31 Matching Annotations
  1. Nov 2018
    1. Constructivist literacy education engagesstudents in active learning, by having them create theirown texts, or by critically responding to texts they arereading. Students also create texts to communicatewithother people. Value is seen in engagement in real,orauthentic, literacy activity, rather than simulation or“dummy runs” of literacy activities

      Value of using authentic materials.

  2. files-eric-ed-gov.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu files-eric-ed-gov.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu
    1. Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in the California Community Colleges, Contextualized Teaching and Learning (CTL) is identified as a promising strategy that actively engages students and promotes improved learning and skills development. CTL has been defined in different ways, based on the intent of the group championing its use. Most recently, the United States Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education (2001) characterized CTL as a “conception of teaching and learning that helps teachers relate subject matter c

      Good definition of contextualized teaching and learning.

  3. files-eric-ed-gov.ezproxy4.library.arizona.edu files-eric-ed-gov.ezproxy4.library.arizona.edu
    1. ilmore (2007) defines authenticity as 'the language produced by a real speaker/writer for a real audience, conveying a real message'. For Richards and Schmidt (2002), it indicates the degree to which materials have the natural speech or writing qualities; thus it is 'synonymous with genuineness, realness, truthfulness, validity, reliability, undisputed credibility, and legitimacy of materials or practices' (Tatsuki, 2006: p1). The word 'authentic' refers to anything that was originally produced for a no

      Here is some helpful information about using authentic materials and integrating technology

    1. Listening. Many different podcasts are available to add listening opportunities to almost any topic or theme33 For example, elllo (http://www.elllo.org) offers more than 1,300 podcasts for ELLs on a variety of topics, with various levels of difficulty, utilizing different voices. Each short podcast has associated comprehension and vocabulary activities. of study in the adult English language acquisition classroom. Not only can podcasts provide listening practice, they can also be used to teach a variety of specific listening or note-taking strategies to increase the rig

      This brief details some practical ways that technology can be integrated in all language skills for adults and is applicable to various ESL contexts.

      This article is well-researched and is rich with resources for adult ESL teachers. Rating 10/10

    2. This issue brief is a part of the LINCS ESL Pro suite of resources on Integrating Digital Literacy into English Language Instruction. The purpose of this Issue Brief is to provide teachers and administrators with a broad overview of digital literacy as it relates to adult English language learners (ELLs) in English language acquisition programs. It is intended to serve as an introduction to the topic of digital literacy that teachers and administrators can use as a springboard to additional in-depth resources on this topic. Although this Issue Brief provides links to resources that help illustrate the current issues in developing digital literacy, it is not intended to be used as an instructional guide. For more comprehensive, targ

      This resource is a goldmine of information on how, when, and why technology should be integrated for adult ESL learners. At the end of the article are a list of resources for teachers as well.

      This resource is credible and has so much relevant information for adult ESL teachers. I can't get distracted as I could spend the rest of the night looking at all of this information and I need to find several more sources for this assignment. Rating: 10/10

      P.S. This has a great resource for teaching students to write emails. Jim and I were just talking about this idea this morning. He could use this resource for his Level 3 writing class.

    1. It is desirable that the common reference points are presented in different ways for different purposes. For some purposes it will however be appropriate to summarise the set of proposed Common Reference Levels in a holistic summarized table. Such a simple ‘global’ representation will make it easier to communicate the system to non-specialist users and will provide teachers and curriculum planners with orientation points.

      This website will provide a point of reference for my readers to understand English proficiency levels of my students as I give the context for my essay.

      This website is very credible and the CEFR scale is references worldwide in my profession. Rating 10/10

    1. Rating 7/10

      I realize that others won't be able to open this resource, but I liked it and wanted to include it as this article isn't available on google scholar. This article is more current than a similar one I added for the purpose of the assignment. This is 2014 instead of the one I found online at 2009.

    1. n recent years, college instructors have begun to abandon traditional approaches to instruction, which merely transfer knowledge from faculty to students, for cutting-edge strategies, which allow students to construct their own learning. This change in instructional strategy has also brought about a change in the tools which are used for instruction. As students gain more control over their learning, they also want to have more control over the tools that guide their learning. In many way

      This article discusses some of the advantages of ebooks, but the conclusion at the end mentions that it hasn't caught on very much (at that point, this was published in 2009). The authors hypothesize that there would be a combination of printed and ebooks.

