WEEK 10 REFLECTION : Advice to Future Participants, How I Will Integrate Technology

 

The Webskills journey is abruptly coming an end today. What a hectic race!! Personally I know and feel that I have learned  much from the 2014 Webskills Course. It has upgraded my knowledge and built my capacity in technology. Now I can say that I am proud of having been able to complete this 2014 Webskills Epic Journey. I have learned and gained much about the web tools ( the Noodle tools), websites (Google docs, Google sites, Ncenet, Wiki, blogger,  padlet, delicious, webquest), logging in/out, quick password creation, PowerPoint creation  etc.  Good health, organization, time management, adapting , computer literacy, patience, determination to succeed have been key elements . I give credits to Sean, our course instructor and mentor, his availability, and  his quality as course manager… and to you coursemates for your tenacity and enthusiasm throughout the course.

Thank you Sean for taking us to the next technology level!! Thanks to this 2014 Webskills Course I strongly hope to take my students to the next technology level too.

 By the way I have composed a poem for us all to celebrate the success:

Dear colleagues,                                                                      

Thanks a million,                                                                      

for your endurance,                                                         

for your collaboration,                                                              

for your resistance to stress,

for your courage to work against time,

for your promptitude to respect deadlines,

for holding each others' hands to the destination,

for being a friend, a source of inspiration and support,

Thanks Sean for being the best tour guide in the journey,

Thanks UO, thanks US Embassies, thanks US Department of State.

Here are two inspiring graduation speech extracts by people you may know

Steve Jobs, (Stanford University, 2005) Whenever people talk about inspiring graduation speeches, Steve Job’s speech instantly comes up. In this speech, Steve shares his life lessons via 3 stories in his life. 1. His birth, 2.  when he got fired from Apple, and 3.  when he found out about his cancer. These 3 stories were extremely inspiring – most people knew Steve as the hot-tempered yet charismatic CEO who headed Apple, but who would have known that his birth parents gave him up for adoption? That he quit college because his college fees were sucking up his parents’ savings? That he was once fired from the very company he founded? And that he diagnosed in cancer in 2004, and by a stroke of fate, survived it?

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Arnold Swarzenegger is an international movie star (Conan, Terminator, Commando) and the current Governor of California. I found his speech very inspiring – he’s living proof of how one can overcome all odds to achieve one’s dreams, as long as you set your heart and mind to it. Arnie shared how important it is to not be afraid of failure. He shared his personal stories of how he overcame resistances from everyone and achieved his dreams, one after another, by first having that crystal clear vision of what he wanted, then going all out to achieve them. Truly, there’s no such thing as “can’t be done”. If you really want to achieve your dreams, they will be yours for the taking.

“You’re going to find naysayers in every turn that you make. Don’t listen. Just visualize your goal, know exactly where you want to go. Trust yourself. Get out there and work like hell. Break some of the rules and never ever be afraid of failure.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Foli, Burkina Faso

Week 9 Reflection : Learning Styles, Project Plan Completion, Sean's Course Evaluation, Eftekhar's Project Draft Feedback 

Sean's Course Evaluation

Honor to whom honor is due! Thank you Sean, for your tactful step-by-step guidance, for your "uncomplacent" feedback !

Eftekhar's Project Draft Feedback for Foli

Thank you, Eftekhar for the feedback. I have appreciated your invaluable suggestions and prompts! Thank you!  

Learning Styles

The hot discussion topic this week has been about Learning Styles; the teacher and the students’ Learning Styles. The teacher’s Learning Styles influence his teaching Style, which may be innate  or acquired through life experiences or the system we live in. It is now demonstrated that the teacher’s teaching style has a strong bearing on students’ performance.

