Week 10 Reflection

Finally, we have come to the end of our webskills course. To,  be frank and honest, during these weeks, I have come to know numerous innovative teaching tools like: nicenet, webquests, wall wisher, delicious page, Anvill, blog in classroom use, email for the classroom purpose and so on. Along with the teaching tools, I have come to know the ways to engage the students through think pair-share; project-based learning and interactive-power point.

 Before week 1, I used to teach my students without such teaching tools and could not imagine the teaching tools except the basic power point and some audio and you-tube videos, but when I come to know all these tools, I feel like I am blessed. During my project, I focused on the use of nicenet, blog, and interactive PowerPoint and found that we can transform our teaching from teacher-centered to students-centered through the incorporation of the modern teaching tools in the class.

Nicenet, blog, interactive powerpoint and delicious page are the most useful tools for me during these 10 weeks. I will be using almost all the tools I learned here in webskills because all of them  are relevant.

I am still novice in technology so could suggest you some other new tools to incorporate inside the class.

Finally, I would like to thank our revered instructor Donna for your unceasing support during this entire 10 weeks, UO for giving me opportunity to study this course and my classmates for encouraging me for my endeavor. So thank you all.

Sitaram

Week 9 Reflection

This is our second last week in Webskills. We have been learning different new approaches in teaching and learning until now. This week we discussed on different learning styles. Primarily, our focus was how to address on the different ways students preferred to take in and process information, for example; by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing.

 In order to make the class effective and draw students’ attention and to address the preference of the students, the incorporation of the teaching tools has become mandatory. Otherwise, they (students) might be bored or inattentive in class, which might lead into poor performance of the students. Next, you cannot overlook the omnipotence and omnipresence of technology in classes across the globe. Nevertheless, the random use of the technology will be counterproductive. Our choice of the technology should be in commensurate with the interest, demand and need of the students. We should not use the technology simply because it is new and interesting.

I think the Howard Gardner’s nine types of intelligence and the students’ preference of the technology according to their intelligence help sorting out the technology applicable to maximize the performance of the students. 

The types of intelligence and the tools helpful for the different types of intelligence are as follows:

• verbal/linguistic intelligence: blogs, PDFs files, email and word processing programs.
• visual/spatial intelligence: clip arts, drawing tools, photo sharing websites, online comics.
• Bodily/kinesthetic intelligence: motion simulation games, use of keyboards, mouse or joysticks.
• musical/rhythmic intelligence: digital musical instruments, mp3s, CDs.
• interpersonal intelligence: chats, social networks, forums.
• intrapersonal intelligence: blogs and multimedia portfolios.
• naturalistic intelligence: webquests, videos and blogs about nature and environment.
• existentialist intelligence: forums, chats or emails 

Sitaram

Reflection Week 8

This week, we have explored different teacher resources like nice net, class blog, class website or wiki and above all a new tool –ANVILL-developed by our guest moderator, Jeff Magoto, director of the University of Oregon’s Yamanda Language Center.

It is sad to say I could not participate in discussion with him in Nice net; however, I read his post and my classmates’ discussion with him. I am really excited to explore more about ANVILL. I have created account in ANVILL and recorded my voice in T Casts. It was my pleasing experience there. I have yet to explore the ANVILL tools like Voice boards, live chat, Forums, lesson planning templates, Quizzes and surveys. After reading the articles in the reading section and the discussion of Jeff Magoto, I have made up my mind to explore it more and incorporate it in speaking and listening class.

Next, I prepared my first class wiki /class site named General paper Class Site for my students.  It took a lot of time to make it and I still need to give it a final touch. The URL of  my class site is https://sites.google.com/site/chelseainternationalacademy/home

After that, I posted a new message to “Week 8 Discussion- ANVILL and Online Tools”. Though I could not participate in discussion with Jeff, by reading his and my classmates post I came to know lot about ANVILL. I am thinking of incorporating it in my class.

Finally I commented on Joseph’s and Sonia’s nicenet post and Juan’s blog post. I found their post Very clear and precise and compelling.

Cutting the long story short, I want to say “Is it possible to have an interactive, student-centered, learner autonomous class without Technology?”…… I don’t think so. These days, I recall my 14 years teaching career without computer let alone internet. I look at myself and ask, how I taught English to my students?

Week 7 Reflection

This week I read two articles about learner autonomy and three articles about the one- computer classroom. Then, I participated in learner autonomy discussion in Nicenet. As a part of task,I posted two power points in wallwisher- one prepared by my student as a part of group work and another “A survey of Learner autonomy in language learning” prepared by Wang Zhe, Doctoral student in Peking University.

