This week, like the other weeks, has been very educative. One thing I felt was different this week is the real sense of achievement I felt when I managed to create a course website using ANVIL.
ANVIL is what I was looking for because I have been thinking of having a course website to supplement the face-to-face teaching in the classroom. Such tool no doubt will help me offer a better course. It will allow me to send the students more materials and allow them to discuss things using the class forum. It will also nurture self-autonomy as the students will be responsible for accessing the materials, reading them, participating in the discussion on the class forum and carry out the assignments/ quizzes they are asked to do. Compared to the other internet tools such as google sites or Nicenet, I found this much more superior because it has all the good features of these other websites. This was the task of the week
I also shared the plan for my final project with my partner Mr. Faisal Al-Hakem and sent him a review of his plan. Peer review is an excellent idea that allows the participants to look at each other's work and saves the teacher a lot of work.
I also made two posts on "Teaching with Online Tools". The discussion on using facebook and other social media was very interesting. Yes using these tools promote learners' autonomy and give them an opportunity to work at their convenient pace. There could be some constraints that would make it difficult to use these tools such as the skills of the students in using the computer and surfing the internet and there could be some basic constraints such as the availability of internet access to the learners. Such constraints need hard work to overcome and a plan need to be developed to this effect. I am working on one right now.
I don't want to forget extending heartfelt gratitude to Jeff for the wonderful ANVIL tool and his constructive feedback on my course website.
Looking forward to having another week of technology.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Week 7: Practical Ideas
The first thing I like most about this way is the idea of a "one-computer class". Yes, this is what I am talking about. In our countries talking about using high tech tools in teaching is simply wishful thinking. We face so many practical problems and obstacles with the most basic needs. Therefore, I found the ideas of how to work with one computer absolutely useful. This is real creativity. We really need to be creative within our given context.
The readings on learner's autonomy are very useful. The discussion on learner's autonomy is also useful. Good ideas have come out of this discussion of how the participants feel they con go about doing it. The net result of the discussion is that learner's autonomy is a process not simply a product. Moreover, this should be a top priority for the teachers as learner's autonomy is not simply a learning skill; it is a life-long skill.
The task of the week was to produce a lesson plan based on the use of one computer. I also like this very much because this helps us in producing good lessons with very limited resources (one computer).
The project step of this week was signing up with a partner and I have signed up with Faisal.
The readings on learner's autonomy are very useful. The discussion on learner's autonomy is also useful. Good ideas have come out of this discussion of how the participants feel they con go about doing it. The net result of the discussion is that learner's autonomy is a process not simply a product. Moreover, this should be a top priority for the teachers as learner's autonomy is not simply a learning skill; it is a life-long skill.
The task of the week was to produce a lesson plan based on the use of one computer. I also like this very much because this helps us in producing good lessons with very limited resources (one computer).
The project step of this week was signing up with a partner and I have signed up with Faisal.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Week 6: Teaching Large Classes and Interactive Power Point Presentations
The discussion in this week revolved around two topics: techniques for engaging students in large classes and power point presentations.
The main points that I got out from the discussion on "engaging the students" the following techniques:
1. Pair work and group work
2. think-pair-share
3. ConceptTests and Quick-thinks
4. Priming
5. webQuests
6. Project-based learning
7. class forums/websites
8. use of technology (PP presentations)
I suggested that the participants in this class who teach large classes can start a special forum in which they brainstorm for solutions to their problems.
In the discussion on "Power Point Presentations", we talked about the use of PP presentations and how one can make them interactive based on our reading of the materials sent by the class instructor. The most important point that came out of this discussion is that it is about the presenter more than about the presentation. Making a presentation interactive means involving the students in it by incorporating activities, questions, quick tests, blank slides for time for reflection, good design and interesting graphics.
I also created a PP presentation on "parallel Structures" in technical writing and shared it on the class wiki.
In a nutshell, it's been again another busy week and useful one indeed.
The main points that I got out from the discussion on "engaging the students" the following techniques:
1. Pair work and group work
2. think-pair-share
3. ConceptTests and Quick-thinks
4. Priming
5. webQuests
6. Project-based learning
7. class forums/websites
8. use of technology (PP presentations)
I suggested that the participants in this class who teach large classes can start a special forum in which they brainstorm for solutions to their problems.
