(FRONT COVER)
My English journey Bernardo Rafael Lopez Falconi Yachay Tech University English Language Program Yachay, Ecuador
Credits My English journey Bernardo Lopez Falconi English Language Program Yachay Tech University Level 6-016 Teacher: Hamilton Quezada January 13, 2017 IMBABURA-ECUADOR
Contents 1.Portfolio letter 2.Response essay 3.Literary Analysis 4.Interpretation essay 5.Argumentation essay 6.Final research project essay 7.Additional materials 8.Thank you letter
Portafolio Letter
Bernardo López Yachay Tech Imbabura, Ecuador December 15, 2016 I remember my first presentation, that was horrible! This happened on level 3 of English. I do not remember what my presentation was about, but those were the most five painful minutes in my stay. However, at this moment I started to realize that I need to improve my English. Now, I am finishing the last level of English for academic purposes, the final step. Before I came here, I use to think that I did know English. Then, English teachers took a test for all new students at the university of my generation, and when I got my score I got frustrated with myself. That experience taught me that even when you think that you are good in something, maybe that is just your perception. Life is the responsible to make you know when you make a mistake. Therefore, I realized that I did not know English as much as I thought. The proposal of my portfolio is making a feedback of my worst and best experiences through the English language program. It is going to give you an idea of what we do during level six, the last level. The first essay that I wrote was a response one, and it was about “How technology has changed education”. That essay helped me to realize in what areas of English grammar I was failing such as punctuation, capitalization, and vocabulary. Then I made a literary analysis essay. This essay was made as a test, and was about an old story called “The Story of an Hour”. This essay was handwriting work, and I realized that I had a lot of mistakes with the subject verbal agreement. For the next one, I wrote an interpretation essay that was about a piece of art. The essay was made in groups, so we need to help each other. The piece of art was made in etching method. The author is Francisco Goya and the name of this etching is “The sleep of the reason produce monsters”. In this essay, it was necessary to improve our collaborative competences as a group. The last handwriting work was an argumentative essay. The central topic was about language. I made my analysis about if Ecuador should replace English for Kichwa, and my answer was that it should not. However, my progress with my speaking skills has improved, therefore, on all of my presentations I had good grades, and for each presentation, I saw a clear progress. I still
remember how I used to have problems with punctuation, subject verbal agreements, transitions and no sense sentences, at the moment that I wrote my essays. Now I think that I have corrected some of my writing problems, but not all. Besides, I learned how to be more organized doing my work. Another thing that I autocorrect is the procrastination because our teacher during this semester tried to help us in class. So, I think that I am prepared to take all my classes in English, but I will continue learning English. In fact, I still have a lot of things to learn and improve. Thank you for reading my letter. Bernardo Rafael Lรณpez Falconi
Response Essay
Five Ways Technology Has Changed Teaching and Learning Bernardo Lรณpez Yachay-Tech University
Currently, education is different than our parent's education. Currently, 21st century, this century of technology. On the 21st century, most of the population at least have a smartphone. In this time technology, has been evolved. So, people started to be dependent on technology as Chanie Kirschner says “If the Internet is down, work is over for the day” (Chanie, 2016). It is a fact but it depends on how technology is used because it can be a way for acquiring the knowledge through the internet so people could be more educated. The ways technology has changed education described by Rebecca Paddick are very helpful because those ideas can be used by teachers as a method to improve the teaching method accordingly can benefit the new generations of students. In the article called -Five ways technology has changed teaching and learning-, Rebecca Paddick presents and describes their article in the way that professors could use technology to improve the