WEEK 9

Dear All!

We are in the middle of the 9th week. I came home yesterday evening feeling exhausted. When I was away, I though I had the chance to fill in my basket with lots of good things to share with my colleagues, so I was excited. However, since I arrived this morning, I have only heard bad things. I need to plan ahead....

 

Well, let's focus on Week 9 Discussion: Technology and Learning Styles first. Robert wanted us to share our ideas about ways that we could use technology to address a variety of learning styles.

Below is Jurgia's summary, which can be used for different types of learners:

Learners	Activities
Active	Divide class into three groups. Give the task to walk around the school and take some pictures with tablets on topics “Spring”, “Pollution” and “Surroundings” and write a post on class blog
Reflective	Write a blog “Class notes”
Sensing	Carry out the survey “How much time do you spend for your English homework?” and send by email to your classmates
Intuitive	Search for information about “Tigers’ eating habits”. Make the  presentation for the class expressing your opinion
Visual	Make the PowerPoint presentation on topic “Cats in Lithuania”
Verbal	Record the oral presentation on topic “Dogs in Lithuania”
Sequential	Give the tasks of conjugation of the verb to be, then with Present Continuous Tense prepared with Hot Potatoes
Global	Read the ebook and answer the questions

 

Riyadh paid importance to some activities considering the importance of Multiple Intelligence.

Below is Kayyum's reflection on the article entitled 'LEARNING STYLES AND STRATEGIES' by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman

Types of Learners	Fact about them	Tips for them
I-ACTIVE LEARNERS	1-Active learners tend to like group work. 2-Active learners learn by doing something. 3-Sitting through lectures is very hard for active learners.	1-Study in a group . 2-Explain topics to each other.
II-REFLECTIVE LEARNERS	Reflective learners prefer to think before doing.	1-Pause while studying to review what you have read. 2-Think of possible questions or applications. 3-Write short summaries of readings.
III-SENSING LEARNERS	1-Sensing learners tend to like learning facts. 2-They often like solving problems by well-established methods. 3-They don't like tested on material that has not been explicitly covered in class. 4-They tend to be patient with details. 5-They are good at memorizing facts. 6-They are good doing hands-on (laboratory) work . 7-They are practical and careful . 8-They don't like courses that have no apparent connection to the real world.	1-Ask your instructor for specific examples of concepts and procedures. 2-Discuss with friends or classmates.try to find examples in books.
IV-INTUITIVE LEARNERS	1-Intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities. 2-They learners like innovation and dislike repetition. 3-They dislike exams on material outside what has been taught. 4-They may are be better at grasping new concepts. 5-They are comfortable mathematical formulations. 6-They tend to work faster.	1-Ask your instructor for interpretations. 2-Take time to read the entire question before you start answering.
V-VISUAL LEARNERS	1-most people are visual learners. 2-Visual learners remember best what they see.	1-Try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts. 2-Ask for videotapes or CD-ROM . 3-Prepare a concept map. 4-Color-code your notes with a highlighter .
VI-VERBAL LEARNERS	1-Verbal learners get more out of words. 2-Students get many chances of listening to lectures daily.	1-Write summaries or outlines of course material. 2-Work in groups.
VII-SEQUENTIAL LEARNERS	1-Sequential learners tend to gain understanding step by step. 2-They tend to follow logical paths . 3-They know a lot about specific aspects of a subject.	1-Ask the instructor to fill in the skipped steps. 2-Arrange the lecture material in logical order. 3-Relate your new topic to things you already know.
VIII-GLOBAL LEARNERS	1-Global learners tend to learn in large jumps. 2-They may be able to solve complex problems quickly. 3-They know some about various subjects.	1-Skim through the entire chapter berore going to class. 2-Immerse yourself in individual subjects also.

I went over my draft project and completed it. I would appreciate it if you could post your comments. Here is my Final Project.

Final project hacer from hacersivil13

WEEK 8

Dear All,

This week was quite unusual. I had to fly to Poland for a meeting. I was in my office since 23:30 on Friday to complete the previous week's assignments. Then, I was ready to go... Being in Poland was a great experience. I met great colleagues over there. Meanwhile, Polish people are so kind and helpful. First, I went to Biyalistok Technical University and we had a chance to observe classes and meet new people as well as introduce our university. We met some Turkish students by chance, they were all happy being there.  We also had the opportunity to see two amazing cities; Krakow and Warsaw. I went emotional when I learnt once more how Polish and Jewish people had suffered....
If  you visit Krakow, you should definitely see The Historical Museum of the City of Krakow Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory

During our visit, I had no internet connection, which worried me a lot. Our colleagues kindly gave their laptops, yet I was unable to download anything due to restriction. I had to write my draft at a nice cafeteria and now I am writing at the airport since I am about to fly to Cyprus.

