Farewell

taken from here

Hello. We have finally neared the end of the term. It means that the course that this blog was created for is coming to an end as well.

Throughout this course, we have done lots of tasks and research. One of our first tasks was to discuss technology integration in classes. I had written about why we should use technology in classrooms, giving several reasons as to why it is beneficial and necessary. My ideas haven't changed after attending this course. On the contrary, I have come to learn about lots of different tools to use in education and how to properly integrate them in your courses. I definitely wish to be able to use the things that I've learned in course later in my own teaching career. 

Instructional Technologies and Material Design was a course I felt really at ease to attend. I didn't feel stressed in any way. The tasks given by our instructor was very clear and she was definitely using all the things she was teaching us in her classes. I didn't know I could be a fan of doing homework, but this course showed me that people could actually enjoy course tasks. 

What I especially liked about this course was that there were several tasks to choose from. Everyone didn't have to do the same thing. Being given such a choice probably made all the students comfortable, I believe. 

When I try to remember something I didn't like about the course, I cannot particularly think about a certain thing. It could be that sometimes there were mandatory pair works, but my group of friends includes 5 people. Sometimes we struggled with that, but it's fine and there isn't anything else I can think of.

taken from here

I would like to thank our instructor Dr. Kurt for this fun journey. It has been a ride, but a very fun one. I believe we have made lots of good memories as we completed the tasks. I can picture myself coming back to this blog and seeing my old posts, all the tasks that we've done and remember these days saying "Wow, I did that?". (I'm especially thinking about my movie poster because it looks extra beautiful, not gonna lie. I'm kind of proud of myself.) I feel like I'm repeating myself but the tasks were really fun to do. Seeing the products of the tasks, the outcomes made me feel like I've accomplished something. I would like to take a course just like this in the future instead of the other classical boring ones if that is possible.

Dr. Kurt once again thank you so much for this course, for spending extra time to create tasks for us too. 

And this was my final post. Thank you for reading.

-Refika Özdemir

Time for Infographics

Hello everyone!

This post is about our recent task which is to create an infographic about Web 2.0 tools.

An infographic is the visual representation of information, according to Wikipedia. They can include charts, diagrams, etc.


Why Are Infographics Better Than Plain Text?

• The brain processes visuals better and faster than texts.
• Infographics are fun and unique.
• Infographics are eye-catching.
• Infographics make you look like a professional.

It is very easy to create infographics now that there are so many tools out there. But the one I chose is Visme. I've been using Visme for my classes a lot this year and I can confidently recommend it to you.

 So here is my beautiful infographic! Hope you like it.

sources that were helpful:

Benefits of Infographics

Infographic Benefits

 Web 2.0 Tools

101 Web 2.0 Teaching Tools

What is RSS?

Hello everyone! I'm back and I've brought my RSS Feed with me for today's post. I will briefly explain what RSS is, the service I'm using and so on down below.

It can be hard to keep track of all the content online since new stuff gets shared every day. There is an easy way though: RSS.

What is an RSS Feed?

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It allows you to subscribe to websites and blogs and whenever they have something new published, you can see it on a single page instead of having to check every single site if there are new posts. It helps you save a lot of time and effort.

How To Use RSS Feed?

• The first thing you should do is installing a feedreader. 
• You can download the one I'm using here. If you don't want to install it on your computer, they have an online feedreader option as well (which you will see when you click on the link).

• Secondly, after you install it follow the steps in the picture below. 

• After that, paste your link on the page that appears and click"okay".

It is that simple! You will see your feed on the screen right away.

Here is how my own RSS feed looks like:

The blogs that I follow can be seen on the left and the posts that they have shared are on the right with the dates and titles. I can group them however I want but right now I'm using the "No grouping" option.

(My RSS Feed can also be seen my blog down on the right side of my page. Check them out if you want!)

And I want to show you one of my favorite ELT blogs. It is called ELT Planning. This blog belongs to Pete who is from Bangkok and he mainly shares his ideas about ELT and tips for the other teachers.

For example, he posts about the details of a game he played in class to give ideas to the others.

Pete's blog isn't as professional as the other ones in my feed but I certainly recommend you to follow these kinds of blogs as well. Pete's blog does have lots of fun ideas that everyone could make use of!

Thank you for reading my post!

Ever Heard of Digital Storytelling?

image taken from here

Hi, it's me again and I'm back with yet another task!

This time we were told to choose from one of the digital storytelling tasks and we chose the most fun one. But first, let me explain what it is.

Digital storytelling is basically using computer-based tools to tell stories. Meaning that digital graphics, videos, texts, music, etc. will accompany your storytelling.

There are lots of different types of digital storytelling. The one we did for this task is telling how to do something. In this case, my friend Asya and I are telling you how to wear contact lenses correctly!

Check out our video down below!

Check out Asya's post about it here too.

I Made a Movie Poster

Hello!

This week our task was to create a movie poster based on a book that we have read. I chose to go with the novel I most recently have read. It's originally in Chinese but it was translated into English with the title "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation". While creating the poster, I chose to simply call the movie "Grandmaster" because... the simpler the better, right?

