Using Discussions (Multimedia)

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An Engineering Disaster

"An Engineering Disaster” is an activity that utilizes Voicethread.com (group audio blog) to facilitate and document on-line discussion about the engineer disaster in Haiti.

Outcomes:

The learner will be able to:

  • View and take notes
  • Develop vocabulary and summarize
  • Express an opinion

Preparation:

  • Note instructor needs to create a voicethread account; using the link from TED to embed Peter Haas: Haiti's Disaster of Engineering
  • Discuss the importance of planning, including editing long before learners sit down to 'publish' their ideas
  • Review feedback conversation gambits
  • Discuss how to listen and take notes

Delivery:

  1. Warm-up
    • Teach the tool if necessary
    • Explain that this tool can transform collections of media, like images, videos, documents, and presentations, into a place for a conversation
  2. Presentation
    • View TED video related to an engineering disaster (TED video - Peter Haas - Haiti's disaster of engineering - posted October 2010 (8:30 min)
    • Take notes while viewing a video; list at least 5 vocabulary words; list at least one thing you didn't know before; note main idea
    • Discuss in pairs the main ideas and interesting details after watching the ted talk (note taking while watching the video may need to be reviewed)
  3. Practice
    • Contribute at least one reflection to the voice thread
    • Reflect and respond to questions such as 'is the Haiti situation similar to your home country?', 'what differences do you see between the engineering designs used in Haiti compared to Canadian standards?', etc.
    • Create through group discussions a list of 'lessons to be learned from the Haitian situation'
  4. Production
    • Summarize ideas from the video and the comments posted into two or more paragraphs

Activity Reference Links:

Peter Haas, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/peter_haas_haiti_s_disaster_of_engineering.html , posted October 2010 (8:30 min) (viewed 2011)

The Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) skills addressed by this activity are:

  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading
  • Writing