REFLECTION TEN WEEK

THANKS TO EVERYBODY 

I wish the course would prolong and go for more weeks. I wish Donna would be always and every time there to guide us, share more, and motivate us; and I wish such a academic companies would contribute yet further to unleash our potentiality and make us realize that we got to share and apply our innovative methods and technology to our students. But the reality is Friday would be the last day of our 10 week long journey, still the possibility of immense possibilities are shining at forth, that would lead us further to integrate technology assisted class.

When I navigate back to first and second week, I should admit that, I was in utter confusion and dilemma; I even didn’t have sound ideas regarding proper use of Blogs. So creating and posting my own opinions and ideas in blogs for the first time was really really awesome! From the second week itself we were supposed to post some of the problems that we are encountering in our class room and think about  their possible solutions.   By the end of fourth week I was quite excited thinking about the possibility of creating a web-discussion forum like nicenet, which I create later on. So every e-resource whether we talk about Delicious page, Project Based Learning, Webquest, Interactive powerpoint, Wallwisher, creating class wiki or the concept of ANVILL seem equally helpful and resourceful. I do believe that these are some of the approaches using which we can ensure learner’s autonomy; and make our classes more interactive and participatory.  Despite the usefulness of all these approaches, I feel, it would be better, had we given more time on the practical approaches of PROJECT-BASED LEARNING. I would love to precede my academic pursuit and study on the different facets of PROJECT-BASED LEARNING even in future.

 May be one year down the line or some years down the line I will be using more such resources to make my classes the real and live class. I am fully optimistic that the development of our own classwiki or classblog and similar other ways of board-discussion will lead the class to a new level and  a new height. I am so excited to work further and make it all fruitful. Believe me, every year by the end of session I used to be so anxious thinking that how boring days I will have next year. This year I have just excitements and planning....

I am so delighted that I have got lot of new and innovative ideas through this program. I wish I could have got basic ideas about the use of online resource before I started this program. For example had I got ideas about creating my own blog or ideas about some useful web-sites, it would be even more useful. Nonetheless I feel that it's a beginning; I may go tottering in between but I am pretty sure that eventually the journey would be exciting, interesting and adventurous. Thanks to Donna, Oregon and my class mates for making me realize it. 

TECHNOLOGY AND THE CLASS

                                         REFLECTION ON WEEK-NINE

We are just a week away for our final week of the course. I wish the course had gone longer. Anyway I applaud them whoever say “every great thing comes in small package.” Otherwise why I am feeling as I got more and profound than a long yearly academic course? OR why I feel as my classes these days have been more effective and participatory than before?

As a teacher we have been approaching our students in multiple ways. Some of these approaches were coincidentally innovative, but in most of the cases teaching methodologies are predominantly monolithic and traditional. Books are the ultimate resource, you can’t turn anywhere around, was the notion. Saying it we can’t overlook the importance of textbook in our spatial-temporal location. Even in the highly digital world, the fun and scope of the book can’t be minimized. But when we ponder on the issue of teaching and learning, gigantic but mostly unexplored, still incredible potentiality of technology is distinct. That is the ultimate resolution of this course.

Talking about nine week; we had a huge task to be completed i.e. project report. Our initial concept on project and its gradual development up to eight week has been systematically catapulted in the report. My project report basically intends to enhance writing competency of the students through blogs, email and wallwisher. Initial feedback of the students is pretty encouraging. Students are posting their post and comment in a regular basis. This is how I am communicating the importance of learner’s autonomy to my students. Proper communication and establishment of Learner’s autonomy indeed is inevitable to increase the motivation of students.

At the same time, it’s high time we got to foster Gardner’s idea of multiple intelligence. According to Gardner learning is both a social and psychological process. If so learning and understanding of the ideas are determined by several such factors, and intelligence which is customarily measured in a one dimensional measuring rod can't avoid the ultimate flaws inherent with in it. To borrow Garder's idea each individual has nine intelligence  If so our "universal standard of intelligence" can't be compatible to foster these "intelligences", and to better harbor and recognize these intelligences we need to incorporate technology. So to ignite the multiple intelligences of our students we need to incorporate technology in our class. Thanks to Oregan and thanks to our course instructor Donna for making us realize it.

REFLECTION ON EIGHT WEEK

ISN’T IT THE TIME FOR CLASS?