educational system. Rebecca through her article suggests how the use of electronic devices such as cellphones, tablets, and laptops, could improve the way of learning and teaching. Rebecca explained five example of how technology could help to support education. The first way that she explains is simplifying lesson preparation. She says that teachers can use applications, webs, programs, etc like Promethean’s ClassFlow to allows them to plan lessons and create assignments that can be sent to students out of the classroom. The second way that she explains is Aiding assessment. She tries to explain that teachers could give a real-time feedback that let them know if students understood the topic given in class so if not, the teacher could give extra classes if it is required. The third way is Breaking down boundaries. She describes that students should use electronic devices to inquire more information. Students should be more curious to try to study subjects more deeply. The fourth way is Encouraging collaboration. She explains that technology could help students to study in a collaborative manner through the collaboration of their peers, such as classmates. The final way that Rebecca explains is about Introducing interactivity. She describes that new generation students are more likely to use laptops, tablets or smartphones to support their studies by researching on the Internet. So, she says that students, thanks to the development of technology, have become more independent when they are studying. The electronic devices can be very helpful when those are designated for educating. Also, those could be a meaningful help for the students and teachers at the same time. I agree with Rebecca Paddick about her five possible ways how technology could help in the actual system of education so those ways can be instilled. All five points; Simplifying lesson
preparation; Aiding assessment; Breaking down boundaries; Encouraging collaboration and Introducing interactivity is good for student development. The interesting thing about the first way is that some software and apps can help teachers to create interactive assignments and assessments. The purpose of this is that students don't feel stressed and have a good time. The interesting fact about the second point is that teachers can know if the students knew about the topics given in classes, so teachers could help the students clarify their doubts. In the third point, the fact that the students can study by themselves is a good opportunity for learning new skills, but it means that teachers might be obsolete in the future. For the fourth point, Rebecca says technology is facilitating collaborative learning through the using of Interactive Flat Panel Displays (IFPDs), such as tablets, cellphones, and computers. For the last point that Rebecca mentions in her article, it's important to emphasize that lessons can be delivered in a much more engaging manner using the internet. On the other hand, Rebecca’s article is not perfect at all. This article has some issues. It does not imply that Rebecca’s article is a bad article, it means that Rebecca’s article could be better. The first thing that it can be noticed with a naked eye about Rebecca’s article is that it seems like Rebecca was not given the time needed to do a big research. To improve Rebecca’s article she should have made questions that could help to make a survey to several teachers, and maybe students too. It means that Rebecca’s article must have more information that supports what she is saying, for example in her first point “Simplifying lesson preparation”, it would have been nice to know -if all teachers agree with the fact of using technology- maybe some teacher doesn't like using electronic devices maybe because they don't want to be complicated with these things, this is why Rebecca needs a survey. To summarize, the educational system can be improved with the help of technology such as tablets, smartphones or tablets. Those devices have an internet connection so this allows students find necessary information that could help them to study by themselves so it is not necessary that students ask for help to teachers. Teachers that think that electronic devices are only for entertaining or think if they are too old for using them, those teachers need to upgrade. Education is changing through the years and technology could support education.
References Kirschner, C. (2016). 7 signs we are too dependent on technology. MNN - Mother Nature
Network.
