“Learning is finding out what you already know, doing is demonstrating that you know it, teaching is reminding others that they know it as well as you do. We are all learners, doers, and teachers." by Richard David Bach.
This is one of my favorite quotes and I really wanted to share it with you today.
This week has been a time to reflect on all what I have learned and tried during this on-line training course. I can say that this learning process has not just been limited to acquiring knowledge on the use of technology and the different tools that the web offers. This course has also contributed to my personal growth since I have learned from my classmates’ experience, aspirations and dreams to become better English teachers by being perseverant, hardworking and open minded people who are willing to learn more and share it with our students. So even thought this is the last week, I am sure that this is not the end of a learning process, I would rather say this is beginning because during this period of time I have had the chance to see all the advantages of using technology in EFL teaching and I will continue to learn and improve as a teacher, and I know you will all do it. In fact, this week's task was to self-access our own level of technology integrations and think about a level we would like to be in a year. Please check the link below for more information.
http://loticonnection.com/index.php/resources/publications/20-loti-framework
Another thing I have to mention is that with this course I have learned that through the Internet I can help my students to develop their language skills, but most importantly I can help them learn about other people and get a better understanding of their culture, beliefs, and traditions which make each one of us unique and special. As teachers, all of us have the power “to touch the future” and with our job we have contribute to building a better and fair world.
To conclude, I would like to thank my instructors and all my classmates for letting me learn from them. I will miss you!!!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
WEEK 9: A BUSY WEEK: M. I. THEORY, LEARNING STYLES AND FINAL PROJECT PLANS!!!!!
Please, look at the picture before reading. Which intelligence is missing?
On the topic of the Multiple Intelligence Theory by Howard Gardner, I can see that he presents a new concept of intelligence and says that it is basically the capacity to solve problems using new knowledge. He also states that everybody has different types of intelligences (nine: Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence, Mathematical-Logical Intelligence, Musical Intelligence, Visual-Spatial Intelligence, Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence, Interpersonal Intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence, Naturalist Intelligence, and Existential Intelligence)According to him, teachers can use the MI theory to improve education by addressing our students’ multiple intelligences. This theory also suggests that “The multiple intelligence classroom acts like the "real" world: the author and the illustrator of a book are equally valuable creators. Students become more active, involved learners.” At the end of the page you can click on each intelligence and learn more about it as well as the technology tools that support classroom activities you can use. http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm
It is incredible how fast time has passed during this course!!! This week I read about Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences Theory and its implications in learning.
Regarding learning styles, Richard M. Felder states that “students preferentially take in and process information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing, steadily and in fits and starts. Teaching methods also vary. Some instructors lecture, others demonstrate or lead students to self-discovery; some focus on principles and others on applications; some emphasize memory and others understanding.” He also mentions different types of leaning styles:active and reflective learners, visual and verbal learners, sensing and intuitive learners.
Based on this information, I can say that I could use the ICT to give more learning opportunities to my students since technology allows the presentation of contents in a variety of ways such as: video, audio, images, email, interactive power point, interactive quizzes, forum participation, blogs, problem solving software, critical thinking software, Webquests, chats, computer generated games, course management systems (ANVILL) etc. By using these tools, all my students’ needs will be covered by setting different kinds of tasks and activities which make learning more meaningful and memorable than just using information that comes from textbooks. For more information about this you can check this link http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm
I also read an interesting article: “Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits”, written by Benedict Carey and Published on September 6, 2010 in the New York times. I found out some interesting facts about misconceptions related to study habits, such as: using a specific or quiet place to study, but research has found, it is better to study in two different places than studying something twice in the same room. There are more interesting findings about this so I am sure you will take a look at the article!!! at this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_r=3&ref=benedict_carey
This same article takes you to this link http://psi.sagepub.com/content/9/3/105.full in which you can find the paper “Concepts and Evidence” written by four cognitive psychologists: Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer and Robert Bjork written who argue that “there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice.” As you can see this article is very thought-provoking!!!!
Reading was important this week, however, the MOST relevant task I had to complete was my Final Project Plans based on the feedback provided by my peer. Now I am looking forward to hearing my instructor’s comments and suggestions to improve it!!!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
WEEK 8: A WEEK TO “PLAY” WITH TECHNOLOGY!
