Distance
Education
Wow
I cannot believe we are already in week 6.
This has been quit a learning experience for me. So much information has been given in such a
little amount of time. At times it has
been over whelming.
For
this weeks’ blog discussion we had to research open and distance education and
choose two technologies that could enhance adult education and incorporate into
our teaching.
Distance
learning technology
Animated
pedagogical agents (APAs) – APA is a software agent that guides user through
virtual (computer-based) environments.
They are commonly presented as an image and voice. The animated
figures operate in a learning environment which aims to support learners in
their learning process and path. These
images come in many different guises, including humans, animals and animated
object. It also helps with problem-solving and critical thinking as well as
being a great motivational tool. With
this tool students want to learn because it is fun.
APAs
have many pros and cons. Anxiety can be decreased as well as enhancing students
to key elements. According to Lin &
Tseng, (2012) the animations play important role in the field of educations and
different subjects can be learned by using this tool, it is especially good for
language learning.
Years
ago when learning English as a second language students depended heavily on
printed text and audio materials such as cassette tapes, audio CDs and radio
broadcast (Xiao & Jones, 1995). The animated characters help students with
their pronunciations of new words.
Because learning English was growing different approaches were used such
as Assisted-Language-Learning (CALL) - and Mobile-Assisted-language-Learning
(MALL). Both are very important as
virtual aids teaching student pronunciation, vocabulary, articulations and so
forth. The animated talking head
animation help with saying words and telling stories to students. (Wik &
Hjalmarsso, 2009).
As
a future educator I could incorporate Voki (www.voki.com). Voki allows
students to create their own personal avatars and it is also free. They are great
in practicing speaking, writing and reading skills with students of all
ages. Creating an animated character and
giving it a voice can be fun to do and helps in breaking down the inhibition
that many students face with recording themselves speaking in English. Students will be ask to create virtual
presentation using Voki speaking avatars on what they have learned thus far in
the course. Depending how long the course is on could incorporate 2 of them,
one half way thru the course and one ant the end of the course. Students have fun creating them as well as
the peers have fun listening to them.
Voki allows students to demonstrate their learning and test their
stylistic devices, it reinforces classroom instructions, and it’s fun.
Open Education
Below
are two resources I am across in my research this week and feel could be incorporated
into my teaching. Like all each have its
pros and cons, but with proper planning and organizing each could be used.
OpenLearn (www.open.edu/openlearn/)
OpenLearn allows student to have free access to over
8,000 hours of materials to use for their studying as well as getting expert
opinions on various topics available thru English Open University courses.
Languagebox
– a tool used for organizing, managing, storing, and publishing ones’ own
teaching work (resources) on the web.
It is great for sharing activities, exercises, handout, podcast, videos,
etc. One can store anything you could ever imagined. It is fairly , signup is free and one will be
able to take advantages of its resources.
References
Lin,
C. & Tseng, Y. (2012). Videos and animations for vocabulary learning. A study on difficult words. Turkish Online Journal of Educational
Technology, 11(4), 346-355.
Wik,
P. & Hjalmarsson, A. (2009). Embodied conversational agents in computer
assisted language learning. Speech
Communication, 51 (10), 1024-1037.
Xizo,
X. & Jones M.G. (1995). Computer animation for EFL learning
environments. Paper presented at the
Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association, , Chicago,
IL
Gracesinda,
ReplyDeleteI find it amazing to research and read about all the tools that accompany Open and Distance Education. The technology of today is helping students with all kinds of learning styles and preferences from around the world to tap into their resources to grab ahold of education. One of the technologies you described that is contributing to distance education is Animated Pedagogical Agents or APAs. Research states, “Animated pedagogical agents offer great promise for knowledge-based learning environments. In addition to coupling feedback capabilities with a strong visual presence these agents play a critical role in motivating students” (Lester & Stone, n.d). As a future educator I am in favor of technology that enhances any aspect of learners’ knowledge and allows them to engage with other students while having fun. You also gave information about the Open Education and the tools that are connected to it. The Open Learn website is a great resource for students to get the materials they need to succeed. And having free access to a website that offers a vast number of courses shows the importance of obtaining information to share and engage with other global learners.
Robin
Reference:
Lester, J.C., & Stone, B.A. (n.d). Increasing Believability in Animated Pedagogical Agents. Retrieved by http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.83.5753&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Robin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading my blog!! I love your statement – ‘The technology of today is helping students with all kinds of learning styles and preferences from around the world to tap into their resources to grab ahold of education.’ This is so true. Technology is doing wonders for all of us. If we did not have technology I would have never meet you or my other colleagues. Meeting so many people and learning from each and every one has been a great assets for me and I will cherish every moment I had talking with all of you via internet.
Per research animated pedagogical agents do motivate, and especially in students learning a second language it leaves them with a meaningful experience. Students' understanding of the language are also influenced by speaker's face and accompanying gestures, in addition to the actual sound of the speech (Massaro et al., 2006). Besides observing the animated characters, they are enhancing their listening skills and learning the importance of it when learning another language, it helps the learner to overcome some barriers.
Technology is great!! We just need to realize that there are other things that benefit out learning as well.
Reference
Massaro, D. W., Liu, Y., Chen, T.H. & Perfetti, C. (2006). A multilingual embodied conversational agent for tutoring speech and language learning. Proceedings of INTERSPEECH 2006-ICSLP (pp. 825-28). Retrieved from htt://www.learnlab.org/uploads/mypslc/pub;ications/massaro-multilingualembodied.pdf
I completed my blog on the use of open education. You had a very nice resource about open resources. It is like a whole new world was opened up for me to learn more. I think a great resource you will find enjoy able is Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost. Unlike fixed, copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. In some cases, that means you can download a resource and share it with colleagues and students. In other cases, you may be able to download a resource, edit it in some way, and then re-post it as a remixed work. How do you know your options? OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license to let you know how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
ReplyDeleteWe can as educators open students up to the joys of learning something new and exciting. In addition, this can be a great tool for collaborative education.
https://www.oercommons.org/about