According to Georges Lucas  "Traditional education can be extremely isolating -- the curriculum is often abstract and not relevant to real life, teachers and students don't usually connect with resources and experts outside of the classroom, and many schools operate as if they were separate from their communities”.
The tendency today is to move from the traditional, one-way, lecture-based, teacher-Mr.-know-all-centered teaching to the interactive-lecture, student-centered teaching practices. Thus, teacher and students engage in a market exchange of ideas, a sort of rendez-vous of give and take where everybody learns happily. Here the introduction and the help of technology is of paramount importance to bring the teaching and learning out of the classroom walls and create what is termed as a classroom without borders. In fact, technology is not “the be-all and end-all in teaching and learning, it is just a tool, a means that the teacher judiciously chooses and uses for his/her students’ needs.  Ultimately, the teacher is the MC in class, the prime mover, the principal actor, the “master”, the teaching and learning service provider in classrooms and in schools.

Project Draft and full-fledged Project submission

The most stress-generating task of the last two week has been the submission within deadline of the Project Draft for peer review and feedback (week 8) and the full-fledged Project for Sean’s feedback (week 9). Fortunately, I have made it. Many ( 13 other coursemates ) have made it too. I hope that those who haven’t submitted theirs yet, will soon do so too.

The Webskills Course journey will soon come to an end……
Foli.

Week 8  Reflection : Exploring a Series of Technology Tools to  Create a Class Site; creating an Exercise  Using Tech; Project Task7: Writing a Draft of my Project Plan and Peer-project Review.

I Love This Course! Do You, too?

This week8 has witnessed astounding developments. Questions we have been wondering about have been answered. We have discovered through the week’s readings and tasks that we are able to create Sites like Google Sites, Nicenet, Padlet, Wiki etc for our Classes by ourselves and not resort to computer nerds to do so. We can also make, or borrow or choose exercises from an assortment of  websites using technology. That will make the job easier and fun to do. I have been able to create a Blog, a Nicenet and a Padlet Wall for my Class! How wonderful!

 By the way, I have had a problem trying to upload my tech exercise on Sean’s Wiki resources. My access to the Wiki is blocked and denied due to false manipulation and multiple access attempt. Sorry for the inconveniences and for the fact that I can’t access coursemates’ uploaded exercises and learn from their uploaded tech exercises.

This week’s discussion about Online Exercises Tech Tools have been fruitful. Eftekar and Baetty’s intervention have set me thinking seriously and reconsider carefully the type of technology to use suit my students needs.

 ".........no tech tool can automatically ensure learner autonomy or learner centred approach until or unless these tools are designed to facilitate so." Eftekhar.
"This issue makes me realize that autonomous learning will not run as teachers expected when the teachers are less knowledgeable about the tools they are using for their classes."Baetty 
"I want to question whether this learning is applicable for every age and proficiency level?
Even though students will get a help from discussion they join in the nicenet, I do not think it will work well for foreign language students. How will they discuss something in a language which is not their native language. They do not have the language to communicate it" Baetty. Good points!!! We have to pay attention not to be overambitious  in the choice of the appropriate Tech Tools to  use and in the course design for our students.

Due to my travel to Ouagadougou, the country’s capital city for my visa to the 2014 TESOL Convention in March (as announced in my week 7 blog, and registrations of all kinds) , I have fallen behind in writing my Project Plan draft.  I need to quicken up the pace of work to submit it on the due date next Friday. I have been able to review Eftekhar’s  Project Plan. Eftekhar , you haven’t finished your project plan but you are doing a good job! Congratulations! I will send you my feedback soon via email as I cannot access Sean's Wiki.  Hope you will finish it up by Friday! I will try to do so too.

Foli.

Week7 Reflection : the  one-computer classroom and mobile devices, the class Padlet, my WebQuest,my Project Plan(Eftekhar,my Project-Review partner)

I have been using the one-computer classroom since 2008 with my students with mitigated success. This week 7 has been the starting point of new discoveries regarding other possible ways of using it. The required readings ie  “Strategies and applications for the one-computer classroom”, “7 Categories of Classroom Computer Use”, the Teacher Tap. "The One Computer Classroom" and “ Going to the MALL : Mobile Assisted Language Learning” have been wonderful and resourceful. I still hesitate about the MALL with cellphones for their tiny screens and limited application; the tablet might do but their availability is another challenge. I am hopeful those problems will be resolved with time. Anyway, the computer still has great days ahead.

