My mind has fallen into some horrible shutdown. I find no words to write to my last blog. Looking back my previous posts when thoughts would flow from my mind, I was amazed to see my progress for the last ten weeks. It is surprising to realize one’s own improvement and I am able to see this progress via my blog.
What I gained from this course can be outlined very shortly:
1. Blogger, delicious, webquests, interactive quizzes and powerpoint presentations. They were all new to me. It is interesting that at the beginning of the course I thought myself as a skilled computer user but now I laugh to myself. Loti framework also helped me evaluate where I was before the course and where I am currently. I am excited about implementing all the things I learned in this course.
2. Thanks to our weekly readings, articles, and assignments, I was able to refresh and attain knowledge on different topics all related to classroom technology.
3. In ten week’s time I had opportunity to participate enjoyable and informative classroom discussions and debates on Nicenet with my very precious friends. Reading everyone’s post, evaluating their comments was also the most indispensable part of this course.
I can say with all honesty that I learned more than I expected or intended. A great investment for myself. Last but not least, I want to thank Deborah and Sandra for their valuable feedback and comments to our posts.
Regards,
Gülsen
Friday, 19 March 2010
Sunday, 14 March 2010
2 Week 9
Another fruitful and demanding and busy week finished just like the blink of an eye. Days are passing so fast and it becomes very difficult for me to catch. This week for the first time I felt I am really tired. Having some rest after this course would be a good idea for me.
Now it comes the answer of the question “what I did this week”. I sent my final project and I’d like to thank Zlatka for being such a nice peer review partner. This week’s one of the hot topics was creating online course sites and exercises. When I created a class from Nicenet, I was surprised to see that it was such an easy task. Nicenet will definitely work for students in ELT department. They can discuss and share ideas about any of the ELT topics.
I also explored many sites and I liked toolsforeducators best. You can create different kinds of activities but exercises are mostly for elementary level students. These online exercises provide students to continue their study outside of the classroom which in result might encourage learner autonomy. Exercises can be created with only one or two steps but I think choosing the appropriate exercise for students might be difficult and time consuming most of the time. I created an exercise from toolsforeducators but I didn’t like my first experience. The next day, I tried for my second exercise which was a gap-fill exercise and that was better. But I need to work on it because I still have problems. It is a good idea to apply such exercises in my classes and I am sure my students will also like it.
Now it comes the answer of the question “what I did this week”. I sent my final project and I’d like to thank Zlatka for being such a nice peer review partner. This week’s one of the hot topics was creating online course sites and exercises. When I created a class from Nicenet, I was surprised to see that it was such an easy task. Nicenet will definitely work for students in ELT department. They can discuss and share ideas about any of the ELT topics.
I also explored many sites and I liked toolsforeducators best. You can create different kinds of activities but exercises are mostly for elementary level students. These online exercises provide students to continue their study outside of the classroom which in result might encourage learner autonomy. Exercises can be created with only one or two steps but I think choosing the appropriate exercise for students might be difficult and time consuming most of the time. I created an exercise from toolsforeducators but I didn’t like my first experience. The next day, I tried for my second exercise which was a gap-fill exercise and that was better. But I need to work on it because I still have problems. It is a good idea to apply such exercises in my classes and I am sure my students will also like it.
Sunday, 7 March 2010
1 Learner Autonomy
Hi Everyone,
This week we discussed about learner autonomy, characteristics of autonomous learners, how to make our students autonomous, teachers’ role in fostering autonomy, and how technology might help us to make autonomous learners. All my course mates came up with interesting and useful points. I learned many things from them when I read their comments. It is clear that it is not easy for teachers to foster autonomy in the blink of an eye. This is a very long process starting from early education and certain conditions should be met such as the methodology of the teacher used, appropriate materials that are to be used in teaching, teacher’s professional knowledge, and the curricula which encourages learner autonomy. There should be more self-access facilities, computer assisted learning technologies, and materials designed to foster learner autonomy. Additionally, teachers should be encouraged more to participate in professional development activities, which help them take on more autonomy supportive roles in their classrooms.
We also designed one computer classroom lesson plan. I’d like to thank Jeff Magota for his valuable comments and feedback. His ideas of schema building and building up mini dialogues with interesting situations were quite useful on my part.
