Webskills Course - Week Eight Reflections

Introduction

This week was relatively less hectic in the sense there were not many readings related to the course. The topic of this week was 'Teacher Resources Online'. So far I had seen how online resources are being used by the University of Oregon in this course and this week it was my turn to think of how I will use the same and more in my class settings. Along with this there was the task of preparing the draft report of the final project to be sent for peer review and also to review the peer's draft using the rubrics.

What I did and learned?

The wake up call for this week came in the form of Ivana uploading her draft report to the Class Wiki. Since both of us did not sign up for any peers Courtney took it on her shoulders to tie us up together. By Wednesday I had to upload mine and by Sunday I had to review hers. The framework that UO provided was very helpful in scaffolding and arranging the thoughts related to the project. This is something that I think even I can use with my learners as well as for my personal writing - use questions to provoke thought and take the writing forward.

The next thing was to try out any of the 'teacher resources' that were listed in the Course Wiki and report back to the class the experience through Nicenet. I chose Google Docs to create a form which I thought I could use to collect information about the internet accessibility and use of my students. My rationale for choosing this tool over the other was practical - my own final project relates to using the internet to support classroom teaching/learning and before I could pilot that I need to think of these issues.

Then there was the discussion on the 'teacher resources' listed.

Classroom Application

The experience of doing the project was insightful especially the use of questions in the template. In my experience I have seen my learners struggling to write or do not know what to write; a template is a boon to them as well as anybody who might be experiencing writer's block at any time. The 'teacher resources' listed with exercise creator and rest also will help the teachers in adding value to the learners' learning experience.

Webskills Course - Week Seven Reflections

Introduction

Week seven of the webskills course took up two topics for discussion and reflection - learner autonomy and one-computer classroom. Autonomy is a buzz word in education circles these days and learner autonomy occupies a sizeable portion of many autonomy discussions. Computers, on the other hand, are spreading rapidly and are even entering the classroom teaching/learning scenario NOT as another 'fancy' item to be imposed from outside BUT as a 'desirable and essential' component. In the right hands computer - be it one or many - can promote learner autonomy. In this backdrop it was just right to take up a week to brood on these two concepts.

What I did and learned?

Learner Autonomy

Though I had already heard and read on autonomy and the dimensions it has in the form of teacher autonomy and learner autonomy the suggested readings were something I had never read before. The first article I read Thanasoulas' What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered had a very good definition of autonomy that is as 'the ability to take charge of one's own learning'. In order to do so many conditions are to be met beforehand. First and foremost is the clarity that the learner needs in his/her mind about where s/he wants to learn. The teacher can assist the learner in this process. Many a times the learner might not be aware of the larger picture whereas the teacher will be. The next condition is the willingness of the learner to be autonomous. Learners are generally happy to follow and seek instruction rather than lead or construct knowledge. There is this mindset in the learner to seek approval and support from the teacher who is supposedly an authority. In a way it is easy for the learner to do so because teacher will do all the thinking and many teachers too are happy doing it for the students to hold on tight to that power that is vested upon them by the virtue of being a teacher and nothing more. It is only when the teachers loosen themselves and let the students go that real autonomy - both teachers as well as learners - can become a reality.

My classmate Mr Dey has talked at length about the challenges that confront the autonomy issue and you can read his insightful and very articulate comments by clicking here.

Hole in the Wall and Future Learning

Internet can take you in many directions on any topic provided you are willing to be taken and in my cases this happens most of the time. When I read about learner autonomy and one-computer classroom a thought that came to my mind was about a TED talk that I watched sometime back where Sugata Mitra talks about how through his project 'Hole in the Wall' kids taught computers themselves.

Watching this video took me further and I bumped into  another video that talked about the future of learning.

In all these and more people talk about how when teachers move to the background technology steps in and brings forth with it learning to the front. However, in order to do so teacher autonomy has to be in place. Teachers have to rethink of their roles and stop being 'sages on the stage' which, as Mr Dey puts up in his blog, is a long way to go.

