Week 10: The End of the Line Opens New Paths

And here it is. The final week. It looks as if it had been only 10 days of endless readings and the insatiable thirst of wanting to learn more, try out more. 

Ten weeks ago I was an apprehensive participant, often doubting my own skills, not even confident with creating a blog. I guess it had to do with the fact that I am quite an introvert when it comes to sharing my thoughts with a bigger audience. This course has taught me that sharing ideas, no matter how trivial or insignificant they might seem, is rather necessary. To me it was indeed all about building: building confidence at first, but more importantly building teaching skills through the interactive web, building one's own little database with tools and technology to be further explored and used.

Blogger was the first tool to get familiar with, and then followed Nicenet and Wiki Pages. As my confidence in using these was increasing, so was my curiosity of discovering new ones. From day to day I was like a small fish swimming in this vast sea with a myriad of possibilities and novelties. Unfortunately, it was quite time-consuming, so I had to adapt my teaching time, my free time and even my sleeping time to the reading requirements and assignment deadlines on the way. 

Delicious helped me organize my newly discovered, useful websites for EFL teachers and students, and now, even though my list has some 83 links with numerous tags, finding resources for practicing reading, speaking, listening or writing skills takes only a minute of my time. The links are easy to be shared, and I've done that with some of my students. I've learned how to create a technology-enhanced lesson plan. Moreover, creating a Rubric is no longer a problem for me. To start with, I have introduced it's practical use when grading discursive essays for my upper-intermediate class, but also when creating my first ever WebQuest. The WebQuest was more than a quest. It was a mission, both for me and my intermediate students. Fortunately, there were also my course instructor and my webskills course classmates, whose feedback during the process lead me through my times of doubt. Moreover, I got parents from my intermediate class involved, too. I organized a PTA meeting, where I explained the idea of using new technologies and the internet in my English class. The positive feedback that I got from the parents was another sign that being in this course was worthwhile.

Unaware that I was also in a class and constantly learning, my students were using the same tools as I was. That's how we started getting used to Edmodo and Padlet. They did their assignments and tasks, experiencing a new and (hopefully) interesting way of technology-enhanced learning. It was wonderful to see that at the time when I was struggling with adding interactive elements to my PowerPoint Presentations, some of my upper-intermediate students were already mastering Prezi. It opened up a new door for them, and for me. I learned how to create customized online and offline activities with Hot Potatoes. And yet, there are so many other tools that I didn't have the time to introduce, such as Audacity,  Dvolver or  ANVILL. Ten weeks were too short a period in the end.
 
However, my teaching-with-technology journey has only just began with a small step in the webskills course at the University of Oregon, and I look forward to continue  the journey together with my students, hoping that we shall all enjoy and benefit from it. I feel very honored and grateful for having had the chance to participate in the E-Teacher Program.

Week 9: WebQuest pt 4 - Over and Out

The project that I was doing with my students, namely A Local Newspaper is officially finished.

There have been many challenges on the way, things to explore and do, but in the end, I think that the objective has been met. The students successfully completed the assignment - with lots of writing, editing, peer editing and correction - they produced a newspaper. The WebQuest and Edmodo were the tools that made them constantly engaged, and it was the first time that all students submitted their written homework assignments on time. No excuses, not a word about not having time to do it. It was easy to spot enthusiasm, and I wonder if I have started a right kind of revolution to keep them even more interested in learning. Time will tell! 

 

 

Week 9: Getting Closer to the End

Another busy week marked with the deadline for the final project. After weeks of dedicated work on the issue of motivating my students to do their written homework assignments and improving their spelling and writing skills, the project is done, and the report duly submitted for the evaluation to the instructor. I feel very thankful for the comments on my first draft, which I received from my colleague, Thierry Martial Niangoran. One of the best things about this course is being able to share opinions and experience and learn from it, sometimes instantaneously. Therefore, I think that I greatly benefited from his peer evaluation.

The topic of our discussions this week was Learning Styles/ Multiple Intelligences. The article Learning Styles and Strategies by Richard Felder and Barbara A. Soloman explores the impact of different learning styles on classroom performance and after reading it, and going through tech tools that support multiple intelligences, it was fairly easy to think about practical application of tools that we got familiar with in the course to address the needs of different learning types.

According to the readings, the learner types are:

1. Verbal-Linguistic
2. Logical/Mathematical
3. Visual/Spatial
4. Bodily/Kinesthetic
5. Musical/Rhythmic
6. Intrapersonal
7. Interpersonal
8. Naturalist
9. Existentialist 

We all possess certain level of all of these. The learning styles are indeed something both teachers and students should be aware of. In order to create effective teaching materials and environment, one must know not just what kind of learner types there are in a class, but also what could be suitable activities for each. Therefore, the best way to start would be by doing the learner style assessment either online or offline. 