By the end of this week I have got some pragmatic answers regarding effective use of online resource primarily, to enhance students’ motivation and make the classes more participatory. That must the reason why, from the very beginning  I was  wondering when we will have our own class wiki, nicenet, class blog and other online resource to make these classes a real learning Laboratory, and we got these task this week.  So fun and excitement instilled my effort, when I started creating my own class wiki this week. I am pretty sure that it can be really helpful for all of us to regulate and harmonize our overall academic activities and bridge the chasm between teacher and students. This week we are supposed to create either classwiki, nicenet or class blog, I am thrilled to go clas wiki because already I had created nicenet, and feel confidence regarding class blog that I am also working with.

This week, I had seen a very exciting participation of my students in wallwisher, and it has been really popular among them. Wallwisher has been a fantastic tool also for me for facilitating the class discussion. When we have class discussion theses days, instead of writing some major arguments in the whiteboard, we, then and there, post it in the padlet.com as a result students can see it instantly through the help of overhead projector and contribute more on discussion. At first, it has been a complete new idea for them, second as they find the ownership of their ideas students seem encouraged to participate in the discussion, and third they feel important to deliver good ideas as it’s visible to everybody. As a result class participation has been tremendously increased. Still a possible drawback of padlet is anybody can delete or damage other’s ideas so we need to be cautious about it.

To be very honest the preparation and submission of the first draft of the final project this week by Wednesday was a very challenging job for me. A very hectic schedule of this week has halted me to get focused and work on preparing the final draft. Eventually, working relentlessly on day and night I submitted it on time, albeit I still feel some ideas and plants to be improvised.

All in all, days are turning really exciting, fruitful and resourceful these days. Whenever I am out of the class or some minutes before the class time, I frequently ask this question myself these days:

ISN’T IT THE TIME FOR CLASS?

Reflection: SEVEN Week

Its beautiful morning out here; sweet melody of chirping birds and beautiful blameless blue sky are enough to create a proper mood to look back seventh week. Through out this week a single term “AUTONOMY” has been striking my mind. Though the concept and objective of learner’s autonomy is really good, in a way we have been on this academic forum to find multiple ways of strengthening learner’s autonomy, I feel and find a lot of problems to propagate this concept to our academia.  

This week most of the students in my class have created their own blog; in this first phase they are just sharing their unforgettable incident of life. They are also supposed to comment on other’s post. I am quite excited that they are really expressive. Just yesterday one of  the students shared his problem with me that her parents wouldn’t allow her to use internet in her home; it is because they think internet, still to be particular Facebook simply the waste of time and has no importance at all. She has requested me to talk to her father and convince about the positive side of internet. I am wondering how I talk to him. Nonetheless, I had talked to my college coordinator and suggested her to use college’s internet lab as far as possible, What’s more some of the students complained that they couldn’t do it due to 12 hours power cut off everyday. In spite of these complications, students seem encouraged to reflect their ideas through blog.

More than anything else I enjoyed Wallwisher this week. It can be highly useful in our field especially to encourage the students to share their views, comment on the others and collect writing strategies from others. Its so fascinating that, I am fully assured, students can’t stop posting their ideas on it. This week we are also supposed to suggest partner for peer review. I am so happy that Sitaram and I will be assisting each other through peer review. Once again it has been really busy week as I am more concerned on the preparation of  the project plan.  

Reflection on Six Week

Reflection on Six Week

The journey seems exciting and adventurous. I have been staggering on. By the end of this week, I have realized that it becomes very difficult for us to carry on the tasks when we miss one somewhere in between the week. I have undergone this experience as I had missed some tasks before due to health-related problem of my sister. This week we started reading Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes from the University of Oregon's Teaching Effectiveness Program, Teaching Large Classes and Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students, from Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw.  These articles basically deal about how to make an effective teaching in large classes and how do we use modern technology to make these classes more fruitful, engaging and participatory.

When we expect a teacher to be a real personality who exists in this world, he should be concerned on the teaching-learning process as mutual and collaborative forum. Application of student centered methodologies and incorporation of modern technology can be some of the most effective ways through which we can revive and reinstate students' enthusiasm and motivation and turn the classes into real and live classes. In this context, technology assisted teaching invites the students to have more discussion, reflect their ideas, be expressive and explore their creative and innovative ideas. If so it is equally feasible to large classes as well. For me afore-mentioned ideas in this paragraph are the essence of thes three articles assigned in reading section for this week.

I have no hesitation to admit that I had never thought about multiple purposes and uses of powerPoint. As a naïve user I thought it’s just a medium through which we can present our ideas in a very precise manner. Nonetheless, I am still struggling to make better slides in interactive powerpoint. I should say that still I do have some confusions regarding preparation of slides. But we can make a safe resolution that it is a noble possibility to be highly resourceful and useful in side our classes.

