Cong-Kai Jin

Readings #1-5 Reflection for EDCI 750 Emerging Technologies Spring 2016
1. November, A. & Mull, B. (2011). How Twitter Can Be Used as a Powerful Educational Tool,
http://novemberlearning.com/assets/how-twitter-can-be-used-as-a-powerful-educational-tool.pdf
As we will be using Twitter quite a bit in class I thought we could start off with a article on using
Twitter as an educational tool.
A. What are three important points that you took away from the article?
B. Explain three ways you could use Twitter to help you in teaching and learning.

The three major take-away to me are that:

There are three essential skills set that teacher should have in order to build their
own personal learning networks to be global:
1. Teachers should be able to leverage their PLN to bring the challenge of
authentic conversation to their students.
2. Teachers should be able to use social media to connect their students to realworld problems.
3. Educators should powerful role models and provide examples of how to use
the most powerful social media tools to expand the boundaries of learning.
The role and knowledge of the educator is more important than ever in
understanding how to use these tools to bring authentic experiences to our
students.
Twitter can be used as a way to connect globally and to share learning
opportunities.
It seems to me that the point of using twitter as well as other social media as the
platform for instructional purpose is mainly about knowing how to ask the right
questions with the right timing. I am a believer in task-based learning. Given
Twitter could help us connect and share, instructors like me could utilize Twitter to
create interesting tasks with real-life relevance, so as to allow learners to find a
solution and resolve a problem. Using Twitter by asking the right questions with the
right timing would allow learners to engage not only in quality solitary learning, but
also inspiring brain-storming, team-working, and group discussion during the entire
learning process.
However, I wonder if there is other approach to use Twitter besides task-based
learning? Is there any other appropriate ways to utilize Twitter for instructional
purpose?
Bottom line: social media enable instructors and learners all alike to connect, share
and learn.

Cong-Kai Jin
2. Moore, B. (2014). BYOD Considerations for K12 Schools,
http://www.k12blueprint.com/sites/default/files/k12-byod-considerations-analyst-report.pdf
A. What are three important points that you took away from the article?
B. Explain how you think schools in your grades (elementary, secondary or college)
should take advantage of BYOD in the classroom. Or explain why they should not take
advantage of BYOD.
C. Explain how your school is (or is not) doing in regard to BYOD at your school.

3 major take-away form the article:

Professional developments, new way of thinking, new curriculum resources, are
some of the most important considerations when using BYOD. But above all, BYOD
is not just a technology program, it actually represents a significant changes in
teaching and learning.
Personalization comes in the design and delivery of instruction and with the level of
student empowerment in their learning experiences. However, allowing students to
bring and all devices will negatively impact learning because not all devices are
ideally suited for digital learning.
Given that students will want to bring their own devices to school, while BYOD offers
many opportunities, the educational community need to think through issues and
possible unintended consequences carefully.
Being a language instructor, I believe BYOD will certainly promote language
instruction, especially for students to access to authentic materials of the target
language. The best scenario of using BYOD in language training is definitely
standardized 1:1 model, i.e., every student receives school issued tablets and
laptops such that they enjoy free and full access to the learning content provided by
the instructors. Since this scenario requires abundant funding for implementation, I
saw only a few cases by some professional institutions using this standardized BYOD
1:1 model, and the results of using this model in language training are certainly
amazing.
Since I am not a school teacher and often have only a small group of 4 to 5 adult
students, I enjoy more freedom allowing learners to use their own devices to search,
communicate, collaborate, and create in order to complete the assigned tasks
learning the language. It is my understanding that the renowned Defense Language
Institute (DLI) is taking 1:1 BYOD approach as all students received governmentissued devices and laptops, and it indeed enables students learning of the target
language. Since DLI students are given the best, they are expected to to do best. AS
a matter of fact, their performance really proves they deliver the best.
It seems to me that digital divide remains a conspicuous issue for educators
nowadays who strive to make technology an enabler for instructional purpose. I
wonder how the device and technology would benefit our students, understanding
device and technology are already powerful media and instructional platform, if

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they could not afford the device, access the content, or are experiencing problems
using the device due to low bandwidth in the first place? I think we need to
address the problem of underconnectibility before we could really achieve the
goal of utilizing technology to create equal learning opportunity for all.
I think the best scenario of implementing BYOD is that all students could afford, or
are provided with, their own devices and sufficient bandwidth to access the
information rich Internet. Most important of all, not only should instructors strive to
design the ideal lessons, such that all students could benefit from it by using
various and ever-evolving learning technology, but also to create and sustain the
user-friendly learning environment in which students would not encounter
frustrating experience such as lagging or even broken Internet connection.