      There are some helpful ideas in this article. It is a little outdated considering there have been new enough software to help with some of the downsides (such as making annotations!), but some relevant ideas are included. Rating 7/10

    1. educated adults (ISCED 0–2) have lower averagenumeracy scores than intermediate-educatedadults in all countries. Country variation in themean numeracy skills of the two e

      These results are not surprising. Out of the countries they studied, only Japan and Korea are places where I get students from. It would have been helpful to have Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and China on that list! However, the information is still helpful and the information can be extrapolated.

    2. Our anal-yses show that the two features are indeed associ-ated with country differences in the average skillslevels of, and skills gaps between, less- andintermediate-educated individuals

      This information is highly relevant to my teaching context as I have students who have come straight from high school (and some of them from countries where their high school educational system is poor) and other students who have already taken some higher education classes and/or who come from countries with a much more rigorous educational system.

  4. learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
    1. Formal learningis a learning activity that is structured and sequentially organized in which learners follow a program of study ora series of experiences planned and directed by a teacher or trainer and generally leading to some formal recognition of educational performance, such as a certificate, license, diploma, or degree. Formal adult learning is provided in the system of schools, colleges, universities and other formal educational institutions that constitute a continuous “ladder” of full-time education.Non-formal learningis structured learning that includes activities such as: participation in courses that are not part of a formal educational program; workshops; seminars; private lessons, and guided/organized workplace training. Non-formal learning may take place both within and outside educational institutions. It may cover educational programs to impart adult literacy, adultbasic education, life-skills, work-skills, and general culture. Non-formal learning does not usually follow the “ladder” system that is characteristic of formal learning.Informal learningis learning that is less organized and less structured than either formal or non-formal learning. It involves no (or very little) reliance on pre-determined guidelines for its organization, delivery and assessment, although it must be undertaken with the specific intention to develop some skills or knowledge. Informal learning may include such activities as those that occur in the workplace (e.g., on-the-job training), and any other unstructured learning activities that may occur on a self-directed, family-directed, work-directed, or other basis.Incidental learninghappens randomly and is not intentional or planned. It may occur anywhere at any time. While we recognize that incidental learning may affect outcomes, it is difficult to capture empirically and difficult to influence through policy lev

      This website has a very detailed definition of what adult learning is in several different contexts and would be helpful for defining the kind of adult learning I have in my context, especially since I have two different kinds of adult learners.

    1. Digital equity – ensuring equal access to technology – is a “rampant social justice issue”, affecting developed and developing countries alike, but is also a major concern for higher education, according to the report. Technology plays an “important role in advancing the availability of higher education for underrepresented student populations”, while ensuring “accessibility of web materials for disabled students”, it says. The use of open educational resources also provides “cost savings to students”. With higher education tasked with leveraging technology-enhanced education to “better meet the needs of under-served students”, certain universities are highlighted as exemplars of increasing equity. This year, the University of Oxford is branching into free online courses through the edX platform founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The University of Cambridge is improvi

      This article discusses challenges that higher education face with integrating technology into their classrooms. One of those challenges is digital equity which mentions a few ideas such as meeting the needs of under-served students, which could include ESL or International students.

      This article doesn't specifically discuss ESL students , but it does bring up a lot of topics revolved around them. It could be helpful. This article is academic but seems credible. Rating: 7/10

    1. However, there is a strong sense in the international education field that whatever interactions may be occurring naturally are not enough, and that universities need to do a much better job of bringing domestic and international students together in an intentional way. The issue has taken on increasing salience as campuses have seen huge influxes of international undergraduate students from two main countries, China and Saudi Arabia, in recent years. A study published in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication in 2012 found that nearly 40 percent of international students in the U.S. report having no close American friends. 

      This article discusses the need for American universities to help International students get integrated into their communities. This quote specifically mentions students from China and Saudi Arabia (where most of my students are from).

      This article is credible and has some good information about the topic in general, but it doesn't discuss the topic of technology integration. I was hoping that would be one of the solutions or at least topics in this article. Rating: 6/10

    1. jective In order to find the problems existing in the adult education in China, to in-depth analyze these problems and to deepen understanding, this essay aims to provide decision support to solve these problems existing in China's adult education. Method "Adult education" as the keyword, for the period from 2010 to 2014, known in Chinese network database and Chinese social science citation database searching, the author screened 16 closely-associated with the keyword out of 56 articles. The author collected the information of problems of adult education at present in China through searching the China's Ministry of Education website and engaged in adult education management working experience based on the information integration and analysis. Result 1. Management:(1) chaotic management operation: the Chinese adult education includes correspondence education, TV university, self-study exam, remote education and so on; (2) the system chaos of Chinese adult edu

      This article highlights some of the problems with adult education in China such as teaching methods and out-dated materials.

