Week 10 - The Summer Ends

It's hard to believe our course has come to an end! The summer has flown by with engaging discussion, challenging tasks, new friendships, and lots of interesting ideas to chew on.

I can only echo Victoria's sentiments on Nicenet - I too am grateful to the US Dept of State and embassy officials for making this opportunity available to us. This has been my first online course, and I hope it is the first of many. I've learned that technology helps build connections - between learners, between learners and the world outside the classroom, between learners and teachers, between teachers and teachers, and between all of us as "netizens" of the world.

I've appreciated the fact that the course has served as a role model for online communication. From the beginning with the blog introductions and the discussion of rules, to the end with the posting of the projects and the summary discussion, we have experienced the experience we will be trying to recreate in some way for our students. The organization and flow of the course worked well for me and I appreciated the mix of theoretical readings and practical online resources, as well as the tasks we had to accomplish each week. This kind of "learning by doing" approach made the course interactive and learner-centered.

What advice would I give to my colleagues about technology? Well, I would encourage them to view the technology we have available to us as an opportunity. Technology can create a more learner-centered environment and one in which there is more communication and cooperation, not less. Technology can save time in lesson preparation, materials development and student assessment. Technology can also help us devise more diverse, creative and active lessons.

Based on my experience with the summer action research project, I would advise my colleagues to think of a problem they have when teaching, or a restriction they experience when working with the curriculum. Then consider how technology might fix the problem or overcome the restriction. The true potential of technology cannot be discovered when it is used for an add-on activity or as a time-filler. If teachers start small and incorporate one technologically-based innovation to their course that will increase learner engagement, autonomy or use of HOT skills, then they can build on that experience. Over time, we will all be using technology as a natural part of teaching/learning because it supports what we know is good practice.

As for us, we are very lucky we have had the chance to experiment with technology - either this term or in the next term. We are also lucky that the course materials will stay online after the course ends. We will be able to review the material and posts from the summer and upload new material to share with one another as well. It will be great to see progress reports from those teachers who move from the research plan to research action stage of their projects in the next semester. I hope we will continue to stay in touch and support one another as we explore new ways to engage our learners and ourselves.

Thank you Deborah and all the wonderful teachers taking this course! It's been fantastic working with and learning from all of you.

Week 9 Learning Styles

Learning styles and Multiple intelligences are interrelated. It is easy to assume that what worked for us as learners, will work for others. It's helpful to consider other ways of learning and how to acknowledge that there are many pathways to the goal of language acquisition. I think variety is the key.

Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligence is only about 25 years old but it has permeated education, psychology and career coaching. For example, the government of Canada has an MI quiz on its website for job seekers. Including these ideas help enrich the learning environments we create as teachers. Technology helps us do that, particularly the wealth of material available over the Internet.

For an opposing view on learning styles, please view this youtube video by Daniel Willingham. He argues that learning styles do not exist. For example, some information is most easily relayed visually whereas other information is most easily relayed in an auditory manner. Any teacher will teach in a variety of ways for this reason and any learner will learn in a variety of ways for this reason. I'm not sure how to react to this argument. I'd have to do more analysis of how the brain works and how I think this would impact my teaching.

For me, the most useful aspect to come out of this week's readings and reflections has been that we as teachers can use technology in many ways to expand our ideas of how to teach and how to learn. The ideas posted on nicenet as well as the ideas discussed in the readings have helped me consider new ways to introduce language to students, help them work with language, and help them create with the new language.

This also relates to my final project for the course. I introduced wikis to help with student writing and understanding of reading material, and we used a camera to record student presentations. I was able to use technology to expand and enliven our current curriculum requirements of writing, reading and speaking. The feedback from the students has been positive. My goal with the technology was to use it to increase student participation in writing and reading discussions, and to help them become more autonomous learners by enabling them to assess their own presentations. These goals were met. Did the technology address different learning styles? I'm not sure. But I do believe the technology added a new dimension to the class tasks and enabled the learners to interact with one another more fully and become a little bit more autonomous. Therefore, I think the project was a success.

Janet

Dear Saulat,

Thank you for the comment on my blog. Using wikis is not hard once you get used to it. For me, the best way to learn is through trial and error. Experimenting with a friend or colleague will help you get familiar with things and then you can delete that wiki when you are done.

You can read my project report on the class wiki for the details, but overall using a wiki as a writing space for the class has been a positive experience and has really improved the students' editing skills in particular. I would just say that if more than one writer is updating a page, it must be saved often in order to not lose any work. But really, wikispaces is very elegant in its simplicity!

Unfortunately I can't include you as a member of the class wiki because some students have said some personal things about the stories we have been reading. I need to protect their privacy. However, I'm sure you will feel comfortable with wikis if you set one up yourself and try out a few functions.

Good Luck with wikis!

Janet

Week 8 Teacher Resources Online

This week was very full with work, family and of course, the course. I'm exhausted!

