Week 7 UO Winter 2014 WebSkills for Teachers Learner Autonomy, the One-computer Classroom, and Mobile Devices

Hi everyone,

Week 7 has been an opportunity to learn, to share and to reflect.

I learned a lot from the readings and posts on learner autonomy and also enjoyed the dynamics of class padlet.

From the readings on learning autonomy, the one that stood out to me was "Learner Autonomy" by David Little. Reason why I posted his videos on the class padlet wall. (file:///E:/Downloads/Learner%20Automomy.pdf) . I gave myself permission to copy here in blue and italics  a part of the article  I'd like to remind myself again and again:

The development of autonomy in language learning is governed by three basic pedagogical 
principles: 
• learner involvement – engaging learners to share responsibility for the learning process 
(the affective and the metacognitive dimensions); 
• learner reflection – helping learners to think critically when they plan, monitor and 
evaluate their learning (the metacognitive dimensions); 
• appropriate target language use – using the target language as the principal medium of 
language learning (the communicative and the metacognitive dimensions). 

What does the teacher do? 
According to these three principles the teacher should  3
• use the target language as the preferred medium of classroom communication and require 
the same of her learners; 
• involve her learners in a non-stop quest for good learning activities, which are shared, 
discussed, analysed and evaluated with the whole class – in the target language, to begin 
with in very simple terms; 
• help her learners to set their own learning targets and choose their own learning activities, 
subjecting them to discussion, analysis and evaluation – again, in the target language; 
• require her learners to identify individual goals but pursue them through collaborative 
work in small groups; 
• require her learners to keep a written record of their learning – plans of lessons and 
projects, lists of useful vocabulary, whatever texts they themselves produce; 
• engage her learners in regular evaluation of their progress as individual learners and as a 
class – in the target language. 

To me, it was great to be reminded of the importance of  using the target language as the preferred medium of classroom communication and require some of learners and the importance of engaging learners creativily and meaninfully in regular evaluation of their progress as means of developing learners autonomy in language learning.

Besides that, from the readings and the posts I read on this topic I sum up what I take with me with the following sentence I copy and paste from the articles and posts : Learner autonomy is connected to learner resoonsibility, not to disconnection from the teacher. Autonomous learners are motivated and able to freely apply knowledge and skills outside immediate context.

I'm using the underlined sentence to reflect on my progress in this course regarding this criteria. On one hand, during the course I feel motivated to apply skills learned outside immediate context. But out of my experience with other courses, I know that after the course ends,  it can be challenging  to revisit  and apply the new knowledge. I feel the advantage of an online course like this one is that it allows us more opportunities for practicing during the courses and my feeling is that due the that the percentage might fall after the course ends, but there has definitely been a great margin for learning already.

It was enjoyable to observe the dynamics of peers pairing up. It seems to me the easy flow of the proccess reflects the group energy throught the course.

This week I had a bit bitter lesson. Since week 2, I started exploring some of the course links and during last week while studying about interactive powerpoints, I installed some programmes I shouldn't  have installed and as a result the laptop I use is out of work. Fortunately, I have been  kindly lent one by a friend who also started the fixing proccess. To me the lesson is that it is part of webskills to be more aware of what to install or not to install into your machine.

Regarding padlets, I found it visually beautiful and appealing  to observe the result of the activity proposed. It has motivated me to go through the posts. It's to notice the cooperative aspect of this tool.  Still to be learned is how to and for how long to store the material. Related to  how to apply it to classroom context - despite the fact I went through the article, I confess my inner cup" was kind of overflowing  this week and I couldn't really take it on board.

It was pleasant to exchange with some coursemates our experience of using one-computer classroom.

Regarding the course project - it's now the focus - As I'm not teaching at the moment - I'm investing time and energy in research and reflection so that the draft is ready by next Wednesday.

May we all thrive not just survive towards the course conclusion.

Regards,
Juliana

Week 6 UO Winter 2014 WebSkills for Teachers - Creating Student-centered Classes and Interactive PowerPoint

Hi everyone,

I started the week by reflecting on task 5 - by thinking of more details to the resources suggested as possible changes or solution  to acknowlege the needs raised for the course plan.

Regarding that, during week 5 I posted in nicenet:

" The way vocabulary, grammar and writing skills are worked with can be improved. So, the issue I´m aiming at for this project plan is: the coursebook components has proved to have insufficient resources - further presentation and practice of vocab and grammar topics, and due to that - students who need extra practice feel a bit lost on where to find resources. 

Technology related change suggested:

A. Related to need # 2 mentioned above: Create a delicious page for this level ("pre teens") and learn how to use the tools of tags so that for each of the 6 units I can add extra presentation and practice material to be used by students who need it."

As I noticed that nicenet is to broad for achieving this goal, I took advantage of these week topic - engagement and interactivity - to experiment on something to provide more practice of grammar and vocab. The power point presentation I prepared has this aim. 

The process of creation gave me good idea of the role of the master slide, action buttons and hiperlinking. Despite the fact the last of 3 hiperlinks worked when I was working with the power point in my computer but didn´t after I uploaded the presentation to the class wiki. As an alternative I added the link. I found the sites provided for how to make ppt presentation a little hard to understand and it took me long to read it over and over. The final result reflects my effort and I'm sure I moved on in the proccess. But that's an area I might benefit to have some presential classes - how to use power points interactively. 

Still regarding this aim of providing more practice of vocab and grammar, I'm aiming at experimenting with the use of webquests or any PBL tecquines. I´ll focus on that for the next weeks.