This week I also sent Zlatka first draft of my project work. I tried to answer the project template questions but some of the questions in the template were so close to each other that I think I blended them. Also, it seems to me that I couldn’t refrain from making repetitions. But this is the first draft and I am sure that I will improve it by Zlatka’s valuable comments.
Thanks,
Gülsen
This week we discussed about learner autonomy, characteristics of autonomous learners, how to make our students autonomous, teachers’ role in fostering autonomy, and how technology might help us to make autonomous learners. All my course mates came up with interesting and useful points. I learned many things from them when I read their comments. It is clear that it is not easy for teachers to foster autonomy in the blink of an eye. This is a very long process starting from early education and certain conditions should be met such as the methodology of the teacher used, appropriate materials that are to be used in teaching, teacher’s professional knowledge, and the curricula which encourages learner autonomy. There should be more self-access facilities, computer assisted learning technologies, and materials designed to foster learner autonomy. Additionally, teachers should be encouraged more to participate in professional development activities, which help them take on more autonomy supportive roles in their classrooms.
We also designed one computer classroom lesson plan. I’d like to thank Jeff Magota for his valuable comments and feedback. His ideas of schema building and building up mini dialogues with interesting situations were quite useful on my part.
This week I also sent Zlatka first draft of my project work. I tried to answer the project template questions but some of the questions in the template were so close to each other that I think I blended them. Also, it seems to me that I couldn’t refrain from making repetitions. But this is the first draft and I am sure that I will improve it by Zlatka’s valuable comments.
Thanks,
Gülsen
Sunday, 28 February 2010
2 Week 8 Reflection
Dear All,
One more demanding and instructive week have passed since we started our online course. This week’s topics were about interactive teaching in large classes and ways of using interactive power point and preparing interactive PPT. On Nicenet, there was again very fruitful discussion ongoing same as the previous weeks. Besides, for our projects tasks, we are required to find a partner for peer reviews. My partner is Zlatka and I am very happy to work with her .
This week it dawned on me the fact that interactive lecture is strikingly different from the traditional teaching. The latter is concerned with the teacher being the controller of the learning environment. In contrast, in interactive teaching all of the students participate in an activity and students are in control of their learning. Moreover, I noticed that what is generally forgotten in second language classrooms is to give a reason for doing a task. This point is also highly important in NLP theory. If learners know why they should be involved in a particular task, this can increase self- awareness and motivation, too. It is a fact that if you have a real purpose for something, you are more willing to spend time on and make effort for it, which can eventually result in success. At that point Interactive lectures are very successful at giving students a purpose for learning. Interactive activities such as think-pair share, concept test or the question of the day are good examples which help students develop thinking skills since they give students opportunity to organize their thoughts and engage them in learning process.
However, while teaching large classes, I couldn’t avoid being a traditional teacher because I always found it hard to keep students interest or I had no idea how to involve students in their own learning but thanks to videos and readings of this week, I have much knowledge about how to handle large classes.
What I liked most about this week was preparing an interactive PPT. I always thought that I am skilled at preparing PPT because I usually deliver my lessons through PPT; however, this week I am quite surprised because it was the first time I’ve heard “interactive PPT”. After watching the videos and reading about creating interactive PPT presentations, I was ready to create one. For the first time, I spent considerable amount of time but my second trial was much better. I am thinking of using my jeopardy game for my literature class.
I’d like to end my sentences here. I am again looking forward to writing my reflection for next week.
One more demanding and instructive week have passed since we started our online course. This week’s topics were about interactive teaching in large classes and ways of using interactive power point and preparing interactive PPT. On Nicenet, there was again very fruitful discussion ongoing same as the previous weeks. Besides, for our projects tasks, we are required to find a partner for peer reviews. My partner is Zlatka and I am very happy to work with her .
This week it dawned on me the fact that interactive lecture is strikingly different from the traditional teaching. The latter is concerned with the teacher being the controller of the learning environment. In contrast, in interactive teaching all of the students participate in an activity and students are in control of their learning. Moreover, I noticed that what is generally forgotten in second language classrooms is to give a reason for doing a task. This point is also highly important in NLP theory. If learners know why they should be involved in a particular task, this can increase self- awareness and motivation, too. It is a fact that if you have a real purpose for something, you are more willing to spend time on and make effort for it, which can eventually result in success. At that point Interactive lectures are very successful at giving students a purpose for learning. Interactive activities such as think-pair share, concept test or the question of the day are good examples which help students develop thinking skills since they give students opportunity to organize their thoughts and engage them in learning process.