      This article seems fairly credible and gives some good information about how China integrates technology. This is somewhat relevant to my context as my students rarely come from the adult education world into my program, but rather from the high schools in China to here, but it does relate to a few students I might have, especially when I tutor professors from China in teaching methods (which I have done on several occasions). Rating 6/10

    1. Notably, the government-commissioned Vision Kuwait 2030 report states that a ‘reinvigorated education system’ will serve to integrate locals into a competitive market. Economic discourse is used throughout the report: ‘investments’, ‘examinations’, ‘management’, ‘results’, ‘career advancement’, ‘incentives’, ‘diversified’, ‘strictly monitored’ and ‘training’, to give some examples.3 This neo-liberal trend of greater standardized testing and market-driven training has not served Kuwait well, with students still lacking the knowledge, skills and values to participate actively in society and the economy. Kuwaiti students fare poorly by international standards, coming close to bottom in both the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) assessments.4 Systemic problems that have been identified include comparably lower budgetary spending on books and resources, as well as a shorter academic year by international standards.5 The guarantee of a public-sector job also contributes to a demotivated student body.6 Other reforms in the education sector have focused on technology, although this has been largely superficial, as demonstrated by the distribution to students of iPads with an app housing all their textbooks. A new national curriculum framework is also in development, with a major (and arguably typical) focus on assessable teacher and student outcomes. In the absence of a ‘greater investment in the human infrastructure of a free, democratic citizenry’, however, such educational reforms are insufficient,7 and they are unlikely to contribute to Kuwait’s economic a

      This article gives some historical background and a comprehensive look at the state of education in Kuwait. It discusses how extreme nationalism and religious activities outweigh and undermine critical thinking and other elements of education that don't allow Kuwaiti students to perform well in a global level. This paragraph states how the integration of technology is only at a superficial level and doesn't truly give the students any digital literacy for educational purposes.

      This source is credible and highly relevant for me. I teach many students from Kuwait and find the conclusions made in this article to be very true in my experience. It poses a big challenge when trying to integrate technology overall as these students are often very behind students that I have from other countries. This source doesn't have a lot of information about technology integration but does provide a base of knowledge for students from Kuwait in general. Rating: 9/10

    1. However, the transformation of the learning environment in higher education is still not fully achieved for the diversity of the population of learners

      This article gives some excellent insight as to how Saudi Arabia is integrating technology in their education. This quote mentions that there is still a lot to be done with integrating technology into higher education for adult learners, but the article overall says that the field is growing.

      This article is relevant to me as it gives background information about how my students from Saudi Arabia haven't had a lot of technology integration yet. This article is published in a peer-reviewed journal and is credible. Rating 9/10

    1. Source: Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Date: January 1, 2014

      This article is a study of whether college students prefer electronic or printed textbooks. While the results are that more students prefer printed textbooks, this article was published in 2014 and mentioned that this mindset was changing rapidly.

      This is an academic article, and I think this research could be relevant to some of my classmates. It is relevant for me as my program is considering having students purchase tablets and then using electronic textbooks that we have developed in-house using adapted OER sources. Rating 7/10

    1. High-quality resources allow educators to use OER to improve their teaching and their students' learning. OER are evaluated by educators, so we know they work. They are flexible and easy to access. They are rich sources of content. Educators can customize resources for their specific needs. OER content is entirely free.

      This website gives a brief explanation as to what Open Educational Resources (OER) are and why they should be used adult ESL learners. LINCS is a federal initiative for adult education and is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

      This is a credible source of information. It's very relevant for me as I'm currently part of a project to write our own curriculum for our adult ESL students. Through this project, we are looking at integrating a lot of technology such as writing and selling our own e-books. This particular page doesn't have a lot of information, but the entire website does. Rating: 9/10

    1. Other students, he adds, are increasingly asking for textbook delivery on iPads, Kindles, and the like. “Working from those challenges -- from the cost perspective, from the flexibility standpoint, and from where our students are across all age groups with technology -- we wanted to see if the CourseSmart platform might have an answer,” he say

      This article gives examples of three college campuses that used e-books on tablets or laptops for students instead of traditional textbooks. One of the reasons for implementing this was that students were asking for them.

