Online Social Media Applications for Language Teaching and Learning

Being generation in high technology era, people need to be more creative and innovative. As teachers for example, we need to think creatively to crate our teaching and learning process. In this moment, there are so many ways to do teaching and learning process using new high technology. As an example is doing teaching and learning process by using online social media application. As language teachers, we can utilize a kind of online social media applications to be implicated in our teaching. Social media is interactive form of media that allow the users to interact with each other’s. 

There are so many applications support in teaching and learning language process.

Edublogs (https://edublogs.org/). An Edublogs is a blog created for educational purposes. Edublog archive and support student and teacher learning by facilitating reflection, questioning by self and others, collaboration and by providing contexts for engaging in higher-order thinking.

Edmodo (https://www.edmodo.com/). Edmodo is a global education network that helps connect all learners with the people and resources needed to reach their full potential. The Edmodo network enables teachers to share content, distribute quizzes, assignments, and manage communication with student, colleagues, and parents.

Moodle (https://www.moodle.org/). Moodle is a learning platform designed. Moodle is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other e-learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces and other sectors.

Google Forms (https://www.google.com/forms/about/). Google Apps on line services provide productivity and collaboration tools accessible from any Internet connection. It’s a great way to receive feedback from the whole class at the end of a semester.

Animoto (https://www.animoto.com/). Animoto is a cloud-based video creation service that produces video from photos, video clips, and music into video slideshows. Animoto is based in New York City with an office in San Francisco.

Those are some online social media application that the language teachers can be used. Moreover, there are still many or other application that can be used by the teacher. For teachers who teach how to present, create, and code, the application recommended, they are TED-Ed is to park student curiosity and explore presentation literacy skills. Haikudeck is to create interesting presentation. Draw and tell is to increase creative confidence in kids of all ages. iMovie is for student video creation. Instructables is to share ideas and intructions. Hopscotch is to learn computer science fundamentals.

For everyday classroom need, there are some application recommended as follows; Evernote is a modern workspace. Explain Everything is an interactive whiteboard. Educreations is to create new videos for learning. Oxford Dictionaries is an online English dictionary. For collaborating in school project, the online application recommended are Slack, Google Apps for Education include Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs and Sites, and a GAFE account. Mindmeister is a quickly visualize and create a project outline together, and Wikispaces.

Blended Learning

New Technologies for a Language Classroom

Talking language teaching and learning in the new high technology, lead us to think about the strategies, methods, and techniques of language learning. It represents, in many cases, a fundamental change in the way teachers and students approach the learning experience. In this new technology era, there are some ways to teach or learn language. One example of education innovation is through blended learning. 

Blended Learning is a formal education program in which students learn through online learning with students control over time, place, path, or pace, at least in part, at the a brick-and-mortar facility. Blended learning refers to a term used to describe the way e-learning is being combined with traditional classroom methods and independent study to create a new, hybrid teaching methodology. Blended learning can be grouped into six models that vary by teacher roles, physical space, delivery methods, and scheduling. Those six models are face-to-face driver that is the teacher employs online learning technology in lab, rotation is students rotate on a fixed schedule, flex is teachers provide on-site, online lab is an online platform delivers the entire course, self-blend is students choose to take remote online courses, and the last is online driver that is an online platform and teacher delivers all the curriculum. The adoption of blended learning models can be enhanced with more development of the following; integrated system, high-quality dynamic content, analytic, automation, and applications that enhance student’s motivation. A course created in a blended learning model uses the classroom time for activities that benefit the most from direct interaction. There is a general consensus among education innovators that blended learning has three primary components: In-person classroom activities facilitated by a trained educator. Online learning materials include pre-recorded lectures given by that same instructor. The last is structured independent study time guided by the material in the lectures and skills developed during the classroom experience. 

The result of learning process of blended learning can be seen from two perspectives. The first perspective is from students. By doing blended learning process the students can easily get a feedback from online learning rather than from pencil paper learning, the students can control how fast they do the lesson, and although they learn in a big group or large number of students, they feel it is a small group because the experience they have with the teacher is in a small group. The second perspective is from teacher. By doing blended learning process, the teacher can easier to give the instruction for the students group and the teacher are surprised by how much idea in a classroom which students get from computer online. That is what I can explain all about blended learning. 

