The Facebook one

Day 19 of Blogtember. Can you believe Monday is the last day? But today... An anonymous letter to your Facebook friends. Be as snarky as you'd like. (but don't include people's real names.) 

It turns out that I don't actually have a whole lot of stored up animosity regarding Facebook. I have long since blocked or unfriended all the people that annoy me most, so now Facebook is a mostly peaceful and enjoyable place. 

BUT. Things that will get you blocked or unfriended by me:

- Too many political posts, in either direction. Election time is the absolute worst. It is exactly what is wrong with social media - too many un-censored zealots in dire need of an editor and maybe a Xanex or two. SHUT UP.

- This is too obvious, I know, but people that post way too many photos of their babies/children will also earn themselves a nice swift blocking. We all know your kids are cute and you love them immensely. But we don't need to see 7 terrible cell phone pics of them per day, mmkay?

- Poor grammar. I can't help it. Bad grammar and spelling are the virtual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard to me. And I can't help but judge you a little.

- Silent stalkers. The people that are always on, a "like" at the ready (IF that), but never have anything to say or share for themselves. I don't really know why this bothers me, but it does. I guess it just seems a little TOO voyeuristic, if you're so keen to peek in on all your friends' lives but never willing to share anything of your own, or even reach out to others with a text, email, or an actual nice comment (which, yes, might take thought).  

- Slutty selfies will also earn you a swift blocking. I have no idea why so many girls feel the need to post constant photos of themselves in bikinis or low cut shirts. It just screams "LOOK AT ME I NEED ATTENTION AND VALIDATION." How about getting attention for doing something good or worthwhile or useful, eh?

- Passive aggression and/or cryptic postings that don't actually say anything but just inject negativity into the universe. BIG pet peeve.

Phew. Felt good to get that off my chest. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to say for this one... share your letters in the linkup below! And have a great weekend! :)

The post written in a coffee shop... except not.

So, I DID go to a coffee shop for day 18 of Blogtember. I ordered myself a cinnamon-vanilla latte, and I sat down at a table to enjoy said latte and write my post... and then, and only then, did it occur to me that I completely forgot to bring my laptop. Super bright of me, right? I'm still scratching my head over that one.

Now I feel like a big fat phony, and I can't write a post here at home that was meant to have been written in a coffee shop. It's just not the same. But you should watch this video. It will probably make your day.

CHEATER

Did you know there are only three more days of Blogtember?! So proud of all you who've stuck with me this long! Today's prompt is to write about a time you screwed up - a mistake you made.

Last time I can recall, I was in about 1st grade.

Kidding! But I did majorly screw up and cheat on a spelling test back then. To this day, it's one of my most vivid memories. I guess I wasn't prepared for the test, so I filled out a sheet with all the correctly spelled words, and placed it on the ground beside my chair (I was home-schooled at that point, so I did my work at the kitchen table). I remember my heart pounding in my chest, and feeling so nervous that my mom would catch me. I was probably acting pretty unnatural, and of course also kept sneaking peeks at the paper on the ground during the test.  I totally got caught and spanked, and I felt horrible, HORRIBLE, afterwards.  Like such a disappointment.

I've never liked breaking rules, since then. Of course there was another small bout with cheating in 9th grade geometry class... me and my friends may or may not have written formulas on our thighs and peeked at them during tests (we wore those God-awful plaid private school skirts), HOWEVER, I never got caught for that and geometry is bullshit anyway. Probably the worst subject of all time, and I knew I had no future where the Pythagorean Theorem was concerned. Quite frankly, I don't even feel bad.

But mistakes. I feel like I'm one of those people who really does live their life tiptoeing around them. I try to never make mistakes, though of course sometimes I still do. All I know now is that the mistakes I have made have always, always made me a better person and taught me a valuable lesson. So in that sense,  mistakes aren't so bad sometimes, if you don't abuse your privilege to make them.

Share your links below, if you're participating in Blogtember! :)

Evaluating authentic mobile apps for learning

Back in April 2013 I delivered a workshop at the IATEFL 2013 conference in Liverpool. The topic of the workshop was 'Criteria for Evaluating Web Tools and Apps' and in the workshop I encouraged participants to share and explore their subconscious criteria for deciding which apps and web based tools they used with their students.

I particularly encouraged them to think about 'authentic' apps rather than those made for learning. This is because in many ways I feel that most made for learning apps have made very little pedagogical progress beyond their roots in CALL from the last century.

