Global Cultural Learning Using Mobile Devices (ISTE Mobile MegaShare Presentation)

Based on my presentation at ISTE 2014 Mobile Megashare

Why teach about other countries?

Location: Large view to small on maps.

Culture or culture.

Find six similarities in a  mobile picture from another culture (“Wars are caused by differences, not similarities.”-Tuttle.)

Tell one piece of information from each different Internet visual from a place in that country.

Have students do a Visual Analysis and Interpretation (Literal; Inference; and Value) for visuals from another country.  Use Flickr to find current images.

Analyze the same topic by looking at pictures from various countries in the same continent.

Have students interview a person from another country for a specific topic about her/his country and record on mobile.

Avoid visual and verbal stereotypes and overcome existing ones.

More important to know how to interact with others that when that country’s battle for independence was. Find daily cultural customs at http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/country-profiles.html

What attitude will your students have about the people of the country after the lesson/unit?

My Modern Language Blog:

http://bit.ly/imprml  

My newest book, English Common Core Mobile Activities, 150+  mobile activities organized by ELA CCSS Anchor Statements Grades 6-12 (can adapt up or down). For Android and iPad, mostly free easy to use apps.   Pair and small group work.   7.99 at http://bit.ly/tsmash

English Common Core Mobile Activities

Using Mobile Learning to Become World Citizens

How  mobile  are our students  in terms of their interactions with others through their mobile devices?

How much of  a student’s  learning involves
___ other students in the class?
___ other  classes within the school?
___ other schools within the district?
___ people in the community?
___ people in other parts of the state?
___ people in other states?
___ people in another country?
___ people from several countries?

If  we want our  students to be world citizens,  then we have to structure their mobile  learning to broaden their scope of interactions.  When they use mobile devices, they  can have access to others inside and outside the classroom.

One easy way to expand a mobile  learning activity is to think of the essential question for that learning.  Essential questions are universal.  Three quick examples:
– Do Grocery Store math in which students do real math based on actual prices in other places.  Each class “buys” certain items and post the name of the  item and its price and then make up problems.  María is planning a party but she only has $30. What  and how much of each can she buy for the party from this list of food and prices from our area.
– Have an international art gallery in which students from various countries exhibit  their art about family. Through QR codes, they either explain their art or show how it was made.  They can peer critic each other.
– Social Studies students from different states or countries  present the geography of their area and its impact on the history of the area. The students compare and contrast the geography and its impact from the places. Students can show the geography and its impact through taking pictures /movies and narrating the impacts that they show.

I have developed many  Spanish activities that allow students to begin to express themselves and to begin to move toward spontaneous speaking as in a natural conversation.  My Spanish spontaneous speaking activities (20+) includes Modified Speed Dating (Students ask  a question from a card-whole class), Structured Speaking (Students substitute in or select words to communicate in pairs),  Role Playing (Students talk as people in pictures or drawing from 2-4 people) and Speaking Mats (Can talk using a wide variety of nouns, verbs and adjectives to express their ideas- pairs or small group),  Spontaneous Speaking (based on visuals or topics in pairs),  and Grammar speaking games (pairs or small group). Available for a nominal fee at Teacherspayteachers:  http://bit.ly/tpthtuttle

My three formative assessment books:   http://is.gd/tbook

Ideas Worth Spreading TED

Covey wrote about the need to sharpen our saw. TED certainly sharpens our mental saw.  TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.  We learn from the passionate speakers at TED.   TED allows us to enter new worlds of thinking; we can  think bigger, think in new ways and make more connections.   TED speakers cover diverse topics such as  the world’s best whistler, the sound of the universe, the birth of a baby’s word, mesh, saving streams and rivers, using art to turn the world inside out, printing a human kidney, the new feminism, curating humanity’s culture, etc.  TED does reignite wonder!

If you have not visited  the TED website or have not watched a TED video recently, go and watch any of these under 20 minute videos.  Pick a video at random.

I’ve started a sharpening-the-saw regime of watching one random TED video a day. I daily share insights from these videos with family and friends.  From watching TED videos, my little world of thought become bigger!

Will  you enlarge your world of thought through TED?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.