Next, I commented on the blog of Alicja, where she has buttressed on the importance of the learner autonomy and effective communication; and its long run implication on the learning of the students. Then after, as a part of project Task, I decided on peer-reading the project or plan report with Prakash sir because we have been teaching in same institution and has been sharing about all the tasks since week 1.

As a part of project work, I have been implementing technologies like nicenet, blog, interactive powerpoint and think pair share in class and have been getting positive responses from my students. I have been seeing them engaging and participating in the tasks. All of them are the members in nicenet now and will have blogs by tomorrow.

I usually post links in nicenet link-sharing option for the reading in home and they (my students) read or download reading materials from there. Those who don't have electricity problem participate in nicenet discussion and those who have limited electricity and internet access bring their assignment in copy. Since, here’s more than 14 hrs. Load shedding these days in our country, it is a bit difficult to beat the challenge; however, it is not invincible. 

Three days back, my students knew how to create interactive PowerPoint. Yesterday and today, we had an interactive power point presentation from students’ side.  As a part of example, I have even posted one of the power points prepared by my students in our wall wisher. Today, after PowerPoint presentation, I showed in class you tube video and short article on learner’s autonomy. They took both the video and article positively and told me that they would they would change their reading habits and write the reflection on blog each week about what they have learnt in class and home.

 In nutshell, I would say that the technologies we are a breasting through webskills course are very effective, engaging and participatory. But, it is sometimes difficult to implement in the class in our local context because it is new to teachers, students, and parents. I think it is wise to adopt and implement these technologies in local context.

Sitaram

Week 6 Reflection

This week, in reading and discussion on nicenet, our focus was on creating an interactive and engaging class.  Our task was to create an interactive power point; and project was to keep note on the change in our class brought about by the technology and the final task was to write and comment on the blog.

The article “Using technology in teaching large classes” focuses on online assessment and improving lectures with technology. The articles shed light on making better and effective teaching and learning when comes teaching in large classes. As we all know, teaching in a large class is daunting and requires a lot of efforts and techniques; by reading the articles I got the idea on drawing the students’ attention and engaging them. “My students are lazy. They don’t study. They don’t concentrate; they better prefer to make different excuses.” We always blame our students this way.  The articles in our reading section this week can help solve such problems.

According to the articles, the classroom can be made more interactive and engaging by interactive lectures, just in time teaching, creating memorable lectures, collaborative and cooperative learning, on-line assessment and so on. We can use the technological tools like nicenet, webquests and interactive power points as well to make our class more interactive and engaging. To engage students more in their research and independent learning, project based learning could be better. This week, the idea of creating memorable lectures from attention to comprehension to integration enticed me.

After completing discussion section in nicenet, I started creating interactive powerpoint. It was the most difficult and time consuming task for me in webskills  till today. It might be because of my naivety in technology. Ultimately, I made it but have a doubt whether it is ok or not for our instructor.

 “How to create an interactive quiz using powerpoint master by Simon Slangen, “how to create and use interactive powerpoint quiz games” and “creating Interactive powerpoint presentation” by Drs. Terry &Cathy Cavanaugh could not help me much because I hardly understand them. However, the tutorial on interactive powerpoint on http://www.pitt.edu/~poole/office 2010lesson10.pdf helped me create interactive powerpoint.

This week, I introduced my technological solution ( i.e, Nicenet class) to my students to make teaching and learning more effective.  Five days back, I had created a nicenet class and gave them(my students) class key. Next day , I found more than 50% of the students joined the class and posted their introduction. Out of 75 students from three sections, 68 has joined the nicenet class. The remaining will join soon. It is a good response from them.  In nicenet’s document section, I have posted an article on writing essays and gave 2 links:  Perdue writing lab and essay sample on social issues. I found them quite eager in searching those materials in nicenet and discussing about them. It is the positive change I have found  in my students this week.

Cutting the long story short, this week I have come to know about interactive powerpoint and interactive class, which I think will help me make teaching and learning much better.  Though both were new to me a week back, but now I cherish knowing them thanks to Webskills.

Sitaram

Reflection on Week 5

Like the previous weeks, week 5 also has brought new surprises in my life. I have got the opportunity of reading the articles on rubric, alternative assessment, project based learning and webquests. As I am quite used to in traditional way of teaching, I found them quite amazing and become a bit skeptical whether I could apply them in my context or not.