The Class Padlet is a simple and useful posting device; a blackboard enabling the teacher to have the big picture of all students postings. I have created a wall and posted two articles on Learner Autonomy. I intend to use it with my students as a blackboard.

My WebQuest is almost done. I’ve only got the teacher’s page to complete. Please, have a look at it if time allows and don’t hesitate to send a feedback. I have posted it on  Class Wiki. You can also find it here http://zunal.com/profile.php?u=264466 . 

Job Hunting, can u imagine that? That is my WebQuest Topic!

 Really sorry we couldn’t have a substantive discussion with our Guest Speaker Rachel for Nicenet has  been out of service since Saturday. Hope that will not take long.

                 .

Thank you Eftekhar for accepting to be my Project Review Partner.  My Project plan is not going as planned due to some good news that is causing some petty challenges. Anyway, I remain convinced that things will work out well.

The good news is that I have been selected by the US Embassy in Ouagadougou,

to take part in the 2014 Portland TESOL Convention. I will be going there with two other colleagues from Burkina Faso. I will certainly meet SEAN and some other UO  intructors, lecturers, 

professors, Dr. Kay Westerfield, Jennifer Rice, my former ESP 2012 course Instructor, there in late March. Gee!!!

The challenge is that for two weeks now, I have been engaged in TESOL Convention Registration, 

registration and appointment at the US Embassy for the visa. I am traveling to Ouagadougou tonight ( about 400 km from Bobo where I live ) this Sunday at 11:00 pm to arrive at 04:00 next morning to meet  the visa Consul for my appointment; this is gnawing into my working time a great deal and is a challenge in performing my webskills assignments, tasks and project.... I go to sleep very late (2:00 am and wake up at 06:00 am). Blessings are definitely not easy to manage in this Winter 2014 Webskills season.  Baetty is in a similar situation. I imagine her running around between the 10th Annual Cam TESOL Conference, the Webskills Courses and others! Fortunately, TESOL Portland takes place after the Webskills.

Thank you all,

Foli. 

Hi Everyone,

This is my padlet code. It seems it might be useful for future use and for sharing information.

<iframe src='http://fr.padlet.com/embed/5utnin6nsw' frameborder='0' width='100%' height='480px' style='padding:0;margin:0;border:none'></iframe><div style='border-top:2px solid #a7d23a;padding:8px;margin:0;font-size:12px;text-align:right'><a href='http://padlet.com' style='color:#41555f;text-decoration:none'>Created with Padlet<img valign='middle' style='margin:0 0 0 10px;padding:0;border:none;width:16px;height:16px' src='http://padlet.com/favicon.ico'></a></div>

Regards,

Foli

Week 6  Reflection : Interactive Teaching & Large Classes, Create an Interactive PowerPoint,  Final Project Step 5 : Implement Technology Change in my class.

Week6 is coming to an end. The weekly milestones are running past the Webskills vehicle. Inside it, my eyes are so fixed on my computer that I am hardly conscious that the driver is going at about 300 miles an hour. Reading, synthesis, writing, technology skills are improving fast too. I am amazed at how course-mates are so fast and creative. Fortunately I happen to follow the pace and rhythm.  I glad almost all of us are on board.

One of the week 6  ingredient topic is Interactive Teaching and Large Classes.  Readings  are as challenging as instructive. Great techniques on student-student and student-teacher  interactions to keep everyone busy learning . A lot learning though which will help teachers and students lower the levels of frustration, accusation and rejection experienced in our Large Multi-Level Classes.

