Week 10: Each end is a new beginning

Dear friends,

It is unbelievable, but it is week number ten and our course is coming to its end. I must say that I did not think that our training would be so diverse and dense. I have not read the blogs made by the participants from previous courses, so reading the title “Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web” I thought that we would just learn new web resources and that would be all. I even did not imagine that the course would be so rich, that the learning material would be so well structured by the Professor and that we would practice such an efficient working and interaction approach.

I was lucky to be in a group with so active colleagues from which I learned so much. And our Professor was so careful to conduct our interactions and so prompt to answer our questions and so patient to check and evaluate our assignments.

Now, looking back I can say that I have learned a lot but I can see also some things that I would do better now if I had the chance. For some topics I would search more information and would write more comments to my colleagues’ posts. But I hope that we will not lose access to all the materials and the course wiki after the course ending and we will be able to read messages on nicenet.org.         If so, then we will be able to come back and reflect about some things later.

Well, it is probably the time to thank everybody who prepared and took part in this course and to wish success to the participants who will be implementing projects soon. It is sad because it is an end but each end is a new beginning.

Good luck!

Ion

Week 9: Learning styles

Dear colleagues,

The ninth week of our course provided discussing learning styles. I found this subject very interesting and it was a surprise for me to discover that Gardner listed 9 intelligences in his theory (I thought they were 5-6).

Although there are scholars who criticize Gardner’s ideas as lacking empirical evidence, in my opinion this does not make his approach less helpful for teachers. Knowing better our students’ interests, talents and needs will help us design activities matching their preferred learning styles and strengths and they will have better attitudes, better grades in tests- they will learn more efficiently in one word. The learners will feel motivated because they will have the occasion to demonstrate their strengths, they will act as “specialists” and this fact will increase their self-esteem.

It is true that many educational systems still focus on the linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences nowadays because it is considered that we should be able to read, write and make calculations first of all. But if we want to have better results we will use a variety of teaching methods appealing to each intelligence to accommodate different learning styles.

These activities will challenge students to learn in different ways and using all approaches they will become more effective learners. They will be better served  by an approach where teachers use different activities to reach all students not just those who excel at linguistic and logical intelligence. 

Best regards,

Ion

Week 8:Teacher Resources Online - Going Deeper

Dear friends,

Now when the eighth week is over I can say that it was a period that besides the online tools that were not very complicated like: Hot Potatoes,  http://www.toolsforeducators.com, http://bogglesworldesl.com  introduced also Course Management Systems (ANVILL) and other web resources (www.blogger.com, www.nicenet.org ) which were not CMS but could be used as platforms for managing the teaching/learning process. About four years ago I had experienced e-learning when I took part in a distance training based on another popular CMS called MOODLE. In my opinion these are valuable tools and I know that in Scandinavian countries they implement deeply e-learning but at least in Moldova we are not ready yet to base our courses integrally on CMS because not all the students have a computer and in many schools they don’t have  multimedia labs offering free internet accesss. Instead, as our colleagues proved, this kind of tools can be efficient platforms for combining different sequences to build complex learning units.

From the list of the proposed online tools I would like to mention the Hot Potatoes software which can bring many benefits because you don’t need to know programming to easily make different types of exercises with this application and share them. Also I like that you can integrate pictures and sounds in it and receive instant feedback. A good thing is that it is very popular and there are many websites on which teachers upload ready made exercises,so you can save time just by dowloading them.

However I think that the teacher must be very creative to make these exercises interactive, to involve the students otherwise there will be too much focus on the forms and less  communication.

So, as we have already said these are just tools and their efficiency depends on how the teachers know to use them.

Best wishes,

Ion

Week 7: “I find it’s kind of like having some candy but not enough for everyone.” (Phyllis Stallworth, a four-grade teacher from Louisiana referring to teaching in a one-computer classroom)

This week we read and analyzed the proposed resources on teaching English in one-computer classrooms and learner’s autonomy and found partners for reviewing project plans.

 The lack of equipment is a problem indeed but I think using a computer (especially a laptop) connected to a projector can be very efficient.
I used this format successfully for listening and checking comprehension (subtitled video clips + fill-in-the gaps exercises + singing karaoke), grammar (Hot Potatoes exercises), reading (text based tasks), making Power Point presentations, etc.
A good thing is that it works not only for whole-class activities. Strategies like working in stations or offering after-classes access to students according to an established schedule can allow each learner use the computer.
The conclusion I drew about implementing technology in teaching in general and  in a one-computer classroom in particular is not to use computers just for showing something and not to loose the sight of our main goal that is meaningful communication and interaction.

“I never teach my students. I simply provide the situations in which they can learn.”