One-Computer Classroom

Another issue that was there in week seven was the one-computer classroom. Computer as a gadget is dumped into many schools and classrooms in India and teachers (read principals, authorities, etc.) closely guard them away from the learners so as not to 'damage' the 'expensive' equipments. Most often it is used when some school inspection takes place and that too as a tool to present rather than anything that students can use. I wish many teachers and administrators who do so read 7 Categories of Classroom Computer Use where the possibilities of what a computer can do to the teaching/learning are listed.

Project

The course had already taken us through several steps of the final project and to my astonishment as I look back I know I need to pool them all together and look where am I heading to. I think the experienced faculty at UO had already anticipated such a situation and had already put up a Project Page in the wiki which I found really useful in taking a stock of the situation at hand.

Classroom Application

Teaching anywhere in the world has many challenges that are more or less the same. It remains as one of the scariest as well as the loneliest professions in the world. However, the human element in teaching and its transformational power is something any teacher can be proud of and using technology an effort can be made in the direction of making autonomy a reality. Through the readings and the discussions I now know even one-computer classroom can be used to make a difference in the lives of the learners.

Some Useful Links:

1. One-computer classroom Google search results.
2. Strategies for Teachers - One Computer Classroom.
3. The Flipped Classroom - Turning the Traditional Classroom on its Head.

Webskills Course - Week Six Reflections

Introduction

This week had been quite challenging in terms of finding time for the Webskills course as we, at my university The English and Foreign Languages University, were trying to host a celebratory seminar on National Education Day where the Research Scholars of the School of ELE were presenting papers.

You can see the programme and the abstracts by clicking here.

However, that does not take away the joy of all that we had to do in the online course on Week Six.

What I did and learned?

The theme of week six was 'creating student-centred classes and interactive powerpoint'. The objectives as always had the ABCD (Audience, Behaviour, Condition, and Degree) structure which, for me especially, reinforces what I'd learned in my week two of the online course.

Student-centred Classes

Due to the lack of time I could not go through all the links that were posted online. However, I managed to read on 'Interactive Lectures' and 'Just in Time Teaching' both of which I found thought-provoking.

Large classes is a reality in my part of the world and teachers often resort to lecture method to tackle this issue. Through these articles I learned how to make the archaic lecture method innovative and more importantly interactive. I believe that complements the objective of this week called 'student-centred' class, an important theme that takes away much attention these days.

The Just in Time Teaching is another interesting way of providing the learner a meaningful, immediate, and extended learning experience. Most of the time the actual teaching/learning scenario gets limited to the actual classroom contact hours and with that everybody knows nothing much can be learned. Learners as well as teachers might have more to tell and share and technology enables this. Moreover, finding out of the students what they want and how much they know about the topics to be taken up in the class before the class hours is an important step in the right direction of building 'student-centred' classrooms.

There are lot more resources on Teaching Large Classes and Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes available. You can access them all by following the links.

Digital Distraction

Another thing that I'd noticed out of my experience on the online course on week six is the struggle that an online learner has to make to remain focused. Generally my online life starts with checking my mail and facebook accounts, following links from that and very soon I find myself lost in a maze from which I find quite difficult to wriggle out. To my dismay I generally find the time flying and if I sit and reflect on the productive work I managed to do by being online sometimes I feel disappointed.

In my second post on Week 6 Discussion I have raised similar issues. There I used 'digital distraction' a phrase I thought will capture the spirit of my problem. Through a search I came across similar concerns being shared by novelists and their efforts to fight it back. You can read it here.

Interactive PowerPoint

Another interesting thing that I learned is about 'Interactive PowerPoint'.

PowerPoints are great way of engaging the audience during presentation. However, the same can be boring too if not used wisely. Through the readings in the course I learned about how to make my PPTs interactive rather than static.

