Week 10: Last week of the course

Dear Sean and Colleagues,

At last, we finished our learning of technology skill in teaching. I don't want to say goodbye nor leave the course. All of you are very skillful and helpful. Your experiences are very much appreciated. I would follow you. 

This ten weeks learning are a lot of important and practical. I have learned many new techniques which I have never done before such as creating blog, delicious; designing online lesson plan, power point; improving the four macro skills online, grading students by using rubrics, and many more. All are relevant to advance my teaching career.

I will continue to use these technologies and explore them more for the best practice. I hope to see you all more often.  You all are good friends of me. Please keep in touch.

Best
Mak

Week 9: Final project

This week is the most hard working week I do. I use my free time from teaching writing the final project. I did not sleep until midnight or sometimes until the next morning at 1:00 or 2:00a.m.

I have changed my project three times. The first draft which I wrote is not understood by the reader. The second edition is too general that my partner could see my work. At last, I decided to choose one specific technology tool to engage students learning autonomously. It is not perfect, I have done, though.

Week 8: exercise online

This week . I have created a class blog and online test. I see my students are interested learning those especially class blog; however, it spends a bit more time to introduce it to them, as they are computer skill. The online test maker is helpful to me because It can score students quickly after I have design it. I will learn it more.

Best
Mak

Week 7: Autonomous learning: mobile, one computer classroom

Autonomous learning or learning independently requires both teacher and students participation. Generally, I am teaching my students by raising questions for their thought before teaching in detail. Students in pair or in group discuss the questions. From their thought, they will compare with the information addressed in the lesson. Then they can evaluate and decide to accept or disagree with their last judgement. Normally, my students will write a reflection paper after they have finished learning the today lesson. Then they will present their reflection in class by finding supported sources. Students during the time will challenge each other. It is a noisy class, but active.

Week 6: Engage students

Lesson in week 6 is very interesting, which is about  Teaching large class. I like to learn it very much, since my class is big and the students are passive. Giving lecture is rather boring when students listen passively during teacher talking time. Therefore, variety of techniques make the teaching better.

   . Interactive PowerPoint is presenting the lesson via technology. It can includes pictures, video, animation, transaction, hyperlink, concept test, and many more. Students will learn actively and effectively.

    . Activities in class will also enhance their learning. Students can work in pair, in group, or do demonstration. These methods can foster student engagement in learning more.

Week 5: Project Based Learning, WebQuests, and Rubrics

There are a lot more tasks to work. This week, I am learning about  Project Based Learning, WebQuests, and Rubrics.

Project Based Learning (PBL) is an approach to learning. Students are given instruction and resource to create a project which interest them. They can start with family, community, study, or work.

WebQuests is a tool for information search on the internet supplemented with videoconferencing. There are two type of WebQuests: short term (1-3 class sessions) and long term (1 week-1 month).

Alternative Assessment is a method for evaluating oneself. Students can use Rubrics as a guideline to assess their learning. Peers and teacher can provide them feedback to enhance their learning.

All, These tool and methods are pretty much useful to students autonomous learning. However, I need to take some time learn it more before giving task to my students.

Week 4: Reading/Writing skill building and technology enhance lesson plan

Lesson for this week is about reading and writing skill and technology enhance lesson plan. There are several multi-skill websites to improve students learning. Two among those several which interest me the most are

 1. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html (Using the internet in ESL writing instruction)

This site works best for students who is willing to improve writing skill. There different type of writing; for instance, descriptive, argumentative, opinion, report, and so on. Students can also learn about creating e-mail, and site of their own page.

 2. http://a4esl.org/ (Activities for ESL students)

Students can practice different excerice e.g. grammar, vocabulary, listening....etc. in different level of learning.

Second lesson learned is tip and advice to use technology enhancing lesson plan. Of course, hand written lesson plan is used by most of teachers for their teaching preparation. Meanwhile advance technology is updating which need their effort to incorporate of its use in their daily life. Hence teachers shall upgrade their teaching. https://sites.google.com/site/webskillsuo/lesson-plan This site is good for teacher who need to enhance their teaching career via technology use.

These are what I have learned this week. I hope it could help the other learners of this web learning as well.