However, while teaching large classes, I couldn’t avoid being a traditional teacher because I always found it hard to keep students interest or I had no idea how to involve students in their own learning but thanks to videos and readings of this week, I have much knowledge about how to handle large classes.
What I liked most about this week was preparing an interactive PPT. I always thought that I am skilled at preparing PPT because I usually deliver my lessons through PPT; however, this week I am quite surprised because it was the first time I’ve heard “interactive PPT”. After watching the videos and reading about creating interactive PPT presentations, I was ready to create one. For the first time, I spent considerable amount of time but my second trial was much better. I am thinking of using my jeopardy game for my literature class.
I’d like to end my sentences here. I am again looking forward to writing my reflection for next week.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
3 Multiple Intelligence and Technology
Hi Everybody,
This week our topic was incorporating technology to different types of student learning style. To be honest, multiple intelligence theory and learning styles were not new to me. Last year, one of the assignments from my methodology course was designing a lesson incorporating multiple intelligence theory. In that lesson I remember having included all eight multiple intelligences by using videos, music, pictures and power point slides, and games. By using technology, I tried to use variety of approaches to learning. Thus, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that technology can impact all forms of learning.
When I consider the basic principles of MI theory, they all give important ideas that should be incorporated into classroom teaching. The main point is that teachers need to add variety into their teaching practices and activities that address to every student as much as possible. MI theory also emphasizes that activities that require students move around the classroom and work with others are essential for meaningful learning.
This week I’ve gone through “Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching” by Montogomery and Groat. In the article there were many valuable ideas for student learning styles and reasons to incorporate an understanding of learning styles in our teaching. I agree with the idea that no teacher can expect to develop different ways of teaching for each individual. Rather as teachers we should strive to provide a variety of learning experiences, such that at one point or another each learning style is addressed.
This week on Nicenet we shared our ideas about ways that can help to provide a range of learning styles in the classroom. The discussions, as always, were very fruitful on my part. Many of my course mates suggested using word processors, video cameras, audio recorders, mobile phones, blogs, wikis, webquests, Twitter to provide a variety of learning experiences to address different types of learners. Moreover, I believe that if we make our students to become active learners who engage in their work and try out new ideas, then teachers surely will achieve addressing different types of learning. I personally believe that active learner students do not have one learning style instead they have multiple learning styles. Finally, teachers should find ways to enhance active learning through incorporating technology.
This week our topic was incorporating technology to different types of student learning style. To be honest, multiple intelligence theory and learning styles were not new to me. Last year, one of the assignments from my methodology course was designing a lesson incorporating multiple intelligence theory. In that lesson I remember having included all eight multiple intelligences by using videos, music, pictures and power point slides, and games. By using technology, I tried to use variety of approaches to learning. Thus, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that technology can impact all forms of learning.
When I consider the basic principles of MI theory, they all give important ideas that should be incorporated into classroom teaching. The main point is that teachers need to add variety into their teaching practices and activities that address to every student as much as possible. MI theory also emphasizes that activities that require students move around the classroom and work with others are essential for meaningful learning.
This week I’ve gone through “Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching” by Montogomery and Groat. In the article there were many valuable ideas for student learning styles and reasons to incorporate an understanding of learning styles in our teaching. I agree with the idea that no teacher can expect to develop different ways of teaching for each individual. Rather as teachers we should strive to provide a variety of learning experiences, such that at one point or another each learning style is addressed.