      While this article is probably a marketing ploy for the CourseSmart company, it does bring up some relevant points. In fact, some of the reasons are what we have been discussing in my program. I think this article would be relevant for some of my classmates as well. Rating: 8/10

    1. 50 Smartphone Apps for College Students By Jennifer Pfeffer on 04/25/2016.

      This is a fairly up-to-date list of apps and other software that would be helpful for college students with apps related to productivity, reading, education, storage and more.

      Because so many of my students haven't used technology much for academic uses, one way I can integrate technology is by integrating some of these ones that they can use outside of the class. This article isn't very academic, but it is credible, written by a marketing specialist who works for Rasmussen college.

    1. ollege students have to be productive. In trying to manage all my schoolwork, clubs, fraternity, and side projects, I’m constantly searching for programs and apps for productivity, note-taking, security, and even music. After trying dozens of them and seeing which ones most of my friends use, I’ve filtered out the ones that I’ve found the most helpful. Here’s a list of programs (not including the ones you get from MIT for freeist.mit.edu) that you should download and test out in your first few weeks of college. I’ve been using all the programs listed below for at least the past year and can attest to how well they work.

      This a blog, not an article, but it is written by a college student at MIT, and he is blogging about some of the best technology that he has integrated into his student life. There are some apps and other software that I'm not familiar with and need to check out.

      This article certainly isn't academic, but it is helpful for me. As I brainstorm on ways to help students to integrate technology, I think it is important to get insight from actual college students who have already been down that road. I haven't been in college for a while, so I'm not as familiar with the kinds of technologies that students need. Rating: 7/10

    1. What and who is an adult learner?  A person is an adult to the extent that he or she is performing social roles typically assigned by our culture to those it considers adults, and to the extent that the individual perceives him or herself to be essentially responsible for his or her life. A child is not responsible for his or her life even from a legal point of view. According to Neimi, the adult learner is one who returns to study, on a full‑time or part‑time basis, after a period of time spent in other pursuits.[3]   Freedman states that the adult learner is someone who is motivated enough to want to pin further education at the end of a working day or is required to come to a program for certification.[4]

      This article doesn't look at technology, but focuses on adult learners and how they learn, specifically focusing on self-directed learning.

      Most of the references for this article are outdated, but there are some relevant ideas on the topic of self-directed learning. I especially like the definition of an adult learner and how it relates to this teaching method. This source would be helpful as I define who is an adult learner and how it applies to my teaching setting since I can have students anywhere from age 17 to adults in their 40s. Rating: 7/10.

    1. More than 60 examples of applications of these developments in innovations in colleges and universities in Ontario, across Canada, and internationally, selected from Contact North | Contact Nord's Pockets of Innovations Series on teachonline.ca; and

      This article highlights new developments in online learning and how it is pushing new pedagogy. I highlighted this portion because this article contains many examples of how universities are integrating the use of technology in innovative ways. This could be very useful for getting some new ideas.

      This article isn't a research study and doesn't have an author posted, so it isn't as academic or credible as I'd like, but it acts as a good resource with many links to .edu websites with some good examples of technology integration in universities around the world. Rating 8/10

    1. Technology has impacted the learning approaches and vice-versa with an aim to improve the standards of language teaching/learning process. The present study focuses on teachers’ preferences and use of technology in their language classrooms. A survey was conducted to seek opinion of EFL teachers both male and female at the English language center on technology-related competencies. The survey comprised four domains: planning and preparation, classroom managem

      This article focuses on the use of technology at the Taif University English Language Center in Saudia Arabia by the teachers. The framework for their research uses constructivism and gives detailed feedback on how technology has been integrated.

      About a third of my students are from Saudia Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, so this research is very applicable for me. I can see what kind of technology my students have been exposed to before studying in the program here. The research is solid and very recent (2018). Rating 9/10

    1. This article analyzes the readiness of teenage students in Malaysia to use technology such as mobile phones in order to learn English.