3. November, A. (2015). Clearing the Confusion between Technology Rich and Innovative Poor: Six
Questions, http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-andlearning-articles/clearing-confusion-technology-rich-innovative-poor-six-questions/
A. Provide a short response with your thoughts on the reading.
B. Think about one of your assignments that you have given to students. Is it Technology
Rich and Innovative Poor? Ask the six questions to yourself. Then provide a brief
explanation of the project and write some thoughts about how you will implement changes
(caused by the consideration of the 6 questions) to improve the assignment, next time you
offer it.

Please have your first response by Wednesday so others can respond to your initial
response. I hope this causes you to think deeper about one of your assignments.

Alan Novembers six questions set to clear the confusion between

technology rich and innovative poor are right to the point. I always ask
myself what I can deliver to my students with regard to teaching foreign
language by using modern mobile device and evolving learning technology,
given the fact that there are so many new and eye-dazing applications
popping up in the market every day. And I have my own set of criteria
regarding how to implement and screen the learning technology to be used
in my lesson plan.
I believe we as educators should build up some criteria and rubric in order to
examine our lesson design and to select the appropriate technology meeting
the requirement of assisting our instruction. Most important of all, the

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bottom line is to avoid such situation what Alan November described as

amusing ourselves to death with 1,000 apps.
One of the assignments I gave my students is to compare the holidays in
China and in the United States. Students are required to communicate and
collaborate with each other, to use critical-thinking skills to search, evaluate,
and analyze the information acquired from the Internet, then to create the
package to be presented to the rest of the class. Affordability and
accessibility are also my consideration when choosing appropriate
applications for students to use in the given tasks.
After reading Alan Novembers piece and six questions for self-reflection, I
think I could improve my lesson plan by providing better instruction on
developing more effective skill in searching Internet resources. Meanwhile,
understanding students interests in the culture and people who speaks the
target language are the genuine motivation of learning a foreign language, I
will try further to promote my students interest in learning foreign culture
and language to the level of be more willing to do their part and make
contribution to the prosperity and interests of international community and
the United States.
Recap Alan Novembers Criteria:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Critical-thinking
Inquiry skill
Making thinking visible
Broaden perspective and engage with conversations with authentic
audiences from around the world.
5. Create contribution
6. Showing the best in the world
I cant agree more that thoughtful and honest personal reflection is one of
the most useful things a teacher can do. It happened very often that, even
with the same curriculum, same lesson plans, same student age group with
similar knowledge background, each class will react differently to what they
were taught. It seems to me that at the end of the day, it is up to the
instructors themselves to fine tune the lesson, learning environment,
teaching materials, i.e., the entire teaching/learning context at that specific
timing, to achieve the desirable teaching goals and to maximize the learning
results. I think the only way we as instructors could adapt to this dynamics is
conducting thoughtful and honest reflection, such that the prudent and
deliberated instruction could be given after our own set of critical thinking.

Cong-Kai Jin

4. Rainie, L., Funk, C. & Anderson, M. (2015). There are four connected articles from Pew Research
A. How Scientists Engage the Public. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/02/15/howscientists-engage-public/
B. Scientists Views: Most Approve of Active Role in Public Debates About Science and
Technology, http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/02/15/scientists-views-most-approve-ofactive-role-in-public-debates-about-science-and-technology/
C. How Scientists Engage, http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/02/15/how-scientists-engage/
D. Appendix: About the AAAS Scientists Survey,
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/02/15/appendix-about-the-aaas-scientists-survey/
Questions:
a) What are your thoughts on how scientists are using social media & digital
communication tools?
b) What do you think about scientists becoming active in public debate on issues of
science and technology?
c) How does the idea of scientists using social media for engagement on subjects and for
professional development impact the way we teach students to use social media & digital
communication tools? What should we be doing in regard to instruction in social media?