Retrieved
from:
http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/gadgets-
electronics/stories/7-signs-we-are-too-dependenton-technology Paddick, R. (2016). Five ways technology has changed teaching and learning. [online] Education Technology. Retrieved from: http://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/five-ways-technology-has-changed-teaching-andlearning
Literary Analysis
Story of an hour “Women do not have value”. This is what people think around 100 years ago about women. In those times, any woman could not have a job, They only work in the home but without any incomes. In the story of an hour, Mrs. Mallard while she was descending the stairs of her husband house, she smiled because in a certain way she felt happy. She thought that she could be a free woman through her husband death and she could do something for her life. Happiness can be determined by the love that a person receives. In “the story of an hour” Mrs. Mallard after she received the new of her husband death, she started to think about her life. She thought that her husband did not spend tie with her, so she can not feel all love that she deserved as a wife. The happiness that she got, as all 20th-century women is given by friends and family. In the case of Mrs. Mallard, it seems like her sister and her friend were an emotional support, in other words, she received love by her sister and friend. How is it in our age? Currently, in our time woman role has changed. Women through the pass of time started to feel the need to feel the necessity of having value. Women needed to fell independent, in other words, “freedom”. Today women are working in any kind of jobs, such as police, doctor, taxi driver, etc. Talking about the age in what “The story of an hour” is placed, women were only for their husband’s necessities. Mrs. Mallard through her husband’s death, think there is not someone that had the chains on her, so she can start a new life by herself. Mrs. Mallard realized that she could start a new life but how big was the possibilities of a good life for a woman without a husband. During this time, women cannot have a job because of the chaouvinist thinking of the society, but there are some solutions for those women. In the case of Mrs. Mallard, the first solution could be living with her family and stay supported and support her family by the husband money. The other solution could ask for a job as a cleaner or chef, maybe she cannot earn a lot of money but she could survive on her own. To conclude, during the time of this story was based, the life of the most of the women was hard. One of the reasons is that for women most of the things were banned. Therefore, women could not be free women. Women did not receive attention from their husbands but there are way in what women can live by their own. “The story of an hour” written by Kate Chopin is a good and short story that narrate how a wife feels inside. The only thing that women needed was being motivated to change the perspective of society. Reference: Chopin, K. (1854). “The story of an hour”
Interpretation Essay
“The sleep of reason produces monsters” When the human beings do not use the reason to live, they can commit the worst acts of violence and cruel treatment against others. Violence against others has existed throughout human history. Many people had protested this. Some people made strikes, however, others used the art to protest. One of them made a tenebrous etching in order to protest against a society of his time. This etching consisted of a sleepy man on a table with bats and owls deformed flying over him. The name of this is “The sleep of reason produces monsters”, which is a piece of art from the collection “Los Caprichos”. This etching was made in 1797 by Francisco de Goya, who was an important Spanish painter and printmaker. Now, Spain was in the war and it was dominated by a religion that practiced the Inquisition. Also, Spain was in a process of intellectual, artistic and political illumination through the reason. In this context, we can say that in the “The sleep of reason produces monsters” etching Francisco de Goya portrays bitterness that some Spanish people felt when they notice that their country was dominated by the ignorance and the fear of the church. In this work, there an asleep man that representing a society without an own viewpoint. Also, this work has owls that may be symbols of madness and bats symbolizing ignorance and a feline that represents people that did not protest the church, although they knew this was making terrible things. In the etching of Goya, we can see an asleep person on some books and pencils. At first glance, we can say that books and pencils on the desk mean that the asleep person is someone intellectual. However, the name of the etching suggests us that the asleep man represents to all Spanish people. We say the above because the Spanish people allowed that institution as the Catholic Church or Spanish royalty to commit inhuman acts as the Inquisition. Besides this, most of people never protested against all crimes that were committed in this time. Some people did not protest for fear of the Inquisition. For example, many people were sentenced to death by hang during that time due to that they did not believe in God. Nevertheless, the above is not the worst part of this story since the worst part is the fact that the people sentenced to death were betrayed by the members of the his-her own family. Therefore, we think that the Spanish people and the asleep man are similar since both cannot see the truth due to they do not use the reason in a correct way. The owls and bats of the etching have a meaning too. In the first place, owls may be a symbol of madness. When we mention madness, we refer to a feature of Spanish society of that time. According to our point of view, the Spanish society was insane due to that they practiced
cruel acts as Inquisition. In the second place, the bats symbolizing ignorance. We think that bats are an example of the ignorant society of that time. We say the above because that society allowed that many crimes happened without any inconvenient. In that time, most of people did not attend to school since education was only for rich people. Thus, most of people did not have the intellectual tools necessary to face to church and the royalty. Finally, we can say that owls and bats represent features of Spanish society in that time, which do not talk fine of this society. Finally, the last animal to mention is the feline. The feline represents the idea of “look at without interact”. This feline is lying on the floor without doing anything, but something interesting is that the feline is aware of what is happening around it. According to the representation mentioned previously, the feline represents the Spanish people. Some people were tortured, raped, killed during the Inquisition age. The church established rules for the people, and people who did not obey those rules were killed and tortured. For example, scientists received death threats if they published a research that was against the Bible. In fact, any person could be killed if he-she did not obey the commandments of the Bible. For the above reason, many of them believed that those rules were for their wellness. However, there were people that think that the church was doing horrible things but unfortunately those people did nothing about this. Thus, the feline represents the fear that the people had of protesting against the church. In conclusion, the author's etching reflected his point of view about Spanish society, which he portrayed in his art collection “Caprichos” as insane, corrupt, and ridicule. This society was considered this way by the author since many Spanish people made horrible things in the name of the church. Thus, we can say that the author portrays his own bitterness and frustration with the cowardice and lack of common sense of people of this country. We think that the ignorance and the fear of the punishments of that time do not justify the bad behavior of Spanish people. To be a good person is not an easy task but it is something possible.
