Educational

      Hello there! Today, I am here to say goodbye with my last blog post of this term. It was an amazing term for me, actually. I really enjoyed all the tasks I have done throughout the term. In the 'current issues in teaching' course, we talked about new topics that arose in recent years. We mainly touched upon new technologies that were planned to be integrated with lessons. Overall, the course was beneficial for us to learn about current issues in the context of educational topics. The most challenging part for me about the course was a weekly assignment. When coinciding with my other assignments, sometimes it was hard for me to finish the task. Other than that, it was overall enjoyable. My favorite task was AR- and VR-integrated lesson material. I really enjoyed the task while I was designing the material sheet. I will definitely use AR and VR technology in the future in my classes. My least favorable task was generative AI tasks. Because it is not that easy to use c...

      Hello there! Today, I will introduce my last assignment for this term! In my last task, as a group, we created a worksheet that is integrated with generative AI tools. As you know AI tools are getting more and more common among students and teachers. Generative AI tools can be both beneficial and detrimental for us, depending on how we use them. Nowadays, it is very prevalent among students to use AI tools like ChatGPT for assignments and homework. This situation affects students' learning progress negatively. So, it is important to know how to use AI tools as a teacher, and also we have to inform our students about this topic. If we want to benefit from a generative AI tool in our lessons, we should clearly explain our topic and our aims to students. So, we designed a worksheet where students use generative AI tools to create a story based on 3 different genres. First, we introduced the tasks. Then, students completed the tasks according to the instructions by usin...

 Hello there! Today, I will be talking about extraordinary teaching material. The material that I am talking about is augmented and virtual reality technology. Unlike the traditional teaching context in which it is difficult for students to engage with materials, this technology goes beyond the teaching limits! By using AR/VR technology, students can explore and examine new places, materials, objects, and even cities by themselves! It is an amazing feature for both students and teachers when it comes to the efficiency and quality of lessons. Using AR and VR in lessons has many benefits but has some disadvantages. When integrated with teaching materials, this technology makes lessons more engaging for students and allows students to explore places, and objects they have learned in the classroom. But for disadvantages, not all students can have a device that is connected to the internet. So this technology can only be implemented in certain classrooms for now. For our assignment, we ...

      Hello There! Today, I will be talking about an unusual teaching method that we covered in my last class. This uncommon method is the flipped classroom approach! Unlike the traditional classroom model where teachers lecture during class and students complete assignments at home, a flipped classroom offers a teaching context where students only come to class to complete their assignments with their teacher while watching their courses online wherever they want. Students first access interactive online content, videos, and readings provided by their teachers before diving deeper levels of their topics. The flipped classroom has many benefits and positive outcomes. Active engagement is one of the key benefits of flipped classrooms since the whole lesson time is dedicated to activities. Also, a flipped classroom offers a personalized learning environment as students can watch their lessons wherever they can and as much as they want.       So, in our a...

   Hello there! I know it has been a long time since we met on this blog, but here I am with an exciting topic today.     This week, I am here with an unfamiliar but quite impressive teaching material assignment: corpus-based teaching material! The assignment was about creating and designing an activity sheet where we were to use the corpus for effective teaching. The corpus is a collection of written or spoken material stored on a computer and used to find out how language is used .  In my opinion, the corpus is a good way of teaching students as it requires observing, analyzing, reading, and understanding. My two beloved friends and I created an activity sheet in which we have activities like testing students' knowledge, and making them use the corpus to understand the difference between 'much' and 'many'. Corpus was an exciting experience for me and my friends. We used 'Corpus Mate' in our activity, you can click on the image to visit it! So overall, it ...

     Hi there! Today, I have come to you with my last blog post... Throughout the term, we have discussed using technology in classrooms and making use of it. Before the class, I was already aware of the benefits of technology in education so it was an efficient lesson for me. With this lesson, I have learned about new media tools, especially Artificial Technology. Using AI is a blessing for both teachers and learners. Who would think of an assistant that can even evaluate students' writings and score them? The most surprising thing about AI for me was its ability to generate questions according to the video or text given to it. You can even choose question types! In addition to AI, we have seen many more topics about technology in our course. For example infographics, I enjoyed creating an infographic as it was easy to make one with some websites with visuals which I think is very beneficial for students to convey some important messages. As well as we have even done pod...

