Bookr

Tonight I created this great little book about plants in just a few minutes using Bookr, a website that allows you to create books using beautiful flickr photos and your own added text.

In another class I'm in right now, we're designing a unit plan for teaching content ESL through science units, and I thought that Bookr would be a great opportunity to create a resource that drew upon that unit.  We've been discussing how valuable second language learning through content areas can be: students learn academic vocabulary and registers in a context-embedded setting while reinforcing content learned in other classes.

Photography is one of the most compelling mediums for displaying the beauty of the natural world, and Flickr provides us with essentially limitless quantities of just that.  With Bookr, I could have students looking at incredibly colorful, beautiful photos that can help them appreciate the significance of what they're learning.  That's why I chose to add some text about humans' responsibility to take care of and protect plant life; students can connect these photos with the idea and draw some meaning from it.

A more ambitious application of this program would be its use in a science project.  We could have, say, a 'class plant' that we shoot photos of in its different stages of life, and create a Bookr to catalogue the life cycle of a plant.  I could have students shoot photos of the various steps of a science experiment, and make a Bookr that has each step of the experiment listed under each photo.  Students could then share their experiments with the class.

Networking as Teacher Education

I can't express it more: teacher collaboration is an absolute must in education in general, and in the ESL world especially.  It's a field that's constantly adapting because of changes in population, politics, philosophy, and science.  It's also an area where ethics, cultural sensitivity, and larger systems of oppression play a large role.  Without a place to discuss and cope with these rapid changes and myriad challenges, EFL/bilingual teachers can't improve. It's curious, too: we spend so much time studying the value of collaboration and feedback for our students, yet forget sometimes to practice it ourselves.  Why?  Maybe we don't want to bug our coworkers while they're eating lunch.  Maybe we get tired of hearing ourselves talk all day as it is.  Maybe we're afraid of making someone angry, or being rejected.

The ESL Classroom 2.0 group is a great place to engage in collaboration without being hindered by these common social factors.  It's a great resource for me to find materials I can use in my classroom, too: games, reading materials, smartboard exercises.  Beyond that, it gives me some flexibility in seeking out others' opinions and advice:  I can read blogs that discuss important classroom issues, comment on those, or even start my own discussion in the Forums section.  Essentially, I can be as active or passive as I like, and still get great tips, points for reflection, and diverse opinions on teaching emergent bilingual students.

Video Reaction Post

Though it might be a little bit corny, this video makes an important point: many teachers don't know how to use technology to engage their students.

I'll admit, the admonitions put forth this video are no surprise to me.  One reason our schools are failing our students is that they do not provide them with enough resources for organization, showcasing their work, or critical reflection; technology provides a number of resources that, when applied correctly, can facilitate those important elements of an enriching education.  What was most interesting was the highest rated comments some other users have posted.  I'd like to respond to those, in addition to this video.

• This concerned parent has a great point:  Technology can often seem isolating.  As a user of Facebook, I often notice the superficiality of conversation and social pressures online communities can cause.  There's a body of literature supporting this point, most notably MIT professor Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together.  There's certainly no question about the value of human interaction between students, their parents, their teachers, and their peers.  
• However, I don't believe this video is suggesting that technology should be used as a replacement for anything, but rather as an additional resource.  We should not forget that there are students whose parents do not have the ability or time to spend with them reviewing homework assignments or important concepts.  Many students are unable to spend additional time at school with their teachers because they need to be at home, working, helping out around the house, or taking care of other family members.  Technology gives students a way to connect to and reflect on academic material outside of the classroom, and it is a teacher's responsibility to give his/her student as many ways to connect with the class material as possible. This, of course, includes blogs, videos, podcasts, and other sources that provide an interactive, engaging experience beyond their textbook.
  

• This comment's author seems to be suggesting two things: 1. Students and teachers need to be reminded that their gifts arise from themselves, not technology, and 2. The experience of using a computer is somehow less 'organic' than taking the time to use pencil and paper.  
• I'd like to address the second point first.  This video points out that the use of technology is a skill that is extremely 'natural' for our nation's youth.  For myself and other students in the twenty-first century, typing something is less time-consuming and easier than writing with a pencil.  It's a tall order to suggest that using typing as a method of thought-to-word-making does not allow room for "deep personal reflection." One of the students in the video asserts: "I blog," referencing a tool used for deep reflection.  Furthermore, typing allows me to edit my text as I write.  On a piece of paper, I'm much less likely to consider re-wording or re-ordering my sentences because of the format's physical limitations.  By typing I can carefully construct my thoughts on 'the page' (web-based or otherwise), and I have more room to do so.  I stop writing when I feel it is useful to stop, not when I reach the bottom of the page.  Also, let's not forget that the pencil-and-paper method was, at one time, created as a technologically advanced, more efficient, edit-friendly tool for writing.  Do inkwell pens on parchment leave more room for personal reflection than pencil and paper?  Both methods allow room for physical interaction with text and for deep reflection. The purpose of the video, it seems to me, is to emphasize that few have 'forgotten' the utility of pencil and paper, but many have disregarded the utility of computers.
• To address the author's first concern, I think the video makes it clear that technology is nothing without human creation, and therefore is a lovely way to emphasize human achievement along with technological achievement (which is simply another form of human achievement in engineering and design).  I'd argue that while it's physically powered by electricity, content on the web celebrates humanity and human's ability to create incredible works of literature, digital art, and critical thought.  I find that a common misconception about technology is that it accomplishes something for you instead of you accomplishing something with it.  As described in the video, students want to use technology to create their own great works.