                                                                                    (Albert Einstein)

Another important issue was the benefits of and the obstacles in developing learner’s autonomy.           I found it very interesting the way Dimitrios Thanasoulas approaches basically this term in his article “What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?” The influence of the tradition factor, the moderator role of the teacher, the curriculum and the importance of autonomous learning for future citizens were very relevant for me taking into account the context of my native country.
Here in Moldova we made reforms in our educational system to pass from the Soviet model that we call “informative” to a “formative” educational system and my impression about this change is that perhaps the people who call the school a “conservative institution” are right because I can see how deeply rooted in the traditional teaching are our practices.
Though this doesn’t make the importance of autonomous learning less convincing. I think that in the context of globalization and information revolution we need active citizens being able to search for information and process it independently to implement the daily “projects” of which consists our life.

Week 6: Power Point, Engaging Students&Interactive Lectures

Dear friends,

Another week full of interesting activities, readings, comments and exchange of ideas is over. It has been a very productive period because it brought into discussion Power Point presentations which we all use and engaging students and enhancing interactivity which are fundamental for student-centered classes.

First, I thought that the potential of the Power Point presentations was well known and there wasn’t anything important to learn about it. But to my pleasant surprise I discovered many helpful strategies while exploring the proposed resources. Most of all I appreciated making quizzes, jeopardy games and including interactive activities: Think-Pair-Share, ConcepTest, Minute paper which can bring many benefits because they are easy to prepare for different topics and they involve all the students. In addition there are websites like www.slideshare.net that allows downloading, uploading presentations and having access to them from no matter what computer. Those who are interested in alternative applications to Power Point could try the online tool prezi.com. This software allows creating a presentation on a canvas by linking different details on a non-linear basis.Here is an example of using prezi.com to create a simple presentation:

Another issue matching our needs was enhancing lectures when teaching large classes. I found it very helpful that the material for analysis contained feasible techniques based on precise research data like the prescription to plan 2-3 minute interactive activities after each 12-18 minutes of the lecture. Also the strategies for checking feedback like using index color cards, minute paper were very welcome because they help the teacher know their students taking into account that the lecture is a type of lesson that puts the stress on the teacher.

To conclude I can say that I feel that week 6 activities brought more clarity in the way I view teaching/learning foreign languages and they enhanced my proficiency in Power Point to use it to the best advantage.    

Best wishes,

Ion   

Week 5: Developing 21-st century skills!

This week has been very “rich” from the perspective of methodology of teaching English  because it focused on something  very important for each teacher interested in new trends in education: it  highlighted the innovative strategies of project-based learning , webquests and alternative assessment.

Of course, many teachers knew about these techniques and some have used them before in their practice but the main thing was, at least for me, to discover the ideas, the philosophy on which PBL and webquests are based.

Exploring the information on the philosophy of the constructivist model on www.edutopia.org  I could see how this modern educational theory tries to respond to the challenges that schools are facing nowadays. The video fragments presenting concrete examples of PBL in American schools accompanied by specialists’ comments were very relevant in my opinion. Even if the chance to implement new  strategies to a similar extent in my country  is very  little we still can interrelate our school syllabus with small short term projects like those with which Susan Gaer started.  

Referring to the types of alternative assessment I would like to mention that I found rubrics as being a very helpful tool. This instrument is good for the student because it gives them more autonomy making them responsible for their learning performance.  Also it is a useful instrument for the teacher because it excludes the subjectivity from the assessment of such productions like oral presentations, essays and letters. I consider that to compose rubrics may be rather difficult and time-consuming when you are not used to it that’s why I appreciate websites like www.rubistar4teachers.org . Exploring its rich collection of rubrics we can analyze and compare those made by other teachers and this way we will improve our assessing approach.  

 To conclude I would say that we as teachers have to know and use the above mentioned methods to correspond to the needs and interests of the new type of students we have:      the net generation.   

Ion

Week 4: Reading will teach you anything you want to know and take you anywhere you want to go!

Dear friends,

Having finished the current week's tasks I think that they required time but they deserved the efforts.

We have focused on two communicative skills: reading and writing. I appreciated the proposed articles because I learned from them how to diversify the writing genres and how to approach them interactively and I found helpful the way the reading practice was presented with clear stages and assessment.

The multi-skill websites were a valuable acquisition for our teaching toolboxes (delicious.com): I liked each of them especially those that contained quizzes and games. They proposed resources for all levels and I easily could decide how they coud be used in my lessons. That's why I like taking part in this course: it facilitates the exchange of experience.Another good part that I find well-thought is that each new task is practiced within further activities. For example, this week we designed technology enhanced lesson plans for which we needed correctly formulated ABCD objectives and ICT linked to syllabus topics.

 

„If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job.”