Whislt reading about the use of technology to enhance motivation and engagement I was motivated to notice how many resources there are - both using technology or not.
From this reflection I'll take with me for the journey - student's concentration span is short - 20 minutes or less. Thus constantly combining lecture time with either pair-work or small group work interaction.  Also, the importance of bearing in mind what resources I'm using during lesson planning and classroom management to promote more student centered classrooms.

Wishing us all a wonderful and fullfilling week 7.

Regards,
Juliana 

Week 5 - UO Winter 2014 Developing webskills - Project-based Learning, WebQuests, and rubrics

Dear all,

Hi.

I need to confess there has been three moments during the course so far when I felt a bit overwhelmed.

First, during week 1 when I was still figuring out the different tools to be used during the course and to me it was time consuming. 

Second, during websearching practice. Despite the fact it's quite useful and rewarding - the more I read the more I noticed that it's a skill that still can be improved to a great extent, as according to the readings,  the more refined the search the more valid the results. 

Third, this week while reading the depth of PBL (Project Based Learning) and alternative assessment there was the will to dedicate more time to such topics. Before I actually visited "rubistar.4teachers.org" I started planning a lot in order to optimize the task which led me to tiredness. Then, when I checked the site itself I noticed how friendly, practical and easy to use. It reminded me that when we face reality (the task) instead of the ghosts of our imagination, things seem much easier.

Back to the week´s readings, as I´ve already mentioned on my post in nicenet, Susan Gaer's experience with PBL "http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385 "   is really  inspiring. The study cases she shared helped me face PBL as a reachable goal.  Next step was webquest - which I refer to as a form of PBL which follows a specific pattern. I went through many samples on the site "www.guestgarden.com" and noticed among users there's a huge variety of expertise and usage which motivates us to give it a try.  Finally, alternative assessment which was illustrated by the use of rubrics. I was also motivated by the link "www.cal.org/resources/digest/tannen01.html" whose conclusion  "Alternative assessment holds great promise. Although the challenge to modify existing methods and develop new approaches is not an easy one" is pretty realistic and at the same time motivating. 

As I've already mentioned, working with "rubistar.4teachers.org"  has been a great surprise and why not to say  a real treat as one of the benefits of technology during teacher practice is to optimize time by using resourceful tools like this one. I feel determined to come up with more rubrics for the upcoming school term which starts next February 18.

Last but not least, regarding the project task, my feeling is that as I dedicated quality time for the previous steps, which  I regard as fundamental, I was pretty at easy and comfortable to suggest some solutions. Although I'm aware I need to refine it - specially the use of delicious.com which I have suggested not as a means of motivation but as a resource for extra vocab and grammar practice. Still - I realized it may not be the best tool. I'll take of care of that the following week.

Unfortunately I was not able to cover the extra task whithin this week's time. But I still have the aim to accomplish such task. I feel it might even become a motivational tool for the course project I´m working with. 

Wow. Time for a pause.

Best,

Juliana.

Week 4 - UO Winter 2014 Developing webskills. - Skill-building Websites for Reading/Writing Skills and Technology-enhanced Lesson Plans

Out of all tasks proposed, to me it was of great importance to be able to figure out confidently the aim of  the course project which, in my case, will be a course plan as I won´t be teaching groups up to the the end of February, when summer vacation ends in Brazil. It´s motivating how the whole process so far has taken place. First describing a group (week 2), then reading a complete course project report and having Sean´s feedback and further guidance on the meaning of project and plan (weeks 3 & 4). To me weeks 3 & 4 steps were fundamental. Being able to visualize the whole process and having a step by step template have helped make a choice with which I feel extremely comfortable with. I decided to use a coursebook whose components allow for extra time practices, as this is an issue I´ll have to take into consideration in my teaching reality - the fact teachers are expected to cover the books activities. 

Back to my course plan's choices so far -it's as if while shopping you happen to find the exact piece you were looking for in many aspects - usefulness , beauty, size, price. To sum it up, a rewarding experience so far.

While reading the proposed articles for the week, two main points I'm carrying on with me for the journey. 

First, from Krajka's paper "Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction" - http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html :  From my teaching experience, the most commom genres worked with are: a letter to a friend, formal letter and argumentative essays. Related to the letter to a friend, one of the ideas proposed - of connecting to e pals via European Schoolnet - http://www.eun.org/. I would definitely offer  it to students as a possibility, but the interests of students vary. What I've been noticing in students I work with is that they spend either a month  abroad or from 6 months to a year. And they're usually stay with families. So, they're really interested in preparing a neat letter with  their presentation. So, what I mean is - all ideas are worth it. But only the teacher can feel the pulse of the context they're connected to. 

Second, from "Using Internet-Based Children's Literature to Teach EFL (2007), by Larry J. Mikulecky". 

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Mikulecky-OnlineChildrensLit.html
I'm really refreshed by the principles shared - specially the one on the importance of learners having command of 95% of structures for extensive reading as a means of consolidating structures and also building up strong reading muscles. It was then, emphasized the important role of children´s stories for this process.  I'm very used to non fiction reading comperhension activities. I'm now more attentive for the facts there are various ways to approach reading skills development.

When it comes to the week tasks for nicenet posts - I decided to explore one site only for the time being: "Lauri's ESL Website - grammar, vocabulary, listening exercises. http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/ ". While planning the two one-to-one classes I have at the moment I made use of the site. As ABCD objectives are new to me, I aim at keeping it very simple. I have already used the plans and benefited from both.

And now, I feel ready for week 5.

Best,

Juliana - EFL and online blended teaching - Brazil.