This week on Nicenet we shared our ideas about ways that can help to provide a range of learning styles in the classroom. The discussions, as always, were very fruitful on my part. Many of my course mates suggested using word processors, video cameras, audio recorders, mobile phones, blogs, wikis, webquests, Twitter to provide a variety of learning experiences to address different types of learners. Moreover, I believe that if we make our students to become active learners who engage in their work and try out new ideas, then teachers surely will achieve addressing different types of learning. I personally believe that active learner students do not have one learning style instead they have multiple learning styles. Finally, teachers should find ways to enhance active learning through incorporating technology.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
2 WebQuest and Project Based Learning
This week, as described by Nina, was another “demanding, eventful, challenging, and fruitful week.” To be honest, each week I feel myself very lucky to be involved in this learning process. It is true that various types of information are growing day by day on the Internet and the educational value of Internet based activities varies widely. This week I learned that one way to engage students in authentic instruction and assessment is through WebQuests, which are inquiry oriented activities that use Web resources to solve the problem. After reading about WebQuests, I realized that many terms like authentic assessment, meaningful learning, collaborative project, learner autonomy, higher critical thinking skills, and active learning strategies are all intermingled with each other. The question to be asked here is how WebQuests enhance critical thinking and learner autonomy and motivation. Meaningful learning requires learners’ actively engaging in a meaningful task. Active participation also can be provided with group work and when students learn to work in a collaborative environment, they become responsible for their own learning. From my experience of creating a WebQuest, I can undoubtedly say that WebQuests include all these terms. For example, in the Introduction of the WebQuest, students are placed in the role of different person within a complex situation and this requires students to use higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
While creating my WebQuest, one of the most difficult things for me was to write the introduction part because from other examples I noticed that the problem offered students are open ended and real world, requiring working in groups and require exploring a variety of different perspectives to come up with a solution. This was hard for me. I think I need to work more on WebQuest.
This week’s another topic was project based learning. The project-based learning, an active learning strategy, is an approach that learners focus on developing a product or creation by learning. I think project based learning is an umbrella term which covers webquests and problem-based learning. I am not sure. I’ve gone through Susan Gaer’s article about project based learning. I agree with her when she says “less teaching and more learning”. In her article she gives some useful tips which are important while implementing project based learning. I think that teachers should take into these three elements into consideration before applying their projects. First one is “the project must be geared to the population”, and then comes “the students must see value in a project” and lastly “flexible timeliness is necessary”. Just like WebQuests, using a project based learning, helps motivate students to learn language for a purpose.
Finally, I believe these two important terms reach to success as long as teacher gives guidance and adequate instruction to the task or project. We cannot underestimate the importance of teacher’s role while creating WebQuests and project based learning.
While creating my WebQuest, one of the most difficult things for me was to write the introduction part because from other examples I noticed that the problem offered students are open ended and real world, requiring working in groups and require exploring a variety of different perspectives to come up with a solution. This was hard for me. I think I need to work more on WebQuest.
This week’s another topic was project based learning. The project-based learning, an active learning strategy, is an approach that learners focus on developing a product or creation by learning. I think project based learning is an umbrella term which covers webquests and problem-based learning. I am not sure. I’ve gone through Susan Gaer’s article about project based learning. I agree with her when she says “less teaching and more learning”. In her article she gives some useful tips which are important while implementing project based learning. I think that teachers should take into these three elements into consideration before applying their projects. First one is “the project must be geared to the population”, and then comes “the students must see value in a project” and lastly “flexible timeliness is necessary”. Just like WebQuests, using a project based learning, helps motivate students to learn language for a purpose.
Finally, I believe these two important terms reach to success as long as teacher gives guidance and adequate instruction to the task or project. We cannot underestimate the importance of teacher’s role while creating WebQuests and project based learning.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
1 Week 4
What a tough week! Days are passing really fast. We’ve already ended up the fourth week. I did many things this week. To start with, the spring term is starting on Monday so I had to arrange my class schedule, review my lessons and attend a very fruitful workshop about vocabulary teaching. Moreover, this week in my institution we hosted a very precious guest from İstanbul, Kristina Smith, who is a teacher trainer working for Longman Pearson. She gave us very useful information about vocabulary teaching. Then, at the beginning of the week I gave my students two writing assignments and told them to post their assignments by Saturday. Their first homework was using specific details they were supposed to write a paragraph continuing the action in the story, and the second homework was reading the story about Helen Keller they were to write a paragraph about what it would be like to go to school if you could not see nor hear? What would be their greatest challenges? Students started to post their homework dating from Wednesday. What I did was checking and giving feedback to all the papers they sent. 70 paragraphs…
Dealing with the things I mentioned above doesn’t mean that I neglected my assignments. On my part, I again learned many fruitful things from Sandra, Leslie and my course mates. Here would like to thank Leslie Opp Beckman once more for her invaluable contribution. The web-sites she gave in her new thread JUST FOR FUN was amazing. As Aleyda stated the web-sites such as Wacky Web Tales and Crazy Libs bring variety and creativity to the classroom. Even I have tried creating a story and it was fun…
This week on Nicenet, we had many topics to discuss and share. To be honest, I was a bit challenged about this week’s topic: creating a technology enhanced lesson plan. It took me a long time to think and create a lesson plan. However, after seeing nice comments from Sandra and my course mates, I felt very pleased thinking that I am on the right way.
