Teachers, why not Dvolver?

Have you ever thought about being a director? Look at this fabulous movie, can't wait to have a try, right?


1) What is the technology/ What does it do?

Dvolver is a movie-making tool. The procedure is very simple. Just follow the instruction of the website. Firstly, select backgrounds and sky followed by choosing characters. Then you choose a plot among the provided four kinds. Throw out dialogues. Of course, add your favorite music and don't forget to name your title and leave your NAME. OK, that is all! You are a director now. Notice! you can send links of your movies via email OR copy the code and embed them to your personal virtual space like blogs here ^^


2) Why is this particular tool or technology relevant to language learning? What approaches to language learning or research underpin the use of this technology?

This tool is a fantastic facilitator of language learning. Firstly, it is a good resource for writing, which requires higher language mastery, compared with reading. In detail, learners are trained to use the language coherently, precisely and appropriately when making up dialgues. Swain (1985) explains this in his Output Hypothesis, stating that output such as writing pushes learners step from semantic processing to syntactic processing, compared with input such as reading. Secondly, this tool provides meaningful tasks which is an essential of learning, supported by H. Jonassen and Rohrer-Murphy (1999). 'Being meanful' here means that the acitivity should have goals, rules and larger community. Pointed this tool, it got a goal of making a movie. The rule is its procodures including adding background and music. The larger community is the potential audience. They can be teachers and peers. They can also be the online larger audience if movies are emebeded in for example blogs.


3) How might you use it to foster language learning in class/outside class?

Teachers could use it as a warm-up and post-activity. Based on the topic of current chapter, invite students to make up their own dialogues as a group activity at the beginning of a class. By this means, teachers could have an overall understanding of Ss prior knowledge both in the content and in the language such as vocabulary. Based on the existed knowledge, teachers could scaffold them by add "1" to their 'i' (refer to 'i+1' in socio-cultural theory by Vygostky). At the end of a class, students could be asked to make another movie, but this time use language point that teachers present in the class for example past tense. The whole class can vote the best movie then!


4) What limitations can you see with the use of this technology?

A limitation of this tool is that the provided scenes are too limited, especially the plot (only 4!). Ss might soon get bored.


References

H. Jonassen, D. , L. Rohrer-Murphy. 1999. 'Activity theory as a framework for designing constructivist learning environments'. Educational Technology Research and Development 47/1: 61-79. 


Swain, M. 1985. 'Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensive input and comprehensible output in its development' in Susan M. Gass, and C. Madden (eds.). Input in second language acquisition . Cambridge, MA: Newbury House Publishers. 

Scoop.it: build your online e-portfolio

Today, I am enlightened by a definition of learning when I read about connectivism theory. “[L]earning must be a way of being – an ongoing set of attitudes and actions by individuals and groups that they employ to try to keep abreast to the surprising, novel, messy, obtrusive, recurring events…” (Vaill，1996：42）. Considering rapidly altering information online, how can we keep current while at the same time be well-organized in terms of our interested knowledge? I just dig a NEW tool called scoop.it which serves as an e-porfolio to gather related info together. 


1) What is the technology/ What does it do? 


Joining: Sign up for free with your facebook or twitter account. For me, my domain (EFL network) lays on twitter therefore I choose my twitter account. Then, what you should do is just type in e-mail address and password, of course. Next time, only these two info is needed for signing in, easy as other social tool.

Performing: You are right on the starting line! Keep in mind that you already got a social network either from facebook or twitter which means you are definitely not alone in this NEW virtual space. So, you can firstly check what others have scooped, and decide whether to follow their topics. Like twitter, you got an interface that gathers all the topics you follow. Unlike twitter, it has image and longer text. Better than twitter, it allows to create your own topic. THAT IS!! why this tool is so amazing. Go the dashboard label, type your topic, add description, add tag and add icon if you like. DONE! Then, it is very important to install the Bookmarklet and drag "Scoop.it" button to bookmark toolbar. Finally, you are ready to scoop every piece of on-line source, ranged from audio, video, or text to your curated page. 

Enjoying: Since many well-known people and event got their scoop.it page. For the people, it is not as simple as that you follow that people so you should scan about everything s/he scoops. NO! You are the decision maker. You just follow the topic you have interest. For the event, you got the most updated information. More reader-friendly than those events' official page. Why? because it looks like informal magazine style but actually conveys first-hand sources. For example, Glasgow IATEFL Bloggers. 

2) Why is this particular tool or technology relevant to language learning? What approaches to language learning or research underpin the use of this technology?

In my view, Scoops.it provides fruitful online materials for educators. The sources are from various social websites such as Guardian.com and social network such as twitter. Some sources are good for rethinking about teaching for example an article from Guardian titled 'Learning through crowdsourcing is deaf to the language challenge' and Some are good for teachers' communication '20 Twitter Hashtags Every Teachers Should Know About'.

Furthermore, it also provides loads of on-line learning resources for learners. For example, go to

http://www.scoop.it/t/learning-english-as-a-foreign-language

It gives you learning websites like elllo (English Listening Online) or learning tips like the ten best vocabulary learning tips.  

Actually, this tool is a nice application of connectivism raised by Siemens (2004). This theory states that learners keep current in their specific area, relying on connected others. This requires the skill of self-organization which is a micro-process in institutional environments. In our knowledge economy, the capacity to form connection is of vital importance. Scoop.it just is positioned as a 'mediator' to scaffold students to develop this skill, starting from raising a topic, to grab related information into a single page from massive online resources. 

3) How might you use it to foster language learning in class/outside class?

For me, I will use scoop.it as a language teaching resource, which is next to the concept of portfolio. I do not google my topic just a day before my class but prepare for the potential usage on  daily basis. If I find any interesting topics that will motivate my students, I will then present it out and it is really depending on the actual class process. (U will never predict what your Ss ask you!)

The next usage I am not so sure. Perhaps, I would use this tool as a pre-activity. For example, at the beginning of a term, I will invite my students to create their own topic in scoop.it. Perhaps two weeks later, I ask the whole class to vote for the best scoopt.it topic. The standard lies on the topic itself and the gathering info. The successful Ss can be my teaching assistant for the purpose of teaching a lesson around that elect topic. What about those who do not succeed?  If they like, They could give presentations on their topics based on the gathering info, in order to persuade their classmates to voting for them as the next teaching assistant. They could choose to present their topics via podcast, mailVU or youtube. The final decision is made by their classmates. In this sense, scoop.it is regarded as a research database.


4) What limitations can you see with the use of this technology?

Something that worries me in terms of this tool is whether Ss will change its advantage into disadvantage. It means whether scoop.it contributes to knowledge filtering or just another composition of the crowd itself. Users should pay attention to select what to follow in case of getting missing among the self-contributed information flood.


References

Siemens, G. 2004. 'Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.' Retrieved from http://www.ingedewaard.net/papers/connectivism/2005_siemens_ALearningTheoryForTheDigitalAge.pdf. 

Vaill, P. B. 1996. Learning as a Way of Being. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Blass Inc 


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