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Drawing, Folder, Group, Map, Video, so much more into my page. In addition to all these features, I can change the page layout. In my wiki, I chose two column (simple) layout, laying paragraphs on the left column, and pictures on the right one.  By going to the Manage Site in the drop down menu of the More, I can customize the themes, colors and fonts of the Entire Page, Site header, Content area, Content area gadgets, Sidebar gadget and Horizontal navigation. You can see I chose light green as my background color and I also changed the color, font and font size of my pages.

Here is the screen captures of the history of revisions of my wiki. I can use this feature to keep track of the changes that have been made in the wiki. The feature allows me to revert to previous versions. With this feature, I can edit the wiki as much as I want without worrying about messing it up.

I can see how wiki can be very useful for my class. I can use this site to share Chinese culture with my students. With limited classroom time, it is impossible to share everything with students in class; however, wiki can break down the classroom walls and provide a perfect place for sharing cultures and also helping with their Chinese language study. 

Google Drawings

This is the first time I have ever used Google drawing and I actually have fun with it.  This is link to the drawing I created, Drawing. I love playing with different kinds of shapes and lines. I can not only use shapes, lines, texts and word art to create but also import pictures and edit them. By arranging the orders and grouping of the different elements helps make whole drawing look natural. I can also fill the different shapes and lines with different colors. If I don’t like the shapes the application offers, I can use different lines to create my own shape styles. In the Drawing, I use curve line and scribble line to create mountain, street and grass. I mark the different objects with Chinese characters and Pinyin, and with the visual demonstration, students can easily understand the lesson. 

           I took a look at the Graphic Design in Science. Scientific concepts could be hard to grasp when explaining only by text. However, with complex graphic designs to represent the unseen process of science, science concepts can be understood a lot easier, especially for today’s digital kids. They are familiar with visual learning, so we can present abstract scientific concepts and topics with concrete graphics to enhance their learning. There are so many applications out there using 3-D technology to create model of DNA or visual models of how the various parts of the human heart interact. These applications allow students to see and experience clearly things they could never experience by only reading a textbook. The scientific topics are not the only one that can be illustrated more clearly with the help of the graphics. We can use graphics from simple topics to highly complicated issues, for instance, from the schedule of class, the organizer for writing to how human brain works.

In the lesson plan, before students start to create a graphic design, they are instructed to do research about the certain topic, with the research students explore how to use Google Drawings. In order to put together an artistic representation of the topic, students have to do research thoroughly. At last, students use Google Drawings to create a graphic design of the related topic. The whole process requires students to use technology, including the Internet, to gather relevant information from multiple sources, using advanced searches effectively. Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research. All these meet the requirements of CCSS in writing, reading and speaking.

When making lesson plans, teachers need to integrate technologies with curriculum standards and learning objectives. The lesson plan listed in the Gain is a great example how teachers tie their lesson plans with common core state standards.

Google Drawings offers something other applications cannot compete with. Google Drawings makes it possible to share creations that connect meaning visually. Students can use drawings to create flow charts, custom graphs, informational posters and so much more. Google Drawings can help students with writing by helping them organized their ideas. Students can make their own organizers to summarize what they read or to organize their thoughts. The CCSS Anchor Standard for Writing wants students to read closely to understand the text and make analytical conclusions from it.  Teachers can create graphic organizers give students a chance to organize their thoughts and facts gathered from text to prepare writing. Google Drawings can facilitate students and teachers to meet and exceed the requirements of CCSS.

iPad literacy & Disciplines

Chinesepad offers different settings, including practice mode, tutorial mode and users can also choose either simplified character or traditional character.

It allows beginners not only to learn how to say a word but also to offer them a chance to practice how to write characters by demonstrating on the iPad.

Essentials free app offers couple hundred vocabulary with pronunciations and meanings, so learners can easily follow the app to progress, however it mainly focus on helping learner building vocabulary and pronunciation and it does not show learners how to handwrite the characters. In addition, it only offers traditional version, which means learners who have been learning simplified characters might find it is hard to use it.

Learn2play is a very integrative app. It is organized in different themes, such as fruit, sports, animals and so forth. It offers two different modes to integrate with the app. First One is to present a picture with different objects and learners can tap the different objects to see how to say in Chinese and then the characters will pop out. Second mode is to say different objects in Chinese and then students can paint them. If they paint the wrong ones, the app will make a sound to tell students they did not get the right answers. Students can use the first mode to learn the new words and then move on to the second one to check and see how much they really understand after the first mode. It offers a chance to repetitively practice until students fully comprehend it. The whole process is interactive so students might find themselves actually enjoy the learning. 

