Using Technology as a Platform for Play and Communication

Anita Alkhas, UW-Milwaukee, alkhas@uwm.edu

Draw kids out of their seats with a variety of engaging, playful activities that support communication and self-expression. Add fun tools to your toolbox, whether you are using a Smart board or just a chalkboard! Make technology work for you: each activity will be presented with a high and low tech option.

My favorite activity

or resource (low or

high tech) is _____. I’d like to do

____. Is

there a good

app for that?

When I have an idea, I tend to reach for:

My pen or My iPad/smartphone/laptop, etc

http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/LTE4MDkyODc2MDU

Poll Everywhere

Hand signs/Color-coded rulers vs Clickers/Polling

Technology?

Technology?

A few points to consider when incorporating low and high tech activities/techniques:

• We live in both high and “low” tech worlds, so we should learn in both.

• Digital natives (are they here yet?) need help negotiating effectively between the real and the virtual worlds (moving in both directions)

• Offer low/high tech choices for assignments/assessments (differentiation/learning styles)

• Have back-up plans when high tech fails you• We can’t use high tech optimally if we haven’t

mastered effective low tech approaches

Learning Styles (VARK)a)Visual (pink)b)Aural (blue)c)Read/Write (red)d)Kinesthetic (green)

A few points to consider when incorporating low and high tech activities/techniques:

• Objectives come first, technology second• Capitalize on our most important resource - one another

(humans together)

Wisconsin Standards Flower

Three modes: communication in context

• Cognitively engaging• Intrinsically interesting• Culturally connected• Communicatively purposeful

(Curtain, Sandrock, Clementi)

Technologically-mediated communication should also follow these four points

Sample Performance Assessments – Summative

Remember when incorporating low and high tech activities/techniques:

• Communication, Cultures, Communities, Connections, Comparisons take place in both grounded and virtual realities!

Creating community: capitalizing on what the real

classroom, face to face instruction can offer

Speaking the target language via string and cups/play phones vs telephones(Interpersonal Communication)

Differentiated instruction:-learning styles (VARK) -giving choices for assignments/assessments

Issues with reception/ access to phonesString & Cup phones exaggerate the need for enunciationMake explicit components of INTERPERSONAL communication (have to listen, then speak, then listen…)

Learning Check

Texting is communicating in the:

A) Presentational modeB) Interpretive modeC) Interpersonal modeD) Insidious mode

Dice Game (interpersonal mode) –spontaneity!

PADLET (Wallwisher) for conceptualizing/brainstorming (interpersonal)

My favorite activity

or resource (low or

high tech) is _____. I’d like to do

____. Is

there a good

app for that?

Life of Pie

Low & high tech storytelling

• Group 1: Backdrop/Scenery– Half the group describes the scenery, while the

other half draws it• Group 2: Dialogue– Half the group chooses two characters (from the

toys on the table) and comes up with dialogue (2 quotes from each character) and dictates the dialogue to the other half of the group (who writes it in the dialogue bubbles)

diigo links (tagged by mode)

CONNECT HERE:

https://groups.diigo.com/group/flesfest

or:http://www.wi-nell.org (under links) http://www.wi-nell.org/links.html or:

alkhas@uwm.edu

Presentational Speaking:Vocaroo

High-tech with little to no learning curve

(user friendly)

Note: High-tech should not be used for the sake of it being high-tech, there must be an additional reason for employing high-the (as opposed to low- or no- tech) techniques. Objectives come first, technology second.

Presentational speaking

Presentational writing

Presentational speaking

Audio/Video Recording = High-tech is the

clear winner

Note: Can use in place of PowerPoint, because you do not have to move linearly.

Sample Glogs:http://www.krisknisely.edu.glogster.com/french-104-chapter-12/http://www.krisknisely.edu.glogster.com/french-104-chapter-9/http://krisknisely.edu.glogster.com/joyeuse-st-valentin/http://krisknisely.edu.glogster.com/revision-de-103/http://krisknisely.edu.glogster.com/french-103-chapitre-2/http://ajalkhas.edu.glogster.com/la-saint-valentin/http://ajalkhas.edu.glogster.com/capsule-anita/

Glogster (Presentational-speaking/writing mode) –see diigo link “Alternatives to Powerpoint”

Presentational-Speaking

Paper & Pencil vs ComputersInterpretive/Presentational

Communication

Learning stylesWhy do some students expect online tests/workbooks to teach them? They don’t approach high/low tech versions in the same way.

How does the format affect their resistance to/engagement with corrections? (ie. Does one format give them more time to reflect than another?)

What is the interaction with the format and how we assess the 3 modes?

On paper they take the time to go back and correct their work but online they don’t go back?

Pen and paper movement