                                                                                                                         (Donald D. Quinn)

The third step in our project work consisted in something very important: determining students' needs.Each student is different and if the teachers have a better knowledge of learners' backgrounds, interests and anxieties they will be able to adjust their activities to make lessons more efficient. According to the comments made by my colleagues in their posts motivation and inappropriate resources are problems affecting students from many countries. Well, it is good that we have outlined the sensible issues for the beginning, next we are going to include technology enhanced elements to address these needs because "when a man doesn't know which harbour he is sailing to, no wind is the right wind."  

Best wishes,

Ion

                      

Week 3: Communication is the key! Listening and speaking

             Well, it has been a busy, a little tiring but productive week.

We started with something tasty this time: www.delicious.com – one of the most popular bookmarking services. I must say I have not felt the need of using such a resource before but after checking the possibilities it offers I found it valuable. You can save your favourite links and have access to them from no matter which computer and the thing that I liked the most: www.delicious.com and other similar websites allow the users to share their bookmarks which is a feature that all the teachers who are interested in discovering efficient tools will appreciate. Also it is good that you can transfer easily your saved links to another bookmarking service.  Now, the participants in our course who know so many sites about teaching and learning English have a platform on which to perform an exchange of experience.
Moreover, www.delicious.com raised our interest for similar instruments that provide additional features.
This way I discovered www.diigo.com and I liked it because using this service you can highlight, add sticky notes, capture, save and share different elements of a webpage.

Passing to something that represents the foundation of teaching/learning a foreign language- developing communicative skills-we focused on two of them: listening and speaking.

Reading the proposed material and my colleagues’ posts I saw that many teachers were not pleased with the resources our textbooks presented for listening.
Fortunately we have the internet and sites like  www.esl-lab.com where listening activities are presented in a teaching sequence respecting the recommended stages (pre-, while-, post-) and are extended to speaking.

Finally, there was a moment to make another step in working on our projects. Intending to start and maintain a class blog I was very happy to discover that there were teachers from previous courses that had done similar things. The study of Camelia Pagila’s project was thought-provoking because discovering how she inter-related the compulsory syllabus with the use of technology I wondered if I would be able to do it as well. Another strong point of her work is that she managed to adapt tools to match different learning styles and skills because I think we must not consider technology a goal in itself but an efficient tool for developing communicative skills. This is my main conclusion for this rich week.

Best wishes,
Ion    

Week 2: Wandering down the garden path to watch the butterflies vs harvesting peas

This week I have tried for the first time some search engines from noodletools.com specialized according to such criteria like: type of information, timeliness, special search requirements, etc.
Well, I think I will check the rest in the future but for now education.iseek.com and americanrethoric.com proved to be reliable, at least in my case.
Though I am not still sure about the usefulness of using Boolean operators.
If you  can suggest something related to them  from your experience I would be very grateful. 

You may have wondered about the connection between the contents of this post and its title.    Well, it refers to something I have found while searching information on the ABCD format learning objectives.It is a file named writinglearningobjectives.pdf that you can download from http://www.unb.ca/ .
The authors Dorothy MacKeracher and Peter Gross stress the importance of stating clearly objectives by making this wonderful comparison: "They (the objectives) help the instructor stay on topic and avoid wandering down the garden path to watch the butterflies when harvesting peas was the objective.Watching butterflies is a nice break but detracts from achieving planned outcomes." 
That is the main thing to remember about objectives in my opinion: they must be clear, observable and measurable.

Finally, the beginning of this week has been a moment to think well and decide on a project that I am going to develop and implement in my teaching in order to make a change using technology. I thought of collaborating on a simple project related to culture, youth's life and interests with a school from a different country by working together on a joint class blog. I chose the blog because I thought  it had a great potential that would allow me to focus on different communicative skills. Also I hope that my students who are shy to speak in class will feel free to express themselves and they will be more responsible for what they publish. 

That is all so far. Feel free to comment!

Week 1: Reflections

 Dear friend,

Welcome! It is the first time in my life I have started a blog and I haven't learned yet how to give it an attractive design but I hope it will not be difficult to be done later.

I have named it "Technology in English Teaching" because I intend to use it as a platform for publishing different ideas and exchanging experience with people who are interested in implementing ICT in teaching English.

Later when the school starts (in Moldova we start it on the 1-st of September) I think it will possible to include a practical element in this blog (videos and photos from lessons, lesson plans, etc).

Also it would be great to use it for interacting with students: posting assignments, making anouncements, giving grades and feed-back, collaborating on projects).
There are so many possibilities and plans.
I think I should prioritize and try to implement them as well as I can.

This is all so far.
I will be very grateful if  you write constructive comments, suggestions and links to resources referring to the theme of the blog.

I hope it is an auspicious beginning. 

Thank you,

Ion