Another ingredient topic  i.e. Create an Interactive PowerPoint  is for me full of dry pepper and tequila. It is the first time I have had so huge a challenge on completing a task. A completely new technology tool  I grappled with  in a desperate combat that I eventually only partially won. Something special I learned is that slides have to be concise, interactive, illustrated, numbered, informative, and not be read like a book. Glad I have made it. I still need to improve my skills on many aspects of it.

 Final project Step 5 : Implement Technology Change in my Class, in my opinion, alludes to the Final Project Development, the WebQuest Development, the PowerPoint Creation and Mastery, the Alternative Assessment/ Rubrics Creation. They are all underway. PowerPoint which has been my Top Star Topic this week, totally overshadowed my WebQuest activity which is in standby and dormant position. I hope to start waking it up tonight after the week’s deadline.

Best of Courage and Luck to All.

Foli.                                                                        

Week 5 Reflection :  PBL, Rubrics, WebQuest! What  Technology-related Solution In My Class ?

The more we move on , the more hectic the weeks become. Week 5 has been particular with activities and discoveries. The highlighted points are the following :

 1.  The PBL (Project-based Learning) illustrated by Susan Gaer’s article “Less Teaching More Learning”, something I have been using since 2012 but less elaborate and organized. The details are enriching.

       2.  Rubrics are also some sort of review. The Alternative Assessment puts the student at the center of learning activities with the teacher acting as a facilitator of the learning process. Unlike the Traditional Assessment, the Alternative Assessment is authentic and focuses on the interests and strengths of the student instead of on his/her weaknesses. Creating a rubric online is completely new to me.

             3. The WebQuest, a pedagogic web tool, “is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web” according to its inventor Bernie Dodge of San Diego State University. The WebQuest is the perfect technology ally of the 21^st century teacher.  The WebQuest format enables the teacher to integrate and implement the PBL,the Alternative Assessment and the rubrics with great detail and puts the students on task in a free and responsible manner both inside and outside classroom walls. This “must” be the Technology-related change or solution to my class!! Awesome tool it is! Nevertheless, very careful attention will be to its implementation in my class.

For some time now, I have been often very positively surprised by the bunch of work I have got through, by the way I have been able to carry out certain technology tasks , by many the successes of the course-mates, by the richness of the sharing! 

Thank you all!

Foli

Week 4 Reflection : Technology-Enhanced Lesson  Planning, Teaching and Learning; Week 4 Project Task.

Courtesy to "Tools For Classroom Teaching & Professional Development" by Michael KRAUSS

*The week started off with the reading of three articles.

           1.      Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction by Jarek Krajka

           2.   Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books by Mei-Ya Liang

     3.    Using Internet-Based Children's Literature to Teach EFL  by Larry J. Mikulecky

These three titles speak for themselves and show the pathway to teaching Reading, Writing and Vocabulary effectively with technology. The readings, the techniques developed and the websites recommended have brought my knowledge, certainly my teaching practice to the next level. Krajka's article will be most helpful.

*I have also gained invaluable learning from the Technology Enhanced Lesson Planning.  The lesson planning advice from the eHow sites, the Lesson Plan Templates, the Curriculum-Based Technology Integration Activities  from Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) and websites have opened up my eyes to the new horizons of Technology integration into lesson planning.

* The week 4 Project Task is to identify and describe a specific classroom problem that needs Technology-based solution. The problem in my Project Class (3^rd Year ESP Business students) is that I have only a 12-hour-a-year course with them in three four-hour sessions. No sooner do I start the class than it is over. I think I have come to the right address for a solution. 

The week has been certainly hectic for all course-mates, even for Sean (our instructor), I guess! His feedback has been “massive” and helpful for the majority of us all. Thank you, Sean! Thank you, course-mates for your contagious motivation and hard work!

