My Wiki Project about Marketing and Advertising Vocabulary.

For my ICT Course at Universidad Central de Venezuela, I created a Wiki project about basic vocabulary for advertising and marketing.  I was interesting in developing a tool about that specific vocabulary because my students are university students of Media, taking Advertising as their major. Even thought when the main focus of the course is grammar, I would like to integrate vocabulary related to the students major that could complement other courses, this is why I focus on Advertising and Marketing vocabulary, considering that would be helpful for their studies and future jobs.

According to Patrick Ledesman (2010), “Wikis are a powerful instructional tool for students to develop and practice vocabulary”. They way he uses Wikis for this purpose was: 

Assign each student a word or group of words to research. After they have completed their research, they create a page for each word in the class wiki. When students are finished, the class will have their own wiki showing their classroom vocabulary.

     Taking that model as an example, I planed to assign each student a weekly research about Advertising and Marketing Vocabulary, where they have to post concepts and images related to new terms. According to Ledesma, some of the benefits of using Wikis for acquired vocabulary are:

• Students explain terms in their own words.

• Students create no-linguistic representation, such as adding images.

• Students can do periodically activities that help to acquire new vocabulary terms. 

• Students can discuss the terms with one another.

• Fill the page “About us”, writing a little about themselves, for example: name, interests, speciation and goals regarding the course.

• Do weekly activities, filling the vocabulary list with terms about advertising and vocabulary.

• Add images related to each concept.

            Regarding the use of the Wiki, my students should:

They should add concepts during four weeks, and in week five they will do an oral presentation selling a product to their classmates, using the vocabulary of the list. 

I think the use of the Wiki will help my students to acquire and use vocabulary related to their major, as well as will help me, as a teacher, to have an web tool that allows interaction between students.

References:

Ledesma, P. (2010). “Are Your Students Using Wikis to Strengthen Vocabulary Skills?”. In Education Week Teacher. [Online] http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/leading_from_the_classroom/2010/11/are_your_students_using_wikis_to_strengthen_vocabulary_skills.html

Montgomery, C. (2014) Wikis in the World Language Classroom: Transforming Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Preparation with Technology. Brigham Young University. [Paper] [Online]

http://cmwikipaper.wikispaces.com/ 

Social Networks

We all are used to use Social Networks on a daily base. Most of us at least use Facebook, Twitter, and Linken In to communicate with our friend and colleagues. However there are other social networks to consider, such as: Pinterest, Google Groups, Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, My Space, and Tagged.

But, what is a Social Network? Basically, is a platform that allows the interaction among people who share interests. Each user can create its profile, contact other users, and share information through the platform.

Even through we used Social Networks for fun, we can also use them as an educational tool since we can create a specific group for our students were we share information related to our course. Some of the benefits of using social networks in class are:

• It allows to share information immediately.
• Allows permanent contact with our students.
• Inmediate comments and feadback.
• Interaction between the teacher and his or her students. 
• Interaction between classmates. 

If we choose to use Facebook as an educational tool, we could have a personal account were we share information with our friend and the public we choose, and create a private group for our students. This is a practical solution for make a distinction between the information we what to share as well as the public we want to address.

References:

Wikipedia. Social Networking Service. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service

Videos and Movie Maker on class

We all like to watch movies, a video clips or a good video. So, why do not use them as a teaching tool? Videos are a great tool for both teachers and students. Some of the benefits of using videos as an educational tool are:

- It allows to prepare a lesson in advance, and you can share that lesson with many groups and students. 

- You can be as creative as you wish, since you can record yourself explaining a lesson, or you can use different images to develop the topic. 

- Usually videos are short, so students can quickly be introduced to a topic that could be develop on class. 

- Are entertained and fun.

For my ICT course, I created a proposal for my students using Movie Maker. It is a video about advertising and marketing vocabulary, and I explained each term using images that reflect the concept. Here is my video, I hope you like it! 

Wikis as an educational tool

A Wiki is a collaborative website that allows people to add and edit content. It allows the work of different authors, as well as edit, delete and modify information, images, comments, videos, charts, and links. According to Cherice Montgomery (2014):

"A wiki is a type of social software that allows multiple people to easily and collaboratively create, edit, discuss, and share multimedia content online using a web browser. Many wiki providers (such as Wikispaces or PBWorks) make this service available for free to anyone who has access to an internet connection, charging small fees to those who want access to additional features such as ad-free spaces, a customized appearance, or increased security options. It is also possible to install wiki software (such as MediaWiki) on a server. However, in most cases, creating a wiki is as easy as filling out a simple form."

Wikis can be a great educational artefact, since the writer can use different tools, such as image, text, links, and videos. Also, teachers can plan lessons by week, assignments, add evaluation and different pages according to the students needs.

Furthermore, Wikis allows to develop students projects, since they can add information and modify it. Some of the benefits of using Wikis as an educational tool are:

·                    Students explain terms in their own words.

·                    Students create no-linguistic representation, such as images.

·                    Students can do periodically activities. 

·                    Students can discuss classmates work.

There are infinitives projects that can be develop using Wikis, since the artefact is very flexible and allows multiple options according to the teacher and students needs. 

References:

Ledesma, P. (2010). “Are Your Students Using Wikis to Strengthen Vocabulary Skills?”. In Education Week Teacher. [Online] http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/leading_from_the_classroom/2010/11/are_your_students_using_wikis_to_strengthen_vocabulary_skills.html

Montgomery, C. (2014) Wikis in the World Language Classroom: Transforming Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Preparation with Technology. Brigham Young University. [Paper] [Online]

http://cmwikipaper.wikispaces.com/