References Mora, M.(2007). ¨El sueño de la razón…¨: Apuntes sobre la idea de Razón en el grabado de Goya. Costa Rica. Retrieved from https://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/especulo/ numero36/suerazon.html Schaefer, S.(n.d). Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becomingmodern/romanticism/ romanticism-in-Spain/a/goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters
Argumentation Essay
Should Ecuador Replace English for Kichwa? Is Kichwa originated in Ecuador? Kichwa is a language not only spoken by Ecuadorians. Kichwa is spoken by Bolivians and Peruvians. To be more specific, Kichwa is spoken by indigenous people, especially in the sierra region. It is a fact that Kichwa is not spoken by all the Ecuadorians. In consequence, English should not be replaced by Kichwa and because Ecuador needs other countries to improve the economy and Ecuador exports a huge variety of raw materials. Those countries are needed because Ecuador exports these raw materials. Ecuadorian Economy is based on loans. Ecuador is a rich country in terms of raw material. Recently, Ecuador has suffered a catastrophe. This was an earthquake that affected around half of the country. In some cities, a lot of buildings were destroyed and several people died. The earthquake unbalanced the economy because the resident spends a lot of money to fix it. This was a reason yo ask loans to others counties. In a hypothetical case, if Ecuadorians just spoke Spanish and Kichwa how would Ecuador ask for international business. According to what Aditya Agrawal says in the article called “Why Pakistan is Replacing English with Urdu”, “The Pakistani constitution… included a clause… that the government must make Urdu the national language…” What Aditya says is a good reason for changing their native language but it is not a good reason for Ecuador replacing English because there is not something like the Ecuadorian constitution. Ecuador is a big source of raw materials. Ecuador has been done business with other countries. The most representative countries that Ecuador has business are United States, China, Colombia, Mexico, South Korea. Recently Ecuador had a mew loan that was given by Russia. This loan has the porpoise of creating industries that produce vaccines. This is a big idea to boost the Ecuadorian economy. These industries will be a job source for many people but there is a problem. Many indigenous people only speak Kichwa. Now, imagining that those people want to get a job in these industries. Indigenous people that do not know how to speak English could not get a job there because of the language. Also, Kichwa is a language that does not have value for global power countries. On the other hand, Kichwa has value for Ecuador because is part of Ecuadorian culture. Many indigenous people work in farms. Those farms produce food like cacao, coffee, plantain, and others. Those vegetables or fruits are exported around the world. It is a fact that it is not necessary to know a lot of languages to farm, but for doing business with other countries it is. To conclude, Ecuadorian is a reach country becomes Ecuador has a lot of raw materials which can be exploited. Those materials are exported to other countries and they pay Ecuador. There is how the Ecuadorian economy is balanced. Countries like Russia, China, South Korea, or the United States do not speak Kichwa. It all of those countries needed to do business, they would use the universal
language� it means English. Kichwa is an unnecessary language for business. English should not need to be replaced for Kichwa because English is the key to balancing the Ecuadorian economy. Kichwa is a language that can be learned but not necessarily need to be a language that could replace English.
