PART D - Findings and Implications

Formative:  I think that my project was implemented as well as it could have been under the circumstances that I do not have a teaching job and have never had a teaching job.  I created a wikispace that I shared with world language teachers and my friends who went to school to be world language teachers. On the wikispace, I created individual pages for each resource. On each page there was a description of the resources, ways that it can be used in the world language classroom, an example of the resource being used and a start-up sheet. The start-up sheet was a “how to” use the resource for any content area teacher. I then created a survey that gave me feedback about the specific tools in regards to their friendliness as well as teachers’ opinions about language acquisition and the resources on the wikispace. I hopefully addressed a problem that I know many world language teachers face. I hope that I was able to give ideas for teachers to give more opportunities in safe environments for their students to speak in.

Summative: The survey helped me to get the opinions of the teachers. In regards to the resources, the teachers ranked Lingt Language, VoiceThread, Audio Dropbox and Conversations to be the most student-friendly. I agree with these rankings. The students do not have to email anything or send it like they would in resources like Vocaroo, everything goes to the teacher through the tool. The teachers ranked Conversation, Audio Dropbox, Lingt Language and VoiceThread the most teacher-friendly resources. I definitely agree because while I think VoiceThread is a good resource, it can be difficult for some to create a presentation. Tools like Voki and Blabberize do not allow the teacher to come up with too many creative ideas that are very rigorous. All of the participatnts would definitely use some of the resources in the classroom and they would also share the wikispace with their colleagues. All of the teachers agreed that the start-up sheets helped, which is something that gives me gratification because I may not be there to help teach them the resource, but I was able to help them to understand it better. 

It was also gratifying to see that the teachers agreed that the resource would increase oral proficiency and that the resources would help to extend the language use outside of the classroom. The teachers strongly agreed that the resources would help make students more comfortable speaking in the target language, better assess oral proficiency, monitor student growth and increase the rigor of the class. In regards to students, it is very important to me that they feel comfortable speaking in the target language. Not all classroom environment are "safe" and many teachers can be discouraging. After being a very comfortable speak in high school and the beginning of college, I had a professor like this and I eventually stopped speaking in class. I think it is something that many students struggle with, especially trying to speak in a near native accent. It was important that the teachers could assess oral competency, monitor student growth as well as increase oral proficiency.  

I am glad that I asked this question and I was surprised to see that the description of the resource was the most helpful component, followed by how to use the resource and then the start-up sheets and examples earned the same ranking. I know that I learn best by giving a description of the activity, what is expected and then seeing an example of it. I am sure that the description helped because the teachers were able to see what the resource was about briefly and then it intrigued them. They were probably more interested once they saw the ways to use it and then the start-up sheets and example helped to tie everything together. 

I think that if I were to complete the project again, I would try to figure out a project that would be more conducive to not having a job. I am not sure how realistic this is, so I would want to be more focused and specific with my project from the beginning. I think that my project did not gain specificity until Part C and I was not able to explain everything as clear as I would have liked to, especially in Part B.

I think that trying to help teachers was the best route for me since I do not have students to work with so if I were put into the same situation in my current situation, I would have done the same thing. I would want to address my problem and solution completely at teachers of not necessarily one content area. I would like to find a problem that many different content teachers have and figure out a solution that would help more teachers.

I think that there were many lessons learned. I think that the more specific and concrete you can be in your vision for the project and the steps along the way, the better the project will turn out. I think that I was able to find a variety or resources that shared some similarities, but I do not think that seven was too overwhelming of a number. I think that it was better to find fewer resources and go more in depth with them than finding many resources and being too brief. If I had 20 resources, I would be very overwhelmed as a teacher looking at them, especially if I wasn't familiar with any. The teachers were able to get a feel and understanding for the resources because of the examples, description, ways it can be implemented and the start-up sheets. I know that teachers do not have all the time in the world and they would not be able to sit down and look at 20 tools with all of the supplemental resources and be able to make sense of it all.