In the discussion on "Power Point Presentations", we talked about the use of PP presentations and how one can make them interactive based on our reading of the materials sent by the class instructor. The most important point that came out of this discussion is that it is about the presenter more than about the presentation. Making a presentation interactive means involving the students in it by incorporating activities, questions, quick tests, blank slides for time for reflection, good design and interesting graphics.
I also created a PP presentation on "parallel Structures" in technical writing and shared it on the class wiki.
In a nutshell, it's been again another busy week and useful one indeed.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Week 5: Old concepts in a new light!!
The focus of this week's discussion was the following points:
1. PBL and Technology
2. Rubrics
3. WebQuests
4. Project – Step # 3: Technology-related change
I had an idea about PBL and Rubrics before this and I have been using them every now and then. However, WebQuests is new thing for me. WebQuests are one of the technology-related tools that can be used with PBL. They no doubt give it a special flavor and a new way of doing projects. The difference between WebQuests and traditional PBL is that gathering the information is done now from the internet mainly. The ready-made formats available on some websites can save the teacher a lot of time and effort. WebQuests can be developed and given to the students in a hard-copy form or posted on the internet as a webpage on one of the websites that offer this service for free.
Similarly, I knew about rubrics before. The new thing I learned about them this week is that one can get help from some websites specialized in this area. Sometimes you can get a completely ready-to-use rubrics. This again takes off the shoulder of the teacher a lot of burden and saves him/her a lot of time. However, most of the time, the teacher needs to be judicious and needs to adapt the available ready-to-use rubrics to his/her purpose.
Rubrics help the teacher in evaluating his/her students' work objectively and systematically instead of leaving it for his/her overall impression of the work. Students here can not claim any more that the teacher has under-evaluated their work.
Rubrics also help guide the teacher as well as the students throughout the process especially when these rubrics are shared with the students beforehand, something I strongly believe in; the students need to know how they will be evaluated and thus the teacher needs to develop the rubrics pertaining to a specific task and share it with the students before they actually embark on doing that task.
Finally, I shared the first thing I would do to effect a technology-related change in my situation. I got some sympathy from some of my course colleagues!!! The comforting thing is that I am not alone in this. Needless to say that I will try my best to bring about this change. All I need is patience and dedication. Change is always difficult but taking it piecemeal one can do it.
1. PBL and Technology
2. Rubrics
3. WebQuests
4. Project – Step # 3: Technology-related change
I had an idea about PBL and Rubrics before this and I have been using them every now and then. However, WebQuests is new thing for me. WebQuests are one of the technology-related tools that can be used with PBL. They no doubt give it a special flavor and a new way of doing projects. The difference between WebQuests and traditional PBL is that gathering the information is done now from the internet mainly. The ready-made formats available on some websites can save the teacher a lot of time and effort. WebQuests can be developed and given to the students in a hard-copy form or posted on the internet as a webpage on one of the websites that offer this service for free.
Similarly, I knew about rubrics before. The new thing I learned about them this week is that one can get help from some websites specialized in this area. Sometimes you can get a completely ready-to-use rubrics. This again takes off the shoulder of the teacher a lot of burden and saves him/her a lot of time. However, most of the time, the teacher needs to be judicious and needs to adapt the available ready-to-use rubrics to his/her purpose.
Rubrics help the teacher in evaluating his/her students' work objectively and systematically instead of leaving it for his/her overall impression of the work. Students here can not claim any more that the teacher has under-evaluated their work.
Rubrics also help guide the teacher as well as the students throughout the process especially when these rubrics are shared with the students beforehand, something I strongly believe in; the students need to know how they will be evaluated and thus the teacher needs to develop the rubrics pertaining to a specific task and share it with the students before they actually embark on doing that task.
Finally, I shared the first thing I would do to effect a technology-related change in my situation. I got some sympathy from some of my course colleagues!!! The comforting thing is that I am not alone in this. Needless to say that I will try my best to bring about this change. All I need is patience and dedication. Change is always difficult but taking it piecemeal one can do it.
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