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.
When I have an idea,
I tend to reach for:
My pen
or
My iPad/
smartphone/
laptop, etc
http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_cho
ice_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
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!
Speaking the target language via string and
cups/play phones vs telephones
(Interpersonal Communication)
Creating community:
capitalizing on what the real
classroom, face to face instruction
can offer
Differentiated instruction:
-learning styles (VARK)
-giving choices for assignments/assessments
Issues with reception/ access to phones
String & Cup phones exaggerate the need for enunciation
Make explicit components of INTERPERSONAL
communication (have to listen, then speak, then listen…)
Learning Check
Texting is communicating in the:
A)
B)
C)
D)
Presentational mode
Interpretive mode
Interpersonal mode
Insidious mode
Dice Game (interpersonal mode) –spontaneity!
PADLET (Wallwisher) for
conceptualizing/brainstorming (interpersonal)
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 Computers
Interpretive/Presentational
Communication
Learning styles
Why 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