Name: Jonathan
Web Site: http://teachers.saschina.org/jchambers
Bio: ESL/Humanities/Tech teacher at Shanghai American School, Pudong Campus (China)
Posts by Jonathan Chambers:
Opinion: iPad – you either get it… or you will
January 28th, 2010There’s been so much speculation about Apple’s new iPad – both before it was launched, and now
it’s finally been unveiled in public as an upcoming product. The arguments are various, but they seem to mostly center upon whether this ’souped up iPod Touch’ is actually ‘all that’. In my opinion it is ‘all that’, and it does represent a major shift in human interface design. If you want to focus upon its reliance upon the iPhone OS, then consider the fact that so many people have worked out how to use that interface already. If you want to focus upon the fact that it doesn’t multitask, then maybe educators want to ask themselves how many times they’ve found students minimizing chats in their docks while they’re supposed to be working on dedicated tasks.
There is a place for iPad in education, and as the new apps evolve all of this will become strikingly clear. This device is portable, tactile, and capable of expanding our ideas of how to access and synthesize information. It’s not ‘perfect’ or ‘finished’ (camera capabilities are surely forthcoming), but it immediately presents us with an opportunity to touch, create, paint, explore, and interact with each other that we have not yet seen in classrooms. iPad is not just an ‘inflated’ iPod Touch – it’s so much more, and leading schools will be adopting this device (and its successors) as their primary choice in years to come.
Digital Word Walls
November 27th, 2009Still creating ‘word walls’ around your classroom? Good for you – that’s exactly what needs to be done to create constant and progressive exposure to vocabulary. Here are some examples of our evolving digital forms of word walls and vocabulary building tools. Firstly, here’s an animated/spoken word wall that was built on visuals that ESL students chose to correspond to vocab (voice recorded in Apple Keynote):
And here’s an example of a “Vocabulary Groove” created in GarageBand. I’m hoping to gradually get students to make this kind of resource (and more) for each other.
Find more videos like this on SAS Professional Development Net
Web App creation for everyone
November 25th, 2009
It’s about time for us to democratize the creation of ‘web apps’ for everyone – including students and teachers. Runtime Revolution have just such an offering for teachers and students in their latest release of ‘RevMedia‘, which provides a web application development program for FREE on all major platforms – Mac, Windows, & Linux. Whether you want to learn basic programming logic, through to creating multimedia experiences or dynamic graphic effects, RevMedia is now offering their web app development platform for free. This is definitely worth checking out. Students will love being able to program games, and teachers will also enjoy using the drag-and-drop elements of this system to create their own web applications. Check this one out…
Simply Fontastic!
November 16th, 2009I’ve been in love with handwritten fonts since I was a kid, and I love the ‘personal touch’ of sketching on a page. Aside from using graphics tablets, I’ve been looking for more ways to bring tactile experiences to digital expression. Some of my colleagues introduced me to fontcapture, and all of my warm, fuzzy feelings for hand lettering (and apparently nostalgia) returned! fontcapture is an absolutely free service that allows you to create your own handwritten font – not just a temporary font, but an actual TrueType font that you can install onto either your Mac or Win computer, and then use across all of your applications.
The process is seriously straightforward: download and print a PDF chart, write on the chart with ye-olde school pen, scan it, then upload it back onto the fontcapture website. Shazam! The site then allows you to briefly ‘road test’ your font, and then you can instantly download your font and put it into permanent play. You, your students, or even your mother can now be a font designer (Hi, Mum – this one’s for you and the charity card designers). There are so many possibilities for this tool: personalizing and stylizing student writing, journal writing, lettering practise for elementary & middle school students, art projects, building classroom font collections. Suggestions?
In my ESOL classes I’m using student font design to focus on student “voice” and personal identity. Today we took just 40 minutes to design and process our own fonts, and now we’re offering the fonts to the public. Check out some example fonts from our class here or a pack of 10 student-designed fonts here.