     Hello there! Today, I will be describing a collaborative writing task and my experiences while doing it with my friends Melike and Alperen . About my task, we were supposed to review a film that we chose together and give feedback to another group. We chose Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as a topic of review, which is one of my favorite films. Although I like working individually, I can say that I enjoyed doing this task with my friends.       First, we separated the review part by part and then chose the part we wanted to work on. Later on, we finished our review and designed the page, also gave feedback to each other to maintain the cohesion of the review. It was fun to review one of my favorite films with my friends. When it comes to my opinions about Google Docs as a collaborative working tool, I can say that it is really efficient and helpful. It is easy to use. One of the best parts of Google Docs is that every change that your fr...

     Digital Storytelling... Funny!      Hi everyone, I hope you are all having good times! Today, I am going to talk about my first digital storytelling project with my friends. I have to say that it was a really enjoyable process for me. I had a great time while doing it. We wanted to make a fictional and funny story, and then my friend Melike decided on the idea of our digital story. I can definitely say that we all agreed on a really brilliant idea. It was about a girl who lost his CD in the river which she really needed to use it next day. So, she talked about his situation to her two friends, Foan and Alphonso, and then they went to that river to find the lost CD. We used a game to create our digital story. We thought that that game would be suitable for our project as it has graphics like cartoons. It was not that hard to use the game and record the scenery. But as for the voice recording part, we all had a little bit of difficulty in recording since...

     Hello there!       For my assignment, I created a podcast which is about improving the world. The purpose of this podcast is that you present your idea and support it with your statements exactly in 60 seconds about how to make the world a better place to live in. My idea was to restrict harmful gas emissions once a month which we really need in my opinion. While creating my podcast, it was a bit difficult to find an idea that you were going to make your podcast built on. At first, I thought about it and then found my idea. It wasn't hard for me to write my script since it was a topic that I really found beneficial and interesting. As for the recording part, I have to say that I had difficulty in arranging time since I had to make it exactly 60 seconds as my content of podcast requires. For me, I would give a similar task to my learners for once. Because I would like to see my student's job and products and also their opinions. By doing this task,...

     My First Infographic        Hi everyone! Our teacher assigned us a task about infographics. We did infographics about certain topics which are plagiarism, copyright and fair use, safety and privacy, netiquette, and cyberbullying. I did an infographic about cyberbullying which is one of the most important problems of today's young generation, in my opinion. While designing my infographic, I used Canva since it does not require too much effort to use it and Canva is pretty practical. I struggled a bit to imagine a theme that reflects the topic of cyberbullying but solved it fast enough. Infographics are actually good ways to convey messages about related topics because they are not normal and simple texts. In infographics, there are lots of visual aids that attract readers' interest so that readers can read them without being bored. In that way, these infographics are suitable for classrooms, especially in English classes. Because students can have ...

Technology-supported Learning in the 21st Century?        For years, a variety of systems and techniques have been used for the purpose of teaching. But none of them could be as effective and beneficial as technology use in classrooms. In this century, learning something new is like going to the supermarket and buying something. Because, if you have a device that can connect to the internet, then you can easily access lots of websites, e-books, and apps that you can benefit from. Even there are free course videos available on the internet. In this environment, if you struggle for it, it won't be difficult for you to learn a new language to a certain level. So, why don't we bring these advantages of technology into language classrooms? The effective use of technology in classrooms has many positive effects on students. Teachers can support their students with online materials, videos, and games that can make students join classroom activities. In addition, technology ...

Hello There!      Welcome to my blog! My name is Umutcan. I am a second-grade student at Marmara University.  In this blog I've just created, I will be sharing the tasks given by my teacher in my Instructional Technologies and Materials course. I will also be here to post  Educational  news and innovations in my aspect. I hope that this blog will give you new points of view and will be helpful for you to learn new information and gain new ideas.