The article on alternative assessment gave me insight on the use of alternative assessment while evaluating students work. The very interesting part of it is, it fosters the learner-centered classroom; these methods give learners opportunities on their linguistics development and their learning processes. As the features of it are solely based on students’ performance and evaluation, it provides enough opportunities for the students to participate not only in their learning activities but assessment as well. I think incorporating alternative assessment with traditional forms of testing will be quite useful and effective in ESL/EFL class.

Article by Susan Gaer has given me much more idea on making the project more effective. She sheds a light on making students learning more effective by involving them in their work. Unlike traditional teaching and learning, students identify the problem and moves forward for the solution in project based learning. They create their own issues and if needed teacher facilitate in their task. Her suggestion on the projects: The project must be geared to the population, the students must see value in a project and flexible timeliness helps teacher to determine the project work where as it gives the students the impetus to activate themselves for the work they are doing.

Another task, we went through was webquest. Going into it, I feel like I have found the treasure in Treasure Island. Webquests, in my opinion, can be very useful for my students and me as well to manage the project based learning and bind my students in track. The very features of it like introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, credits, teacher page, and students’ page can be a complete package for the teachers and students. I think this web tool will be helpful to my students to know what their task is, what they have to do from their part, what could be the evaluation model, what are the resources links etc. I think it will prevent students digressing from their task goal because they do not need to go beyond the webquest and search the material for their projects as the materials can be made available by the teacher in webquest in advance.

This week as a project work, we dealt about the problem that we face in our class room along with the possible solution. In my class, I found my students quite oblivious in learning English it’s because they find it difficult in getting the authentic materials. I think the problem of my class can be solved by the introduction of Nicenet class which could be helpful in providing them links of the websites for their study.

Finally, I had a comment on Claudia’s blog. I liked her train metaphor. Like her, I also have found the journey on webskills amazing with new surprises each week. I feel like I am growing each day.

Sitaram

Fourth Week Reflection

This week I read two articles: Using the internet in ESL Writing &Three Extensive Reading Activities by Jarek Krajka and Mei-ya Liang in reading section. They are worth reading as they gave me plethora of information regarding the use of email and the handling of the E-books for classroom purpose.

Article by Krajka buttresses the use of internet especially in non-English speaking countries in obtaining the invaluable sources. In his article, he tries to explore how email helps to switch us from teacher-centered to students-centered teaching and learning. According to him, using email in an effective way helps to creating effective learning environment. He strongly advocates the use of web and email in foreign language instruction, mainly because it allures the learners to authentic materials and helps to learn English in international context. His idea on setting up a class page, teaching basic searching skills, showing students how to benefit from the advanced options of the Internet browser, writing e-mails both to each other are worth reading. Besides, he argues that the teachers should be active enough to solve the problem of their students so that they do not feel lost and overwhelmed by technology.

Article by Mei-ya Liang “Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL students Using E-books” further gave a way-out to get the authentic material through e-text. As Mei-Liang said such reading would help students not only to read e-texts as their own pace, but to share their text with other students with different abilities and interpretations. Learners can monitor, revise and evaluate their work during the learning process.

The next task we did last week was nicenet discussion on web searching and its relevance on the students. Among the sites given, I found ESL Independent Study Lab-Michael Krauss http://www. Lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks.html helpful in making my students work on grammar and writing section. The comprehensive details in those sections will help me to go through it in details and teach something important to my students. I tried heteronym from htt://legacy.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html helpful in making  my students. I found them curious and very inquisitive to know more.

Afterwards, we were assigned to design a technology enhanced-lesson plan. I don’t know how better I did this task as I did not find the lesson plan in http://www.bcps.org/apps/CBTIA/ in my first two or three attempts and I gave in. Anyway, I did it by collecting the idea from the post of my classmates.

Recalling the moments of Webskills week 4 in nutshell, I found this week a bit hazy probably because I did have hectic schedule and could not give the time that I was supposed to; however, I sneak into my study room and tried my best to go through it as far as possible.

Sitaram

 

Third Week Reflection

When there are Sonia’s, Pam’s, Dev’s and let alone Vinay’s blog a step from yours, and you are running out of time, what would you do? I reckon you simply fold your hands; and stand and stare at their post. Same has happened to me this week particularly in blog post. One the one hand, I have to complete my assignment in stipulated time, and on the other hand, I have few minutes left to meet the deadline. I am really stifled and pulverized now.  I am pondering how to come out of this dismal predicament. I know I don’t have any way out either. I think I must take recourse to Beatles song ‘let it be, let it be’. Any way, I have to post to my blog, singing 'let it be' by Lennon/McCartney.

