Course Survey and Evaluation

I have completed the course survey and evaluation.

Internet Safety Assignment

The fifth article that I read was William C. Porter's “I Have a Question” in the Ensign, March 2001, 58–59.

Technology should always be used with a good purpose in mind. When technology is used to simply pass the time, its dangers are more likely to present themselves. The internet should not be a place to simply idle away one’s time. There should be a specific task in mind before you even log on. That is a rule that I as a parent should establish with my children as well. If they want to get online, they should be able to tell me why. Once they have accomplished their task, they should get off. I was already familiar with the idea of having filters and keeping the computer in a public place. As a parent and a teacher, I will advise children and youth to never give personal information online and to never communicate with strangers online. I will advise my children to get my wife or me immediately as soon as anything seems a little off with the computer. I don’t want them to try handling things on their own and accidentally being exposed to something bad. It might also help us to avoid some computer bugs.

I looked at the resources on:
http://www.netsmartz.org/resources/reallife.htm
and
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/view/main.html

I want to make sure that students never get the impression from me that I ever expect them to share any personal information online. For class websites or blogs I will require that students not list their full names, and I will also keep everything password protected. I plan to give students opportunities to incorporate new technology into the classroom as long as they acquaint me with it first.

I spoke with a 23 year-old mother. I had a valuable discussion with her, establishing the need for specific goals when using the internet and the dangers of simply wandering around online. We discussed how requiring children to have a specific purpose for getting online can help keep them safe. We also confirmed the added safety that having the computer in a public place brings. Finally I claimed that children should never communicate in any way with someone who they do not know. We had a very positive discussion, and she was very open to the ideas that I shared. It was a discussion that will be valuable for the future of her children.

Content-specific technology integration project

Idea: My project will address World Language Goal 1: Beginning Standard 1, Objective 7: Ask and answer questions, and Standard 2, Objective 6: Comprehend and respond to simple personal written communication such as notes, invitations, and letters. I am using Google Earth with placemarks in places that played important roles in Mozart's life. Students will go to each of the locations and answer the question(s) that they find there. In the process of getting to know Mozart in German, they will also be writing answers to questions about information about themselves that directly relates to the information they have just read about Mozart. Not only do they get more acquainted with an important historical German-speaking person, but they also practice their ability to describe themselves. They will turn in a paper in which they will have answered all of the questions. Then they will form small groups and pick an influential German-speaking person. Each student in the group will be responsible for gathering information about a specific place that played an important role for their influential person. They will need to put together a brief description of why that place was important in German as well as find an applicabe picture online. These they will submit on the class blog.

Project link: http://germancapps.pbworks.com/f/my%20project.kmz
I would use this activity during a unit on getting to know others. In the process students should learn some important vocabulary and phrases that will help them to ask others about their lives as well as describe their own.

We will use Google Earth as our technology to help connect the class to a place that is geographically distant from the classroom. Students will have to read, respond to and then generate some of their own discourse in the target language while learning about German-speaking culture, stressing their content knowledge. Pedagogically, this project gives small groups a valuable context in which they can feel more connected to places that sometimes seem like random names rather than real places.

Using RSS

This post should have been done a long time ago, but somehow I missed it. It's here now for what it's worth (which may not be much). RSS feeds can keep me up to date with news stories coming out of German-speaking countries, adding to the authenticity and novelty of my class. Rather than spending time hunting down current events, they will simply be there when I sign on, keeping me current and making what we talk about as a class more applicable.

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

In some ways I preferred synchronous because it seems like it would keep students' attention better. Students would be more likely to goof off during a recording, causing us to possibly re-record, but there's no going back if you're live. Synchronous would work better for demonstrating actual communication in German with a native speaker. For such activities, synchronous could be very helpful.
Overall, asynchronous seems to offer more benefits for German. As a class, we would have the opportunity to replay difficult speech patterns rather than asking someone to repeat themselves. It would also give me the opportunity to make sure that all video that we as a class might send out will be respectful. I would like to use asynchronous video to communicate with a class in Germany. It would be a big step above having a German penpal. Students would prepare video messages to send to their German peers. This would give them a realistic context for communicating in German.

The Difference Between TPACK and TPK

TPK in German instruction will simply be using technology to help students to learn. This could be anything from having students collaborate using Google docs to using powerpoint presentations to keep students' interest. These activities could be used in almost any other classroom to help students learn while using technology. Collaborating can help students to share what they learn and gives them a way to share it while Google docs give them technology through which they can do it.

TPK only becomes TPACK when it involves an activity that is only applicable to the German classroom. Having students create videos in which they perform a script which they have created, focusing on proper German pronunciation, shows TPACK. It serves a specific purpose in German, it gives the students an opportunity to be creative as they approach German, motivating them to learn, and it utilizes technology to do it.