How Scientists Engage the Public is a very interesting survey, conducted

by the renowned Pew Research Center in 2015, with the findings that
American scientists believe they face a challenging environment and it is
important to participate in policy debates and engagement with citizens and
journalists; and 47% of the scientists surveyed use social media to discuss or
follow science, 24% of the scientists every blog about science and research.
My first thought after reading the survey was are scientists perceived good
at communicating with the public? Well, the general stereotype on scientists
suggests that they are probably not so good in communicating with the
public. Furthermore, although communication is one of the means to
achieve better mutual understandings, whether the communication is
effective enough will have a major impact on the final result. Ineffective
communication is not better than no communication
Regardless, the survey result demonstrates whether American scientists are
good at communicating with the public or not, at least most of them
recognized the trend of a changing society and the importance of
communication, and they are using social media to close the gap of under- or
even miscommunication. This is not to say American scientist could change
or even to shape the perception of general public over night by starting
using social media and blogs to communicate with the public, as most
scientists see science news coverage both an opportunity and a problem for

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science at the same time. And scientists think the science is too hard for the
public to comprehend, and thus they believe the public tends to oversimplify
the scientific findings and this is a major problem for science in general.
Nonetheless, the fact is that American scientists, especially those of younger
age group, are using social media to engage the public and various content,
not only for communication, but also for self-development, on their specialty
or non-specialty areas.
Just as Marshall McLuhan described all mediaare extensions of man. Such
an extension is an intensification, an amplification of an organ, sense or
function, media do not necessarily cause learning, but media do influence
learning, especially with regard to the scale and mode of learning. I believe
media are enabler, amplifier, and multiplier of learning. By utilizing learning
technology, instructors should deliberate ideal approach to facilitate the
interaction between learners and modern media, such that media could
make learning happen faster, easier, deeper, more cost effective, and come
with more significant and deliverable results.
Therefore, it seems to me the bottom line is: we as educators should keep
asking how we could use technology and social media to promote learning,
not only of our students but also of ourselves.
I think most discussions, debates, and arguments on integrating technology
with instruction are focusing on why and how. In this regard, social
media definitely plays a major role in promoting communication and
collaboration not only in their personal business, but also in the instructional
setting. As far as I am concerned, I do not see that scientists are only using
social media to communicate/educate the general public, but that social
media is literally a media between scientists and the general public: social
media helps scientist and the general public to communicate with each
other, to learn from each other, to understand what each other really cares
about. So it is a two-way street. On the other hand, for the instructional
purpose, we as instructor should better deliberate more effective and
efficient methodology why and how we could use technology, including social
media, to assist our instruction from every possible aspect.
5. Seven Ways Games Reward the Brain, by Tom Chatfield
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html
We are going to TED to watch a presentation by Tom Chatfield. Watch the presentation and read
some of the comments.
A. Discuss three of the seven ways that games reward the brain. Discuss how you can use
these traits to improve learning in the classroom. Think of activities that you can do to
incorporate and how they will improve learning.

Cong-Kai Jin
B. Respond to your peers and try to improve their ideas.

Multiple long- term and short- term aims:

As a foreign language instructor, I always design tasks that are achievable and have
Real-life relevance, so the learners could master the language skills in speaking,
listening, reading and writing that could reward the learners with a sense of
achievement. Language, among other things, is one of the subject matters that
require measurement based on level and experience scales.
Reward for effort:
Just as Tom Chatfield argued, students should be credited for everything they try
and do. Learners are rewarded for continuing attempting to resolve the problem.
The bottom line is to reward for progress, and not punish learners/players for lack of
progress.
Constant, clear, frequent feedback from instructors and from other players/learners:
I believe thats the core for popularity of online playing now. Learners/players
constant received feedback from peer players, so learners could coordinate and
improve their action/moving/learning as a group to better achieve the target or task
at hand more efficiently and effectively. Arguably it can be said as the most
productive way of collaboration by a peer group of learners/players nowadays in
gaming community.
I think gamification of teaching/learning has much to do with amplification of the
emotion of fun, interesting, rewarding experience when one is playing a good game,
which is never a frustrating experience. The game-over in a good game does not
mean failure, but mean yet-to-succeed. Therefore, gamification of learning has
connection with the research of dopamine and educational psychology. The end
goal is to make learning fun and rewarding, so the learners positive emotion could
help bring in more in-depth learning.
I also love the pick of experience bar measuring learning, uncertainty, and other
people from the Seven Ways Games Reward the Brain by Tom Chatfield, which, by
the way, is totally different from my original pick. When talking about benefits of
gamification of learning, I always examined how gamification could benefit the 4Cs
in our classrooms, i.e., communication, collaboration, critical-thinking, and creation.
With that in mind, experience bar measuring learning could promote
learners/players to master the skill, arguably a creation of their won skill set;
because of uncertainty, learners/players must use critical-thinking skills to apply,
analyze, and evaluate the given context, progress, and information at hand so as to
decide what action to take for the next stage; and most important of all, other
people is the ultimate focus of learners/player for learning communication and

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collaboration, and this is especially true in the setting of MMORPG. For that, I think
the aforementioned pick of gamification could pretty much fit in the merits of
maximizing 4Cs capabilities of our students.