I also noticed that that step by step we are progressing towards our project. Considering our classes and writing about some issues that technology might help with was a good start which helped me to think about my project in a deeper sense.
This week’s another topic was looking at technology enhanced lesson plan from University of Tennessee and comparing it to our lesson plan. Seeing the different lesson plans from different countries, I once again learned a lot from my course mates. It was interesting to see that none of my course mates used technology component lesson plans in their institutions.
Last but not least, this week I went through the reading texts and I’d like to comment on Krajka’s article “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction”. In the article Krajka was quite successful at presenting the teaching of the different genres in the context of an on-line classroom. His suggestions on how to use the Internet in the classroom to enhance learning was also beneficial on my part. It is worth mentioning that not only he gave some concrete examples of incorporating technology to the curriculum but also he clarified some unclear points for me such as why one should incorporate on-line lessons, what the benefits of such a method are in comparison with traditional instruction, and how the Internet component fits into the syllabus.
That’s it for the time being.
Hope to hear your comments,
Gülsen
Dealing with the things I mentioned above doesn’t mean that I neglected my assignments. On my part, I again learned many fruitful things from Sandra, Leslie and my course mates. Here would like to thank Leslie Opp Beckman once more for her invaluable contribution. The web-sites she gave in her new thread JUST FOR FUN was amazing. As Aleyda stated the web-sites such as Wacky Web Tales and Crazy Libs bring variety and creativity to the classroom. Even I have tried creating a story and it was fun…
This week on Nicenet, we had many topics to discuss and share. To be honest, I was a bit challenged about this week’s topic: creating a technology enhanced lesson plan. It took me a long time to think and create a lesson plan. However, after seeing nice comments from Sandra and my course mates, I felt very pleased thinking that I am on the right way.
I also noticed that that step by step we are progressing towards our project. Considering our classes and writing about some issues that technology might help with was a good start which helped me to think about my project in a deeper sense.
This week’s another topic was looking at technology enhanced lesson plan from University of Tennessee and comparing it to our lesson plan. Seeing the different lesson plans from different countries, I once again learned a lot from my course mates. It was interesting to see that none of my course mates used technology component lesson plans in their institutions.
Last but not least, this week I went through the reading texts and I’d like to comment on Krajka’s article “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction”. In the article Krajka was quite successful at presenting the teaching of the different genres in the context of an on-line classroom. His suggestions on how to use the Internet in the classroom to enhance learning was also beneficial on my part. It is worth mentioning that not only he gave some concrete examples of incorporating technology to the curriculum but also he clarified some unclear points for me such as why one should incorporate on-line lessons, what the benefits of such a method are in comparison with traditional instruction, and how the Internet component fits into the syllabus.
That’s it for the time being.
Hope to hear your comments,
Gülsen
Sunday, 31 January 2010
1 CALL for Listening and Speaking
As instructed by Deborah and Sandra, I read both articles and found them useful for my teacher training applications. I would like to thank this week’s a very special guest Sueanne who contributed a lot with her ideas and suggestions. Her intriguing questions prompted us to think and question more about the use of technology. Her suggestion of using cell phone to practice speaking and listening skill was great. I also would like to thank my colleagues who shared their opinions and interesting ideas for integrating technology to English classes.
This week, some of my colleagues talked about the role of listening and speaking in SLA. There is no doubt that speaking, listening and pronunciation has been neglected for many years due to the comprehension approach which suggested that teaching of speaking should be delayed until comprehension skills are established and now it is good to see that these three skills deserve their popularity (though pronunciation is still neglected in my country).
Having discussed the importance of speaking and listening skills on Nicenet posts, it is worth mentioning the ways of using technology in these two skills. I totally agree with my colleagues who think that web 2.0 tools allow students to practice listening, pronunciation and speaking skill. I think we should find ways to make use of web 2.0 tools. My suggestion is you can have a look at Nik Peachey’s book “Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers”. Adding multisensory elements, text, sound, pictures, and video can provide meaningful contexts to facilitate comprehension, increasing opportunity to use authentic language suggested by Miller.