I also believe that encouraging students to get 'hands on' with authentic apps has a much more important role in helping them to develop digital literacies which they can use outside of the classroom.

As a result of that workshop and the research that developed from it I've now developed this list of criteria for evaluating mobile apps for educational purposes.

Here I've divided the criteria into 4 categories and given some explanation of each. I welcome your comments and feedback as this is still very much a work in progress.

Technical

Accessibility - Will all the students have the necessary equipment to use it? Will it work across all / most mobile platforms and also work within a desktop web browser?

• Unless teachers are working in a teaching environment where a uniform set of physical devices are provided for students, such as a complete set of iPads or Android tablets, then they need to check carefully that all the variety of devices that their students possess are all supported. The safest way to ensure this is to check to see if the app also has a browser based version, so that students without up-to-date mobile devices will still be able to participate.

User friendly - Will students be able to learn how to use it reasonably quickly?

• Apps that are complex and take a long time to master may not be worth the commitment. Teachers need to ensure that they plan how to teach the students how to use the apps in a reasonable amount of time or have a strategy for gradually uncovering more features of an app as they develop more activities with it.

Registration - Do students need to register to use it?

• Getting students and teachers to register and remember passwords can be laborious and time consuming, so apps that don’t require registration and particularly those which run in the browser on mobile or desktop can be very convenient to use. Registration does however offer students more protection and makes any potential misuse or mischief trackable back to its source.

Security - Is the app secure?

• Although it can be difficult and time consuming to check, teachers need to determine that the app is secure and the creators will treat their students data and personal information responsibly and confidentially. If there is any form of social interaction enabled through the app teachers need to check if there is any mechanism or process for blocking and reporting abuse.

Financial

Price - Is it free or affordable?

• One of the great advantages of apps is that many are free, freemium (have both a free and a commercial version) or are quite low cost. Having said that, even if low cost apps are being used it needs to be decided who will pay for them, especially if each student in the class needs one.

Business model - Is there a business model to support the app? Is it clear how it makes money?

• Every app producer needs to make money somehow, so it is important to identify the business model supporting the development of an app. Although teachers and students are keen to use free apps, apps that have no visible business model may be generating money through advertising or by trading data. An app that has no visible means of financial support, may have a very short life span, rapidly become unreliable, and fail to develop and evolve due to lack of funds.

Motivational

Digital literacy - Does learning and using the app help students to develop a useful or transferable digital literacy?

• Just using an app in itself doesn’t necessarily constitute developing a digital literacy. The use of the app must in some way develop a digital skill that can be transferred outside of the learning context and used in some authentic way either in the workplace or as part of the students’ lifestyle.

Authenticity - Does it have an authentic purpose beyond language learning? Is it an app that a native speaker would use for a genuine purpose outside of a classroom?

• Apps that are motivating for native speakers to use for a genuine purpose should also be motivating for language learners for that same purpose, so authentic apps that involve some sort of linguistic input or output are ideally suited to language teaching purposes.

Personalization - Does the app enable user to express some aspect of who they are and what they believe?

• It’s important that language learners have the opportunity to use language creatively to express something of their own personality or identity. Apps which support this kind of creativity can be potentially very useful.

Pedagogical

Learning goal / outcome - Is there a a possible learning outcome that use of the app will lead to?

• Using an app is not in and of itself a learning outcome. Use of the app needs to lead towards some form of learning goal. In some cases it can be easy to see what learning goals can be achieved through using the app, at other times teachers may need to think carefully what learning outcomes can be achieved through building activities which include the use of an app.

Interaction / communication - Does it support interaction and communication between users?

• Apps which are developed around social interaction and communication are much more likely to be able to find a useful place in the language classroom and should be easier to base tasks around as communication naturally fits with the aims of language acquisition.

Prolonged use - Does the app need prolonged use to achieve a satisfactory outcome?

• Many apps are designed around short daily tasks build up over a period of time to achieve an outcome. If teachers choose to use these kinds of apps they need to factor this long term approach into their timetabling.

Assessment - Is the work on the app assessable by the teacher? Does the app support the delivery of teacher response and feedback?

• Students need to know that teachers are evaluating, assessing and responding to their work, so apps which can support this kind of teacher intervention can be potentially very useful.

Collaboration - Does the app support collaboration between users?

• The ability to collaborate on projects or producing some form of tangible outcome is viewed as being a potentially significant digital literacy so apps which foster these kinds of collaborative interactions in a meaningful ways have great potential.

Context - In what context would the app be useful? For whom is the app more useful?