Foli

 Webskills Week 3 Reflection : CALL in  Language Learning, Oral/Aural Skills Building, Creating a Delicious Page, Prior Project Review

This week we have discussed about two important topics in language teaching and learning :

-       CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) i.e. the crucial role the computer  plays or should play today in an effective language learning environment. Other technological tools like the internet, web-tools, podcasts, audio and video CDs, TV, radio are also to be taken into account.  They create motivation and autonomy among students inside and outside the classroom.

-       Aural/Oral Skills  cast a special focus on the role of listening/speaking activities in the learning process due to the fact that  “More than forty percent of our daily communication time is spent on listening, thirty-five percent on speaking, sixteen percent on reading, and only nine percent on writing” (Burely-Allen 1995). Again the application of CALL comes into play as Julia Gong emphasized in her article, insisting on appropriate pronunciation. According to Maria Busà, CALL has instilled new perspectives in teaching/learning pronunciation in Foreign Languages.  As a result of the discussion, I have harvested the following links on listenting, pronunciation and speaking :  

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds

  http://www.real-english.com

  http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.php

  http://www.esl-lab.com/

  http://www.esl-lab.com/jobhunting/jobhuntingrd1.htm

  http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/speaking/teaching-ideas/

  http://www.ted.com/ 

  http://learningenglish.voanews.com/media/all/learning-english-tv/latest.html?z=3613

  http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/the-best-sites-to-practice-speaking-english/.     http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/conversation_starters.html  

  http://www.ESL-galaxy.com/

  http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parke120/praatwebfiles/intro.htm

We have also carried out two tasks : 

-  Creating our Delicious page by following clear instructions. For me, it is the introduction to another new technological tool, useful for social bookmarking i.e. recording and keeping links at Delicious.com. My Delicious URL is https://delicious.com/mekfoli

-      -   Reading and commenting on sample project reports from past Webskills classes. I have read R.N. Reddy’s report. He didn’t have a physical classroom but a virtual one. His Project plan is a perfect replica of the AEI/UO E-teacher course at national level.  It is designed to follow, support, create interaction online among 22 teachers of English  working in 4 different provinces of South Africa. An impressive and ambitious project plan.

We are moving slowly but surely forward.

Foli.

Webskills Week 2 Reflections : ABCD Learning Objectives, Websearching Tools, Technology used in Class.

Monday Jannuary 13th to Sunday January 19, 2014

Again Sean's emails , which we now eagerly wait for, have given the kick off. There  have been fewer of them this week certainly because he feels  we are beginning to get used to the system. That is right, Sean!!! Nevertheless the workload is gettng heavier... readings, carrying out tasks in nicenet, starting the final project and feeding the blogpost....Besides, I have a presentation to make at the American Corner next! I devote so much time on the webskills activities to the risk of neglecting or putting on hold some of my other teaching and family tasks. Sleeping time is shrinking dramatically. The stress level is rising up! I have had to meet my doctor who prescribed some food supplements like vitamines / minerals, more sleep and some physical exercise to keep fit. I imagine you, other webskills colleagues, are managing things quite well. Anyway we have set off for the journey together. Together we shall reach the destination.

In week 2, we should work out the following 6 points :

-  Vist the Google website and explore the materials to read

-  Log in to the ncenet discussion thread and make at least two posts : one due on Wednesday and the second on Sunday about Websearching.

- Describe one of the classes we teach, share an ABCD learning objective for  that class, give a substantive feedback on a colleague's shared ABCD learning objective,

- Start the Project Task i.e. describe a class, the class setting, the students and discuss the technology my students and I have access to now inside and outside class.

- Post a reflection on the blog about our course,  what I have been doing and add a comment to at least a coursemate's blog.

I have special appreciation for the following points :

1. Sean's proposed checklist for  week 2 has helped much in organizing my week.

2. In the websearching activities, Sean has acquainted us to the wonderworld of websearch technology called the Noodle Tools. The Noodle Tools are  a journey  in the web world for a starter like me. I will make good use of them.