That’s all for the time being. Thanks for reading me. Hope to hear your comments.
This week, some of my colleagues talked about the role of listening and speaking in SLA. There is no doubt that speaking, listening and pronunciation has been neglected for many years due to the comprehension approach which suggested that teaching of speaking should be delayed until comprehension skills are established and now it is good to see that these three skills deserve their popularity (though pronunciation is still neglected in my country).
Having discussed the importance of speaking and listening skills on Nicenet posts, it is worth mentioning the ways of using technology in these two skills. I totally agree with my colleagues who think that web 2.0 tools allow students to practice listening, pronunciation and speaking skill. I think we should find ways to make use of web 2.0 tools. My suggestion is you can have a look at Nik Peachey’s book “Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers”. Adding multisensory elements, text, sound, pictures, and video can provide meaningful contexts to facilitate comprehension, increasing opportunity to use authentic language suggested by Miller.
That’s all for the time being. Thanks for reading me. Hope to hear your comments.
2 This week's topics were very delicious
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to my blog… This week I learned a lot of fruitful things again.
Firstly, I have to admit that how practical and convenient it is to use Delicious.com. Until last week, I used to save my favorite sites in my PC, but always had difficulty to find them. But now I can bookmark my search engines under different categories, so the next time I need specific information, I don’t have to search for the website anymore. Delicious definitely saves time. Another advantage of delicious is that I can share my bookmarks with my friends and see their bookmarks as well. For instance, when I looked some of my colleagues’ tags, some were really interesting and beneficial for me. I think saving important web pages allows us to work collaboratively with other colleagues when we work for the same goals. Last but not least, I noticed that we can use delicious as GOOGLE. For example, instead of googling, I can find websites that I need just by tagging and I can see how popular that search engine because of the number of the people who tagged that search engine. It’s just great.
This week’s another topic was exploring skill building web sites. Thanks to my colleagues, I learned many useful sites especially for listening and speaking skills. I also want to mention that, this week I felt very sorry to have been misunderstood by some of my colleagues. I think my wording caused this misunderstanding. Once again, I would like to mention that I am NOT AGAINST sharing web-sites with my students. In fact, we already had given the addresses of all skill building sites in my institution’s web page by the time school opened. However, teaching English is very different from teaching literature. Literature instructors should be careful when delivering his/her course. Some instructors may copy the analysis of literary texts instead of interpreting them. If students find the resource of that instructor then it may not be good for him/her. For example, SparkNotes is a very popular web-site especially for analyzing literary texts. You can also find some very good examples of essay topics with their answers. Imagine that a teacher using that site for preparing the exam and asking the same essay question without realizing that students are also using that site. Then, students do not have to question or interpret the literary texts. Once they discover that the instructor is using that site for both lecturing and preparing exam, they definetly abuse it.They can copy down the answers form the internet. That’s why I wrote “it’s not good for students to know all the resources of teachers”. However, this kind of thing can’t happen in English teaching. On the contrary, I believe that especially at the early stages of learing English imitating is necessary. There are quite apparent differences between English teaching and English literature teaching in terms of teaching strategies and application of methods. I hope, I am clear enough...
In my next post, I will talk about the ways of integrating technology to our lessons. Please continue to read my post.
Welcome to my blog… This week I learned a lot of fruitful things again.
Firstly, I have to admit that how practical and convenient it is to use Delicious.com. Until last week, I used to save my favorite sites in my PC, but always had difficulty to find them. But now I can bookmark my search engines under different categories, so the next time I need specific information, I don’t have to search for the website anymore. Delicious definitely saves time. Another advantage of delicious is that I can share my bookmarks with my friends and see their bookmarks as well. For instance, when I looked some of my colleagues’ tags, some were really interesting and beneficial for me. I think saving important web pages allows us to work collaboratively with other colleagues when we work for the same goals. Last but not least, I noticed that we can use delicious as GOOGLE. For example, instead of googling, I can find websites that I need just by tagging and I can see how popular that search engine because of the number of the people who tagged that search engine. It’s just great.