Reference Agrawal, A. (2015, June 28). Why Pakistan Is Replacing English With Urdu. Retrieved from: http://time.com/pakistan-english-urdu/
Final Research Project Essay
How Technology Helps Students and Teachers to Improve Education Bernardo Rafael Lopez Falconi Yachay Tech University
Abstract Today, electronic devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops are used for most people. For example, tablets have become an important tool for students and teachers. Technology has several uses during classes. In fact, most high schools or colleges are equipped with technology for facilitating things. This article was made because people need to know what benefits and advantages have the use of technology in academicals purposes. In other words, the goal of this article is to demonstrate how technology can help education, how education helps studies and teachers equally. This article is classified in four categories. The first category is how technology can provide a collaborative environment. The second is that students and teachers can acquire new skills through technology. The third is how technology is used in the classroom, and the fourth category is a counter argument talking about how technology can be a distraction tool during the classes. Also, this paper has opposing opinions, which are refuted evidence about some problems that institutions without the necessary resources had about the acquisition of electronic devices. “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important� (Bill Gates). Currently, technology has become an important part of our daily life because the number of things that people can handle in an intelligent device is increasing day by day. However, the best way to use technology is in education. It is a fact, that these devices allow students and teachers to have the information compacted in a simple device. These devices have the particularity of being able to connect to the internet. The internet can be a gigantic base of information in the world. It means that people can find almost every kind of information just by putting the correct words on any search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Opera. If technology is combined with the internet, this would increase the utility of the electronic devices. Then, technology can provide a collaborative environment, and allow students and teachers to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge. Also, electronic devices can be used as a school tool, but it is necessary to know that electronic devices can be a distraction during classes. Technology can be a way to connect people to the internet. In fact, that new and old generations are getting deep on the use of electronic devices. Currently, the most common used devices are smartphones and tablets. These devices can navigate through the internet in a simple way. As it is known, the Internet is the biggest source of information in the world.
Moreover, through the internet people can find things that are not only related to academic purposes. On the internet, there are web pages for sharing thoughts and chatting, for buying things or to meet people. For example, there are web pages such as PlentyofFish, OkCupid, Match or Zoosk that allow meeting people around the world. Another kind of web pages such as Tumblr, Facebook, ArtStation, 500px, or Instagram can be a platform on which anyone can post or share images. On these web pages, people play a special role because people are interacting with the author of the images or photos. Then those people give feedback and their thoughts to the author. For instance, there are web pages such as Voxopop, Kahoot, WordPress, Blogger, Socrative or Beebrite Edu that can be considered as learning platforms. The principal characteristic of those web pages and platforms is that those allow interacting with each other. Platforms like Kahoot, Socrative or Beebrite Edu are based on the idea of “learning through games�. Games can become a didactic tool for the students to test their knowledge. Also, these platforms allow students to learn new things in an entertaining way. Then the internet and technology can enhance the way in which people interact with themselves. Students can learn and collaborate with their peers and learn using something entertaining. Technology allows students to acquire new skills through some web pages and applications. The internet is the biggest source of information. On the internet, people can find almost every kind of information. For example, if a person does not know how to prepare a salad, he can search on the internet how to prepare it. Then a new cook-skill has been learned by this person. Now, if people like students or teachers want to use the internet for academic purposes. Teachers should use web pages such as Khan Academy, Duolingo, Youtube, and Symbolab can be a mean to acquire new skills. For example, on Youtube, students and teachers can find videos that explain how to solve X math problem or learn unknown concepts that were not learned in classes. In the same way, Khan Academy is a web page dedicated to learning. On this web page students and teachers can find, in an organized way, a lot of subjects. Each subject has their own subtopic and in each subtopic, is with their own explanation, videos that facilitate learning and some exercises that allow testing what students learned. On the internet, students can find a lot of important information that can help them during their classes. Many electronic devices are used in the classroom to improve teaching and learning skills. Although people do not realize, several electronic devices are used in the classroom. For instance, how teachers are displaying their slides? Generally, most high schools and colleges are implemented with projectors, televisions, touch boards, laptops (usually the institutions