My instructor, Donna Shaw, gave me a useful piece of advice during this course. It is not to be afraid of technology and just play, play and play until I find out how to use it. As we know human beings, no matter their age, enjoy playing. Playing allows us to develop our imagination, creativity, and problem-solving abilities which lead to LEARNING. As I mentioned in one of the Nicenet posts, I consider myself a “digital immigrant” who is struggling to catch up with all the new advances in technology so this suggestion has encouraged me to try new things.
This week’s most important topic was the use of ANVILL, which stands for A National Virtual Language Lab.
It is a free Course Management System (CMS) developed by Jeff Magoto, Director of the University of Oregon's Yamada Language Center and with whom we the opportunity to interact on Nicenet during this week. With ANVILL teachers can develop their students’ aural/oral skills through their tools: Voiceboards, Practice Recorder, Quizzes, Livechat, and TCasting. Personally, I think that the use of ANVILL has two main strengths: motivation and collaboration. Motivation because with ANVIL students can listen to news, watch video clips, and submit voice or video-based assignments which offers a new and more appealing approach to learning. The second strength is collaboration. Students can get involved in projects which let them interact not only with classmates and teacher, but also with people from other countries. For more information you can check this link: http://ylclab.uoregon.edu/groups/anvillhelp/wiki/48305/Units_and_Lessons.html
I also learned to create teaching materials such as: word search, bingo, crossword puzzles, and board games using this web site. http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
Regarding evaluation, we checked Hot Potatoes, at http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ This tool can be used to create matching, cloze, scrambled sentence, and multiple choice exercises and crossword puzzles. In addition, I checked Easy Test Maker http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx to create paper tests.
GOOGLE was very used this week. I used Google sites to create my class wiki. I also used Google docs to create a survey.
Besides learning to “play” with these ICT tools, other important tasks of this week were the presentation and peer-evaluation of the first draft of our PROJECT PLANS. I have to thank my partner for the feedback the feedback she gave me. Her suggestions will help to improve work. As you can see, this week has brought meaningful and memorable learning experiences!!!
This week’s most important topic was the use of ANVILL, which stands for A National Virtual Language Lab.
I also learned to create teaching materials such as: word search, bingo, crossword puzzles, and board games using this web site. http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
Regarding evaluation, we checked Hot Potatoes, at http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ This tool can be used to create matching, cloze, scrambled sentence, and multiple choice exercises and crossword puzzles. In addition, I checked Easy Test Maker http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx to create paper tests.
GOOGLE was very used this week. I used Google sites to create my class wiki. I also used Google docs to create a survey.
Besides learning to “play” with these ICT tools, other important tasks of this week were the presentation and peer-evaluation of the first draft of our PROJECT PLANS. I have to thank my partner for the feedback the feedback she gave me. Her suggestions will help to improve work. As you can see, this week has brought meaningful and memorable learning experiences!!!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
WEEK 7: A WEEK TO EMPHAZISE ON NEW LEARNING AND TEACHING APPROACHES!!!
It is incredible how fast time is passing by in this course. This week’s reading was basically about two topics: One-Classroom Computer and Learner Autonomy. For the first topic, I learned many different strategies that can be used for a one-computer classroom. This link http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm provides lost of strategies to be used in our classrooms and even though these strategies were created for US schools, they can perfectly be adapted to any teaching context.
As part of this topic, I had to create a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom, which was posted on our Nicenet course. My lesson’s topic for this task was: A PLACE I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT NEXT VACATION. As I am an EFL teacher, I use the CLT approach and my objectives always focus on communication and it was stated based on the ABCD method for writing objectives: “Having studied the second conditional (form, meaning and use) and a rubric to assess conversations, students from the intermediate level will be able to create and self-assess a five-minute conversation about places they would like to visit next vacation.”
For this lesson, students had to search information about four places in beautiful Ecuador: Azuay-Cuenca, Napo-Tena, Esmeraldas-Atacames or the Galapagos Islands from this web site http://ecuador.travel/en/about-ecuador.html and finally they had to present their conversations about a place they would like to visit.
I took this photo in Cerro Colorado Galapagos Breeding Station on San Cristobal Island last year. This is just a small example of all the incredible and unique flora and fauna you can see in Ecuador. I invite ALL of you to come and enjoy it!!!