I've been introducing two new types of technology into my classroom for the course project. On Friday, we had a trial run with the camera in the class. On Monday and Tuesday, if all goes well, we will record the student presentations and they will be viewing them and uploading them to Vimeo on Wednesday. I'm hoping the technology will help the learners identify their strengths and weaknesses. I'm also hoping that having a record of their presentation will motivate them and make them feel proud of themselves. This will help them when they have to do their presentations in the next EAP level. I have to be careful when operating the camera that I keep the students in frame, but at the same time not move the camera too much. I may need to work on my technical skills before the next term starts.

The students have been using a class wiki. This is the second new technology I've brought into the classroom. They have been using the website to ask questions, answer questions, and post comments on the short stories and academic articles we have been reading in class. They have also been using it to compose and edit essays. There have been two surprises. The first one is that the students need more direction than I had thought. They are questioning if they are writing too much or too little and if their comments are clear. Next term, the wiki will be introduced more slowly and with more scaffolding from me. I'll have a trial run with the wiki just like I did with the camera. I'll give the students immediate feedback. The second surprise is that the wiki is really helping the shyer students speak up more in class. By writing comments on the class wiki before the in-class discussion, they are beginning to be more confident about speaking and explaining their opinions. Their contributions in the class wiki and in the discussions help all the students gain a fuller understanding of the text and helps them all "negotiate meaning".

The course this week looked at different ways to create a class site. I have a blog here and I've already started a class wiki this summer. Therefore, I decided to set up a Nicenet site for one of the classes that starts in the fall. This is an ESL class that only meets twice a week. I think the Nicenet site will be a great way for the learners to keep in touch with each other throughout the week. By commenting at times during the week, the connections between the learners will grow. By giving specific homework assignments, I can help with the continuity of learning. I can also list additional discussion topics and links to enable students to work at their own level and pace. I'm excited about the opportunities available through Nicenet. The most important advantage that I see is that it will help the learners connect with one another and they will learn to learn from each other. I surveyed my learners this term and they all had computers at home with an Internet connection, so I expect that all the students will be able to take equal advantage of the Nicenet site.

It was interesting to see all of us taking the Oregon course reacted a little differently to the websites Deborah has suggested we try out this week. For example, some of us, including me, found Hot Potatoes to be very user-friendly, whereas others found it to be difficult to use. I found Easy Test Maker to be frustrating. I'll have to try it again at another time because this week, it just didn't seem to work for me. However, others loved this site.

This parallels how our students may feel. What we think may be an easy technology for them to use, may in fact, be frustrating and difficult for them. I thought using wikispaces as a discussion board would be a cinch, but some of my students were hesitant about it at first. Of course, the reverse may be true, like our Nicenet discussion on learner autonomy when several teachers discussed the possiblity of using cell phones in class as a learner aid. I would have to ask my students to teach me how to use these functions!

There are so many online exercise makers available and as Bella noted, one site leads into another site which leads into another site, etc. I was a little overwhelmed this week trying to figure out effective and creative exercises for my classes. For example, Arjana's blog includes an exercise from www.eslvideo.com and Camelia's blog has an avatar from www.voki.com.
These are fun and motivating, but I just couldn't think of how I could use these for my classes. I need to create exercises that connect to the coursework and build on it. I think that with practice and time, I can think of great activities using all the teacher resources websites we have been introduced to this week, exercises that will be motivating for the learners and really helpful for them as well. However, for me to put in the time to create these activities, I need to know they really will be useful, especially for adult learners. I think planning is essential. However, I've been inspired by the work of my colleagues in the course and I look forward to having these tools available to me next term and beyond.

Week 7 - Learner Autonomy and the One Computer classroom

As I stated in my nicenet posting, I am very enthusiastic about promoting learner autonomy. It is not always easy as we need to envision new roles for ourselves as teachers and encourage the students to envision themselves as active, not passive learners. I sometimes work with adult students who have not taken classes in many years and it is interesting (and a bit discouraging) to see knowledgeable active professionals revert to passivity when in a classroom with a teacher. As a teacher, I try to promote continuous language learning; it is not something that is only learned and used in the classroom. In fact, the classroom is a kind of lab for safe experimentation before really putting the language into practice outside the classroom. This is where "the rubber meets the road". If it's a successful interaction, the learner gets an authentic feeling of satisfaction. If it's an unsuccessful interaction, the learner realizes it and returns to the classroom with a specific need that the teacher can help the learner address. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a great length of time between the classroom experimentation phase and the real experience phase.

Learning a language is a fascinating intellectual undertaking, but ultimately the point is communication. Fortunately, with modern technology, the opportunities for communication have multiplied beyond what could be imagined even 10 years ago. When I began teaching, I didn't have a computer in class although I have always had a computer in the office. Now, I usually have a computer in class that is connected to an overhead projector and is connected to the Internet. It was great to read about so many interesting ways to use a computer in the classroom by reading the posts and lesson plans this week. I especially appreciated Arjana's use of Skype to connect learners throughout the world in a communicative lesson and Camelia's lesson which looked at the Prince Charles and Princess Diana story and compared it to the fairy tale paradigm. I'm already thinking about how I can use these ideas in the fall semester.