Softer ‘Software’ & Furniture for 1:1 Adoption
November 6th, 2009
So everybody’s looking for the latest “software” tool to implement 1:1 laptops in their school environment, but are you thinking about the “softer” ware that students sit on or use around their classrooms or hallways so that they get a great, flexible experience while they’re using their laptops? At SAS, we’re falling deeply in love with Luemmel, a German-designed chair that comes in as many colors as an iPod nano, and it can be used as a recliner chair, or as purpose-built laptop chair for students or adults alike. This kind of easily portable furniture is already at the heart of heart of many flexible collaborative learning zones that we’re designing at our school.
Essentially, we’re looking at a series of “collaborative learning zones” that consist of flexible chairs and tables, including flexible furniture, like Luemmel chairs and beanbags, plus “booths” like those that you would find at diners and restaurants. Learning should be comfortable and organic, and the furniture and environments that you choose will seriously play into the success of the areas that you design. At the core of our “resdesign” is observation of organic student use of our spaces, which has led us to believe that power sources are a quintessential component of any effective piece of furniture design. Form + function = a great formula for active student use of space.
If you have ideas or experience of designing spaces for collaborative learning, please respond to this post. We’re all looking to learn from each other in this department, and your knowledge will likely enrich the decisions and experience of many readers at UTechTips. Please contribute!
Take advantage of the meme theme!
February 13th, 2009After my initial infuriation with the preponderance of “memes” on Facebook lately, such as the wildly popular “25 Things You Didn’t Know About Me“, I’ve decided to take an “If you can’t beat ‘em – join ‘em” approach. Specifically, I may not be particularly interested in sharing 25 random facts about myself with the world, but if it’s so popular on the web that the New York Times is reporting that this meme has driven Facebook growth, and that Time Magazine has lampooned it, then this might actually be a worthwhile activity for student learning and interaction in the classroom? Therefore, I’m now going to move from disgust to discussed, and to set this up as a classroom activity for my ESOL students. If something is this popular then there has to be something to it. Aside from the fact that we have the opportunity to elicit great responses from our students, isn’t this a fantastic opportunity to allow them to share something of themselves that they wouldn’t normally divulge if we set them a paragraph response or a standard ‘journal reflection’?
Visualizing Vocabulary
January 10th, 2009I thought I had a fairly good grip on encouraging students to create higher-order connections to vocabulary through both vocab visualisations that we create in class, and through creating hyperlinked connections to definitions of vocab on my teacher blog. However, this week my Principal, Dr. Ron Roukema, informed me of some great work that’s being done by James Robinson on his teacher blog. James has created a fantastic model for many of us to work from by creating direct hyperlinks from vocabulary to visual representations of words and concepts that can really get students thinking about higher-order connections to words and their meanings. These kinds of visual connections to vocab and concepts are powerful, and when initially modeled (like James has done for his students), they become even more meaningful. Vocabulary visualizations work best when they’re modeled, then created by your students, and then placed on either the wall or the ‘walls’ of the web so that they can be revisited. In much the same way that ‘basic’ ESL techniques like Total Physical Response can leave a lasting impression upon learners, vocabulary visualization can help us scaffold our learning in order to support more complex, conceptual thinking and learning. Try it!
2009 – Year of Science!
January 4th, 2009If you haven’t yet caught onto the momentum that’s building for education in 2009, then the time is now. This year has not only been designated a “Year of Science“, but it’s also been earmarked as The International Year of Astronomy and The International Year of Planet Earth.
Each of these causes and sites provide structure and tools to explore, empower and engage students in science, and you have the opportunity to contribute through local participation, and to feed your learning back to a wider “grid” of global learning.
The Year of Science is based on themes that run from month to month, including process and nature of science, evolution, physics and technology, energy resources, sustainability and the environment, oceans and water, astronomy, weather and climate, biodiversity and conservation, geosciences, chemistry, and health.
