A bit of reflection on ICT in Education

The main aim of UOO course was to develop a formal plan for incorporating technology into our teaching or class preparation in at least one new way and share our ideas with a group of teachers from all over the world.

Well, I think that aim was not wide enough to what we all experienced!

We were in touch with different online tools that are available FOR FREE for all teachers who are willing to give technology a go and who are trying to take advantage of the time students spend online doing things and activities that are not useful for them whatsoever.

What a huge challenge for me, a teacher who in spite of being in touch with technology for some time, has not been able to convince her peers that ONLINE learning really works!

Now that I am nurtured enough by all the readings I have done, all the activities made, etc., I am ready to sit in front of the teachers I work with and support my idea of introducing ICT to the Modern Languages Department.

A piece of advice? Keep on innovating! Do not be afraid of searching and trying new web tools and once you find anything interesting and useful, share it with other teachers! There is nothing better than sharing knowledge! That’s what teachers are really good at ;)

As I have said in previous posts, this is not the end of anything! This is just a great start to a new path of trying online tools to enhance our students’ learning.

Once again, thanks to UOO, Deb, all of you for reading me and making me a better teacher!

Love,

Eve

Technology in ELT

The course I am taking with the University of Oregon is coming to an end.

What a great experience it has been!

I have read tons of articles, comments, posts, etc in order to build my teaching skills taking into account technology. It sound easy but it could not be further from the reality!

Introducing technology in the language classroom is a tough task a teacher MUST face.

Nowadays students are more online than before and taking advantage of the time they spend on the internet to help them enhance their language skills is something we need to consider when planning our lessons.

But, to do so the teacher needs to have certain ICT skills (word processing, searching, online tutoring, etc.) so as to update his or her teaching practice and commit their students into their own learning.

During this week I had the chance to finish a project dealing with blogging for developing writing skills, using free and creative writing as a framework. Thanks to Prem, a teacher from the Himalaya, who kindly offered his help!

I have been working with blogs for some time but I had never thought of having leaners’ blog inside the class blog.

What my students usually did was post on the blog and that was it!

After taking this course at UOO, I have enhanced the blog with new web tools and have asked my pupils to comment on other classmates’ posts.

Apart from that, I guided them to create their own blog and they could not be more excited!

I think with this I am giving them the chance to be autonomous (a word that hasn’t left my mind since last week) because they are in charge of their own development, I am there just to guide them but they have the control of their writing.

What a commitment! What a compromise!

This project I have just finished is nothing but a start of this path I will be taking to drive my students to be independent writers and learners. It has opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities in English Language Teaching (ELT)

I would like to thank you all for reading me and sharing your expertise with this humble teacher from Venezuela!

I will keep this blog for sharing my teaching experiences weekly! there is nothing like networking!

Eve

Interactive PowerPoint: Ever heard of it before?

Hello my lovely readers!
How lucky I feel with the online course I am taking!

Every week I learn something new that I cannot wait to put in practice in my language classes.

This week was really special to me, why? Because I am a PowerPoint (PPT) Lover and I have used it in most of my classes.

But what I didn't know was that I could use it in a more interactive way so as to help my students to be more involved in their own learning process.

Having videos, links, objects and even a game on the slides are amazing ideas to make my PPT presentation more meaningful.

I am planning to redesign my presentations so as to add new interactive tools. My students are going to love it!

I am also thinking about asking them to create their own PPT presentations as a wrap-up so they can reflect on what they learnt every week. They may send them to their classmates via e-mail or put in on our moodle site. Have not gone through all the details yet though.

During this week I also learnt about how important group work is and you know what? I tried it in my last class and had a blast!

I must confess I was a bit lost when deciding where to stand during the class and walked a lot during the whole lesson from one group to the other but it was totally worth it!

The learners had more time and opportunity to speak, strong students had the chance to help weak ones and they even chose names for their groups: The girls, the best and the chosen ones!

Here are some pics of them enjoying the experience.

I am planning to hold all my classes with that seating arrangement.

Shall keep you all posted on the results.

Thanks for reading me!

Eve

Project Based Learning: Classes are not about what the teacher has to say anymore! Lovely!