This week’s another topic was exploring skill building web sites. Thanks to my colleagues, I learned many useful sites especially for listening and speaking skills. I also want to mention that, this week I felt very sorry to have been misunderstood by some of my colleagues. I think my wording caused this misunderstanding. Once again, I would like to mention that I am NOT AGAINST sharing web-sites with my students. In fact, we already had given the addresses of all skill building sites in my institution’s web page by the time school opened. However, teaching English is very different from teaching literature. Literature instructors should be careful when delivering his/her course. Some instructors may copy the analysis of literary texts instead of interpreting them. If students find the resource of that instructor then it may not be good for him/her. For example, SparkNotes is a very popular web-site especially for analyzing literary texts. You can also find some very good examples of essay topics with their answers. Imagine that a teacher using that site for preparing the exam and asking the same essay question without realizing that students are also using that site. Then, students do not have to question or interpret the literary texts. Once they discover that the instructor is using that site for both lecturing and preparing exam, they definetly abuse it.They can copy down the answers form the internet. That’s why I wrote “it’s not good for students to know all the resources of teachers”. However, this kind of thing can’t happen in English teaching. On the contrary, I believe that especially at the early stages of learing English imitating is necessary. There are quite apparent differences between English teaching and English literature teaching in terms of teaching strategies and application of methods. I hope, I am clear enough...
In my next post, I will talk about the ways of integrating technology to our lessons. Please continue to read my post.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
5 Week Two Finalized
The first learning objective for the week 2 was “After reading about the ABCD model, participants will share a behavioral objective for a class they teach, using the ABCD model, in at least one post on Nicenet” and I asked to myself “Did I read the ABCD model, write a behavioral objective and share it with my colleagues on Nicenet?”. The answer was YES. The interesting thing I noticed was “objectives of the task were the statements of what I did at the end of the task as a result of having completed the task, NOT what I will do while doing the task. So, the main confusing point is here, I guess because I came into realization that while writing the objectives for my class, I always used to think about what students will do while doing the task. As a result, I alwyas used the wrong verbs such as read, understand and know etc.Therefore, in order to write a successful objective we need to distinguish between these two,I think.
In addition, ABCD model was very helpful to me to understand the logic of writing objectives. Developing a set of learning objectives helps teachers identify their goals and directions for the course, thereby reducing the chance of wasting their own time, as well as wasting students’ time on irrelevant subject matter.
What’s more, to be honest, I’ve always heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy in the context of critical thinking skills. Up to this week, I haven't heard this taxonomy could be applied to writing objectives. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy for writing objectives is great!!!
This week’s another objective was analyzing the search engines in terms of use in their own classes and sharing their advantages and disadvantages. Discovering new search engines were very useful for me but I feel guilty that I couldn’t have time to read all of my colleagues’ search engine suggestions…So, for today I set up my OBJECTIVE.
“By the end of the day, I will be able to identify and list the search engines that my colleagues put forward.
Before ending my sentences, one thing I want to confess is that I cannot give up GOOGLING. I’m so accustomed to using Google for my searches that whenever I want to look for something, I always Google. I wonder if the same thing happens to you or not? Can you think of any advice to give me so that I try other search engines?
In addition, ABCD model was very helpful to me to understand the logic of writing objectives. Developing a set of learning objectives helps teachers identify their goals and directions for the course, thereby reducing the chance of wasting their own time, as well as wasting students’ time on irrelevant subject matter.
What’s more, to be honest, I’ve always heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy in the context of critical thinking skills. Up to this week, I haven't heard this taxonomy could be applied to writing objectives. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy for writing objectives is great!!!
This week’s another objective was analyzing the search engines in terms of use in their own classes and sharing their advantages and disadvantages. Discovering new search engines were very useful for me but I feel guilty that I couldn’t have time to read all of my colleagues’ search engine suggestions…So, for today I set up my OBJECTIVE.
“By the end of the day, I will be able to identify and list the search engines that my colleagues put forward.
Before ending my sentences, one thing I want to confess is that I cannot give up GOOGLING. I’m so accustomed to using Google for my searches that whenever I want to look for something, I always Google. I wonder if the same thing happens to you or not? Can you think of any advice to give me so that I try other search engines?
