In this web section I am going to use to post things that I find on the web that effect or have effected my beliefs and practice of language teaching and learning.

This is something that I wanted to share. I originally watched this video as part of a Flipped class I taught. The idea was that students would watch the video and answer some comprehension questions as their homework. This would take place prior to a discussion in class. The discussion was based on the controversy surrounding video games and their effects on young people. To counterbalance the medias fairly focused view about violence and the corruption of youth I want a positive perspective on video games. This talk is both engaging (which I also point out to my skills students about audience participation), but is based on empirical studies highlighting the physical and cognitive benefits of video games. Anyway, the information that I drew from this has really changed some my teaching practice and beliefs in the affordances of video games in education. I recently wrote an essay about incidental vocabulary learning through commercial-off-the-shelf video games. In a lot of ways that essay would have not come together if it were not for this Ted-Talk. I am starting my quest for the chocolate covered broccoli (if you watch it, this makes sense).

Also, have a look at the media and video section of this blog to the see the Ted-Ed website.