The second topic I read about this week was about Learner Autonomy. I the article written by Dimitrios Thanasoulas and published at http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html there are some definitions about Learner Autonomy as well as guidelines to help our students become autonomous. The author also clarifies some misconceptions that can derive from this topic such as misunderstanding autonomy and thinking that it means that the teacher leaves students alone during the learning process or thinking that it can just emerge without training our students on how to take more responsibility of their own learning. Learner autonomy involves many factors such as: students’ motivation, needs, learning strategies, and language awareness. The article’s author cites Leni Dam who defines that an autonomous learner is the one who “independently chooses aims and purposes and sets goals; chooses materials, methods and tasks; exercises choice and purpose in organizing and carrying out the chosen tasks; and chooses criteria for evaluation.” So this evidences that learner autonomy is a process rather than a product and it needs to be developed with the correct guidance of the teacher who should act as a facilitator.
This week my web mates and I also had to continue working on the drafts for our Project or Plan Reports and we had to choose a partner for peer-review. This was kind of difficult since we all have established a very good relationship and some of us felt like working with everyone. Anyways, we had to make a decision and now the teams are established and everything will be all right!
As part of this topic, I had to create a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom, which was posted on our Nicenet course. My lesson’s topic for this task was: A PLACE I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT NEXT VACATION. As I am an EFL teacher, I use the CLT approach and my objectives always focus on communication and it was stated based on the ABCD method for writing objectives: “Having studied the second conditional (form, meaning and use) and a rubric to assess conversations, students from the intermediate level will be able to create and self-assess a five-minute conversation about places they would like to visit next vacation.”
For this lesson, students had to search information about four places in beautiful Ecuador: Azuay-Cuenca, Napo-Tena, Esmeraldas-Atacames or the Galapagos Islands from this web site http://ecuador.travel/en/about-ecuador.html and finally they had to present their conversations about a place they would like to visit.
The second topic I read about this week was about Learner Autonomy. I the article written by Dimitrios Thanasoulas and published at http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html there are some definitions about Learner Autonomy as well as guidelines to help our students become autonomous. The author also clarifies some misconceptions that can derive from this topic such as misunderstanding autonomy and thinking that it means that the teacher leaves students alone during the learning process or thinking that it can just emerge without training our students on how to take more responsibility of their own learning. Learner autonomy involves many factors such as: students’ motivation, needs, learning strategies, and language awareness. The article’s author cites Leni Dam who defines that an autonomous learner is the one who “independently chooses aims and purposes and sets goals; chooses materials, methods and tasks; exercises choice and purpose in organizing and carrying out the chosen tasks; and chooses criteria for evaluation.” So this evidences that learner autonomy is a process rather than a product and it needs to be developed with the correct guidance of the teacher who should act as a facilitator.
This week my web mates and I also had to continue working on the drafts for our Project or Plan Reports and we had to choose a partner for peer-review. This was kind of difficult since we all have established a very good relationship and some of us felt like working with everyone. Anyways, we had to make a decision and now the teams are established and everything will be all right!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
WEEK 6. LOTS OF LEARNING AND FUN!
This week’s readings focused on strategies to create interactive power point presentations and techniques to teach large classes.
The most interesting thing I learned this week is some guidelines to present material with power point. From this link http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/powerpoint/docs/presenting.pdf I learned that if I use power point, I have to emphasize on QUALITY rather than quantity. Besides creating an effective PPT, I also have to develop good communication skills such as the use of nonverbal language to keep my students interested in what I say, not just in the PPT. To keep my student involved in the presentation, I learned that I should ask them to perform a specific pair or group work task where they can interact with their partners and put theory into practice.
By watching these two videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgPO-agnnMk
http://www.microsoft.com/education/story.mspx
I learned to create interactive power point presentations such as a jeopardy game, a quiz and an interactive story. I created my own jeopardy game to review the contents of a unit of the textbook my students use and I am planning to play this game next semester. I am also thinking about implementing more interactive quizzes, especially to practice vocabulary and grammar. I am sure my students will love these new activities.
From the article “Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students” by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw, I learned some suggestions to engage students in lectures. For example, I have to use variety, correct pace, include interesting stories, individualization, routines, speaking style, enlarging the cycle and especially collaboration. Small group activities can promote collaboration and facilitate learning and the development of critical thinking skills. Furthermore, collaboration promotes social and emotional development, it helps students to respect and appreciate diversity, and it reduces student attrition. From this reading, I also learned some small group informal activities such as: think-pair-share, concept test, quick-thinks, minute paper, scripted cooperative learning, and so on. You can find more information at this link:
http://umbc.uoregon.edu/eteacher/webskills/material/engaging_students_handout.pdf
Finally, from this link http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/largeclasses.html
I learned to use i-class pair and small group activities to make lectures interactive. By giving students the opportunity to work with others, they have opportunities to internalize the information and as a result real learning takes place.