I feel significant to share with you guys that my project that I mentioned in week six has been started. Students have started reflecting their ideas through blog and there is discussion going on through it.  Now I am wondering how to incorporate the blogs of students in a teacher’s wiki. Hopefully I will be able to develop such ideas soon. Possibly, soon the students will be discussing through nicenet or blackboard. The days are swiftly going on, and I am pretty happy that I am carrying my tasks with new vigor and energy. Thanks to Donna and all my classmates. .  

Pretty Exciting

By the end of this week, I have seen lots of ongoing academic discussion and debate among my scholarly classmates, and they are really resourceful. I wish I could carry all the task and activities with the similar critical and creative acumen. Sonia, Pam, sitaram, J. Carlos are always good at their academic temperament; Vinay always excels technologically and what more everybody seems agile to answer every task on time. Reading task, project work, Blogs and preparations for my regular classes from various levels ; my sister before looking her medical prescription this week complained that I was going on a very hectic schedule, albeit my inner conscience says I am enjoying and learning many noble and innovative ideas whether it be new project or new technologies. 

This week has been really a fruitful one; the concept of Project based Learning (PBL), webquest and creating rubrics are feasible enough to apply in my classes. The concept of project based learning is a liberating one; on the one hand it seems to motivate students, on the other it will ignite the participatory skills of students. If carried well, students will develop the ideas on problem- solution skill, carry out group activities in an effective way and will be habitual to settle real- world problems. Similarly, WebQuest will assist to meet the objectives of PBL. It not only contains the resource and the task to be completed but also categorically mentions the assessment standard in terms of rubrics.

Project task, for me, has been an interesting question, in the sense, that we have already started some changes in our classes. I have already started giving assignments through email; and though it has some problems, it has been much effective. Next, this week I am planning about starting blogs. I had already discussed about the pros and cons of the blogs to the students. One potential problem all students shared and I too think it as a challenge is 12 hours power cut off in my country. Still, students had assured me that they will cooperate and try to carry on the task honestly. In next phase I will be sharing and encouraging students to commence a discussion board like nicenet or blackboard.  I guess, the classes will be pretty exciting and interesting in the days to come.

         IT's REALLY DELICIOUS
It has been really problematic to reciprocate myself with such sagacious commentary made by the classmates in every task of this week. No sooner I had started third week task I had to hospitalize my sister as she complained a severe headache. Such an unexpected incident further complicated the task to be carried on time, and my regular college classes and responsibilities were still there at forth. Gradual improvement in my sister's health further ameliorated me to concern on the task again, albeit I knew I was already late. I should admit that I was almost invaded by the feeling of inferiority, and then I got a very empowering mail by Donna allowing me to complete the remaining task and move further. I would love to extend my decent reverence to Donna and her affectionate concern.
The first task of this week contained three reading task and two other web-sites.    Lindsay Miller's essay Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials stresses the importance of authentic materials and methods to enhance our writing competency; which is customarily given less priority.  Next article we had entitled "New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation by Maria Grazia Busa deals about CAPT and CALL. When there are advanced technologies at your disposal, you cannot overlook their importance in classroom teaching and learning. It has become imperative for all of us to adopt the recent development in technologies to enhance our teaching and learning. Radio, TV and videos have been used to further the language teaching. Recently, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and internet based learning has got its impetus from the researchers across the globe. Since the few decades, experts have realized that computer or internet based learning can far better expose the learners to authentic materials. So articles seem worthy enough to foreground the importance of technology assisted learning in this global world.
Moreover Randel's Cyber Listening Lab is really awesome; it is particularly highly resourceful to those students and teachers who want to have serious discussion on enhancing listening skills. To make it direct, Cyber Listening Lab can be highly resourceful to those EFL students who are better in communicative language and familiar with certain listening skills, and still wants to improvise their skills yet further in advanced level. So I am wondering how I can use this Lab effectively to my students. One thing I should admit that I still feel some complications about the technology and the content of the course, but the learning and my friendly approach to technology has invaded my former zone of technology-learning hostility.
Similarly Delicious page is really delicious; finally I have a site where we can save and send the links of different useful webpage. I had encountered several such problems before when I couldn't save the link of resourceful sites.  Talking about the project report, I found all the reports equally useful; nonetheless there are some of the reports which need to be dealt properly.  To be specific , Runganayagie Nalini Reddy's report  on Building Teaching Skills Through tithe Interactive Web, University of Oregon fascinated me. It may be due to a complete different idea about the class structure, social reality  and other facilities. It is interesting in the sense that the writer deals about a complete different classes and the use of modern technology to assist it. Second I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the writer for sharing such such ideas. Still I am wondering how is it possible to supervise and guide those peace ambassador. Nonetheless Reddy's idea seems  so structured and well-planned and innovative.  Still I can't stop asking myself; will the project be  sustainable? After all, this week has been really really delicious.