Every day, more teachers realize that classes centered on them are no longer valid!

Project based learning is an approach that started as an ad hoc approach but developed later on as a great tool for enhancing our students' autonomy.

Having students search for meaningful information is an excellent way to make them get in touch with authentic materials and realia.

WebQuests are the best example of PBL

Have a look at the video above and you will get an idea of what I am writing about.

But, as I always like to think about the actual use of webtools and the real life scenarios most of us work, my question goes directly to those of you who have worked with WebQuests before:

What if there is only a PC with online access in the room?

What if we have many PCs but no internet access?

What if there are no computers at all?

I know we can have Webquests in paper format but, are they as useful and interesting to students as the ones online? no idea!

websites for developing Reading and Writing

Dear teachers:

This week I had the chance to explore all different kind of websites to develop reading and writing skills.

I read a lot about the advantages of using web tools to enhance students' writing and reading competences and I could not agree more with most authors and teachers when we all came to an agreement that learners need to be in touch with authentic material, from different genres and different formats so as to meet the different learning styles we deal with in our classrooms.

Students are writing more than ever so we should take advantage of the blogging and posting on social networks mania to make them practice reading and writing skills in their own context. What is more meaninful than that?

Let me reccomend you 2 websites I have been using. I think they can be really helpful for all ages.

a.- http://mashpedia.com/

Mashpedia aggregates multiple web feeds (streams of content from different sources) into structured articles about specific, encyclopedic terms, historic events and popular individuals, groups, organizations, companies, etc.

Every article provides a basic definition of the term, along with the most relevant videos about it, a stream of current Twitter messages, latest news, images, blog posts and links. Mashpedia also offers semantic connections between the articles, in form of links

b.- http://www.penzu.com/
Penzu is a simple online tool for creating a personal journal. Entries are automatically
dated and students can add titles and text as well as images which appear in the margin of
the page. They need to register to save their entries but this is quick and simple and only
requires an email address. The journal entries can be shared by email or can be printed up
and brought into class.

ABCD to writing learning objectives

This week I have learned so much about writing learning objectives in a clear and straight way, taking into account those 4 letters that stand for:

Audience (my students)

Behaviour (tangible and measurable)

Condition (Circumstances or context)

Degree of Mastery (how well the performance will be required)

We, as teachers, are always writing objectives or aims for our classes, but sometimes we leave out one of those four aspects mentioned above and that leads to students not knowing exactly what it is expected from them or what they will have to achieve by the end of the class.

Designing clear objectives for the class will help us organize a better session, planning more suitable activities or tasks for our students.

My blogging Experience

Hi everyone!
I would like to share my experiences while creating this blog for our online course.
First of all, I found it very easy to make. Blogs have a friendly look and format, plus expertise on technology is not required.
I think blogging is a perfect online tool for language classes because it takes into consideration the different learning styles students might have. Visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners might find it appealing since there is a wide range of tools and gadgets we, as teachers and administrators of the page, can use to make sure everyone feels at ease. Videos, pictures, links, polls and the like, make blogs more dynamic and interesting to all kinds of readers.
I have to be honest and say that even though I tried to use all the gadgets, I couldn’t manage to realize how to use them with pedagogical purposes. I suppose I will figure that out while learning from this course but if you happen to know how to use lists, photo slides, etc in a didactic way, feel free to post your suggestions.
As I said on the post on Nicenet, Interaction is the essence of blogging. Postings should be answered quickly by the teacher so students know they have been read and comments on other writers’ posts should be encouraged-
Having a surprise guest, as recommended by Stanley in the article Deborah gave us, is an amazing idea! Students love to be in touch with people abroad and it will give them the feeling of English as a worldwide communication language!
While designing my blog, so many things came to my mind and I would like to prompt some questions to read your comments:
1. - How can you motivate a student to post on your blog without offering extra points in their final grades?
2. - Is grammar correction allowed or should be discouraged as long as the message is conveyed?
3.- What do you prefer: a private blog or a public one?
4.- Should learners have permission to post anything they want to?
5.- Should teachers edit their students’ comments first?

Looking forward to your postings.
Eve