Finalized Rationale for Video Logs

Casey Eleson

Toso Foifua

Jonathan Sevkov

Dr. Dongping Zheng

SLS 418

Final Project Rationale

12/2/2010

            As an exercise in students learning English as a second language and using video blogging as an exercise in becoming aware and adept of the new literacy of keeping and maintaining a blog, we will present the following classroom project.

            The main target audience for our project will most ideally be intermediate range learners, who are meanly in the 200 level English course.  Our main goal in this, in the language acquisitional sense is to offer the students an opportunity to bridge the gap between beginner level learning, in which the student is most likely not fully ready to express his or herself comfortably, and more advanced level learning, where which the student will be required more to communicate their own ideas accurately in the second language, and thus will see a more concrete language identity begin to emerge.

            The project also gives the students the opportunity to develop a skill in new literacies in an educational context, readying the student to become explore and become comfortable with creating and maintaining an online blog, or specifically a video blog or vlog.

           

The guidelines follow as such:

            The student will be asked to create a video blog in which he or she will record their own ideas on video and post it to their blog at different increments during the semester.

            The first entry will be solidly scaffolded, with the student being given prompts in the second language with which they are somwhat familiar, i.e., "What is your name?" "Where are you from?" "What do you like to do?" "What is your major?" etc.

            The subsequent entries will become gradually more open to the student's interpretation, thus forcing the student to think more subjectively and critically in the second language.  i.e., "Why are you studying English?" "What do you want to do in the future?"  "Explain your interests."

            The latter prompts will be newer grounds for the student, having to answer some questions which they were not taught to answer, thus they would ideally be learning something now that useful to them and at their own pace and level of need.

            This could be done simply as a regular blog, but we feel that a video blog holds distinct advantages for the goals we wish to reach.  First, video is a live representation, and the student can reflect on the images and sounds of themselves acting in the second language, which increases the students' self awareness in the language, highlighting possible common mistakes and allowing the student to become aware of how they present themselves in the second language.

            Secondly, video, in contrast to audio or writing, puts the student in a little but of pressure to perform, which is a benefit for developing confidence in the second language and motivation to do well.  This may also be achieved in other formats, however, the student may simply be able to read from a prompt or guide themselves too much along the process and miss the opportunity for in-motion practice and confidence building.

            Finally, video blogs, or vlogs, are becoming a common part of the new internet media today.  Websites such as youtube serve as a large forum for a variety of topics for many people today, and it would be beneficial to the student if they are given awareness and practice in becoming literate in this new field, allowing them to become an active part of online communities and discussions in the second language community, from wherever on the globe they may be.

Comments on presentation:

The main question from our discussion on that day is "Why" video as opposed to other literacies involving technology?  A video blog is a live presentation and account of the students language use.  It can perform two functions: 1. allow the students to physically see what mistakes they are committing with the language and correct them; 2. a live video recording does not prompt for script preparations; the actions are more authentic so to speak such that the students have to improvise language use for the most part.  

Video log vs. audio blog?

Video blogs are rarely scripted; scripts are used as a reference, but in order for the script to be lifelike, the student has to make it sound like their own.  Thus, there is a tendency to incorporate other aspects such as shaping of sounds, production of sounds and so on.  For audio blogs, the circumstance can be similar.  However, our main argument is that the script can be well thought out, edited and then "simply read".  

Rationale for VLOG

Although I wasn't in class for the discussion, I kind of have an idea of my group's project - VLOG's or video logs.  From my understanding, students are to create vlog's three (3) times - beginning of class, midway through class, and at the end.  Students are to document their speech progress via video, so that students can visually see themselves progressing in the language being taught/learned.  Students are to record speech talking about their interests/hobbies amongst other topics in which the student is assigned by instructor;  minimum three (3) minutes for the first video, and then five (5) or more in the ones that follow.
The rationale behind is bluntly put, to prevent cheating.  With vlog's, students are conditioned to perform as if the camera were another person, and they were engaging in conversation.  With audio podcast's, students have the opportunity to "just read" from a script.  However vlog's, although open to editing, put students on the spot.  They can learn more by also observing physical gestures/movements of the speaker.

Online Gaming and Learning

Games have an unexplainable influence on people (words cannot begin to describe the feeling).  Just the other day on the radio, there was news of a man suing a state (mainland), rather a gaming company, due to his inability to think for himself/care for himself as a direct result of addiction to the game.  In reference to the influence of the game, we can see from this example that games do have an effect on a person's cognitive ability.  Man is left with the opportunity of choice, yet by choice, the plaintiff chose not to pause the game or ultimately end the session to fend for himself.  Games are tools introduced into this world as a means for entertainment.  To our advantage as instructors, they have been incorporated into the learning process for the youth/generations of today.  We are moving towards the age of technology and it has become essential to educate ourselves in the language of technology & function, or be left out (simply put).  Anyone not moving along with the times, will "suffer" the consequences.  However, this is only true to some extent.