It's our third week in webskills course. I am fortunate to learn many things in these three weeks. Sailing back  this week, I encountered much more interesting tasks. I came to read 'Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller and 'New Perspective in Teaching Pronunciation' by Maria Grazia Busa and found their writing comprehensive and extensive. I came to know the general trend in listening and speaking; and was surprised to know the indifference of the researchers and scholars towards them before.

Next, I visited websites that aimed to enhance vocabulary and better pronunciation. The opportunity to hear the native pronunciation and a gut to improve it consistently in the words utterances along with listening the native tones will help my students to further hone their skill. I must admit I had an amazing experience with listening and speaking websites where I enjoyed Randahl’s cyber space the most.

My experience of delicious web page gave me a new horizon. It gave me opportunity to get familiarize with linking the files and texts we read in different web pages and save them for future reference. The learning and sharing with like-minded people has been shaping me into new personality. These three weeks have been a milestone to hone me as an effective and promising teacher. Thanks to all who contributed this opportunity to me.

Sitaram http://www.nicenet.org/

W oh! week 2, you taught me Web searching.

This week has been quite different than the previous one. I have not been as traumatic as I was before in week 1. The reason might be that I am quite familiar with the course, my course mates and  instructor Donna. But, obviously, it’s quite hectic this week and it’s very difficult to complete the task in stipulated time. I have been trying my best not to miss the week 2 deadline. Anyway, I am done after this blog post.

This week is quite phenomenal as I came to know some of my course mates quite closely; and the interesting fact is, I have developed a close rapport with some. This week, I went into all my course mates blog, I was amazed looking  the blog of vinaya and Sonia. How they managed to make such an interesting blog?  So far Pamella’s post, I wished I could write like hers. Dev, oh, my god! He has marvelous poetic sense.  My admiration goes to all my friends for your quaint sense at your disposal. I can say I am learning so many things from you.

When I have a glance back to week 2, I can recollect the profound excitement of knowing scores of search engines and ABCD model. To some extent, I was quite familiar with ABCD model before, since I have been using this model while making lesson plan. But, web searching?  The experience was quaint and extraordinary. I did not imagine before that there are scores of search engines other than Google at our disposal. It’s really amazing!  I wish I had known them before. To be honest; among those search engines, my first impression goes to “I seek Education”. It’s safe, authoritative, intelligent and time saving. Last but not the least , it was week 2 project task #1, where we were supposed to describe our students- population and class room setting. This task has been helping me to revisit the uncharted parts of my  teaching and learning; and explore the possible way to make it more effective.  

Finally, I am thankful to webskills week 2, it has given me a lot of pleasant surprises. At last, I must thank Donna; you gave space to my missed assignment.

Sitaram

Reflection on Week 1

Until Jan. 5, I was anxious and covetously longing for something. I, whenever possible, checked my inbox, 7 or 8 times a day to know whether there was the mail, I was looking for. Each time, I checked the inbox, I was duped by my inbox.......It continued until Jan. 5.

 It was Jan. 5, I checked my mail as my daily routine. To my great surprise and elation!!! I noticed a mail from UO AEI Admin. in my inbox. I was curious enough to know what was written there, I hurriedly clicked and got the greetings from UO AEI Admin. and our instructor's name, Donna. It was the most rejoicing moment, I had this week. It was the beginning of my journey in online course  which I was completely unknown to. And to be frank, I was/am pretty novice in the use of technology. A sort of fear overwhelmed me considering about the course and the participants across the globe. And I was pondering  whether I could do my level best in this course or not.

Its been already 4-5 days, our course had started and I feel how swiftly days passed by. Its probably because of our course module. Its engaging but interesting. Its,sometimes, painstaking but entertaining; mind itching but amazing. Its really fun and enjoying doing the course. Looking back this week, I feel like I have learnt a lot of things like exploring the course website, completing the needs assessment survey, joining on Nicenet, introducing myself and writing comments on the ground rules and rubric grading and creating blogs and posting on it. Its amazing, Isn't it?

Comparing the tasks above, creating the blog was really herculean one for me. I never created blog before and had no idea about it. I went through the instruction given, ultimately I accomplished. After creating the blog now, when I look back into the moment I was creating blog, I want to say to myself "How fool I was." Looking then and now, I could see the change in me brought about by this course.
 special thanks to instructor Donna for your  unceasing support.

Sitaram