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?