As you can see, I had lots of fun learning these topics this week! I hope this can be useful for you as well.
The most interesting thing I learned this week is some guidelines to present material with power point. From this link http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/powerpoint/docs/presenting.pdf I learned that if I use power point, I have to emphasize on QUALITY rather than quantity. Besides creating an effective PPT, I also have to develop good communication skills such as the use of nonverbal language to keep my students interested in what I say, not just in the PPT. To keep my student involved in the presentation, I learned that I should ask them to perform a specific pair or group work task where they can interact with their partners and put theory into practice.
By watching these two videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgPO-agnnMk
http://www.microsoft.com/education/story.mspx
I learned to create interactive power point presentations such as a jeopardy game, a quiz and an interactive story. I created my own jeopardy game to review the contents of a unit of the textbook my students use and I am planning to play this game next semester. I am also thinking about implementing more interactive quizzes, especially to practice vocabulary and grammar. I am sure my students will love these new activities.
From the article “Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students” by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw, I learned some suggestions to engage students in lectures. For example, I have to use variety, correct pace, include interesting stories, individualization, routines, speaking style, enlarging the cycle and especially collaboration. Small group activities can promote collaboration and facilitate learning and the development of critical thinking skills. Furthermore, collaboration promotes social and emotional development, it helps students to respect and appreciate diversity, and it reduces student attrition. From this reading, I also learned some small group informal activities such as: think-pair-share, concept test, quick-thinks, minute paper, scripted cooperative learning, and so on. You can find more information at this link:
http://umbc.uoregon.edu/eteacher/webskills/material/engaging_students_handout.pdf
Finally, from this link http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/largeclasses.html
I learned to use i-class pair and small group activities to make lectures interactive. By giving students the opportunity to work with others, they have opportunities to internalize the information and as a result real learning takes place.
As you can see, I had lots of fun learning these topics this week! I hope this can be useful for you as well.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
WEEK 5: PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE.
I learned about three important topics this week: Project-based learning, WebQuests, and alternative assessment. These three approaches are worth using in the EFL classroom because they are student-centered and they allow students to become more autonomous learners. They help students to learn to work in a collaborative way, and they also develop their research skills.
In PBL students take a more active role and they learn to learn, becoming more autonomous learners. So the teacher's role changes and he/she acts as afacilitator who provides clear guidance in order to develop the project. By designing and implementing project based learning, students' motivation to learn increases since they perceive learning in a more realistic way when they complete their projects.
I recommend checking the link below. There you will find free and updated materials which you can download in order to design, assess, and manage projects. It is a really useful website, it has lots of resources including rubrics to evaluate projects.
http://www.bie.org/tools/freebies
I also learned about WebQuest. According to Bernie Dodge, a WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented online tool for learning. This means that in order to complete a task students will have to search the web to find the information need to complete a required task or project. WebQuests help students develop high-thinking skills. WebQuest have six key elements: 1.introduction, 2. task, 3. process, 4. resources, 5. evaluation and 6. conclusion. For more information, please check this link.
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub3.html
The last reading topic was about alternative assessment. As I mentioned in the Nicenet discussion, the most interesting part is the one related to formative assessment which can be used as a tool for learning. Formative assessment should be designed to provide effective feedback which can help teachers and students identify weaknesses and strengths, so everybody can improve by reflective practice. In addition to the readings provided for this topic, I found this information that I want to share with you.
http://www.yorku.ca/univsec/senate/committees/scotl/tevguide.pdf
Finally, during this week, I did part 4 of my project task which was about technology related change that I would like to implement in my teaching based on my students' needs which are related to the lack of opportunities they have to use English for real communication and the little exposure they have to authentic materials. I am thinking about creating a wiki with extra class tasks based on the use of the web. Another idea I have, is to ask my students to keep a learning log, by using a blog.
Well, this what I have learned this week!!!
In PBL students take a more active role and they learn to learn, becoming more autonomous learners. So the teacher's role changes and he/she acts as afacilitator who provides clear guidance in order to develop the project. By designing and implementing project based learning, students' motivation to learn increases since they perceive learning in a more realistic way when they complete their projects.