 I was also curious to find out what was my learning style and according to this online Learning Style Quiz here are the results:

I'd say it is pretty accurate because I do believe I am linguistic and intrapersonal type, but I was surprised with 81% score for musical. But then again, when I think about how I really learned English as a teenager, I mustn't forget that one of the best ways was actually listening to various American and English artists at the time.

Besides the two obligatory readings, I read the article Multiple Intelligences In The Classroom by Bruce Campbell which provided an interesting insight into ways how these intelligences can be implemented. What I liked the most was that the teacher organized the class in seven different centers, based on seven different learning styles, thus giving an opportunity to students to learn a lesson in seven different styles.

Week 8: New Tools

It's Friday evening and the week is almost over. Time does fly so fast and it seems only yesterday that we had started this course. It's been so intense and busy, that this blog in a way helps me look back on all the things that had been learned, tested and done.

Although usually with a schedule that involves reading materials followed by a discussion and specific tools-exploring tasks, the week was marked by the first draft of the final project report. I started working on the project 3 weeks ago, as noted here in the blog, and this week my students were to finish it. I am in the process of evaluating the assignments, but also trying to analyze the whole process and think about possible setbacks and manners how they could be corrected and/or what alternatives could be used.

I had trouble with my home internet connection at the end of the week due to the bad weather and snow. In school there were too many things again to be done, so I couldn't really do much there. What troubled me the most was my logging in this great toolbox for teachers introduced called ANVILL (A National Virtual Language Lab). It is designed for simple and straightforward creating media-rich lessons. I was able just to get familiar with it through posts and detailed explanations by Jeff Magoto, the director of the Yamada Language Center at the University of  Oregon, and developer of  this fantastic web tool. His presence in the course has created an additional value to the course, and once again I am grateful and honored to be in the E-Teacher Program.

To give a better insight into ANVILL here's the author himself giving a brief description of the work of Voiceboards (VB) that is ANVILL's most popular tool which adds spoken language to discussions, audio journals, pronunciation exercises, and other forms of oral language practice:

In one of my first posts in this blog I talked about a student exchange program that we have in school, and I was wondering how it would be to use this tool in order to add another dimension to the exchange, just like the high schools from the Eugen, Oregon and Lyon, France.

Practical tasks we had to do this week were related to creating online course using tools such as Blogger.com, Google Sites or sites for creating activities such as exercises to print out or use online and/or offline from Easy-Test-Maker or Hot Potatoes. I tried out CrosswordPuzzleGames.com in order to create a vocabulary and spelling revision exercise for my upper-intermediate class.

In addition, I have been exploring the Hot Potatoes software and I created an open cloze exercise called Can Honey Heal.

 What I really like about this software is that it gives you a possibility of creating different types of exercises - open cloze, crossword puzzle, quiz, matching exercises and combined - all as one tool.

It looks like just the right tool I might be using to 'feed the hungry minds'. :)

Week 7: Padlet and WebQuest Pt3

I was away for the greater part of the week, but still I tried to be in touch with my students through Edmodo to check their progress.

This week we were introduced another easy to use tool - Padlet and I thought that it would be quite handy for my students to use it to collaborate on the Project. Therefore, I created a wall and sent the link to my students through Edmodo.

 

Screenshot of the Project Padlet Wall

Week 7: Autonomy and Technology

Week 7 found me on the road again. This time it was an OSCE Community Cohesion Action Plan Workshop and the Conference to the launch of an online tool Super Citizen to track hate crimes and bias-motivated actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the events were such a great opportunity to exchange ideas about the work in the local community, I wasn't able to be in school at the same time. I somehow tried to compensate that with my virtual class, but I'm not sure if that will suffice. 

The topics of the week were learner autonomy, one-computer classroom and mobile devices. Among a list of the readings, the first was an article What Is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? by Dimitrios Thanasoulas and it gave an insight in an essential component of a self-access center: a self-directed learner. The article and some other readings triggered quite interesting discussion in our Nicenet classroom. It was very useful to learn what are some factors that can enhance learner autonomy, but more importantly how can we as teachers guide our students to achieve it. 

What kept some of my attention was also an idea of learner autonomy achieved through online video games. I was lead to do some research asking not only my students about the games they have played, but also browsing the Net to read more about the topic. I came across the paper Learner Autonomy Development Through Digital Gameplay by Alice Chik that explores how gamers exercise learner autonomy by managing their gaming both as leisure and learning experience.

A valuable resource that I might use with my students is Trace Effects, an online 3D game for practicing English.

Another topic that has been fascinating to explore this week was MALL (mobile assisted language learning). Fortunately or not, most of the kids in my classes do have access to PCs, but not everyone has smart phones that they can use for language learning. In my opinion, those that do have them, would be motivated to use them, since mobiles are the gadgets they can't live without. When I introduced them the idea about using Edmodo platform, I told them that it is possible to get it as an app for mobiles (both Android and iOS). That piece of information seemed quite important to them.

