Week 8, Reflections

What a week! I am getting used to the hard work.

I have been pushing really hard to get my project to work as I expected. I am still struggling. Like I mentioned in the Nicenet Class Discussion, things have worked not at the pace I expected. Plus, we have face several constraints while implementing the technological solution. I still believe the idea is good, just kind of too much for the little time we have to put it into practice. I went too far I think. Anyways, I will continue working on perfecting it. Plus, now I know about ANVIL. I think that is just the tool I was looking for since it comprises everything I was using into a tool box , all accessible at the same site. No need to learn and jump from site to site.

I think I overestimated y students’ autonomy. We all are just getting into this new trend. It has to be very step-by-step. It is my fault to a great degree. I kind of expected too much. I wanted them to try everything , but now I see it takes more than 3-4 weeks.

On the other hand, I have heard very good comments about the 2 tools we have been able to use so far, Nicenet Forum and ESL Café Chat Central. Students feel free to express themselves. Plus they just like chatting.

 

I read my partner’s project. I think she is doing a great job. The idea of peer review is excellent. We not only feedback one another, but learn a lot by reading one’s partner’s work

I think time shortage has been a main issue. We all work and that demands a great deal of our time. But I cannot complain about the training. I has been great. I am just kind of oncerned with some classmates, including of course Elsa. We have not heard from her.

Week 7, Reflections

It has been a rough week because of time shortage. Luckily, I have been able to complete everything.

Learner’s autonomy has been a major topic of discussion this week. One point in common among many authors and our group is that it has to be fostered a lot more. That would be a quantum leap in education, that is, a lot less work for teachers and a lot better results for students. They would be working at their own pace and under their own learning styles, which means learning individualization, a great way to deal with students’ differences. However, students cannot be left alone. They still need our guiding. We are not there to impose things but to channel resources and put them at students’ disposal. In addition, we will never lose out monitoring role. That cannot be replaced.

 

The one-computer classroom has also been touch on in depth. You do not usually reflect on this since it is almost everybody’s current situation. However, a lot can be done with that one computer. Lots of ideas have been shared and discussed on this topic for the purpose on enhancing learning. We have to keep something in mind, one computer is not a limitation but an asset. Some peripheral pieces of hardware like a multimedia projector and a set of speakers can greatly potentiate the number of possibilities a computer offers.

Going back to learner’s autonomy, I’ve personally witnessed what happens when students’ autonomy is overestimated. I gave my Speech-one students some assignments to do on Nicenet over the week. I put not pressure on them at all just to see what happened. Guess what? They did nothing, hahaha. Let’s not forget our students are not used to that type of learning. It has to be progressively implemented, not all of a sudden. We need to break paradigms, but little by little so it does not turn into a traumatic experience for students and us.

Week 6, Reflections

Hello,

We are getting there, folks!

Lots of work this week. Working with large classes is a major concern among teachers, no matter the field. Getting students' attention, keeping that attention, and above all else getting and keeping them really involved in what is being dealt with is a major challenge for teachers. I honestly struggle a lot with that. Luckily, I have not taught large classes for a while.

Nevertheless, I do not feel alone anymore. I have seen lots of tools and techniques I am sure will ease my teaching life from now on. I am glad there are people doing research about the best ways to manage them.

I think one of the key factors here is involvement. Being a lecturer for a class of fifty-five students or even colleagues is no easy task. We all know that. Audience members tend to feel relegated if there is no chance for them to get involved. After all, true learning takes place through active work not through mere reception.

PowerPoint is a great tool we can use to deal with this type of teaching-learning context. It does not have to be just a way to transmit information to a large number of people. We as teachers need to personalize it, so our audience switch from receivers to participants. We saw a lot about already-proved techniques we can put into practice to achieve this goal.

Talking about the implementation of the change, last Wednesday, all my students joined a Nicenet class I created for them. They explored this tool in detailed, guided by me. I have posted helpful links, and I am working on a forum for them to start posting. I am trying to pick topics of their interest so they feel invloved. 

Not surprisingly, my students did really well with Nicenet. They created forum topics, posted to other people's forum topics, sent each other e-mail messages, etc. with minor difficulties. In other words, they can use the Web, but not necessarily in a productive way. Our role is to guide them then.

Week 5, Reflections

First of all, Rubistar rocks! Webquest is something, too.

Rubistar is quite versatile. I have been working on rubrics for a while. Some of them work; some other need lots of improvements. I will post them all before the end of the training so everyone can make comments on them and maybe pull out some ideas. I will do the same with yours. Do not sue me please. Maybe we can come up with some kind of failure-proof rubrics. That is just too much idealism, I know. Just saying ... However, I have seen pretty nice pieces of work at  https://sites.google.com/site/webskillswikiwinter2010/home/rubrics.

 

Webquest  also has lots of potential, especially because it gives you lots of ideas to follow, so you do not need to overexert your creativity or run the risk of running out of ideas. I am just exaggerating, but it is true. Talking about performance and results, it is not about working harder but smarter.

Talkinng about the project, I still see a long way to go, but I think we are moving at a good pace. I like the way we have approached it: describing target students, describing issues, and describing changes. I think it is a quite logical order.

It is a shame I could not find the time to work on the Webquest project. Again, it is very good tool and very user-friedly, too.

I appreciate people's comments and suggestions. For example, Shuhudha made me think about something important I had skipped at talking about the tecnology-enhanced change. That was really good. Same about you Robert and Marine.

I hope you like the sites I have forwarded.

JC