Here is my poster! Click on it see it in full size.

(The original picture belongs to Yukina Emi.)

In the future, I definitely would want to give this kind of task to my students. Personally, I found the process extremely fun. When something I love gets integrated into course tasks, it motivates me. 

See you in my next post!

Website Evaluation: News in Levels

Hello everyone! 

Today I'm here with another task. This time, I evaluated an ELT website of my choice. 

The website I chose is called News in Levels which is a website that allows English learners to read news articles that are suitable to their level, therefore helping them improve their language.

Who authored the website? 

The authors of this website are working as a team. They don't reveal respective names; they sign the posts with "the News in Levels Team". The only information about the team is that they are based in the Czech Republic.


What is the content of the website? 

News in Levels is a website that allows you to read news according to your English proficiency. First, the website asks you to take a 3-minute test to see which level of English you are on and then tells you which level of news you should read on their site. 

There are various news articles on different topics you can choose from as you can see in the picture I attached above.

It is possible to change the level of news easily.

The site also provides the voiced version of the articles right under the posts.

News in Levels also has other sites that are connected to each other. You can get directed to Grammar in Levels, Robinson Crusoe in Levels, Speak in Levels, How to Learn English in Levels, People in Levels and Videos in Levels using the bar at the top.


Who is the target audience? 

The target audience is mainly the adult learners of English who want to practice their reading and listening. But it is suitable for every passionate English student. 


What is the purpose of the website? 

News in Levels aims to teach English naturally and fast and help the learner achieve a level where they can finally understand original news from native speakers. 


Is there a date that shows when the site has last been updated? 

The site has last been updated on 22-04-2019.

Accuracy of the information- Are there any errors?

The site doesn't seem to have any errors since it is authorized by professionals.

Are there any broken links? 

All of the links work well.

Are the images of high quality and appealing to the target audience? 

The pictures used on the site are very relevant and illustrative. They are definitely of high quality. All of the pictures are licenced under the Creative Commons. Further information about it can be found here.


How can it be applied to EFL teaching? 

As it is mentioned on the Conditions of Use page, the content on the site can be used by teachers only if they are teaching face-to-face in classes. It is forbidden to use it otherwise if you are making money out of it. 

This site can be used as a reading/listening exercise. It can be given as homework and the students can read some articles daily. It is also very useful in developing the learners' word knowledge. 

So, you might want to check News in Levels, it's pretty useful! Thank you for reading my evaluation.

Tried Out Padlet!

Hello, I'm back again!


Exciting news: After a hectic midterm season (and a few days of being lazy), I finally had time to complete the Padlet my friends and I were working on. 


But before I present you our beautiful work I should explain what Padlet is.


Padlet is an application to create an online bulletin board that you can use to display information for any topic, as it is described on TeachersFirst. Very basic and easy to use.


Our course task was to choose from one of the given topics and create a Padlet wall about it with a group of friends. My friends and I chose to make it about endangered animals and decided on the parts we were going to write about. Creating the Padlet and posting on it was very easy since we all could moderate it however we want and didn't even need to contact each other in order to do so. That is probably the best part of it. Since projects with more than two people can sometimes be hard to complete because getting in touch with everyone at once can be challenging. Padlet gave us the opportunity to use technology efficiently to make our task easier.


Check out our Padlet here!

Here Is My Favorite Book's Review

Hello! Our task this week was creating a book review wiki page and I thought that this was a marvelous chance to show you one of my favorite books: Fairest by Marissa Meyer.  I had to hold myself back a lot to stop myself from writing a 50k page about how much I love it. I guess I succeeded this time! Check it out here right now!

The book I reviewed, Levana, is a part of a series, so I will leave the other books in order down below to make it easy for everyone.

The Order of the Lunar Chronicles Books

1. Cinder

2. Scarlet

3. Cress

3,5. Fairest

4. Winter

Stars Above (Bonus Book)

Our Podcast (A.K.A The Best Story You'll Hear Today)

Hello again. This time I'm here with a... *drum rolls* podcast!

For those who don't know, a podcast is basically an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download in order to listen to. It can be about anything and everything.

The podcast that my friend Asya and I made is telling a short story written by us. We created a transcribed video to go with it too. It was very fun creating it and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 

You can find Asya's post about our podcast here. Check her blog and subscribe to her as well!

sources used:

What is a Podcast?

Sound Effects (used in the video)

Is Technology Necessary In Classrooms

image taken from here

Hello everyone. In this post, I’m going to talk about a classic yet still very important issue: Technology in education. Is it really necessary? Is it okay not to use technology in schools?

It is hard to get used to something completely new for some people, but we must accept how crucial technology usage is in our lives today. Most people admit how important it is and how we should make use of it in the education field but when it comes into practice, more than half of those people prefer not to use it. However, with time, it will no longer be a choice. It is not possible to leave education out when technology affects everything we know in this world.

It’s the age of the digital natives

Children today are born into a world where constant technology use is normal. They don’t know anything but a world filled with advanced computers, tablets, anything. Do you think it will make sense to them if we rip them off from all the opportunities technology could give to them when they’re at school?

