1. LiveMocha
i. What is possible
-offer online language program with foreign partners (or native speakers) over the world giving and taking exercise reviews (receiving feedback on submission)
-more than one language is possible
-be possible for learners to manage their own pace in practicing English.
-offer interactive English learning with people from all around the world
-offer self-study lessons
-answering learners’ questions through the LiveMocha chatting system
-offer award-winning English teaching method
-video conversations
-role play to focus on speaking and listening
-download audios and videos
ii. What is not possible
-not create group networks (like relationship between learners and partners)
-not offer customer’s own posting photos and videos
-not find friends who customer knows
-not provide social networks, only English practice programs
-not share customers’ experience with more of their friends
2. Facebook
i. What is possible
--find friends who coustomes knows
- share the Facebook experience with more of customers’ friends
- upload and tag videos of customers and their friends on Facebook
- use webcam to record customer themselves in a video message and send it to other friends
- send mobile videos via email or MMS to customers’ personal upload addresses
- create photo albums with comments and photo-tagging to share photos with friends and family — no matter where customers are
-create new group and join it depending on people’s own interests
-create events like friends’ events, past’s events and birthday
ii. What is not possible
-not provide well-organized English learning programs
-not provide chatting place
3. Ning
i. What is possible
-create customers’ own social network
-create My Page and visit friends’ Pages
-upload and tag photos and videos of customers and their friends giving rating and comments
-held discussion forum
-add events and blogs
-call chatting with invited members
-see others programs doing chatting
-send broadcast message
-manage gift store uploading custom gifts, and participating in revenue sharing
-see latest activities
-post music (Podcasts)
iii. What is not possible
-not offer organized language practice programs
-not offer find friends option
-not create groups with their interests
4. Suggestions for how I can use each of these sites with my students
i. with LiveMocha
-I will recommend LiveMocha program to my students suggesting that they log in and practice English with native or foreign speakers from over the world in this site. This site will be beneficial for them in terms of being familiar with foreign speakers in real life in a virtual world, building confidence in using and improving English
-I have them find and choose their partners by themselves for receiving feedback on submission (at their discretion-autonomous learning) – self-study and self-evaluation with their partner
-I collect some English activities for them to finish as for monitoring and checking them. (I will give awards as additional points; I will check and mark their works online)
-There is a requirement that all students should have their own foreign or native partners for them to check students’ English practice.
ii. with Facebook
-I can just introduce Facebook to my students to use it for fun and pleasure with their friends within a short time as I worry about their long spending times there like Cyworld in Korea considering Korean Educational environment. But I will not use Facebook for my class as an Educational purpose, especially for students under University because they should be under the control by teachers due to their lack of time management with it. (There is high possibility for them to surf it to be fun all the time with their peer groups.)
iii. with Ning
-I will use Ning as an educational course management sending out assignments (including texts, posting images or photos, and videos related to topic), receiving them and giving feedback.
-I will use Ning for students under University, but in case of university students or other same level of people I will prefer Moodle as it is rather closer to the classroom course management for higher level of students in education.
LiveMocha - Excellent review of possibilities.
답글삭제Facebook - Does have text chat, but not audio/video (at least not that I am aware of).
Ning - Yes, you can create groups. This is how I break up groups within a class and I have used it to break up classes within a program-wide implementation of Ning.
Ning - I like your view for using LiveMocha with your class. It uses it as a loose assessment system where you check some of their work and allow/encourage them to do more with the additional functions. One thing you can add is a requirement to connect with another user of the site (native or non-native English speaker). This requirement can push them not only to create a relationship with another English speaker, but also requires that they use English to do so.
Facebook - I somewhat agree with your opinion. Facebook is not really a good system for language learning. While there are many things that it can be used for, I don't think that structured learning is good there. Nor do I think that students will go out of their existing networks to "friend" and communicate with English language learners/speakers.
Ning - Ning is anything you want it to be. It's very flexible. However, if you are tryig to track students' use of the system, Moodle is certainly better in that respect. In addition, Moodle provide more classroom-related functions. Those who advocate Ning would say that those classroom-related functions are a problem. They add too much formality to the environment and hinder the natural acquisition of the language. I see both points, but from a practical standpoint, Moodle is a better course management system (that's what it was made for). Ning should be used for loosely structured tasks, sharing, and more social interactions (use of the language for non-schooly purposes).
Good job.
Dan