I was thinking of some other apps that can be used for promoting MALL and I found My Word Book2. 

                                    

The app is designed as a dictionary that learners expand themselves  adding media such as recordings, pictures and word descriptions/translation. Therefore, I thought I could create an objective for one of my classes. Based on the text about transportation in Britain (Condition), a class of 29 intermediate students (Audience) will record entries for new vocabulary (Behavior) finding the word in the database and then adding an audio file and translation from L2 to L1 for 10 new words and/or expressions (Degree). This can be done in class, even as a pair work in case not all students have smart phones. It could be fairly easy to make an assessment telling students to submit their work through the 'Share' option, so that it can be available to the teacher and the rest of the class, or the students could simply read their new entries aloud.

Week 6: Getting Started - WebQuest Pt2

On Tuesday I published my WebQuest and wanted to be able to update it, if necessary, so that I could have it ready in my class on Thursday.

I must admit that I really worked hard, even at night, just to finish it on time. I feared that if I'd lost just one day, I wouldn't have been able to include it in my final project. Fortunately, the things went according to the plan. 

On Thursday afternoon, I told my students about the project they would be doing. They asked me if it had to do anything with Edmodo, since some senior students had told them about this new ‘cool way they are using the internet for English classes’.  Even this sounded like a positive thing, right from the beginning. It meant that they are probably interested. I used almost half of my class time to explain to them how to first sign up for Edmodo, make a student profile, and how we’d be communicating through it. I told them that I already posted a link with a special kind of a project only for them. I showed them the Welcome page and explained that in this project I'd  be just an observer, and that they would do everything with the little help of the Internet.  Our next class was the day after, and I was quite curious to hear their initial response. 
 

By Friday afternoon, 23 out of 29 students created an account in Edmodo, and checked the WebQuest page. The students created 6 groups of 4 and one of 5 students in the class the same day. They also chose which sections of the newspapers they would like to work on. I gave them maximum two weeks for the project, and I am having doubts whether this would be too much time. Working together to create one section of the newspaper, students will do a lot of peer-editing/peer-correction, which will also improve their critical thinking skills but will certainly  require quite some time to be done. Another thing I had to take into account is that they come home late (after 7 or 8 pm) and that they have total of 13 different subjects/classes to prepare and study for every week.  We’ll see if it will work out this way.

A new week is ahead of us.

Week 6: The Roller Coaster Ride Through Assignments and Tasks

My journey through the interactive web has led me to this week’s roller coaster. These seven days have been filled with activities and things I was learning about and trying out on the go. But let’s start from the beginning.

The readings we covered this week were about Engaging Students and Technology Aids. I dedicated a special attention to a website that listed and explained many resources that can help to keep students actively engaged and minimize the time teachers spend grading, effectively and efficiently. 

I faced similar challenge with my upper-intermediate student essays that were sent through Edmodo. I still think that Edmodo did help me to instruct my students how to do the essay and how their essays will be evaluated. However, with all the work in my webskills class, the reading assignments and tasks, and completing the work for WebQuest I really had such a trouble finding time to read all the essays, grade them, and send the reports and feedback in Edmodo to my students. 

In order to engage students more in learning I think that Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) would work well with in my class. It  is a brilliant method to improve student learning and increase in-class teaching efficiency and effectiveness. "A key to successful JiTT implementation is developing a set of effective questions that will be posted online for students to answer before the next class. JiTT questions are generally open-ended and require students to do something - read a textbook chapter or article, analyze a video, complete a simulation, or analyze data - related to material that will be addressed during the next class period." Again, something to explore in Edmodo.

Another effective tool to engage students in learning introduced this week is Powerpoint Presentation (PPT). I have used it before, but I must admit that I have never paid special attention to so many interactive features it offers. I created one as quite a simple and short vocabulary quiz. I tried to experiment both with using hyperlinks and text-adding interactive options. The quiz is designed as a warm-up activity in which students will be able to revise some airport vocabulary and airport procedures previously covered in one of the intermediate classes. I wanted to use hyperlinks in order to guide my students to the correct answers until they finally get them even if they hadn't studied prior to the quiz.

a slide screenshot of my PPT presentation

As the week was coming to an end, my work was nearly done. I had worked hard  to complete my  my WebQuest and introduce it to the students.  But I’d better dedicate another post to this.

Week 6: Introducting Changes - WebQuest Pt1

Ideas, ideas, ideas! 

I had so many ideas how to make this first WebQuest for my intermediate students. I guess staying focused on one thing and making the best of it was the hardest part in the process. 

The WebQuest with the title A Local Newspaper Project is aimed to help my 10th graders (intermediate level) practice spelling and writing through a practical use of language. As I described to my colleagues in this webskills class, they are typical teenagers, who never seem to find time to practice at home, but usually find all the time in the world to surf the Net. 

