This semester has been a wild ride! I decided that I didn’t want to wait until fall to complete my degree, so decided to take the final two classes of my graduate degree in one nutty, six-week semester.
In my professional life, I would say I am definitely more of a serious personality. But after the formality of writing a final reflective paper for my Capstone Synthesis class, this Summary of Learning was an absolute breath of fresh air, where I got to harness my creative, silly side and make something a little nutty (to match the nuttiness of the last 6 weeks).
The format of my video was inspired by Chris, a classmate from a previous class (EC&I 832), who did a radio countdown video with song titles/lyrics that connected to topics from the course (think “Oops! I Did It Again” to link to Digital Citizenship faux pas). Unfortunately, I don’t think his video is viewable anymore, so you can’t see the awesomeness of his project (I reached out to Chris on Twitter to see if his video still exists somewhere on the interwebs, but haven’t gotten a reply yet).
Remembering Chris’ clever idea to link well-known songs to content from the course, I decided to add my own spin to this idea: I would write my own lyrics to the tune of popular songs and present them as a cheesy infomercial selling “Greatest Hits” CDs – circa the 90s/early 2000s. Check out the video below for an idea of what I was going for (Nostalgia Alert!).
Anywho, I now present to you my completely goofy Summary of Learning informercial! I hope it brings you a smirk or a giggle – I know I sure cackled away at myself for how outrageously campy and absurd my project turned out.
Este es mi post final por mi Proyecto de Aprender, donde yo estudio español. En mi videos, yo hablo con Rebeca. Nos conocimos en 2019 en un viaje de India y Nepal. ¡Muchas gracias por tu ayuda, Rebeca!
(This is my final post for my Learning Project, where I study Spanish. In my videos, I talk with Rebeca. We met in 2019 on a trip to India and Nepal. Thank you very much for your help, Rebeca!)
Donde Yo Soy / Where I Am
In my first update post for this project, I mentioned that I wanted to demonstrate my final learning by recording myself speaking Spanish with someone. I tossed around a few ideas of who I could talk to, but nothing seemed quite right. I thought about conversing with:
my sister (she had been learning Spanish on Duolingo, but has since dropped off doing the app, and I didn’t think two beginner learners would be able to have a very good conversation)
my uncle (he knows sufficient Spanish to get around in Costa Rica, where he has a vacation home, but he isn’t a native speaker)
a user on Tandem (I tried asking someone I had been chatting with for a while if they’d be open to my recording a session of us chatting, but I think they were a bit freaked out by this – reasonably so! haha)
Just as I was beginning to give up hope on my idea of speaking Spanish with someone, Rebeca answered my prayers and, seemingly, fell into my lap! When she followed me on Duolingo, a lightbulb instantly went off – I knew a native Spanish speaker from my previous travels! I asked Rebeca if she would be interested in having a conversation with me on Zoom and she graciously agreed. Last Thursday (day 37 of learning Spanish for me), we sat down for a Zoom conversation and spoke almost entirely (I’d say 95%) in Spanish for about 20 minutes!
I’m sure many people won’t want to listen to a 20 minute conversation in another language, so I have created two different videos that you are welcome to check out below.
This video is a shortened version with some of the ‘highlights’ of our conversation.
If for some reason, you want to check out the ‘full meal deal,’ this is the video for you.
There are chapter titles in the video so viewers can tell what topic we are discussing in each section. I wanted to include the full conversation to have an authentic artifact that captures my progress at this juncture.
Rebeca was an amazing conversational partner, who understood my stilted and hesitant sentences, offered clarifications on things I didn’t know, and provided lots of complimentary feedback! Being able to have a conversation in Spanish with a native speaker was an invaluable experience – I was very nervous, but also left our Zoom conversation buzzing with pride and excitement. Thank you again to Rebeca for being so generous with her time and agreeing to speak with me and be recorded for this project – I literally could not have done it without you!