Saturday, 23 January 2010
2 My e-learning journey-Second week
What a week!!! Since it was the last week of our first term, we conducted achievement and speaking exam to 1300 prep class students. Therefore, I spent most of my time at school conducting exams, reading the papers and of course dealing with the problems of students. The next two weeks, I am sure I’ll have much more time to write on my blog. But before I start to write, I have to admit that last week’s comments to my blog made me very happy. With your encouragement, I am really motivated to learn and search more about blogging. Thank you again…
In my Nicenet posts, I remember telling you how well my students benefit from making technology. Now, I just want to give you an example. This term my students prepared a commercial video as their term project and I think they really did a good job. My co-worker put those videos on YouTube. If you want to see my students’ performance, you can visit: http://www.youtube.com/cengonline In fact, I’ll be very appreciated if you vote those videos because the ones who get the most votes will be rewarded by me and my co-worker. I should remind you that those students started from elementary level in September. Now, they are pre-intermediate students.
Anyway, this week was another fruitful week for me. Last week, Dilip shared a useful blog http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com and I visited that site and I found it really perfect!!! I downloaded Nik’s “Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers” book for free. Believe me there are great ideas here. Thank you Dilip for sharing such a great blog.
The reading materials posted by Deborah and Sandra were also very useful. On Tuesday, I spent my whole day web-searching different sites. Oppss, I’m sorry but I have to cut it here because I have to attend one of my friend’s wedding :) I have many things to say about this week, please read my blog…
In my Nicenet posts, I remember telling you how well my students benefit from making technology. Now, I just want to give you an example. This term my students prepared a commercial video as their term project and I think they really did a good job. My co-worker put those videos on YouTube. If you want to see my students’ performance, you can visit: http://www.youtube.com/cengonline In fact, I’ll be very appreciated if you vote those videos because the ones who get the most votes will be rewarded by me and my co-worker. I should remind you that those students started from elementary level in September. Now, they are pre-intermediate students.
Anyway, this week was another fruitful week for me. Last week, Dilip shared a useful blog http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com and I visited that site and I found it really perfect!!! I downloaded Nik’s “Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers” book for free. Believe me there are great ideas here. Thank you Dilip for sharing such a great blog.
The reading materials posted by Deborah and Sandra were also very useful. On Tuesday, I spent my whole day web-searching different sites. Oppss, I’m sorry but I have to cut it here because I have to attend one of my friend’s wedding :) I have many things to say about this week, please read my blog…
Monday, 11 January 2010
5 A journey to find my own voice
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to my first post...
To be honest, I've never thought that creating a blog is such an easy step. However, trying to write something worth in my blog was not as easy as I assumed. The main problem I encountered was how to begin writing my personal blog? After sitting in front of the computer and brainstorming for hours, I found, to my surprise, that writing about my blog was a great pleasure...
In my opinion, the main question to be asked here is "How will I and my students benefit from blogging?"
At the very beginning many ideas started to form in my mind. For instance, teachers can store videos, podcasts, music and other multimedia files so that the students can use them in the process of learning English. Therefore, learning might occur as a natural process.
As a second idea, this blog might function as a kind of dialogue journal which might help to establish a communicative environment in the classroom. Besides, it can provide an opportunity for my students to use authentic language through interactions with the teacher.
However, one thing I am sure is that this blog will teach me to reflect my learning experiences as well as share good practice with you.
I would be willing to continue to write my blog where time will allow; however, for the time being I should stop writing and continue reading about blogging for ELT.
Please feel free to write to me! I'll be happy to hear from you (suggestions/feedback welcome!)
Welcome to my first post...
To be honest, I've never thought that creating a blog is such an easy step. However, trying to write something worth in my blog was not as easy as I assumed. The main problem I encountered was how to begin writing my personal blog? After sitting in front of the computer and brainstorming for hours, I found, to my surprise, that writing about my blog was a great pleasure...
In my opinion, the main question to be asked here is "How will I and my students benefit from blogging?"
At the very beginning many ideas started to form in my mind. For instance, teachers can store videos, podcasts, music and other multimedia files so that the students can use them in the process of learning English. Therefore, learning might occur as a natural process.
As a second idea, this blog might function as a kind of dialogue journal which might help to establish a communicative environment in the classroom. Besides, it can provide an opportunity for my students to use authentic language through interactions with the teacher.
However, one thing I am sure is that this blog will teach me to reflect my learning experiences as well as share good practice with you.
I would be willing to continue to write my blog where time will allow; however, for the time being I should stop writing and continue reading about blogging for ELT.
Please feel free to write to me! I'll be happy to hear from you (suggestions/feedback welcome!)
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