Week 10. A bag full of new tools . Off to work!

I can't believe our course is almost over. My expectations were all fulfilled ;  Looking back at  all the projects I made and the tasks I achieved, I feel quite proud of myself. At times, I thought I was not going to be able to make it. But collaborative work and an encouraging instructor made things much easier and entertaining.
Sharing posting , ideas, projects and experiences was certainly  valuable and enriching  . There was always something new I learnt from my classmates.

My Christmas gift!

One piece of advice I would give to newcomers is create your  Delicious  account from the very beginning . You will see how fast your account "gains weight" with so many delicious treats !

By the end of this last week and close to Christmas , I feel I graduate with a bag full of new tools that now I will have to start using ...

The Web  has so much to offer us ... It's now our challenge to start exploring new ways to learning and teaching !

Week 9: Technology and learning styles and multiple intelligences

Time has flown incredibly fast ! It's now the end of week 9 and I have already submitted my action plan .
Pairing up with one of our classmates to peer-read our projects was an enriching and valuable experience . Margarita, my peer, provide illuminating and positive  comments that certainly helped me improve my final project.

This week we had to read about learning styles and multiple intelligences. I must admit that both topics are not at all new to me as I cover them thoroughly in my methodology courses. However, I did find some interesting resources that I also added to my delicious , such as the article from the New York Times entitled Forget what you know about good study habits  and the Teacher Tap site.

Teachers' resources online

Week 8  has almost come  to an end . It has been a challenging and a productive one


We started learning about Jeff Magoto, Director of Yamada Language Center at the University of Oregon, and , ANVILL.
ANVILL is a National Virtual Language Lab that is focused on the practice of  oral/aural language. It offers several tools such as Voiceboards, LiveChat, Quizzes and Surveys. Its newest tool- TCast allows teachers to record and place audio or video files anywhere in a lesson in 3 easy steps. 

There's some much to explore in ANVILL! . From all the tools, I would like to start  trying  Voiceboard  and use it along with my class blog. Likewise, I would like to try  some of the  mazes and jigsaw activities.

We then learnt how to create a class in Nicenet, quite easy task and with lots of potential for class discussion !
 I added  five  new tools to my Delicious: Tools for educators, Personal Educational Press, Easy Test Maker, and Xword Puzzle Generator, Web Poster Wizard.

By the end of this week I created my own Nicenet class-English I, a quiz on compound nouns which I designed using Easy Test Maker, a nice  board game of phrasal verbs and flashcards with sayings and proverbs from Tools for Educators , a Web worksheet created with Web Poster Wizard . Great tools !


We had again the opportunity to share our offline/online exercises  with our classmates. All of them quite  creative ! Sharing our findings is also great. I have learnt of some new tools I would have missed if it hadn't been for my classmates who always find new resources .

Despite the little time I have had in the last two weeks, I have really enjoyed learning  by doing!
 



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Week 7: Learner Autonomy and technology

Autonomy in language learning might come as a result of an inborn capacity, but I fear that is not the case of most of our language learners. This week's readings have shown us that there is no complete consensus on what autonomy really means. But one thing is clear. We teachers have a great responsibility on creating the optimal conditions to foster autonomy.

Technology can certainly play an important role in fostering autonomy. Let's just think of the potential of the Internet, IPods, cell phones and other types of technologies . The video "A Vision of Students today", which we shared last week was a great example of this.

One site I would like to share with all of you is about Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning (ATALL) http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ATALL, created by doctor Gary Cziko. You will find two quotes related to autonomy. The first one, a well-known Chinese proverb that is a good illustration of how we can make our students become more autonomous: by helping them discover, construct their knowledge : "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Cziko then adapts this proverb when describing the potential of technology for language learning : Give a student a language course, and you teach the student for a semester. Teach a student to become an autonomous technology-assisted language learner, and you teach the student for a lifetime. (Gary Cziko, 2005).

I hope you have some time to read and enjoy his Wikibook.

Cecilia
















































































Autonomous Give a student a language course, and you teach the student for a semester. Teach a student to become an autonomous technology-assisted language learner, and you teach the student for a lifetime. (Gary Cziko, 2005)

Week 6: Thinking ahead ...

One video that amazed me this week was "A Vision of Students Today" and the article by Michael Wesch (2008). It was amazing to realize how much our students spend on answering emails, updating their Facebook accounts or talking on their cell phones. These made me think again of the challenges we are to face in our classrooms. We have to rethink of new and more engaging technology-enhanced teaching practices and activities.

Thinking of my own challenges, I would like to make my students participate in a class blog to promote and improve their writing and critical thinking skills and incorporate some of the tools we have learnt of in the past weeks. I also plan to work with student or personal blogs to help them reflect on their own learning experiences and future challenges. I also think this type of blog will give me a more in-depth look on their individual needs and perceptions .

Along with these , I would like to include project-based activities and use webquests to encourage more collaborative work . Starting to make changes little by little ...

Week 5- Project based learning and its potential for language learning

A new week has almost come to an end and now see two new products in my portfolio: a rubric created using RubiStar and a webquest with Zunal.com.

These two assignments made me think of how much our students can benefit from technology-enhanced projects in language learning and in particular , webquests. Likewise, how powerful this can be to promote learner autonomy.

It was interesting to read about the principles of Project-based learning (PBL) and research showing the results in students engagement and motivation, and the development of building skills , communication, critical thinking and collaborative skills. Some good reasons to start thinking in implementing it in my lessons.

I tried the extra credit activity, not because of the "extra" , but I took it as a challenge to give it a try to Zunal.

The site is user-friendly and provides simple guidelines to help you create your own webquest from ready-made webquests or from scratch . Setting up the configuration is not at all difficult. What took me some time was to describe a real world task that could be appealing and fun to my students. The evaluation came easily as I had already created a rubric !

More ideas to include in my project...