Final project possibilities...

For my final project, I would like to look at the uses of podcasts in the foreign language classroom. I came up with a couple of benefits to using podcasts in the language classroom as a way to start thinking of how they could be beneficial in aiding the teaching of a foreign language. Firstly, they offer a wide variety of topics. Students could have some choice over particular topics that are of interest to them. Also, they are a good way for students to be able to listen to native speakers. Having students listen to podcasts made by native speakers would be good listening practice. Another benefit to using podcasts in the FL classroom is that they can be a very good source of cultural information. It would also be neat to have students create their own podcasts! Those are just a couple of benefits to using podcasts in the FL classroom that I was able to come up with. As far as a particular research question, I could look at a general question like "How can using podcasts aid in foreign language acquistion?". This is a pretty general question that I feel could lend itself well.
Another possible research topic for me could be the benefits of communicating through e-mail vesus instant messenging. I am not really sure if there has been research done comparing the two or not, but that might be interesting to look at.

This week's post

I was pretty excited about being able to add a music video to my blog! I have always read celebrity gossip blogs like Perezhilton, who always has video clips on his blog and was excited to be able to figure out how to put them on mine! I also added a mini-survey which I also thought was cool. I would like to continue to add more features to my blog as we learn how to do more and more. I also think it would be neat to keep and maintain some sort of blog after this class. At first I wasn't sure about the idea of having a blog but after being able to figure out how to do things like post videos and pictures I have really enjoyed it.

Juanes music video - Volverte a Ver

1st PowerPoint!

Fast Food Nation (PP)

From: Lizzibee03, 1 minute ago

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Powerpoint

This powerpoint was actually only the second one that I have ever made. It is pretty amateur! I did feel that as I added more slides I became more and more comfortable with powerpoint. I do feel that I will definately benefit from learning to create powerpoints because they can be very helpful in aiding to teach a concept. I think that using a powerpoint to introduce grammar points in the foreign language classroom would be very helpful. Using powerpoint presentations could be a good way to differ the ways in which information is introduced. I think that students enjoy variation and using a powerpoint could be a good alternative to simply having students take notes from the board or overhead. I think it would be neat to also have students create powerpoints of their own from time to time. While I do think that powerpoints would be a good tool to use in the classroom, I do not think that they should be used every class period. I am a big believer in varying activities and approaches in the classroom and I think that using powerpoints too much could get dull and uninteresting. I look forward to becoming more and more comfortable with creating powerpoints through this class this semester!

*my internet use* (hw 2/4)

This past week I have been tracking my internet useage! By doing this, I realized that I rely on the internet a great deal on a daily basis! I found that on a typical day, I will access the internet on about three separate occasions, typically lasting about 20 minutes per occasion. Every day I access my e-mail account on Yahoo several times a day. I also access Facebook 1 or two times per day to send messages to friends, check messages that have been sent to me, or to just 'play around'! Another site that I visit frequently is Wachovia.com to check on my checking account balance. I will usually check up on school work assignments that I have either on USC's blackboard website or the 'tifle' website. I also access the celebrity blogger website Perezhilton.com atleast once a day because I love celebrity gossip!
Based on all of this, I consider myself to be partly a recreational internet user (Facebook, Perezhilton.com) but also partly an internet user based on necessity (E-mail, Wachovia.com, school assignments, etc). It was really interesting to see that I do use the internet on a daily basis and that it is just a part of my daily routine. As technology continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see just how much we as a society rely on the internet and on computers!