• There are a number of different contexts in which apps can be used. Some may be more appropriate for use at home by the student, or in the class by students, whereas others could be more appropriately used by teachers for their own development or the development of content for students.

Reusable - Does the app have sufficient depth of purpose to support multiple activities and tasks?

• Many apps have great novelty value which can be motivating for students, but novelty can soon wear off, so it is wise to weigh the amount of benefit students gain from novelty apps against their potential for extended use and the amount of time it takes to download install and register them.

Learner autonomy - Can app be used independently outside of the class by the student to support some form of learning?

• Apps that can be used by students working independently may well help to foster a degree of learner autonomy if there is some in built learning outcome.

As I said, this is still a work in progress, and I did struggle with which criteria fell in to which of the categories and with the categories themselves, so all comments are welcome.

I hope you find these criteria helpful in evaluating the apps that you choose for your students.

Related links:

• Making lectures and lessons more interactive with mQlicker
• Creating interactive video on the iPad 
• Tools for learners
• Video communication apps and mobile learning
• Mix Images and Animation on Your Mobile 
• Peer editing in digital and mobile environments 
• Taking notes from the web on the iPad

Best

Nik Peachey

Lick

Day 16 of Blogtember: Review a book, place, or product.

I'm a little ashamed to be just now trying Lick, and it's almost October. I've heard rave reviews of this hopping little ice cream spot, so I've been dying to get the scoop. Pun intended.

Anyway, my mom and I checked it out, and I can honestly say this is the very best ice cream I've ever (eveerrr) had.  Such curious flavors, and every one we tried was so incredibly delicious! My favorite was Lemon Lavender, but Cardamom Pear Cake and Hill Country Honey & Vanilla Bean received very high marks as well. I'll be back to try all the other flavors. All of them. Thanks for being innovative and awesome, Lick! ;)

Life Lately

Day 15 of Blogtember: life lately.

I've sort of written a couple life lately posts in the last week or so... shame on me for not thinking ahead to today's post topic! But life, lately... is good. Really, really good. I am happy. Our house isn't ready yet, or anywhere near ready, but they started bricking the outside last week, and dropped off all the drywall, which was encouraging. Then it failed a few insulation inspections and it rained for like 50035973513 days, so of course more delays, more delays, more delays.

But I have my little family and I have my passion for the work I'm doing right now, and we've been blessed with our first set of incredibly beautiful fall mornings, and that is just a breath of fresh air.   There have been movies and popcorn and cuddling and date nights and coffee in bed each morning and new rules going forward to show love with conduct instead of just words. It's a good plan, and it's been working, and our lives are happier for it.

Hope you have a great Monday!

*Prior Blogtember link-ups are missing at the moment, but should be back online soon!

COMFORT

Today's Blogtember prompt: React to this term: comfort.

Oh, comfort. My life has not been comfortable in some areas lately. I'd rather not go into detail, but trust me on that one. There have been moments where everything comfortable for me has been threatened, has felt destroyed, has been in question. But so far I’ve learned that the times I’ve been most uncomfortable have also been the times I achieved the most growth in my life and in my relationships. Comfort is not something we should seek exclusively. Where is the adventure in that? Where is the becoming-better?  If you find the only decisions you’re ever making are comfortable ones, there may be some reevaluating in order.

It’s interesting that I would pick this particular prompt for this particular day in September, some weeks ago when I made the list. Interesting, indeed.

Comfort is a nice feeling, but you’d never know what it means to lie in a truly soft place unless you’d also experienced the opposite. Be grateful for discomfort in your life, as well as comfort, because they really are two sides of the same coin, you know?

That's about the best I can come up with, for a Friday. :)

Tell us about what comfort means to you in the linkup below today's featured SOML sponsors... :)

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Miss Shanna writes a fabulous blog called Because Shanna Said So, and if you haven't heard of her yet, well... you might want to check and see if you're under a large rock! ;) Shanna is a wife and mama to two beautiful girls, an Austinite, and her blog features stories from her life and lots and lots of fantastic fashion inspiration. First get to know her a little better here, then browse some of her style posts here. You will fall in love with this lovely southern lady, I guarantee it. 

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

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Stunningly pretty Anna writes a blog called Happy Medley, and her story is quite unique. This lovely lady was born and raised in Russia, but her family moved to the states when she was a bit older - with only 8 suitcases to their name! Anna learned English, met a fellow Russian guy and started a family (how cute are they?), and she now writes a life and style blog full of "ideas for a happy and simple life." Drop in and say hello! :)

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HAPPY FRIDAY!