Still, I do feel proud of myself because I have completed my assignments.

As soon as I arrived in Istanbul, I took another plane to Cyprus to attend another meeting, which was also invaluable. There I had the chance to have a look at different points of view both as a teacher and as a part of administrator and increase my networking by means of some academic and social meetings.

As for the discussion topics of the week, Robert wanted us to think about the follwing questions after after exploring some of the different tools and exercises.

how could using these tools promote learner autonomy,

what are the constraints that would make it difficult to use these tools, and

how will you overcome them?

To be able to answer those questions, our reading list and applications were a great help. Besides, our classmates' sharings were invaluable, which are available at Nicenet.

Robert also wanted  us to create an online couse site or an exercise.

I created a competition, for which I prepared restatement, word formation, tense revision and reading for main idea types of questions for my adult students who are Pre-Intermediate-Intermediate level of students. This is a class competition, will activate their schemata since it is a revision activity and it is for fun.

Phrasal verbs activity  aims to remind students phrasal verbs but I guess I forgot to save it :(
Passive Quiz activity is like a revision activity after learning passive voice.
Relative Clause cross word activity  is good for vocabulary revision.

My classmates' exercises and activities are also very hepful.  For instance; Said's Hot Potatoe exercise, Jurgita's flasscards , Julio's Poster, and Belal's class blog are all great.

We were also required to prepare our first draft for the peer-reading activity. Then, of course, we needed  to give comments on our partner's work, using the appropriate peer review checklist available on the Projects page.

I had to complete my assignments at cafeterias and airport... 

WEEK 7

Dear All,

It is the 7th week. Isn't it unbelievable? After the course, I will be missing my friends' invaluable posts, Robert's reminders, everyone's comments... Time flies away very quickly. Besides, I literally kill time just as I did yesterday.

When I went home at around 6 pm, I thought taking a nap would refresh me. There was a concert on the school campus, where I live, but I decided not to go to be able to focus on my weekly assignments. I turned on TV and my computer, I picked the reading tasks and all of a sudden I fell asleep. after a 13-hour short nap, my alarm clock crazily rang to wake me up. If it was possible, it would pull me out of the sofa and drag me on the floor until it was sure that I was awake.

I will cross my finger and hope that I will do my best for this week.

LEARNER AUTONOMY

Let's start the weekly discussion with Robert's question 'What could you do to encourage greater autonomy in students, with and without technology?'

I read 'What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?' by Dimitros Thanasaoulas, ' Learner autonomy: drawing together the threads of self-assessment, goal-setting and reflection' by David Little, and 'Learner Autonomy' by Richard Smith.

They all agree that learner autonomy is acquired either by natural means or by formal learning. Thus, teachers should be a helping hand by

- using L2
- involving students in activities
- helping students to set their own targets
- requiring students to keep a written record of their learning
- engaging them in regular evaluation of their own progress.

As a results, learner involvement, learner reflection, and target language use can be encouraged.

At this point, multiple intelligence comes to my mind. As you may know, by means of integrating various activities, we may cater to our learners' needs.
In her article, 'Two Activities for Fostering Autonomous Learning', Galina Kavaliauskiene  describes two activities.

• In one activity the teacher lets a student answer a question. If the answer is correct that particular student has the right to ask a question to his/her peer. If not, the teacher chooses a different student to answer. Alternatively, the teacher may prepare different versions of a progress test and ask students to swap their paper with their peers after the exam. Then they evaluate their peers' paper.
• In the other activity, students are asked to prepare a test for their peers.

In each case, before students hand out the paper and tests, the teacher should check them to make sure that there are no mistakes.

I believe that first of all we, teacher, should teach students to take thier own learning responsibility. Only after that we can talk about learner authonomy. For instance, most of my students are not aware of their skills, needs, knowledge, goals, or achievement. In this respect, we can put the blame on our education system, but still the problem is not sorted out.

PEER READING

This week Robert wanted us to find a partner for the peer-reading. It is like asking someone to dance.in the ballroom.:)
Ryadh picked me and hope he will not regret it....

 

PADLET/WALLWHISHER

Inspired by my classmate Kayyum's Padlet, I prepared my Padlet about your country. Please upload images, videos, or texts.

