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
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