This is an essay I wrote for my MA TESOL module on Issues in EAP. Unfortunately, it did not score well. It did not meet the requirement of the University (Nottingham) of links the theory to practice. I wonder … Continue reading →

ASIA CALL 2014, Taiwan Perhaps the most significant moment that occurred was the disappointment from a presenter, who at the beginning of a talk on digital literacies realised that the audience was not at all familiar with dialogic meaning construction. I was one of the audience who didn’t know Bakhtin. Up to this point, I […]

4. Activity loops Engagement loops Based around the principle of teacher feedback that indicates learning had taken place. This can simply be 1. additional moments of encouragement presented to the student as they study – ‘ticks’, ‘thumbs up’ etc. 2. reminding students how they compare with class average (no explicit leaderboards) 3. boss fights – […]

The following is a first draft attempt to formulate a gamification of the IELTS preparation site www.ekaola.com 1. Defining business objectives Repeat sales – persuading a new school to use the service relies on generating trust of quality and through finding ways to illustrate expertise related to IELTS teaching and grading. Once this has been […]

I have started a course on Gamification on Coursera to be able to put myself in a position to implement it on Ekaola (IELTS preparation website). Trying the ‘Signature Track’ this time around – I think it will certainly motivate me to finish the course knowing I have paid for it. Interesting how that works, […]

Had some more time this week to return to online courses, one work related on Child Protection (engaging, scenario based format, relating to key themes, with links and statistics) and 2 on coursera: Creativity, Innovation and Change, and Accountable talk. I want to try and link the ideas around types of creativity to knowledge framework […]

 San Jose professors complain about the influence of MOOCs – ‘social injustice’! http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Professors-at-San-Jose/138941/?cid=wc&&goback=.gde_84637_member_238062740 Mmmn, my views on this one… First of all, I can say that it’s possible to learn and be engaged by MOOCs. I’ve done a couple of the more radical MOOCs that attempt connectivist style of learning which I found was really […]

My submission of digitial artefact for the EDCMOOC is: http://padlet.com/wall/thesocialhuman   The robot introduces a world where human interaction in person essentially no longer exists as it is no longer necessary. People are constantly connected to each other, the internet has become a connection of minds and we are all simultaneously collectively intelligent. This vision […]

This is an article from China Daily which as I see it, is used to present the China perspective to foreigners as a balance to the western media. In this article a Chinese professor criticises  a Human Rights Watch report about surveillance of internet use by the government. In it, he outlines what I think […]

A Language Learning MOOC – Thoughts & Vision « A Point of Contact. Exploring how to use connectivist mooc style learning for language learners. I think the prospect of hastagging homework published online in the form of a digital story/learning artefact could bring learners studying from the same classroom material together to connect and interact […]

So, my digital story (click here) is an attempt to capture different moments of Spring festival eve a couple of days ago. I’ve tried to use video, text only and an image with context/commentary. Comments are possible in voicethread for audio/video or just by writing on the wall (or here on the blog in text […]

I’m only skimming the surface of this course and mostly posting reflections behind schedule. I feel it’s more formal than the ETMOOC but probably more conducive to indepth discussion. However, less accommodating for me as I’ve only got a moment or 2 here and there to read something (when kids are asleep and no spring […]

VoiceThread – Conversations in the cloud. Found in #EDCMOOC – this could be a great tool for asychronous storytelling, personalising, communicating etc

I followed a couple of links and found this overview of storytelling in the digital age. I think it offers a interesting dissection of the affordances of storytelling in a digital environment. Here’s my summary and thoughts on the 5 elements. 1. Media Digital storytelling offers the chance to mix-up the different media. It also […]

Just to get started – a quick thought on technological determinism. (Videos painfully slow to load on VPN from China, but read someonelse’s review, not entered discussions yet and skimmed through a bit of the core reading.) I found the concept of technological autonomy interesting, thinking of Terminator, is technological takeover inevitable once the machines ...

Getting involved in the Educational Tech MOOC. Looks great, love to really get stuck into this – gonna be a test to see if I can make time for it. Love this style of learning. I’m into creating online language learning experiences.