Instructional Technologies

 In this week's lesson, we talked about MALL , an abbreviation for  Mobile-assisted Language Learning . The meaning of this phrase is receiving education from small mobile devices/smartphones.  This way of learning has many redeeming features and positive gainings. The conveniences are, according to Agnes Kukulska-Humme and Olga Viberg (2018) , being accessible anywhere and anytime, personalization, active participation, peer-coaching, etc. It also helps with motivation and enjoyment as well as the reduction of anxiety during language classes.  However, this learning form has negative aspects too. Students are more likely to get distracted by their phones, have safety concerns, or face technical issues; therefore, decreasing the chances of receiving high-quality lessons. Then we mentioned applications/websites to use in order to help the learner improve in speaking skills. Some of which are Duolingo, Voicethread, Twitter, video editing apps, WhatsApp , etc. Using th...

We started our lesson by recalling what we did in previous weeks; technologies to use while practicing reading (e.g. Storyweaver, CommonLit ), writing (e.g. Padlet, OneNote ), vocabulary (e.g. Kahoot, Quizziz ), etc. Then went on with this week's topic: Oral Communication Skills and How to Develop them with Technology During our lesson, we observed many websites. Some of which are below; - Google Podcasts: The website where you can try Google's feature with thousands of podcasts - Castos: A website to produce your own podcast or listen to one - Voki: A website where the narrator can form a character and make it talk - Powtoon: Website to generate animations - Vyond: Website to make animation videos - EdPuzzle: Website to prepare interactive videos - YouGlish: Website that shows the word used in context (in videos) - VoScreen: Website to study language by doing activities from movie/series scenes. Example of an exercise is down below [Picture 5] - Elllo: Website that give...

During our lesson, we examined a few tables (e.g Global Digital Usage, Most Used Digital Platforms, etc.) and came to the conclusion that the number of people between the age of 16 to 64 using mobile phones, the internet, and social media has risen since last year. To quote Mr. Karacan "Every 8.5 out of 10 individuals use internet connection.", which means that people can connect with each other through the web and we, teachers, should use this opportunity in our favor. Later on, we discussed the short teaching videos on the internet. Ayşe Sude mentioned a guy on TikTok teaching English and we exchanged views on whether this is effective or not. We also mentioned the applications used to practice languages such as Discord, Duolingo, Tandem, HelloTalk, Cambly, etc.  Then we analyzed the most visited websites in Turkey like Google, EBA, Translate, etc. meaning that there are millions of students in our country using the internet for education and language purposes. We continued...