There is also another issue. Many of our students don't have the means to have high speed Internet in their homes. They need this to make use of the computers they have received to attend their online classes. The district does provide a list of Internet providers that do offer low-cost Internet but even at $10 a month, it is too expensive. The list is great, but beginning students do not have the English skills to call and inquire about the Internet plans or read the information. So what happens is that students are stuck using their phones with whatever basic telephone plan they can afford. The result is students continually being dropped from Zoom class. Is this equitable? No.

Finally, Selber mentioned that computers are useful but making sure students have their basic needs met should also be our priority. Now that I am back face to face, I have access to a computer lab. I can take my students one hour a week. All the computers are new, have high-speed Internet and a plethora of programs to choose from. I feel taking students to the computer lab does equal out the lack of access at home. However, many of my students still do not have their basic needs met. They are living in shelters waiting to see if they will be granted asylum. Some are survivors of human trafficking and are struggling to cope with what has happened to them. These situations require more than just having access to computers. These students need help getting their basic needs met and a teacher who is willing to help them find what they need.

When I went back to the San Diego Community College District it was mid Covid and I was faced with teaching online and quickly learning how to navigate new technology. Like Rapanta pointed out in the article I had to rethink my role as an online ESL teacher. I couldn't just teach like I did in the face-to-face classroom. I also had to figure out how to keep my students engaged and focused since many of them were in their homes with babies, children, and other family members. They were not as Rapanta points out self-organizing learners. They were struggling because they didn't know how to learn online. That was evident when they dialed in from the supermarket or the park thinking that all they had to do was join the Zoom session. At this point, I think I was teaching ERT style thinking that I would for sure be going back to the classroom soon.

What surprised me even with all of the difficulties with access to technology and the clear lack of understanding of how to learn online was that I was beginning to really enjoy teaching online. After about a semester of teaching online I was given the opportunity to move towards OLT teaching. I was asked to write curriculum for a fully online vocational ESL class. That is when I learned how to design learning environments that were much more conducive to our students. I was also introduced to a plethora of technology that I could use to make the lessons dynamic, fun and interesting. Learning online was no longer temporary. It was now synchronous, asynchronous and students were taught how to be more independent in their learning.

I do realize that this article does focus on online learning and as I think back to teaching online there were less competitive activities not because I didn't want to do them but doing them online was not possible. In this context I was less competitive and maybe this was more appealing to some of my student population. However, the minute I returned to the face-to-face classroom I created the competitive classroom. Is this a good thing? I am not sure. I suppose if it is healthy competition where students have the choice to participate then maybe it is not such a bad thing. But again, am I pushing my competitiveness culture on my students. Hmm...

I think these projects are fun and very creative but until this morning (the next day after writing this post) I was struggling to see how they might fit into my EAL classroom. My job as an English language teacher at the beginning high level is to teach my students to write a simple paragraph about a topic that they are familiar with. I need to submit samples of their work to my department chair to show that they have met or not met this SLO. But, I think I was stuck on the digital component of a multimodal project and thinking that I would have to have my students create a project using technology. This would be challenging since my students range in age from 18-79. Not all my students have the same digital literacy skills and then there is the issue of equity in access to technology. Even though we go to the computer lab once a week for an hour, I don't think it would necessarily be enough time to do a digital project.

Even though my students need to learn to write a paragraph that doesn't mean that we cannot do other projects in class that are multimodal or even have the paragraphs become multimodal. I can get out of my teaching students to write a paragraph box and I have in the past. I just forgot. When I looked at the Ball article again, I realized that multimodal projects could be posters, flyers, brochures and books. They didn't necessarily have to be done digitally. As I started thinking about the plethora of classes I have taught in my career I went back to an offsite class that I taught. It was multilevel with three distinct levels, beginning, intermediate and advanced. I used three different levels of a series called Step Forward. I dug up the multilevel activity book for some ideas and I was reminded about some of the multimodal projects that I did with my students. A sample of the activity is shown in the picture. For this activity/project students worked in groups of 3 to 5 students. Dalton pointed out in her article that often multimodal projects are done in groups. The students needed to make a book about lessons in learning English and they could make it any way they wanted. This is an example of a multimodal project because students work in groups and they are writing a book that can include pictures (the visual component) and the written word. I got away from these projects because I started using another textbook but I am thinking now that I can adapt some of the multimodal projects in the Step Forward multilevel activity book with my students now. This could totally be creative because students can make a paper book but could also use technology to create a book. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier.

I really like how clear and uncluttered Lisa's website is. I also really enjoyed the infograms. I had no idea how to make those, so I will give that a try in the future. Since I am a very visual learner this website appealed to my learning style. I also liked how she included her students' voices in how they felt about podcasting.

I think what touched me the most was listening to the students' podcasts. These are my students. They have similar stories. I was especially moved when I listened to Amina's story. I could hear and feel the emotion in her voice and it really brought her story to life. Students have shared stories with me verbally or in writing but, there was something about podcasting that made it so much more personal. There was a greater impact because of the voice. I felt her emotion and sadness when speaking about the loss of her father. When I listened to Jelued's podcast the sounds she included brought the story to life. The gunshots stopped me in my tracks as I imagined how scared she must have been.

I haven't seen much PD in our district on using Podcasts but I think that with a deeper dive into some of the resources provided that I could try this in my class. I think that my students would enjoy it.

Using metaphor as an assessment in a multimodal project could maybe work in my classroom. But I think I couldn't tell them that their projects would be assessed on how well they used metaphor. It's not that I don't think they could understand what a metaphor is its just that they don't have enough English to understand what it is and how to use it. However, as I think about it the students could create a paper collage perhaps on the topic of strategies for learning English or future goals. They could write strategies or goals and then find pictures that represent them. Could this be metaphor? I think it could because in the article metaphor exploits similarity and substitution. I could share examples of collages where pictures show a similarity to the words, i.e. goals or strategies. I could assess how well they used pictures to represent their goals or strategies without ever directly explaining what metaphor is. For this type of paper multimodal project I don't think metonymy would work. I could see it working potentially in a podcast. But, I am not sure since metonymy is outside of my comfort zone and I am not 100% sure that I fully understand what it is.