Mi Experiencia Aprender En Línea / My Experience Learning Online
My experience using different online tools to learn Spanish has been extremely positive! Some of the resources and platforms I tried out during my project were:
Duolingo
Drops
Lingoda
News In Slow Spanish (website and news articles)
Google Translate
Tandem
News In Slow Spanish (podcast)
YouTube videos
Spanish learning websites and quizzes
TikTok
Zoom
Having the freedom to try out an array of tools allowed me to learn and practice my Spanish in different ways. Some platforms were better for learning vocabulary and drilling, while others were used in more conversational ways for listening or speaking. At the conclusion of this project, I see value in all of the online tools I trialed, and think that a diverse portfolio will contribute to making a more well-rounded language learner. That being said, any tool is only as good as the effort put into it by the user.
In short, can you learn basic Spanish using only free, online resources? Absolutely! Will you get to intermediate or advanced level using this strategy? Probably not.
¿Que Proxima? / What Next?
I fully intend to continue learning Spanish, and am hoping to jump into a more intensive language Sprint on Lingoda in the fall. I’d love to learn more vocabulary and increase my knowledge of verbs/conjugations, as that is a weak spot for me right now. In addition, I’d like to expand my ability to speak in present or future tense, as I am currently limited to speaking in present tense. I can’t wait to visit another Spanish speaking country and continue to practice my Spanish!
Thanks everyone for joining me on this journey! It has been an absolute blast and I am left feeling so satisfied with how my Learning Project turned out! I am eternally grateful for the opportunity this course gave me to kick-start my Spanish learning and I will definitely continue with this as a personal goal moving forward.
This week was the first time that I felt I faltered a little bit with my Learning Project. I still continued doing daily lessons on Duolingo and Drops (I’m at a 38 and 22 day streak, respectively), but often it was just the bare minimum needed to keep my streak going. I also engaged with users on Tandem a few times.
I believe my Duolingo stats for this week are the lowest they’ve been since I started
As for my goal of doing more listening and speaking this week, I did check out some Spanish TikTok videos and one podcast, but my Spanish learning took a bit of a back burner this week. Here are some brief details about both of these platforms:
Prior to our presentation from guest speaker Alan Levine (AKA Cog Dog) this week, I wasn’t sure what ‘open education’ meant or what it entailed. I figured it was an approach to education, or a tangible ‘thing,’ but now I understand it to be a mindset. Alan described it as a belief that education should be fully accessible to everyone. As a teacher in the public education system, this is something I wholeheartedly believe in.
One of the videos I watched from this week’s resources was “Why Open Education Matters,” which discussed why free public education is important. While this video was short and sweet, the onslaught of thinking I had as a result was quite the opposite – so buckle up! My thinking went in two directions as I viewed this video:
¡Hola todo el mundo! Es Kara con un actualización de español.
(Hi everyone! It’s Kara with a Spanish update.)
In my previous blog post, I shared that I wanted to practice listening to and speaking more Spanish. Enter Tandem, the language exchange app that I decided to try out this week.
I had a lot to say about this app and the other online resources I tested out this week, so I decided to do my update vlog-style again. My video ended up being a bit longer than I anticipated, so no hard feelings if you don’t want to watch all of it. Feel free to scroll down to my written highlights below.
TL; DW (Too Long; Didn’t Watch) Summary
Tandem– a language exchange app where you can chat with native speakers from around the world in a variety of different languages. You get the opportunity to practice the language you want to learn, while also helping out others who want to learn your native language.
Before this week’s topic of “social media activism” was brought up in class on Monday, I had never sat down and actively considered it. Sure, I have seen (and used) frames that support different causes on Facebook profile pictures, noticed online petitions floating around, and even donated to a few causes here and there, but I guess I just viewed those things as ‘another part of the internet’ without thinking about them from a critical standpoint.
After browsing through some online articles and resources this week, these are my highlights and current thoughts on social media activism:
1 – A Bridge to Real-Life Action
Shelby Brown, the author of this article, outlines her personal journey with activism, describing how her passion for a cause (women’s rights to make decisions about their own bodies) began with using a Facebook frame and ended with volunteering weekly at a Planned Parenthood. This personal story of activism highlights the ability for social media activism to act as a bridge, or stepping stone, to real-life action.