Spelling Test is a simple app for teachers to design an electronic test instead of paper-based one. It allows users to type in words and record the pronunciations. A designed test lists words on the left, and recording on the right side. Students who take the test can listen to the recording and then write down the spellings. If students do not give the right answers, the app will show the right answer immediately. This immediate feedback helps students remediate right then and by showing the correct answers further reinforce the learning process. However, when I tried to use this app to design a Chinese character test, it does let me record the sound and type characters, but when it comes to taking the test, the app doesn’t recognize the characters and the recording. 

Dictionary is a free app that I have been using in my daily life for almost two years. I mainly use it to look up the new words I encounter. It offers two types of phonetic symbols and one of them is IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)  which is what I was taught in School. It offers sound recordings, meanings, examples, synonyms, antonyms, origins and translator. In addition, it has Word of the Day and How Word Blog. The Word of the Day send users a new word or phrase everyday, which can help English learners build up their vocabulary. The How Word Blog explains how the word has been used and how the word evolved. I think Dictionary can be beneficial for both non-native and native English speakers.

Another dictionary that Ben and I use a lot is the iCED ABC, which is a Chinese dictionary. It is mainly designed for non-native Chinese learners. But Sometimes I use it to look up some Chinese idioms and phrases in order to teach Ben how Chinese people think differently. It really helps the communication between my husband and I.

Show Me is such a great and user-friendly interactive app. It allows me to create my own short videos and share with people. It can record my sound and what I write on the screen. I think this is a great tool for teaching students how to write Chinese characters. I have been designing a series of short video for Ben. I also use it to record a short video to send my friend birthday wishes. Recently I have a chance to help a Chinese girl who cannot speak any English. I am going to use this app to design short video lessons to teach her English. Here is the link to one of the lesson Color I made. But it does have its drawback. I can only use one page at a time so if my video requires a lot of demonstrations, then I have to spit my lesson into different parts. Overall, this is a great tool!

Storykit is a really neat free digital storytelling app. Users can use camera to take pictures or import pictures from photo albums to the editing page and add texts to go along with the pictures. They can also add audios to record the story. After this, users can also use paintbrush to draw. It is also a really interactive app. Students can use it to create digital stories. It is so easy to use that all students need to do is to add a picture from photo album or taking one with embedded camera, write text, record story and if they like, they can use brush to paint on the page. After this, students can start reading or sharing stories with others. Students can also go back and edit it again. Overall, Storykit is a simple, easy app that even young little kids can learn how to play. More importantly, it engages students in creating, writing, and learning.

Google Form

This is the first time I have ever tried the Google Forms and it turns out to be such a great tool. I checked out the link Tutorial -Self Grading, and then followed it to make my first self-grading quiz Chinese Test 1 for my husband. He actually likes it after the sample test and even asks me to make this kind of test more often to help him with his Chinese. I am so surprised to hear that. I think Google Forms can be a great tool with ease of use to enhance students’ learning. If I want to design a quiz, all I need to do is to create a new form and type the questions, choose the question type and then I can send the form to my students. There are different question types I can choose, such as text, multiple choice, choose from a list, checkbox, scale, grid and so on. I can view the summary responses to see what percentage of each question the whole class made. Then I can decide whether I need to reteach some of the content or it is time to move to the next subject. With Google Form, I can design a survey with ease. I still remember I had to use Word Processing application to design a survey in college, email to the participants and then count the result manually. It took so much time to do the whole process. I wish I could have used Google Form and Spreadsheet back that time, and then it would be so much easier.

Another great feature of the Google Form is that it puts all the responses into a spreadsheet automatically. I can modify, rearrange and analyze the response without affecting the original form responses. I can use the spreadsheet to do self-grading. All I need to do is to know how to use right formula to get the spreadsheet going. This is the link to the spreadsheet I made to self-grade the Chinese Test 1. Google Form and Google spreadsheet can really make my life much more productive.

Google Forms offers an easy way for schools, students, teachers and parents to connect with each other. For example, Schools can design surveys to evaluate teachers’ performance; schools also can send home a parent survey to gather information from parents about certain aspects of school life; teachers can create forms that will track specific students’ grades, behavior, and assignments; teachers can also email the parents the information of students and share it with other teachers, so much more with Google Forms and Spreadsheets.

The CCSS requires that students will “present information, findings and supporting evidence. ” Google Forms is a great tool that students can use to gather real information from peers, parents, and the community and to use that supportive information to make decisions or form conclusions about a certain topic. Another Anchor Standards requires students to make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations. Students can use Form to design a survey and send it to the participants. After the participants took the survey, all of the responses were collected in the attached spreadsheet. Students then can use spreadsheet to organize, analyze and interpret data as well as turning numeric data into a chart that graphically illustrates the relationship of the numeric data. With the ease of use feature, Google Forms can help students meet and excel the requirement of the CCSS.