A Film Review: Grave of the Fireflies

 A Must-watch Animation Movie: Grave of the Fireflies

 After a long break welcome back everyone! I hope you all have been well since we met in my last post!

 Today, as you can guess from the title, we have a film review project. In this project, we were supposed to create groups of 3 people, decide on a movie and than write a review for the film by collaboratively using Google Docs, then send the review for peer feedback and also provide a feedback for another group. In the review part there is an introduction paragraph talking about the general characteristics of the movie. We have a summary paragraph, a detailed review part focusing on some of the key aspects of the movie and lastly, an overall opinion and recommendation part.

 I think collaborative writing can be a really successful tool in education when it is used properly. By proper, I mean when the group members collab harmoniously, with communicating clearly and well with each other. Writing together with others can help us to see various opinions and perspectives which can improve our vision. While working on this project, from deciding on a movie to writing each paragraph, we always asked each group member's opinions and thus had a clear path on how to do the project. All of us had a similar amount of workload and this made it fair and helped the easy flow of the process. 

 Lastly, in my opinion using Google Docs as a collaborative tool helped us in many ways. As it is not so complex and has a simple design, working on it was not hard. Being able to work at the same time and seeing the changes made by other members easily without having the need to ask them about the each update all the time is also pretty time saving. Overall, this was an enjoyable project and helped us to learn writing collaboratively with others.

You can check my friends' blogs here:

  ★ Meryem Sena Kolka: https://meryemspov.blogspot.com/?m=1

  ★ Yasemin Sağır:  https://yaseminsagir.blogspot.com/    

✨You can read our review and see the comments about it here:

A Digital Story: How to Draw a Realistic Cat?

You Can Draw a Cat Easily with This Video!

 Hello everyone, for todays post we have a digital story, a "How To" project. In this short video, we learn how to draw a realistic cat step by step together. While I did the drawing, we collaboratively edited and did a voice over for the video with my friends. You can also check their blogs :)! 🐈🎨

My teammates are, 

⋆ Yasemin Sağır: yaseminsagir.blogspot.com and

⋆ Meryem Sena Kolka: https://meryemspov.blogspot.com/?m=1

 For editing the video, we used the CapCut and tthe name of the song is "Streets of Wonder" from CapCut.

You can watch the full video from the link below :) ⇩

 https://youtu.be/69dM0cyz7o0?si=7bpDhXoPSK3xxZP3

See you later in the next post!

 

Podcast Assignment

 For a Better World: Turning Streets Into Canvases

Hello and welcome back everyone!

* For our Instructional Technologies and Material Design in English class, we were expected to create a podcast, and I chose the individual one-minute podcast option about our own inspiring idea to improve the world. In my podcast, I talk about how we can integrate art into our lives, streets and environment. By changing our surrounding more creatively and positively, we can create supported, connected, and vibrant communities.

 I actually had some difficulties while creating this podcast. Finding a creative idea was not easy, but I love art, so I tried to find an idea that I would be happy to see in real life. Recording was also a challange for me, as I could not find a proper space to record (just one of the hardsips of living in a dormitory)... Also, I did not enjoy the way it sounded. To stay within the time limit, I think I ended up sounding kind  of robotic 🤖. Overall, the process was a bit stressful for me, but at the same time I enjoyed it. If I practice more, I believe that I can get better at it 💪!

 In the future, I would give my students a similar podcast assignment on different topics according to their needs and language proficiency because I believe creating a podcast would help them practice their speaking skills in a real life context. 

☆ Here is the link for my podcast:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nK83AdxgTgyRu1uPIey12yw43Dzn_FSl/view?usp=drivesdk

Thank you for listening, and see you in the next post ;)!

When Bullying Goes Digital: Cyberbullying

An Info(rmational)graphic: Cyberbullying 

Hello and welcome again everybody! :)

 Today I am back with a new post about legal and ethical issues, focusing on cyberbullying. If you want to learn about it, take a look at my infographic below.

 

   For this blog post, we were asked to create an infographic (a visiual learning tool encompassing diagrams, pictures, texts etc., in an engaging way while providing information) about ethical and legal issues, focusing on one specific topic. 

   I chose the topic of "cyberbullying," which is an ethical issue. I find it an important subject that we should learn more about and raise awareness of, especially as future teacher candidates. 

   I used "Piktochart" as an infographic design tool. At first it took me some time to understand the creation process but when I got used to it, it was no longer hard to deal with. I enjoyed choosing themes, colors and pictures to create a both harmonious and informative infographic. For me, the hardest part was the planning stage and starting to work on it. 

   When it comes to potential benefits of an infographic in the English classroom, there are several points we can look into. For instance, both beginners and advanced language learners can benefit from it, as it is a tool that can be easily personalized. We can support the explanations with visiuals so that even beginners can understand it. Also, the design helps to keep students engaged, which helps following the information without getting distracted. Creating an infographic might benefit students, as they should know about the subject well enough to summarize it into small sections and design their own infographic. They can also benefit from it by reading their peers' creations.

Thank you for reading and see you in the next post!

☆ You can use the link for creating your own infographic by using Piktochart:

https://create.piktochart.com/

21st Century Learning

 Digital Era: 21st Century Learning

  In our fast-paced world, just like everything else, education and learning trends have also changed incredibly. Especially with technological advancements, learning is now something closely connected to various skills and knowledge systems supported by technology.

  As far as I comprehend, 21st-century learning is about various skills, knowledge, and competencies that learners should possess in order to be mindful, productive, and successful individuals in this fast-paced age: the 21st century.

  The importance and necessity of this topic come to the surface with its application to various fields, for instance, language learning, as it is based not only on knowing some necessary knowledge areas but also on knowing the value of these and acting on it accordingly (The 3*3 model of 21st-century learning, based on the Kereluik et al. (2013) framework).

  As a teacher candidate, I think knowing and applying the 21st-century skills in language classrooms and language learning is crucial for being a qualified language teacher and raising successful students. Additionally, keeping up with the latest trends would be useful for creating a more learner-friendly environment, as these skills are quite helpful for making learners create and thus produce more permanent results. Once again, the necessity of integrating technology lies in the fact that we live in an era in which many things are automatized, and critical skills like creativity, competence, and being knowledgeable are highly important. With the help of technology, we can create productive materials and practices for the benefit of both us and our students :).

WELCOME! :)

Hello and welcome everybody! 😊

  In this blog, I will be sharing my assignments for my Instructional Technologies and Material Design in English Language course. 

 If I have to summarize it for you, there will be various posts about technology and ELT in general. So if you are interested take a look around and read whatever you find interesting and useful! 

See you (^^)!