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