A screenshot of my WebQuest homepage - http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=220294

Yesterday I created a group for them in my Edmodo classroom, and will post the link for the WebQuest there first. We're having a class tomorrow, so I will give them additional explanation about it, since there are still students who haven't created an account in Edmodo.

I really look forward to this challenge and my students' feedback.

Week 5: Moving Forward

Week 5 is here with all its assignments and new tools to learn about and explore.

Most of the reading we had to do have put focus mainly on the term 'alternative' thus giving detailed insight about alternative learning through Project Based Learning and the concept of alternative assessment and rubrics. 

We learned the significance of Project Based Learning (PBL) through an example of  Susan Gaer and her article Less Teaching is More Learning. In my opinion, Project Based Learning gives an opportunity to students to take advantage of such elements as curiosity and independence as one of the key drives in a quest for new knowledge. In order to find the required information related to a project, students must be empowered to search autonomously and independently, even when given guidelines by the teacher. They are responsible for their learning and therefore, project objective(s) must be clear and appealing to students, whereas topics should be challenging and related to real-life. PBL can encourage students to learn independently, thus motivating them to gain not only more knowledge in a certain field, but also to better achieve language competences in an EFL classroom. 

A model completely new to me until this week was WebQuest. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. It was a great experience to read through examples of WebQuest from the Quest Garden  as well as to look up some of the WebQuests some of my colleagues in this course made. I'm thinking of creating one of my own, since my students could benefit from it in many ways. 

Another issue that was covered this week was alternative assessment and rubrics.  It was brilliantly presented in The Essentials of Teaching article. After considering all the aspects and different varieties of alternative assessment and rubrics, I have also created one for my discurssive essay  class, that I will post in my Edmodo virtual classroom.

Speaking about Edmodo, I now have 50 students in my two classes, and 22 + 19 essays turned in. Students were leaving comments and reacted postively to this new concept. I have also left a rubric so that they can know how their work will be evaluated. Morevoer, they will be able to use it for future discursive writing as well. 

Week 4: Small Steps Can Take You Far if You Keep Walking

Already Week 4 and such a busy schedule that I almost forgot ever being outside the virtual classrooms. Now I have two of these to attend, which I will explain shortly.

After days of marathon-like classes in school and meetings concerning Hate Crimes Prevention Project with OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) that four of my students and I are participating in together with representatives of the media, governmental and NGO sector in the town, it's good to be able to get online, and without a rush read through posts and comments by my colleagues in the Nicenet. The main objective for us was to learn particular ways how technology can enhance reading, writing and vocabulary skills. As before, there was a great variety of useful websites and links to explore and try to incorporate in our teaching. Moreover, this week was all about practicing writing technology enhanced lesson plans and using google docs to post them online in order to get feedback from the colleagues and the instructor.

I browsed through Bygosh.com - a family-friendly website with interactive books and short stories. Since it was Halloween this week, I thought it would have been nice to look for some materials to use with my students. Having opened "Scary Short Stories for October", I got a perfect idea to use it in the class with taking into consideration ABCD lesson objectives framework. A group of 25 intermediate high school (aged 15-16) students (Audience) will choose from the website list (Condition) one short story to read (Behavior) and then provide the story map with 6 most important details about the story (Degree).

Another idea was to use Huffington Post Live. The website gives a possibility of having an interactive realia used for both listening, reading comprehension and writing. You can find a certain topic/show and the time when it will be broadcasted, as well as additional reading with it. For instance, I found the show with the topic "Tell me Why ScaryMovies"  that will feature a guest who is a 10-year old horror movie enthusiast. The show is provided with additional information sections such as LOOK: Forgotten Horror Movies You Should Revisit READ: 10 Best Scary Movies To Watch This Halloween SCARY: 10 Maniacally Mind-Twisting Movies. You can also join the chatting community and discuss the topic with other viewers. I think my students would be quite interested in listening and watching the show, as well as reading the additional information and commenting.

 However, one of the major endeavors for this week for me was first getting familiar with the use of and introducing Edmodo to my students. I created two groups for my upper-intermediate classes, got group codes for each so that students could join. 

 My Teacher's Profile on Edmodo

The platform does remind of Facebook, and I first used it to post a note with a link of the website (http://idebate.org/motions) where I wanted my students to choose a topic for a discursive essay that they would have to write. I also uploaded a pdf document where they could also choose a topic. Next was creating assignment with a deadline.

 So far, 37 out of 50 students have joined the group, filled in their profile and provided details about what kind of learners they are (aural/visual/hands-on) and what their career goals are. 4 students have posted some questions and comments and, one student has turned in his essay already.

A Student's Profile on Edmodo

I really look forward to their feedback about the things they have done so far.