Rather than going all-in for a cause right away, social media activism allows for a more gradual journey of activism. People who might be initially interested in an issue can dip their toes in slowly before committing to a more active role.
In my own life, I have experienced a gradual increase in involvement in a cause: Dressember.
Hi everyone, and welcome back to my little slice of the internet! Today, let’s talk about my experience with Twitter.
I am by no means ‘new’ to Twitter. I believe I got an account either at the very end of high school or the beginning of university. My use of Twitter quickly changed as I went through my undergrad degree and saw the platform’s potential as a professional tool.
Once I convocated and began my teaching career, I was interested in engaging more intentionally with my PLN and joined some Twitter chats, most notably #saskedchat (a Saskatchewan-based education chat). I diligently joined the weekly chat and got to know many familiar faces within that subgroup of my PLN. #saskedchat was the perfect place for me to break into Twitter chats and developing my PLN – the people were friendly and funny, there were enough people present to keep a conversation going but not so many that it was totally overwhelming, and (being a Saskatchewan-based chat) it was specific to my place.
Talk about a die-hard fan – I even have an official #saskedchat t-shirt!
Hi everyone! I’m back with another update on my Learning Project of taking up Spanish. It continues to be ‘muy divertido y interesante’ (very fun and interesting).
I am still keeping up with Duolingo, and am up to a 23 day streak! I continue to enjoy this app. Check out my previous blog post for my review of Duolingo.
Drops
This week, I have also been focusing on another app: Drops. This app was suggested to me by Mike A. in a comment on my blog – thanks so much for the recommendation, Mike! Here are a few details about Drops and my thoughts:
a language-learning app (acquired by the famous Kahoot! educational platform) with different vocabulary topics you can explore – ex. Counting, Train Trip, Pronouns, Shapes, Food
you play on the app for intervals of 5 minutes with a visual timer counting down in the corner, which I like
there are a few different screens that pop up during the 5 minute learning intervals; they can get a bit repetitive and a particular one (picture below) where you have to maze your way through spelling the word feels a bit more like a word game than a useful language learning activity to me
One of my recent BeReals that I was decently on time for (which was a total fluke – I just happened to be looking at my phone when the notification went off)
I first heard about BeReal during my trip to Mexico over Easter Break, where some of the other members of the tour group told me about it. They were from the UK, and I think it must be a more common social media platform there, whereas I get the sense that it is just catching on in North America. I was instantly interested in BeReal because of its unique design/premise, which favours authenticity and real life moments, rather than the highly-edited and curated feeds one typically sees on other social media platforms.
Being interested in this platform, I told the members of my tour group that I would sign up for a BeReal account when I got back home and follow them on it. They were my only 2 friends on the app, so I soon got tired of the app and my posts dwindled away. I jumped back into this app for this week’s blog prompt.
How BeReal Works:
The app sends you a notification at some point during the day (you don’t know when this will occur), and then you have 2 minutes to post your BeReal for the day. This post is intended to be a snapshot of whatever you are doing at the time the notification goes off; BeReal posts include both a selfie and a picture of wherever you are/what is in front of you at the time. You can react to others’ posts with RealMojis, which are snapshots of your own face showing the different reactions (thumbs up, laughing, etc.). You can also comment on others’ posts, give your BeReal a caption, and view your BeReal memories from previous days. As an incentive to post on time, users are allowed to post additional BeReals if their first is completed within 2 minutes of the notification going off for the day. I don’t remember this being a feature when I first started using BeReal in April – so either it is new, or I totally missed this option!
I had a LOT to say about my first few weeks learning Español and didn’t want to have a novel of a blog post, so decided to try my first ever vlog – I even did it in one take! Feel free to watch it on double speed if you want to skim through – no hard feelings here! Or check out my TL;DW (Too Long; Didn’t Watch) summary below.
KKF Learning to Teach 