I'm hoping that my summer technology project will help the learners develop their cognitive and especially their metacognitive learning strategies. Liliya noted in one of her posts that her students had difficulty with self-reflection. I am concerned that my students as well may find this skill a challenging one. Perhaps it comes from a sense of powerlessness. If students don't feel they really have the power to control their learning, there is not much point in doing self-reflection activities. As learners become more active and are given more personal choice and responsibility, they may see that they do have more control over their learning and that they really can achieve their goals. However, there needs to be a lot of scaffolding and small tasks along the way before students are really capable of setting goals and monitoring their own progress.

The article written by Dimitrios Thanasoulas entitled What is Learner Autonomy and How can it be Fostered? is one that I return to again because it is a clear summary of the subject and cites many good sources. Another article I found this week is a 2009 article written by Bonny Norton entitled Language and Identity. In the article, the author discusses the notion of personal motivation and includes the concepts of learner identity and imagined communities. Learners are not just individuals, they are members of communities. When we learn a new language, we can also learn a new identity or expand the identity we have. Sometimes teachers, classmates, or the greater community impose an identity on the learner that is not wanted. This relates to the issue of power which is a key component of critical theory, which is mentioned in Thanasoulas' article. Language is power and whoever controls the language, is powerful. Perhaps in the 21st century, we can also say that technology is power. Besides giving students access to the power of language, we may also need to give students access to the power of technology as well.

I'm looking forward to more work on my project and to the work we do in Week 8!

Janet

Summer Project

I've begun work on my summer project. One new way I'm using technology is the digital recording of student presentations. I've done a trial recording with the camera that we have at our school. The camera comes with a microphone, but I'm looking into whether we can get a clip-on microphone to better capture voices. I've signed onto the website www.vimeo.com. Students will also sign onto the website in order to save their presentations, edit them, and upload them onto the web.

The students already have a rubric for the presentation itself. This is the one I will use to record their presentation mark. However, I've decided I will also create a rubric for their viewing of their presentations. They will decide on three (?) personal goals before the presentation and then view the presentation to see how well they met those goals. There will also be a section for them to think about what they learned and what their goals will be for the next presentation in the fall. And a section for feedback from a peer.

Besides that, I'm going to use wikispaces as a space for students to discuss the readings in August, and to work on a group essay and peer edits. I've started the wiki and the students can join on Tuesday. We have a class in the computer lab this upcoming week and I'm planning to use that time to get us started using wikispaces.

My goal is that by viewing themselves giving the presentations, the students will have a better awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and a greater feeling of pride of accomplishment. By using wikispaces, I'm hoping to increase student collaboration, especially between the stronger and weaker writers. I also think that the students will better understand the readings if they have a forum to discuss them outside of class time.

Student-centered learning and interactive PowerPoint

This week we learned about various techniques to make the learning process more student-centered and more engaging for the students. The techniques were specifically written for large classes, but can be easily applied to smaller classes as well. One site had a list of 36 interactive activities. These ideas are written with lecturers in mind, but it helps all ESL/EFL teachers to be reminded of how many ways there are to engage students. All of us can get stuck in a rut. That's why a course such as this is so helpful; we are able to share ideas with one another and think about teaching in a different way. I'm sure that our teaching will change for the better.

The University of Oregon site on Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes has many links to lots of information about keeping students engaged. I think one of the advantages of large classes is that the students have so many colleagues to learn from (similar to our class!). As a teacher, I can make the class more student-centered and more effective by providing opportunities for students to learn from each other - by doing predicting activities together, playing a game or writing a story together, or by doing summarizing activities together. Students can do many pair/group activities and have different partners each time. This is a definite advantage that large classes have over small classes.

The other focus of this week was interactive PowerPoint. It was very useful to go through the steps of creating an interactive PowerPoint presentation and of course, to view the presentations created by my colleagues. By becoming students and going through the learning process ourselves, we can empathize more readily with our students who are also trying new things, stumbling, getting frustrated, trying again, and feeling the personal satisfaction that comes from acquiring new skills. We can talk about the pleasure of learning and the importance of life-long learning from a personal standpoint, not just a theoretical one. Learning is part of living.

Deborah's PowerPoint presentation about interactive PowerPoint presentations was an excellent introduction to the methods that are available to teachers. I never knew a presentation could be so interactive. My goal is to use a few of these techniques in every presentation I create from now on. I created a PowerPoint presentation, but I have not created a jeopardy game or interactive story yet. My colleagues have been using these tools though, and I think they will work well. Luiza mentioned that students may not see the benefit of just playing games and I think this is true. Any new technology or task we introduce we have to "sell" to the students by explicitly saying how it will help their language learning. If we can't do that, then there is no reason to use this technology or task at all.

Once again this week I've learned a lot by going through the readings. Then I learned more by doing the assigned task - creating an interactive PowerPoint presentation. Finally, I learned even more by reading the comments and posts of my colleagues who have helped me think about the material in a different way and have sometimes challenged my initial views. It's been a very productive week for me. Thank you Deborah and everyone!

Janet