Global Education Network

In the globalization era, our world is becoming both increasingly diverse and increasingly connected, which means that all of people need new skill in order to communicate, collaborate and even work together or with others. The existence of instant communication is now a practical reality rather than just a theoretical possibility. Rapid technological improvements have created a bridge to for information access and worldwide transparent communication among the people of the world.

In this occasion, young learners or children recently will more need new skill in order to communicate and collaborate with others. They need to explore the world. Therefore, they should be recognized by technology because in this global era technology has more powerful influence many facet of life, such as economics, politics, culture, education, and more. The students should have the opportunity to learn about technology in order to enrich the global learning experience. By recognizing the technology for young learner, they already have to create global learning experiences in their classrooms. Global learning experiences as any classroom is activities which expose young children to new ways of thinking about the world, their own and others’ cultures, world languages, and communities. In order to do this, the technology should involve to the education that later on the students can use it wisely for learning in developing country’s education system. Students in a 5th grade classroom in Ulan Bataar, Mongolia, for example, are participating in the Cyber Schools network. CyberSchools.NET is a global network that exists to fulfill the two-fold mission of strengthening school and global communities while developing real life experiences that teach children vital technological skills. With technology, we can gather around a screen in a small town and connect with others in the world. We can build a connection to develop our educational system or called Global Education Network in this global era by using technology wisely in our education.

In the 21st century, technology now allows us to view live images of events taking place virtually anywhere in the world. For example, we communicate with people in remote parts of the world and read documents without physically holding them. Other example is students sign up for online classes that are taught by educators who are nowhere near where the students live. Peer-to-Peer video conferencing also creates the opportunity for students to build an international network of friends and contacts. A contact network can help students to develop business leads, find new job opportunities, and increase their knowledge of other countries and cultures. Students who take advantage of online access tools, they can build contact networks with other students internationally. Those are the benefit if we use technology in this century in our education or even in our life. A significant benefit to instant global communications is that students can improve their language skills through student-to-student conversations regardless of where they live. 

Global Education Network

In the globalization era, our world is becoming both increasingly diverse and increasingly connected, which means that all of people need new skill in order to communicate, collaborate and even work together or with others. The existence of instant communication is now a practical reality rather than just a theoretical possibility. Rapid technological improvements have created a bridge to for information access and worldwide transparent communication among the people of the world.

 In this occasion, young learners or children recently will more need new skill in order to communicate and collaborate with others. They need to explore the world. Therefore, they should be recognized by technology because in this global era technology has more powerful influence many facet of life, such as economics, politics, culture, education, and more. The students should have the opportunity to learn about technology in order to enrich the global learning experience. By recognizing the technology for young learner, they already have to create global learning experiences in their classrooms. Global learning experiences as any classroom is activities which expose young children to new ways of thinking about the world, their own and others’ cultures, world languages, and communities. In order to do this, the technology should involve to the education that later on the students can use it wisely for learning in developing country’s education system. Students in a 5th grade classroom in Ulan Bataar, Mongolia, for example, are participating in the Cyber Schools network. CyberSchools.NET is a global network that exists to fulfill the two-fold mission of strengthening school and global communities while developing real life experiences that teach children vital technological skills. With technology, we can gather around a screen in a small town and connect with others in the world. We can build a connection to develop our educational system or called Global Education Network in this global era by using technology wisely in our education.

In the 21st century, technology now allows us to view live images of events taking place virtually anywhere in the world. For example, we communicate with people in remote parts of the world and read documents without physically holding them. Other example is students sign up for online classes that are taught by educators who are nowhere near where the students live. Peer-to-Peer video conferencing also creates the opportunity for students to build an international network of friends and contacts. A contact network can help students to develop business leads, find new job opportunities, and increase their knowledge of other countries and cultures. Students who take advantage of online access tools, they can build contact networks with other students internationally. Those are the benefit if we use technology in this century in our education or even in our life. A significant benefit to instant global communications is that students can improve their language skills through student-to-student conversations regardless of where they live.