Reflection on Second Week

students on group-work

The days are swiftly going on, the beautiful ideas are floating around them, I am desperately marching behind; often I clasp them that give me a new energy and valor to proceed.  Donna has her personal stake in this meaningful success of second week. I feel important to share with all of you guys that this week has brought a real shift in my prior conception about search engine; I thought search engine is synonymous to Google search before.

I was simply wondering how we use such innumerable search engines for our academic purpose. I started with; still I confronted awkwardness regarding its effective use. Though noodletools didn’t allow me to stagger my effort, Deborah Healey’s technology tips were awesome; they helped me to make my search easy and effective. I wonder why I couldn’t get such ideas before. I read others’ post before I delivered and was overwhelmed by colleagues’ acumen on technology. Silently I promised myself I shouldn’t feel dwarf, nonetheless. 

When I started next task, I felt I was quite accustomed about it. I scrolled for the assignment of the second week and read the reading task before I started writing about the description and ABCD objective. For this purpose, I found “Planning a Student-centered IT Based Lesson (Part-one)” prepared by Ashley Tan highly resourceful. Nonetheless other materials like planning for instruction, writing objectives and Bloom’s taxonomy too were equally useful and resourceful. More than anything else, I can’t forget the moment when I observed the Donna’s appreciation on this task with a really encouraging terminology—EXCELLENT. Thank you so much for your relentless support and encouraging temperament.

All of sudden, our next task of the week shuddered me with a strange feelings of eeriness. As I glanced this rubric for the first time, instantly I thought a project to be done in the class; a task that is going to be tough, really tough in this phase. But after going through the guidelines I felt quite relief; though it was not so cut and dry, I fount it not as scary as I had thought before. We were supposed to talk about the population, setting and student needs in detail. It’s really going to be great, inspiring and effervescent, provided that we would be able to develop similar web-based classroom like nicenet, where students can discuss, share their ideas, comment on others and process their raw ideas into logical, authentic and meaningful ideas.

It’s simply phenomenal even to hypothesize such marvelous possibility; but this week onward I have been more optimistic and confident on this project. If so, we will witness some exciting results; we will be successful to make our classes more effective, interactive and participatory, students will overcome hectic and monotonous classes and they will be always ready to explore and innovate new and beautiful ideas.

I wish I could do it, I wish you could do it, and all in all, we would do it.   

Creating my blog at first seemed to be an almost impossible task for me. I should admit that I do have feeble knowledge regarding its technical aspects. That is the reason why i am posting my ideas today; so that i will be able to better utilize it for our fruitful conversations and share our feeling and ideas.
Talking about my experience of the first week, it has been really fruitful. Now I am assured that the course will be really useful for our teaching-learning process.
The first week has been really amazing. It has been amazing because lots of noble and creative academic things have begun. Inception of our discussion on nicenet itself was great. First of all we had to introduce with each other. Though we have the guidelines of  Donna, I was wondering how do I introduce myself? I saw the introduction section of my colleagues; they were really sophisticated. On the one hand I was already late to post my introduction on the other, exceedingly  long power cut-off had hurdled on my stipulated time of posting. Second task was more challenging; we had to post our comments on Ground rules and Rubric 1 and rubric 2. I did agree with most of the rules mentioned over there still i did have some genuine disagreement  on some of the rules. For example I opined to use more polite term in stead of using "Poor" while assessing those  the posted comment; second was  better to think about grade than to evaluate the comments with certain score like 0,1,4 or 5 . Third task, for me, has been most exciting. I have been able to reflect my ides through blog.
Journey has begun ,and I believe it will lead us to meet our goal.

Its amazing to create own blog for the first time. Thanks a lot to Donna and my colleagues in web-skills.
To be very honest it was not easy for me to go through the procedure thoroughly. Finally it has been. The blogs, hopefully, will be a medium for expressing our ideas and feelings with each other.
Everyday we face different challenges in the class; often that happens in maintaining the relationship with students, sometimes to the society and parents. As we teachers from the different geographical and cultural locations are sharing this platform, it will be an opportunity for all of us to learn the skills yet further.

prakash