I was particularly impressed by a very interactive use of PPT by Aashish Pandey where he used it to teach Wordsworth's 'Daffodils' to literature students. You can find his presentation here. (To see how interactive it is you need to download and view).

Doing this task made me think about my own PPTs and also how interactive they are. To my dismay I think many of them are information transmitters than interactive.

In order to see my PPT for this course click here. (You cannot view it online; but can download it).

I also refreshed my memories about Prezi, an alternative to PPT, through some of my classmates who ventured out and made some Prezi presentations.

Project

This term I do not teach; but, based on my experience of teaching before I understand my students need lot more language input and teacher support and I intent to take the help of the technology. However, the project steps being broken over a period of time need a pause from my part where I should sit and see how it'd evolved so far and in what direction I need to take it further.

Classroom Application

The issues raised in the sixth week are all pertinent to the immediate classroom scenario I have. Large classes or use of PowerPoint are all quite relevant because they are all part of the lived reality around.

The PPT bit is particularly useful for me as well as my students because we make use of PPT at some point or the other and this sort of input is really helpful in making our PPT interactive, if needed.

Largely, I think taking up this course is enabling me to reflect on me as an online learner and think of challenges that I come across and how I resolve them and I think this is an important take away that will equip me to understand online learning and learner in a better way.

Webskills Course - Week Five Reflections

Introduction

Week Five too is over and voices were heard from all around about how the course is taking its toll on the relations in the real world.

If you didn't understand what I mean then watch this short film made by my virtual classroom mate - Rustam - by clicking here.

(My attempts to embed the video didn't work - can anybody help?).

However, nothing is going to dampen the spirits of the participants as most of us, though complained about how the course is slowly turning out to be demanding, is, at the same time, making more sense of the whole thing than in the starting.

What I did and learned?

This week focused largely on alternate assessments (AA), rubrics and project-based learning (PBL). The NCLRC article on AA was quite insightful. (You can read about AA by clicking here.)

The RubiStar website that enables anyone in creating a rubrics in a jiffy is another find of the week. A quick reflection on the use of rubrics raised this concern in my mind that at times an extensive rubric can make a teacher's life more difficult than easier. It is in deed good to have extensive rubrics; however, the more extensive it becomes the more difficult the life of the teacher will be in the sense there will be more things to keep in mind while assessing the students.

However, the third item - PBL - for putting learner at its heart won mine too. We were asked to read Susan Gaer's article 'Less Teaching and More Learning'. Through this article I learned about the importance of making PBL immediate, relevant, and meaningful for the learners. Moreover, in order to keep the students interested in the project there needs to be a check on time too where feedback is provided at constant intervals.

Though this is the fifth week of the course I sometimes find the multiple platforms that one has to visit to access the resources as well as post about the progress and thoughts a bit confusing. Now and then I get lost in the maze and have to find my way out.

Also though technology is a handy tool in the hands of a capable teacher the support system that the technology requires in the form of electricity, equipment, etc. can at times fail pulling down the very edifice one wanted to build up. This happened with me today when I was all set to post the weekly blog. Right then the power failure that had been away till last week suddenly made its reappearance.

A nice thing that I chanced upon last week is the accidental discovery that Nicenet and blog can be accessed through the mobile device that I have with me. In a way that relieved my tension of accessing the resources on the move.

Also I opted for summary view in the Nicenet so that I can get a clear picture of who's post and what before deciding to choose and explore one.

Classroom Application 

The immediate application of this week's learning is in the form of PBL. The many misconceptions about it that it's very easy and puts little pressure on the teacher were shattered. However, the final project that aims at finding suitable material that will keep the learners of mixed ability motivated is taking shape and PBL is going to shape it in a big way than before thought of.

Furthermore, now I know the importance of being 'adventurous' and exploring the technology realm so that things that would have been otherwise missed could be found out like the way by which I stumbled upon the fact that I could actually access the ICA and blogger via the mobile device. I'm reminded of the same (i.e. being adventurous helps) turning true for language learning as well.