Get involved – let’s look for interdisciplinary connections and ways to share! There are so many opportunities this year to get our students actively involved in, and excited about, the world of science!
Using Diigo Annotation Tools for Intensive Language Feedback
November 17th, 2008I love the fact that more and more Core teachers are encouraging online student writing. As an ESL teacher it allows me to ‘catch’ a lot more of my students’ academic writing, especially when I employ tools such as RSS aggregators and Netvibes. However, the ability to comment below what students have written doesn’t really satisfy that deep-seated urge to scribble in the margins and correct grammar, so I’ve recently taken to employing Diigo’s annotation tools to provide my students with feedback on their blogging.
Instead of just writing, “Great effort, but you need to focus on writing in constant tense” I can simply send my students a blog reply that contains highlighted text that will reveal full annotations/comments if students rest their cursor on the highlighted sections.
Here’s an example:
http://www.diigo.com/annotated/ed436694f861d612e208b0adcd5510a8
The beauty of this is that my student/reader doesn’t even need any extra membership, software, or browser plugins in order to view intense commenting on their writing. As the teacher, all I need to do is install the Diigo toolbar, highlight and comment on sections of the student’s writing, and then choose “get annotated link” from the Diigo menus.
Voila! My trusty red pen has survived into the digital age, and metamorphosed into a Diigo toolbar. I know there are those of you who may want to argue against stifling blogging and expression, but as always, think about each student’s needs and what they’ll respond to and what they can cope with. Steady, timely feedback is what language learners need, so why not use technology to assist us with that task?
Get off the email! Local conversations in global hallways.
November 13th, 2008As an ESL teacher I find myself constantly attempting to convince people that English Language Learners need the rich input of their peers so that they have a good model of ‘how English works’. If we just segregate a group of beginners in a room together then the available models are not going to help them progress at an optimal rate. The same thing applies to the kinds of staff cultures that we surround ourselves with – sometimes we work with vibrant intellectuals, and at other times we’re left wondering how we can communicate the simplest idea to our ‘beloved colleagues’.
Now we already know that a conversation or a problem can be much more effectively solved if we apply collaborative intelligence, but our definition of collective problem solving is rapidly changing, and we’re no longer limited to just consulting the people in our building. Conversations that were previously held just among our immediate peers (either physically or via email) are moving right on out of our campuses and into the collaborative hallways of Twitter, Ning, and a variety of other social networks that are available to us.
I entreat you to consider something that may initially seem obvious, but the vast potential of this concept is still largely untapped: take your local conversations about technology problems or curriculum development OFF your local (closed) email circle, and put them out there on Twitter or in a global forum like Classroom 2.0 – you’ll be amazed by the kinds of problem solvers who’ll come to your rescue with rapid solutions and ideas about what you’re trying to achieve locally.
K12 Online LAN Parties – One More Thing?
October 27th, 2008The reach of the K12online conference this year has been staggering. After just over a week of its launch we’ve been making so many connections around the globe due to the catalytic effect of keynotes and presentations from the conference. The interdisciplinary nature of the conference speaks to the need for all educators to embrace new technologies and techniques in their practice, but beyond this so many new conversations have literally erupted around how to reach teachers who are not yet aware of all of the tools that they have at their disposal, and how the digital divide will continue to grow unless we can reach our teachers and students with these tools. In Shanghai, we’re using the concept of LAN parties to publicize the materials from the conference, and over in Doha Julie Lindsay is using a parallel approach to bring awareness to local teachers. The connections are growing, and participants are excited about all of the new possibilities that are being shared. Beyond this, there are teachers you work with who may not have been affected by the veritable buzz that we’ve been experiencing. So why not focus on just one more teacher that you can influence and share this knowledge with? It’s always easy to remain enthusiastic and focused when you’re ‘preaching to the converted’, but what if every one of us could find just one more teacher in our sphere of influence that we could help or inspire with the stories that we’ve discovered through this experience?
