Saturday, November 14, 2009

Emma HeinlenTechnological Tools for Assisting Students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) and for each Too, Noting Strategies for Teaching ELLs.

http://iteslj.org/Articles/Ybarra-Technology.html

A computer can increase the use of verbal speaking to learn another language. Computer books are interactive stores that are on a computer screen and often have real voices that read aloud and different effects. A study showed that the verbal interaction can be facilitated by computers. Vocabulary development can be influenced by including pictures and definition and often the ability to recall the vocabulary is more long-term. Also programs can be used to create memory books that allow students to be creative and use sounds and video to create a project with which they can show their parents. Students also could use e-mail to send emails to other students or teacher in another language and use an internet dictionary to help create a response. There are many different types of tools found on the internet or that can be bought, such as different software, which assist students learning another language.

English Learning Students

Being a student who is an English Language Learner can be a very difficult thing to be. Imagine if you went to a Spanish speaking country and were forced to automatically be thrown into their world and just expected to be able to function normally in the completely new environment. This could be very a very uncomfortable situation for anybody to deal with. Teaching these students could also be a challenge, but it can be done. The author of “Innovative Ways to Assist English Language Learners” says that a “student’s listening level is higher than their reading level”. This can be helped by finding a website that can read passages to the students. This way they’re reading it, but they have that extra help hearing it out loud. This helps the students comprehend a lot easier. Another simple one to use is just an online translator. This is something easy to do, and can help not only an English learning student, but any type of student learning any other language.

There are also videos that you can access to not only have the students hear what they’re learning, but you can show them new and interesting ways to learn things. Learning a new language isn’t just involved with classes, tests, and quizzes. It involves participating in real one on one activities. It’s not something that you can just take a break from once you’re done with the classes if you actually want to take part in “living with the language”. It’s something you must commit to and be dedicated for. You can help these students by making sure they’re up to date on their knowledge of the internet and computers. They cant use any of the advices without them. Hopefully with the help of you and the dedication of the student you can have them become a full fledged English speaking student.


Resources
"Innovative Ways to Assist English Language Learners." ConnectED. 06/10/2009. Web. 11 Nov 2009. http://connected.waldenu.edu/index.php/blogs/34-educations-cutting-edge/449-innovative-free-ways-to-assist-english-language-learners.html

Friday, November 13, 2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Amanda Lange: Technological Tools for Assisting Students who are English Language Learners and for each Tool, Noting Strategies for Teaching ELLs

"Supporting English Language Learners with Technology"
By Juliette Heinze | November/December 2004

This article addresses how many teachers with English language learners may speak the language of the English language learners, but has never had the proper training to support these students and give them the vocabulary that they need. It explains how to compensate for this there are many technologies available that can help increase and English language learner’s vocabulary. This article divides the technologies into three general categories, which are image galleries, multilingual books, and multimedia projects. After each category it gives a description of how these categories help assist students along with some examples which fit into the categories.
The image gallery category explains how images provide “contextual clues” to help English language learners determine meaning. An example of an available tool accessible for almost all teachers is a “google image search.” Teachers can pull up images for English language learners to see and use to help determine meanings, and these images can be easily printed in minimal time. The category of multilingual books includes audio books created by children who speak the different language and can be accessed online by English language learners through programs such as “duel language showcase.” In he multimedia project category, the article explains how in upper level grades there is a higher demand of more advanced vocabulary and English language learners may have huge difficulty as a result. Multimedia projects however allow students to see, hear, and experience information through different types of media such as videos, pictures, and sounds that can help English language learners depict meanings of certain vocabulary terms or concepts that they may not have been able to grasp if just reading text.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=10516

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Amanda Lange's Podcast

Gabcast! EME 2040 #1 - Amanda Lange's Podcast

Websites addressing technology tools for assisting students with special and/or diverse needs and noting the specific learning outcomes for each technology.

Amanda Lange:TechnologicalTools for Assisting Students with Special and/or diverse needs

Technological Tools for Assisting Students with Special and/or Diverse Needs and Noting the Specific Learning Outcomes for each Technology:

The article “Special Technological possibilities for Students with Special Needs” is a very informative and helpful article. It discusses multiple different technologies available for students with various special needs. It discusses how assistive technology devices can take many different forms depending on the special needs. Some of these needs include technologies required to assist in different language and vision-related problems, and can assist with speech output, word predictions, and speech recognition. “Talking software” in which there are verbal directions or verbal reinforcement like “good job” and “correct” as well as verbal outputs that can guide students verbally through software and learning are great successes for students with visual problems. There are also many online books in which the books are read out loud and in crisp and clean voices at a slow pace that also act as verbal aids to those with visual problems. There are also programs that read sentences back to students after they create them as well as whole paragraphs so people who are blind can type their work and hear and understand their writing as a whole.
This article also touches base with programs that hare available to students with language deficits, such as “Co:Writer” and “textHELP!” These programs predict the words a user types and brings up a list of words they might use in the context of their sentence, and they can scroll through the different words and choose which they need. However, there are some criticisms of this program that the article addresses. This includes teachers believing it may slow some students down because after each keystroke they now have a new list of words to select from and it takes a considerable amount of time to review each new set of choices. Teachers argue that the time required to look at all the different words may “take away from the creative element of writing,” and that it may in fact be more work for the student. This article is a great resource that exemplifies different technologies available for students with special needs and describes and explains their usefulness as well.

http://people.virginia.edu/~har4y/edlf345/elementary/files/special_needs.pdf

Emma Heinlen Podcast

Gabcast! EME 2040 #1 - Emma Heinlen's Podcast

This podcast reviews two articles about Technological Tools for Assisting Students with Special and/or Diverse Needs and Noting the Specific Learning Outcomes for each Technology.

Emma HeinlenTechnological Tools for Assisting Students with Special and/or Diverse Needs and Noting the Specific Learning Outcomes for each Technology

http://www.tltgroup.org/SEVEN/7_Diverse_Learning.htm

This website reviews how to use technology to help teach different students with diverse needs. First it discusses the use of choice for the students. The students can choose something that they may be more interested in for the creation of a webquest. “In short, the assignments encourage students to make sense of the past through the lens of their own life experiences”. Also it is possible to utilize Gardner’s multiple intelligences by offering choices of assignments based off of those intelligences. However, choosing 4 of the 8 assignments allows for a challenge. There are further examples about physical disabilities. Computers or voice-recognition software allow students with physical disabilities to complete assignments efficiently. This also can be used outside of the classroom during tests so as not to embarrass the student who is dealing with the disability.

The article seems to be somewhat useful and has examples of ways to include different objectives with different styles of learning. However, it would be interesting to know more about the diversity of the techniques for more mental disabilities. It covers important topics such as assignments that give students a choice, disabilities, providing a variety of materials, and helping students learn from their differences. It would be important for a teacher to be aware of what the article discusses, however the teacher would probably need supplemental information.