3. The ABCD Learning Objectives Design is an evolved form of the SMART objectives Design. The learners (Audience),  what they will be able to do as a result of completing the instruction (Behavior), the required resouces the students will need to access to (Condition), the level of mastery students must demonstrate to indicate they successfully mastered the objective (Degree) should be taken into account. The ABCD learning objective appears to be the backbone of an effective lesson planning and a result-oriented teaching.

5. The week 2 Project task is rather approachable now but I feel a little shaky about it in the near future. I feel it will require a lot of time and investment to carry out but I remain positive and confident about it.

6. As for the blog, I think there is enough to feed now.

All told, the week has been very busy in webwork and rich in discoveries. Learning is going on at a full speed now. All I wish is peace around me and keeping fit for each week ahead.

Foli. 

AEI/UO/Winter 2014 Webskills Online Course <Reflections on  my new Online Course Journey about "Building Teaching Skills Through The Interactive Web".>

Webskills WEEK 1 Reflection : Introductions, Creating a Blog

Foli in green shirt, fourth from the right, behind the lady

Since Monday January 6th, 2014 I have started this new journey. In the winter 2012 I had the same kind of journey, with more stress because it was the first time that I ventured into such a journey. In spite of the challenges I concluded it successfully. Now, I feel more confident although time constraints still hovers around.

Sean, our teacher and adviser gave the kick off with substantive welcome , informational and instructive emails to show us (participants from about 20 countries worldwide) the roadmap and the  milestones of the journey. Sean is a cool, organized, discreet, helpful,very humble but firm teacher. After a few days of interaction 99.99 % of participants have adopted him as our friend and guide through the journey.

Participants in the course are almost a team now. As Sean said, "everyone is on board". This reminds me of the days I was a tourist guide. Composed of some experienced and young teachers, the group is very highly motivated and we are all beginning to learn like "mad". I already like this dynamic, multicultural and global class.

I am experiencing the meaning of globalization in a very special way. Two days ago while I was still struggling to create my reflectve blog, I ran into the colleague Baetty. I didn't know then where she was from. It was 11: 30 pm UTC in Burkina Faso, time to go to bed. We had a brief chat. She told me she is from Indonesia, it was 06:30 am and she was getting ready to go to work.  I said to myself :"that is globalization in progress powered by technology."

There are 5 things we should do in week 1, summarized here:

·      visit the course website and explore

·      fill out the needs assessment survey 

·      join the class discussions on Nicenet

·      create our own self reflective teaching blog 

·      be able to log in and join the class wiki at Google sites.

Today Saturday January 11, 2014  I have completed all these tasks but I retain a couple of points.

1. I feel I belong to a very supportive and rich  learning community having the same goals and objectives with gentleman Sean as a trustworthy guide.

2. I am having a good review of how to initiate ice-breaking activities and  launch a new class ( with Self introduction, needs assessment survey, ground rules and rubrics discussion )

3. Creating a blog. It is my first blog. I have struggled for three days to be able to make it eventually. I had a problem with the choice the right address and/or username. The www.blogger.com website rejected about five addresses I proposed. I had to email Sean to ask for help. He suggested creating the blog with www.wordpress.com.  In the process, WordPress suggested me some options which gave me hints. Less than two mintutes after, I created the blog at www.blogger.com and added it to the AEI/UO Winter 2014 Webskills Online Course. Fantastic feeling!

I have had an unpleasant experience about joining  a friend's blog. I spent a hell of a time trying to log in or upload my picture so I thought it was a waste of time and stopped. I will to go back and participate in my friend's blog. I understand now through the nicenet discussion that not creating but rather managing and maintaining a blog is hard work.

I have read and kept useful materials on blogging i.e."Blogs Blogger-How to" "Blogging for ELT", "Creating Online Content" and "Larry Ferlazzo's Blog". I need to keep myself updated in blogging. Week 1 Milestone1 is almost done. I will come to a close tomorrow Sunday January 12th 2014.

Foli