I recommend checking the link below. There you will find free and updated materials which you can download in order to design, assess, and manage projects. It is a really useful website, it has lots of resources including rubrics to evaluate projects.
http://www.bie.org/tools/freebies
I also learned about WebQuest. According to Bernie Dodge, a WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented online tool for learning. This means that in order to complete a task students will have to search the web to find the information need to complete a required task or project. WebQuests help students develop high-thinking skills. WebQuest have six key elements: 1.introduction, 2. task, 3. process, 4. resources, 5. evaluation and 6. conclusion. For more information, please check this link.
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub3.html
The last reading topic was about alternative assessment. As I mentioned in the Nicenet discussion, the most interesting part is the one related to formative assessment which can be used as a tool for learning. Formative assessment should be designed to provide effective feedback which can help teachers and students identify weaknesses and strengths, so everybody can improve by reflective practice. In addition to the readings provided for this topic, I found this information that I want to share with you.
http://www.yorku.ca/univsec/senate/committees/scotl/tevguide.pdf
Finally, during this week, I did part 4 of my project task which was about technology related change that I would like to implement in my teaching based on my students' needs which are related to the lack of opportunities they have to use English for real communication and the little exposure they have to authentic materials. I am thinking about creating a wiki with extra class tasks based on the use of the web. Another idea I have, is to ask my students to keep a learning log, by using a blog.
Well, this what I have learned this week!!!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
WEEK 4: MORE INTERESTING IDEAS TO IMPLEMENT TECHNOLOGY IN OUR TEACHING!!!
During this week, I have read several articles related to the implementation of technology to plan lessons and to develop my students’ communicative competence.
From the link : http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/lesson_plan.html I learned about the importance of planning our lessons based on curriculum standards. We also wrote a technology-enhanced lesson plan using the format provided by the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee. In order do that, I had to review some concepts about the importance of planning lessons as well as the typical components of lesson plans. This website also includes some useful practice on how to write instructional objectives using the ABDC model.
I also read the paper “Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension” written by Andreea I. Constantinescu from the University of Washington, (Seattle, Washington, USA) http://iteslj.org/Articles/Constantinescu-Vocabulary.html The most relevant part of this article is that reading and vocabulary comprehension are closely related so in order to help students develop their reading skills teachers have to make use of technology and implement multimedia based- exercises to help them develop their vocabulary knowledge.
Another article I read is ‘E-mailing to Improve EFL Learners' Reading and Writing Abilities: Taiwan Experience” which was written by Chao-chih Liao and published by
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Liao-Emailing.html In this paper, the author points out the importance of using email to develop cultural awareness and promote cross-cultural knowledge by establishing key pals projects among ESL / EFL students with other students or native speakers from different countries. The author also gives some suggestions to implement these kinds of projects.
Finally, I checked the web site: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ I recommend it because it has complete lesson plans to develop reading skills by checking some updated and interesting topics. Some of the lessons also include listening exercises.
I encourage you to read these interesting sites!
From the link : http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/lesson_plan.html I learned about the importance of planning our lessons based on curriculum standards. We also wrote a technology-enhanced lesson plan using the format provided by the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee. In order do that, I had to review some concepts about the importance of planning lessons as well as the typical components of lesson plans. This website also includes some useful practice on how to write instructional objectives using the ABDC model.
I also read the paper “Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension” written by Andreea I. Constantinescu from the University of Washington, (Seattle, Washington, USA) http://iteslj.org/Articles/Constantinescu-Vocabulary.html The most relevant part of this article is that reading and vocabulary comprehension are closely related so in order to help students develop their reading skills teachers have to make use of technology and implement multimedia based- exercises to help them develop their vocabulary knowledge.
Another article I read is ‘E-mailing to Improve EFL Learners' Reading and Writing Abilities: Taiwan Experience” which was written by Chao-chih Liao and published by
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Liao-Emailing.html In this paper, the author points out the importance of using email to develop cultural awareness and promote cross-cultural knowledge by establishing key pals projects among ESL / EFL students with other students or native speakers from different countries. The author also gives some suggestions to implement these kinds of projects.
Finally, I checked the web site: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ I recommend it because it has complete lesson plans to develop reading skills by checking some updated and interesting topics. Some of the lessons also include listening exercises.
I encourage you to read these interesting sites!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)