Ben McMurry

This isn't really a post about how to use Siri in the classroom. Well, it could be. This semester I have a deaf student in my class. He's fluent in Russian, Uzbek, American Sign Language, and Russian Sign Language. He's here to learn English. Communication with him involves an interpreter or a series of notes on paper. Enter Siri. After class, his interpreter had to leave but he still needed to talk. Honestly, I got tired of writing/typing everything. It was slow and annoying. I opened up notes on my ipad mini and started using Siri. I could say whatever I wanted and it would be written in real time. He would then type his response. It sped up our communication and was fun for both of us. Siri, thanks for making my job easier and enjoyable!

Help me win! Watch this video: I am participating in a competition in Instructional Design at BYU. The first part of the competition was pitching our product to a panel of judges. My team won! For the second part, whichever design team gets the most people to watch their pitch video wins an ipad. Please watch our video. I get 10 points for every unique state or country that views it and 1 point per person. Please tell your friends to watch it too. The deadline for the competition is April 7, 2011 at 11:59pm.

The Linguistics and English Language Department at BYU is sponsoring a lecture series on second language literacy. Today, Dana Ferris was the speaker. It was great to here her speak. She is a very intelligent person with a clear perception of the field. She provided some very helpful insights about teaching. She listed 10 things she feels are the most important in developing literacy. Extensive reading Vocabulary Development Text Selection Reading Strategies Reading/Writing Assessment Peer Response Teacher Feedback Grammar Instruction Written Corrective Feedback Collaboration Among Faculty One of the things that I enjoyed about her was her attitude toward working with others. She said we don't need be prideful and that we don't need to have a chip on a shoulder. We should be willing to work with English departments and all departments to help ESL student write better. This really stuck out to me. We, as ESL professionals, don't know everything. She also ...

This video was posted over at the Language Lab Unleashed blog . It was too good not to post here. According to their post this was written and intended to sound like English from the perspective of non-english speakers.

I recently did a Poster Session at an Apple Education Conference: AcademiX. It was a lot of fun. I thought that I would share what what I did. For more information you can look at the Poster Session PDF . Overview For starters, this is something that I did with my intermediate ESL students.  In order to help them with them learn the past tense, I gave them an assignment. The student videos were comprised of two parts. First, the students drew their story as if it were a comic. Second, the students narrated the story. Preparation 1. The students were divided into groups of four or five. 2. Each group was assigned one of the four topics: •    Frightening Experience - Fire •    Frightening Experience - Car accident •    Frightening Experience - Getting Lost •    Most Embarrassing Moment 3. Each group brainstormed to find a good story to tell for their assigned topic. 4. The students then began to take turns drawing pictures to go with their stories. 5. While not drawing, the other student...

This is the last in my TESOL series reporting on the 2009 conference. One thing that I did differently this year is that I spent more time networking and more time in the Electronic Village. As far as networking, I met some big names in CALL, like Phil Hubbard. That was good. I spent a lot of time talking with publishers. Part of this was me hoping to get a job offer somehow. I actually think that I wouldn't mind working for a publishing company. In the Electronic Village, I spent time talking to other tech gurus. It was fun. One of the highlights for me was the Hardware Fair. I finally got to get my hands on an OLPC. Great Idea, but I wasn't two impressed. It looks like a good idea for children in countries with poor economies. Really, wouldn't we be doing them a favor by providing something that has a more prolific OS. Even Ubuntu might be better. With the dropping prices in computers and the growing popularity of the netbook, the OLPC and Classmate may soon be a thing of...

I didn't go to that many sessions this year, but I would like to talk about a few. VoiceThread - I went to a great presentation on VoiceThread. VoiceThread is a web app that allows for group conversations around images, documents and videos. It seems like it might be a great tool for use with language learning. Audacity - This is a recording tool I have used before. I really didn't like it. I thought I would go to the presentation and see if my mind would change. It did. Audacity seems to be a program with hidden tools! I may use it again . . . or stick with garage band. Past, Present and Future of CALL - This was an interesting 'presentation.' It was done by a panel of past chairs of the CALL-IS. They each talked about CALL. Some talked about the past and others about the present. Many of them said that it is hard to envision the future. Most dreamed of practical technologies are here. I, however, thing that I can. What will we see is the unification of technology...

I really enjoyed TESOL this year. I won't talk about the things I didn't particulary like about the conference organization. I think that there were some problems that could have been devastating to my experience. I complained a lot about then, but I made sure I would have an awesome time at TESOL. How did I do it? Well, that's a good question. I took a different approach to TESOL this year. Previous Approach: I wanted to get the biggest bang for my Institution's Buck. I made sure that I went to all the sessions I possibly could. For example, even if I couldn't find something I like during the 10am sessions, I would pick the one that seemed the least painful to go to and go to it. This made for a long day filled with unproductive sessions. New Approach: This year, I only went to sessions I really wanted to go to. I probably went to half as many sessions, but I found it to be much more beneficial. I didn't go to as many sessions, but I felt like I learned just ...

I got back from TESOL today! It was a great conference. I have lots to post about; I'll be back on Monday with lots of great stuff!

I recently recieved and email from a former student. He is taking a class that is helping students explore various careers. One of the assignments is to interview someone in a profession you might be interested in. He asked me a few questions, and I thought it might make for an interesting post. 1. What do you do? I teach English as a Second Language, develop ESL Curriculum, and train student teachers. 2. How did you get interested in this type of work? Get started in this job? I have always been interested in language. I have always known that I wanted a job that would require langauge skills. When I came home from my mission, I took a Spanish class. The teacher was also and ESL teacher and told good stories. That got me interested. Later, I met my wife who was an ESL teacher. I observed her class, and I was hooked! 3. How long have you been doing this kind of work? 5+ years 4. What are 3-5 of the most common activities you do on a typical day? teach, grade, write curriculum, email, t...

I've been taking a class for fun this semester. We've talked about Flash & ActionScript, and now we are talking about JavaScript & html. I was interested in developing a good and easy tool for my students to record video where I could give them feedback. When I was talking about the idea, Peter Rich , a professor in the IP&T department here at BYU , suggested I look into Viddler . I did, and I love it. For the last three weeks I have been using Viddler in my Listening & Speaking classes. We went to our wonderful computer lab and I helped them all set up accounts. We made a group for the class and did some practice recordings. I have had them do three assignments so far. Our current curriculum for Listening & Speaking has task-based objectives. The assignments so far have been to record an invitation to a party, talk about your future plans and goals, and talk about a past experience. After the students have recorded their video, they give themselves feedba...