It’s easier for the teacher

Think about a teacher who has four different classes and more that a hundred students. After a  test, grading all those paper is definitely nothing but torture when there is another way to do this. Much easier for both students and the teachers. No waiting for the results to come out, no grading by hand reading each answer one by one. Can you imagine how much time we could save if we had our tests digitally?

Everyone can learn at their own pace

In a class where everything is on the teacher, the students who are quick to understand or the students who need more practice and repeating to get the full understanding of the subject might get disencourage and left out. They might give up on the course completely. There is no way the teacher can deal with everyone individually to prevent this from happening. But technology makes it possible. It gives everyone the chance to repeat whenever and as many times as they want. They control their own learning which results in a much greater success rate.

Technology cannot be ignored in education, because it is already included in every second of our lives. Teachers should acknowledge all the advantages of technology integration in classrooms and apply them accordingly to get the best results. As  Alan November says, “Teachers need to stop saying, ‘Hand it in,’ and start saying ‘Publish It.’”

sources used

・How Important is Technology in Education?

・10 Reasons Today’s Students NEED Technology in the Classroom

How CALL Has Evolved In Time

CALL, which is short for Computer Assisted Language Learning, has changed its shape in time as the technology developed. In this post, we will take a look at how it has evolved in time briefly.

In the 1940s, the computers were used for missile guidance and cryptography in World War II. People started to use mechanical translations but unfortunately, they were not near good yet. 

In the 1950s, programming languages were developed and they made it possible for linguists to use computers to create concordances for text analysis in the 1960s.  

CALL in the 1960s was shaped by the behavioristic approach. It became really popular between the 1960s and 1970s. CALL was used as a supplement in classrooms. 

When the end of the 1970s came, communicative approach began to rise and replaced the behavioristic one. Learning focused more on meaning rather became much more popular than the one focusing on the formal instruction part. 

In the 1980s, CALL had more opportunities for learner interaction. Many books about CALL methodology was written around these years, such as Computers in Language Learning (1984) by Higgins and Johns and Underwood’s Linguistics, Computers and the Language Teacher (1984) etc.  Also, lots of professional organizations (CALICO, EuroCALL) and journals (CALICO Journal, ReCALL) appeared in this time. 

Programs that consisted of games, readings, writings, tests, and puzzles aimed at language teaching were developed. But still, the computers still lacked. They were limited to certain things and couldn’t give important feedback to students. 

In the 1990s, the computer programs were redesigned to be a stimulus for the students. They aimed to create some intended behaviors and features in students such as critical thinking and creativity. Learners were more active while using these programs. The use of the internet and LANs became available to more people.

Technology gives us something new and advanced almost every day. Therefore CALL systems keep developing too. How do you think CALL will be in the future?

this timeline was created by visme

source used:

The Development of CALLand Current Options

Key Points of 21st Century Learning

The most appropriate way to talk about learning would be starting with how it is today, in 2019, therefore in the 21st century. Learning has been there since the first people and it has evolved drastically throughout time just like everything does. The beliefs and methods used for education were adapted to match the needs of today’s learners. Today, we will take a look at the most significant terms, the 4Cs, that describe 21s century learning.


1) Critical Thinking

image taken from here

Critical thinking is about analyzing objectively and making judgments accordingly. Students are expected to analyze and evaluate information so that they can gain problem-solving and decision-making abilities and can start seeing things from different points of view.






2) Communication

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The education system today requires students to be able to share their opinions clearly. Taking part in conversations, understanding what others mean and making themselves comprehensible is very important.







3) Collaboration

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Individual students learn how to work in a team. They learn how to take responsibility and to respect others. It helps them be more disciplined and faster to accomplish their goals. 







4) Creativity

image taken from here

“Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being. Creativity requires passion and commitment. It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life. The experience is one of heightened consciousness: ecstasy.” – Rollo May, The Courage to Create 

Every person is born with a creative mind. Everyone is able to see the world in a different light and bring something out of it. In the 21st century, it is a mission to make the creative side of the students appear. 


Overall, 21st century learning is shaped around some critical terms that aim to bring the best out of the learners. If we are able to give the students these qualities, we can expect to see a brighter future with productive generations. 

sources used:

・What are the 4cs?

・Rules of 21st Century Learning

・Benefits of Critical Thinking

・What is Creativity?

Welcome aboard!

image taken from here

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog! This is my first post ever, so I want to introduce myself and the content I intend to share on SimplyFLE!



My name is Refika Özdemir and I'm studying English Language Teaching at Marmara University. The initial reason why I created this blog is I want to pass our  Material Design course... But! It also means that I will try to make this blog as beneficial as possible for everyone. My posts will be about language education for the most part. In the most simple way too.



Since we mentioned the word "simple", I should probably explain my URL. The FLE in "SimplyFLE" stands for Foreign Language Education. Pretty simple, right? I know, it's not that clever or creative but I'm not an expert in finding names for these kinds of stuff. I did my best.



I guess that's enough for a welcoming post! I will share more fun facts about myself on my about page and my posts about FLE are on the way!



Thank you for visiting my blog. Follow my blog if you want to become a part of the crew!