give to the teachers) but laptops play an important role. Laptops use software like Microsoft Office that allows doing several things. Teachers through this software can prepare the class. It means, to present the class, teachers usually use slides and these slides are created using this software. Now, for the comfort of the students, teachers usually use a projector that helps to show what is on the screen of their laptop. However, people need to realize that in some institutions the use of electronic devices by students is banned. Some electronic can distract students and in some cases teachers. Several students during classes use their smartphones, tablets, or laptops for non-academic purposes. During class, teachers do not realize what students are doing on their tablets, smartphones, or laptops. Teachers can think that students do not are paying attention. Therefore, some teacher denies the use of those electronic devices during class because they want students to pay attention in class. It is important to know that on the internet are application and software that are distractors. As Kevin Mathews describe in his article called “5 Reasons to Ban Smartphones in School”, “…when school’s forbid students from bringing their smartphones into the classroom, their grades quickly improve on the whole. Because students were subsequently more attentive in class, their test scores increased by an average of 6 percent” (Kevin, 2015). What Kevin says is important but there are alternatives to solve this problem. For example, the platforms that cause more distraction on students are the social applications and games. On social media, there platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Messenger and What’s app cause more distraction than other platforms. To solve this problem, certain web pages can be blocked by the internet administrator. This prevents that students that are connected to the internet of their institutions use those distracting web pages or platforms. People must know that several schools, high schools, and some colleges do not have the necessary resources to allow to buy electronic devices, for example, computers. If an institution does not have necessary resources (money) to equip it with new equipment, this institution cannot give a high-quality education. In Ecuador, the Ecuadorian state is trying to help those institutions by giving some resources to improve them. If some random school is selected, and the selected school has the necessary resources to self-support, teachers would start to notice that technology is not helping some students because most of them do not know how to use laptops or tablets. As Ben Kesling says “The conclusion that emerges is that schools and education systems are, on average, not ready to leverage the potential of technology” (Ben, 2015). Ben says that because some students do not spend much time using electronic devices
in their homes. The lack of resources is a big problem but in a lot of countries there is free educational system and there are supported by the government. Some students that began to use electronic devices will need to get used to using them. Ben Kesling says “even out of 10 students in countries surveyed use computers at school and students average at least 25 minutes a day online...” and “In some countries, like Turkey and Mexico, about half of the students don’t have access to a computer at home”. Therefore, in the schools, high schools, and colleges, teachers are required to train those students. The fact that some students do not know how to use technology is not an impediment to studying. They just need some training about it. All educational institutions supported by the government have resources that help to improve education. There are no excuses for people to learn. In a nutshell, technology has become an important tool for everyone. Day by day students, as well as teachers, use at least one electronic device. Technology is used with the internet to boost their functionality. Thanks to the internet, students and teachers can participate in a collaborative environment, in which everyone can share their thoughts. Also, technology plus the internet allow students to learn new skills that help their studies. Technology needs to be implemented as a tool for improving learning and teaching.
References Paddick, R. (2016). Five ways technology has changed teaching and learning. Education Technology. Retrieved from: http://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/five-waystechnology-has-changed-teaching- and-learning. Herold, B. (2016). Technology in Education: An Overview. [Blog] C: http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/technology-in- education/ Mathews, K. (2015). 5 Reasons to Ban Smartphones in School. [Article] Retrieved from: www.care2.com/causes/5-reasons-to-ban-smartphones-in-school.html Kesling, B. (2016). Technology in Classrooms Doesn’t Always Boost Education Results, OECD Says. [Article] Retrieved from: http://www.wsj.com/articles/technology inclassrooms-doesnt-always-boost-education-results-oecd-says-1442343420
Additional materials )
Thank you for reading my portfolio. I hope you liked it.