In my quest to enhance language acquisition and improve student engagement, my capstone project has evolved from that of the first semester. Initially being unfamiliar with the different methods of research available, I proposed something simple and specific that I thought could be measured in a mathematical type of way. I was interested in the Quizlet app and chose to make that the focus of my research, to see if it helped students learn better and more easily. I opted to teach students one set of new vocabulary using only traditional teaching methods and then teach them another set, this time using the Quizlet app and Quizlet Live as well, to see if there was any difference in their test scores. My thinking was that students might enjoy playing the games and so therefore might play them in their own time to help reinforce their vocabulary learning. When surveyed, students did say that they used the Quizlet app in their own time, but most only used it the night before a test, as opposed to on a regular daily/weekly basis. It was only as I got more involved in my project & realized that I could measure how students were feeling about their learning through a survey that I decided that it would be better to broaden the depth of my research.
For my capstone my focus is now on educational technology and music and how it aids language acquisition and enhances learning by engaging & motivating students more. Over the course of several weeks, students were introduced to a variety of different apps to see if this would help them acquire new vocabulary. They continued to use Quizlet but also used Quizizz, Educreations, Flipgrid to upload videos, iMovie to make videos and Adobe Spark and Screencast-o-matic for presentations. In addition, for the music portion, students listened to several songs in the target language and were given the lyrics with missing words for them to fill in. I was hoping that through listening to music that students’ pronunciation of words might improve and that they might remember some of the song words as they were associated with music. This culminated in them choosing their own song, selecting 15 of its key vocabulary words, presenting them using Adobe Spark and making a karaoke video of their song. Throughout my research I have talked things through with my Department chair, and I really feel that the audience for my capstone project is mainly going to be fellow teachers & educators, as I am hoping that they will use the results of my research to enhance the experience that they give to their own students in the classroom. I have talked in depth to my Department chair about what she would need from me, to help her implement more tech tools into her classroom. Our Department as a whole also has discussed making a tech goal for next year, although some seemed a little reluctant, so I think that I still have to win them over! Small steps. It is so important for us to show our colleagues the difference that flipping the classroom, individualizing learning and using more tech tools to engage our students can make. Society is changing so much and education needs to evolve with it if we are to meet our students’ needs.
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Studying for a Masters in Innovative Learning has truly been a voyage of discovery for me, especially with regard to the educational technology tools out there for educators. Initially my goal was to add some tech tools to my tool box, but since starting the course, my goals have increased and become more concrete. I feel that having studied this course it is my job to impart some of the knowledge I have learned to my colleagues in the hope that they and their students can also benefit from it. My school is currently looking to educate teachers in how they might deal better with ‘digital days’ which occur because of circumstances beyond our control; therefore, I am going to show my video detailing the best tech tools from EDU702 and try and inform my peers how to best use some of the technology. In the course requirements it states that “The intent of this course is the discovery of knowledge and the cultivation of insight as the foundation for the design of a significant instructional module / web presence and the research plan to reinforce that design.” I am excited to commence this final part of our Masters but also find it a little daunting too. I am worried about whether I have enough data, or if I have everything that I need to be able to work on this project effectively. Over the course of these past 2 semesters, I have found my fellow cohort members to be great people to work with. I always feel supported and love the fact that I can reach out and bounce ideas off of them, because it always helps so much! I am hoping that this will continue over the summer and that we will also have more opportunities to meet with each other face to face so that we can work more cohesively and help each other reach our goals together.
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