Games such as Quest Atlantis and Second life (virtual reality), allow us to further our engagement in out of classroom studies.  How has it enhanced a person's learning experience?  Well, for second life, people have created worlds, such as University of Hawaii, and have set it up so that students go on quests/missions to accomplish a task, with mind of learning a language.  The setup is not limited to just language learning, but can be  altered to the needs of the instructor and the class they are teaching.  For the purpose of this blog, it is language learning.  This allows a new face for the presentation of classroom instruction.  We are enabled to step out of the realms of powerpoint with pictures (still photos) and text, but to experience and receive instruction as if it were all around us in 3D - it would literally jump at you.  What it does for the students, I think, is arouse their interest in something new and innovative - never done/experienced before.  The user has the freedom to jump from island to island or world to world, experiencing the different set of instructions programmed into the game.  This exposes students to the different methods of receiving instructions, and by luck, might find a teaching approach/setup more catered to their preferences and interest.  Now with every great thing, also comes disadvantages.  And for online games, I think the disadvantage comes with the clarity of instructions.  With the teacher present (physically), students are able to ask questions to further their understanding of the subject matter or task at hand.  However with online help, the students are rather limited.  Availability of instructor is an issue being that he/she will stay logged on 24/7 to help students.

Blogging

Blogging and the learning experience?  A very unique step towards innovative approaches for language teaching in the classroom.  What does blogging offer that original/traditional classroom instructions do not already?  First off, the internet!  The internet enables students to expand their learning environment beyond the classroom walls.  Students are not limited to just the teacher & textbook knowledge as a source of input.  However, with exposure to other speakers of the language, native/non-native alike, through interaction on the world wide web, the students are at an advantage.  The level of proficiency/fluency/and to what a degree of native like speech an online user has, is irrelevant to a point such the students are only looking to interact and practice their audio/lingual skills on line.  At a deeper level it will matter if we seek to describe the language and effectiveness of its use, however, for practical purposes, if will suffice to just have students interact and explore.
Blogging will give students an opportunity to express themselves freely.  Sometimes students are intimidated if one of their peers answer more than average in class.  From that, they resort to silence fearing that if they ask a question, their peers might regard them of being redundant ("he just said that") or they fear making a mistake.  With blogging, everyone gets a chance to share.  I've read some of the student blogs in our classroom website, and some of the thoughts expressed are best brought up in class to fuel classroom discussion, but nonetheless, the thoughts have been shared.
Technology is taking its toll and place in society as the proprietor of new and innovative teaching.  Therefore, I strongly feel that it our duty as future SLS instructors to embrace it, understand it and share it with the world.  We must not fall stagnant to the limitations produced by budget cuts, lack of materials etc.  We must do our best to make do with what we have, and create our own means of technology to accomplish our goal.  Technology is created and we give life to it.  It is a tool to be used.  And like the words of construction and engineering, a tool is only as effective as the user.  You and I.

Project based Learning

We discussed in class how project based learning has an open ended approach such that the outcomes are rarely specified.  Such that, the end result or learning outcomes are rarely predetermined, but to left to subjectivity of the students.  The approach is analogous to the idea that students learn through the experience by doing, rather than being told to do.  In other words, the focus is not the end result, but the means of attaining such results.  In comparison, we talked about task based learning, where the focus is on the task(s) assigned to the students.  In task based learning, the outcomes are more specific, thus the activity is designed specifically to produce that outcome.   This is more of a closed ended approach where the results are definite.
It is my belief that task based learning is a good means of guiding students towards the accomplishment/achievement of short term goals.  Whereas in project based learning, you broaden a students goals/intentions.  Sometimes, the best things we learn in school, let alone life itself are the ones we never pay mind to, but we have a sense of realizing it afterwards.  The unknown becomes known through practice and without notice.  Although guided practice should be strongly encouraged, it is also good to have students exercise their independence and autonomy, to seek out the mysteries of learning.

Language Affordances/ Video Reflection

On Tuesday, I got to showcase my video for project 10-10-10.  Afterward, I began a class discussion to do two things.  One, to critique my video and two, to inquire the class' thoughts and opinions of what they thought the message was.  The discussion got more and more in depth about culture, language, identity and brought about many interesting thoughts.  For example, diversification.  Why is it that if a person is Filipino, Hawaiian, Local, etc.  they are considered diverse, but if I'm French, German, and Irish (ethnicity - race), it's not considered diverse?  
Jill talked about emergence and language affordances.  Emergence is the process in which something is known or becomes known; she used the example of students in the class reacting all surprise after realizing and identifying the different images (convoluted/mixed) she (Jill) had showcased beforehand.  It was really interesting to physically see how the theory was simplified into a simple reaction. 
Hand gestures or physical gestures I should say, also play a role in language comprehension and communication. Jill told Greg, in class, to have a seat in Tahitian.  Before that, Jill had taught the class how to ask how are you in Tahitian - both casual and formal way.
Formal: E aha te huru?                                          Casual: Maita'i 'oe?
Greg, have a seat - in Tahitian.  Yet from the first exercise, Greg kept trying to repeat what Jill was saying in Tahitian.  Three or four times Greg did the same, until finally Jill used her hands to point Greg to the seat, did he finally realize what was requested of him to do.  It was fun and an interesting sight to see. 

10 10 10 project video

Sorry it took a while folks.  I had to find the right software to convert the media file.  Hope you enjoy it...