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!
 



.

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...

Week 4: Thinking ahead in my future project

This week's discussions were focused mainly on reading and writing , grammar and vocabulary. Three sites that I found of great interest are : ESL Independent Study, Lauri's ESL web site and From Many Interesting Things for ESL Students. They offer a good number of wonderful resources that are worth a try ! Of course, any time I can I add some to my delicious site .

Sharing common issues with my classmates in relation to language teaching and learning was also enriching. Despite our culture differences most of us do share the same problems such as lack of motivation, poor writing and reading skills.

Planning a technology enhanced lesson was also challenging, a bit time consuming though. Reading some of my classmates lesson plans made me think of new ideas to apply in my own lessons.

The thread for this week made me reflect upon the need to further reinforce writing and speaking using technology and think of some of the tools I may use for that purpose... Thinking ahead in my future project.

Week 3: A delicious week!

My third week is almost now finishing, with new resources and ideas to implement in my classes.
Starting this week's assignment I created my own delicious site:
http://www.delicious.com/arriagada

How great it has been to collect all my resources in one single site and be able to share it with others. And moreover, to be able to access to my favorites from any computer is fabulous.My list of favorites grows day by day, so this tool is simply delicious. I will share it with other colleagues and my thesis and methodology students.

The reading assignments for aural and oral skills were interesting and challenging. They made me reflect on my current practices with technology and some ideas to apply that are engaging and entertaining, especially to promote speaking skills.


One article I found of great interest was "The Best Sites to Practice Speaking English" by Larry Ferlazzo. He compiled a significant number of sites that provides tools for students to record their own voices in a number of different ways and post their speaking assignments online. One of the tools I would like to try along with my Moodle course is Voicethread: http://voicethread.com/#home

Voicethread can be easily integrated into any specific college class or can be opened to the entire world for open discussion. This tool has three main functions (1)You can type text as well as record audio, (2) You can grab images off the Web to reinforce understanding,and (3) You and your students can leave audio comments.

Voicethread provides great opportunities to extend class discussions and to encourage thought provoking debates. This online discussion creates a sense of learning community which invites quiet and shy students to participate more actively. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to provide more individualized feedback and to address students' comments more directly.

I also learnt about Voki http://www.voki.com/ which is also a free tool that can be combined with blogs, wikis, journals, and emails.This tool allows students to create their own avatar and record their voices. I would like to try this tool with my first year students along with the use of a class blog.

This was indeed a delicious menu ... I look forward to starting week 4 and discovering new tools and strategies to teach with technology.

Week 2 Web Searching

This week we discussed several tools and search engines found in Noodletools.
Two I found of great help are Iseek education and the Unesco Archive Portal. I have already added them to the list of resources I give to my thesis students who spend a lot of time searching for accurate and update articles .

This week's assignments also made me realized how lucky some of us are to have great facilities to teach with technology, whereas others have scarce resources and still make great efforts to be creative to work under such adverse conditions.

We have shared a good number of new resources. I am a fan of Google, but Noodletools opened my eyes to a much greater variety .

My classmates posts and especially Rahmat's knowledgeable comments on some functions of Google have also made these week's discussion threads quite interesting.

Cecilia

Week 1. Getting to know the members of our learning community

Off we start with our first week after a short , but productive orientation week.
I must admit I am still trying to figure out some of the new tools in blogger. I have successfully added some of my classmates' names and hope to invite everyone to post in my blog.

Getting started

I am getting started with my first reflective blog for my online course. I am not so new in blogger. I created my first blog for a CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) about 3 years ago. I now realize how fast time passes by !

Now, with a bit more experience on technology-enhanced language learning, I am starting this new space of reflection which I hope will be enriched by my new colleagues/classmates' comments.

Undoubtedly, blogs are  powerful teaching resources that we EFL teachers  should use more often  to promote collaborative online learning . For some ideas, read the following article taken from one of my favorite sites, Language Learning and Technology Journal from Michigan State University:  Emerging Technologies. Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration


My own personal challenge for the future  is to encourage their use in our language courses.


My final reflection goes to  the course and my new classmates. After reading  my classmates' posts and introductions ,  I can not wait to get to know them all. Sharing with colleagues from so many different cultures and countries will open a door for collaborative and cooperative multi-cultural learning. How exciting...!
Cecilia