Created with Padlet

ONE COMPUTER OPTIONS

 

 

 

I mostly use my computer for various reasons as mentioned in the article '7 Categories of Classroom Computer Use', which are



Administrative tool: I mostly use it to keep my students' grades- the one described in the article seems practical but I couldnt activate View, to do research, and to communicate with both students and other teachers.


Presentation tool: I present some materials like graphs, PPPs, videos, etc and when my students are needed to give a presentation, they are allowed to use the computer.

Communication station: The labtobs are not available in the classroom, so students can just use the computers available in the computer lab when they need.

Keypals is seems great but seems more suitable for teenagers.

Information station: During the class hour, the labtops can be used for this purpose.

Publishing tool: Preparing such kind of actitivites are usually assignments after school.

Learning center: Some software p

rograms to drill and practice some skills are awailable in the computer lab.


Simulation center: Unfortunately we dont use it for this purpose.

As you may know, we should not totally trust technology, so sometimes when there is a possible power cut for instance, we need to have a B plan.

In such cases, I usually download the video clip, audio or podcast if I think I may lose it, or print out some pages to hand out in the class for a probable power cut.

In the article WebWhacker is suggested, yet you need to pay for it.

I believe that if we are required to pay for everything such as WebWhacker, SurveyMonkey, HyperStudio, Ning we cannot get the most out of technology. For instance, once I created class Ning, which was very practical, but now you need to pay for it. It is not a high amount of money but if you pay for the good, useful softwares in total it is costly indeed.

 

WEEK 6

 

 

 

 “ Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.”  Chinese proverb

 

 

 

Dear All,

 



Well, it is such a hectic time of the term. Students are getting out of the conrol so are the teachers. Aftera busy week with lots of meeting, I am back sleepy... They say it is because of the spring, but I do not want to put the blame on the season. I definitely need  time to have a rest. I am looking forward to the weekend when I will meet my 11-year old niece and 4-year old nephew. This Sunday is the Mother's Day and they are so impatient to choose a present for their mum. I am planning to take them to the Galata Tower to show them the view. Hope it will be an unforgottable day for them.

As for the weekly assignments, Robert wanted us to use at least two articles about applying technology into large classes.  Though we were taught what the ideal classroom conditions are, just few of us are lucky to have those conditions. Especially the number of students in our classess is quite far away from being the ideal.

In their article- Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students-, Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw outline some drawback of large classes, some of which are lack of motivation, lack of motivation, and inadequate facilities. Yet, things are beyond our control, and we need to teach those large classes.

They briefly state how students involvement and their being active learners are important.

In 'Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes' from the University of Oregon's Teaching Effectiveness Program (TEP), TEP provides some sources of information to apply technology in large classrooms.

1- Online Assessment: TEP recommends Blackboard, which provides immediate feedback since scores are logged into the online Grade Center, and Respondus, which enables exams to be printed or published to an online learning system.

 

2- Improving Lectures with Technology: TEP warns us against a possible threat so that we could take some precautions to avoid a likely technology-related inconvenience.

3- Course Site: TEP recommends that we should check other course sites while preparing ours.

4- Enriching Discussion with Technology: TEP states that students' involvement is important, so we need to encourage them to provide responses. We should also make sure that everyone remark upon a students' response.

Both In 'Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint' from the UO's Teaching Effectiveness Program, and in 'Creating Interactive PowerPoint Presentations for Teachers and Students' by Drs. Terry & Cathy Cavanaugh from Florida Center for Instructional Technology, some tips are given while preparing a power point presentation, which reminds me of PechaKutca- a Japanese word- means a kind of presentation method in which each one of 20 slides is presented in 20 seconds- 6 minutes and 40 seconds in total. Though I have never tried it myself, I first became the withness of it  in 2009  TESOL  Greece. It was awsome.
Here is an example. Hope you enjoy it.

I do believe that as long as we make it clear enough for our students, they will get used to technology integrated lessons. For instance if they are required to follow their online assignments, pacing and scores, they will after a while will find it easy.

In addition, I do like power point presentations useful to some extend because sometimes the speaker just reads the slides, sometimes it is more than colorful etc. We should also warn students before asking them how to keep their presentation simple but informative, yet not boring.

Apart from the power point presentations, I can recommend http://prezi.com.

I tried to do my best for a good interactive presentation. I guess I need to practice more because I do not really think that it is interactive enough. I found some very helpful videos in the internet. One is called Making Powerpoint Interactive  and the other is called Action Buttons:



 

 

In spite of  all these explanations in addition to Kayyum's, still I couldnt prepare the one I had expected. On the other hand, my classmates are amazing. They are incredibly professional.

My primative presentation is available on Robert's wiki:)