      The article seems quite reputable. They use standard quantitative methods, include a review of literature and use surveys from 6 different schools. While it focuses on teenagers, not necessarily adults, it still pertains to some of my classmates especially who teach young adults. This study definitely relates to my own teaching context as my students have just graduated from high school and are learning English so they can get accepted in to an American university. Rating 7/10

    1. This website qualitative research to describe three different teachers and how they integrate technology into their ESL/EFL language classroom. This article focuses only on adults.

      The article is short and much more informal than most academic publications, but the author is an EFL teacher and knowledgable in the field. There are some excellent insights into how, when and where certain technologies might work for adults across the globe. I also found it interesting the different teacher's approaches and philosophy for integrating technology.

      Also, the article is a little old (2009) for the field of technology, but considering that in some EFL contexts technology will lag, it still seems appropriate. Rating 7/10.

    1. In today’s globalised digital era, students are inevitably engaged in various multimodal texts due to their active participation in social media and frequent usage of mobile devices o

      This article highlights the effectiveness of using mulitmodal approaches in an ESL classroom. 15 students at a private school in Malaysia are interviewed. Some important topics are covered such as motivation, self-directed learning and constructivism. I especially noted how students reacted to having multimodalities for learning English instead of long, word-only texts.

      This article is academic and highly relevant to my field. The only piece of information I couldn't find in the article is how old these students are. I don't know if it is a study of adults, but from the context, I would guess the students are at least teenagers and therefore still works for how young the adults are in my teaching context. Rating 8/10

    1. and, thus,

      This article discusses why the integration of technology in adult ESL classes has been slower than in other fields, but how it can be effective for students and teachers alike.

      Some of the references in this article are old (maybe a telltale sign as to why it has taken technology so long to get integrated?) but the information is highly relevant to my field and it is a credible source. I highlighted one quote that refers to experiential learning which could be useful for my scholarly paper. Rating 7/10

    1. First, we believe teachers need to make a paradigm shift from the traditional approach to EFL teaching. While EFL in China has been seen as an important factor for modernization (Hu 2005 ; Liu and Huo 2007 ; Zheng and Adamson 2003 ) , the EFL classroom is still dominated by a teacher-centered structural approach. This overemphasis on language forms prevents schools from integrating technology for meaningful interactions and activities. Further, the traditional assessment approach that focuses on language forms and paper-pencil tests also negatively impacts teachers’ pedagogical choices in terms of technology integration (Zheng and Adamson 2003 ) . EFL teachers still see their main responsibility as preparing students to pass stan-dardized tests and enter better schools. As a result, technology is often used to better teach language forms to increase students’ test performance, instead of using tech-nology to enrich students’ learning experiences. Dai ( 2001 ) called this kind of teaching time consuming with low effectiveness

      This article focuses on how technology has been integrated in teaching EFL in China and the impact it has had on students and teachers.

      I highlighted this paragraph specifically because it confirms what I have experienced with my Chinese students coming into my ESL program. Students are tech-savvy, but they are not experienced with more autonomous learning using authentic materials in a more student-centered classroom.

      This article is highly credible and has very wide and deep research. It does focus on technology integration K-12, not adults, but it gives background on the kind of technology and and how it has been integrated in their previous learning experiences before entering my program. I believe it is very useful. Rating: 9/10

    1. The course exam was based on three HCT-made tests and a fourth from the International English Language Test System (IELTS). “The highest-scoring students were the ones who used the iPads,” Dr Gitsaki said. “The results showed that students who use the iPads for four or more activities had significant improvement on their IELTS score.”

      This article discusses something called a "paperless classroom project" in the UAE where students and teachers used iPads and other technology in their EFL classrooms. There were very positive results. ISTE is also involved in training people for this and other projects in the area.

      This article is short, but very related to my field. More than a third of my students are from this region of the world and are trying to get high scores in IELTS, something this article mentions.

      It is still a reliable source as it is a government website and is recent (2014). The study they mention is widespread- 6,200 college students were involved in this study. Rating: 8/10

  5. Oct 2018
    1. This article highlights the effectiveness of using mulitmodal approaches in an ESL classroom. 15 students at a private school in Malaysia are interviewed. Some important topics are covered such as motivation, self-directed learning and constructivism. I especially noted how students reacted to having multimodalities for learning English instead of long, word-only texts.

      This article is academic and highly relevant to my field. The only piece of information I couldn't find in the article is how old these students are. I don't know if it is a study of adults, but from the context, I would guess the students are at least teenagers and therefore still works for how young the adults are in my teaching context.