WEEK 10 - WRAP UP

WEEK 10

Hello all!

In this post I would like to reflect upon the past 9 weeks in the course. To be honest, it lived up to and went beyond my expectations! I feel I grew as a professional, I learned tons in the past few weeks. I definitely recommend this course who's brave enough plunge into a world of resources to make our classes more vivid and appealing!

As far as content goes, I believe every piece of information and interaction with participants were productive and relevant to my practices. I particularly enjoyed Nicenet discussions a lot. Although sometimes it turned out to be hard to follow, the interaction and exchange of opinions and material was really fuirtful. Another aspect of the course I liked was the hands-on aspect, i.e., it went beyond theoretical principles and gave us a chance to create and share resources.

If I had to think about an element, tool or technique that I would have liked to find as part of the content, I would say it would have been nice and enriching to have a webminar / video session with our instructor. She proved to be passionate and knowledgeable about the topic! In my opinion, it'd be nice if future participants could have a chance to interact with her synchronously.

That said, I wanted to congratulate all my classmates who have put in a lot of effort into completing so demanding a course, having in mind we are all BUSY teachers!!! Hats off to them. 

I also wanted to thank Courtney for being such an incredible instructor, always ready to pitch in with top notch tips, helping us every step of the way (even from an airplane!!!) and for having encouraged us to give the best of ourselves...

I'm going to miss you guys! I hope we stay in touch. 

WEEK 9

WEEK 9

LEARNING STYLES

Hello everyone! 

The course is coming to an end... :( It's incredible how time flies...

This week we had the chance to reflect and read about multiple intelligences and different learning styles and how to use technology to cater for those diverse learning styles.

We read different articles connected to learning styles and their characterisitics and typical preferred behaviors. Apart from the 7 learning styles I was familiar with, I learned there are two new styles.

After reading the articles, we were asked to suggest a course of action to address the problem of mixed ability classes- What I suggested was the integration of PBL or Webquest which may serve the purpose of being a framework for a bunch of integrated activities that would aim to satisfy our students' needs in terms of their different learning methods.

FINAL PROJECTS

The second and perhaps the most demanding task for the week was to finish polishing our final project plans for submission. Based on our peer's suggestions, (I would like to thank Sosthene for kindly devoting time to revise my draft) we had to improve certain aspects of our plans and upload the archive to our class wiki. Luckily, I managed to meet our deadline!

Regards,

Pablo.

WEEK 8

Hello classmates!!

This week is coming to an end and it proved to be a pretty hectic one! So much to do and read!!!

Durign the first part of the week, we were asked to work upon checklists on a peer's project plan. I had the pleasure of working with Sosthene from Rwanda. He developed his project around assessment issues. We read each other's drafts and sent a checklist with weak points or sections that needed polishing up. The experience was great! Now, we are supposed to improve our drafts based on our peer's suggestions.

After the project plan's checklist were submitted, we started working on a vast repertoire of teacher resources, mainly authoring resources. We were provided with a vast list of tools to create online or off line excersices, worksheets, classes, etc. 

At the same time, Jeff Magoto was invited to take part in our Nicenet class. He introduced ANVILL to us. ANVILL (A National Virtual Language Lab) is a speech-based toolbox for language teachers. Like the language lab console of old, it's focused on the practice of oral/aural language, but at its core are very modern web-based audio and video tools from duber dot com and the University of Oregon: Voiceboards, LiveChat, and Quizzes and Surveys. Our newest tool, TCast, allows teachers to record and place audio or video files anywhere in a lesson--in 3 easy steps. Each of these tools really opens up the scope and sequence of lessons centered around spoken language tasks.

We then were invited to create a teacher account and join an existing session to take part in different activities. I personally tried Pavlov's dog, make the dog drool on demand. Very interesting and amusing experience.

Of all the tools suggested, I found the perfect forum tool to be used in my classes. I created a class on Nicenet.org for my EAP law students. I consider this tool is extremely user-friendly and neat when it comes to organizing and following a thread of discussions, a functionality I hadn't found on any other discussion tools I've tried so far. Here's the key to my Nicenet class if you want to take a look at it: S348829Q7. I will be using this session for my students to interact and learn collaboratively, building knwoledge consturctively.

All the best,
Pablo.

Autonomous learning and Padlet

WEEK 7

Hello everybody! 

This week we've had the chance of getting to use a wallwisher app. This is called Padlet. I reckon it's a fabolous tool, specially for the one computer classroom since favors collaborative work, sharing experiences and pulling resources together. Students would benefit greatly from incorporating this tool in the EFL classroom. First, students contribute with their own posts and once that is done, the wall can be analyzed and shared as a class.
We've been asked to contribute with at least 2 items (links, files, videos, etc) connected with the topic of autonomous learning and one computer classroom. In my case, I posted the following:

• 2 images connected with the topic Autonomous Learning,
• An ELT article "Learner autonomy" by Richard Smith
• A YouTube video on the same topic, an interview to Phil Benson.

Here's the link to the Padlet we created this week.

The second task for the week was to read some articles on Learner Autonomy / One Computer Classroom and share our ideas on Nicenet.org We examined various articles on the topic and also had access to a wide variety of material/resources on the above mentioned topic on Padlet.

Besides, I have been working really hard on my final project. I'm currently writing a first draft to be sent to one colleague. Sosthene invited me to work together and I accepted the invitation.

Best, 
Pablo.

WEEK 6

Briefing of class Issue.

If I had to think about an issue, I would dare say it is both student-oriented and teacher-related at the same time. The main source of conflict, I reckon, is the bulky number of students per group. Although the number of attendants is dramatically reduced in the second semester, it keeps on being unreasonably high for a foreign language class.

Overcrowding hinders communication within the group. Students who are highly and intrinsically motivated participate orally most of the time, ask questions, pose doubts in class, etc. However, there's a big portion of the group that remains silent if they are not asked (sometimes "forced") to participate. The members in the "silent" subgroup have little chances of expressing their opinions, are reluctant to work in pairs or groups, they rarely ask questions, and let aside evacuating doubts in class. They are too shy and congestion seems to deepen their inhibition.

I said that the problem was also teacher-related because we do not have the time (we work in different institutions all day long) or space (our chair has only one office for 8 teachers) to offer extra tutoring time which I think would help weak students.

Solution??

I've been thinking that a possible technology-related solution would be to use tools which would let us get rid of time and space constraints, that is, using complimentary ICT tools to reinforce traditional practices, tools that would give me the possibility to interact with my students more often and outside the university premises. 

I believe Google Hangouts or ooVoo (http://www.oovoo.com/home.aspx), video conferencing tools, are the ones would best help me deal with the problem since I could have daily interactions with a reduced number of students, giving them "voice". I would also consider using voxopop (voxopop.com)and any free digital blackboard for tutoring.

Project Refinement

As the semester will not start off till August,19th; (we are currently having a winter break), I have been working on my project refinement. I've thinking about the following details:

• The video conferencing tool I will use. I've been testing two alternatives. On the one hand, I tried Google Hangouts. It has many interesting features such as screen sharing, watching videos together, sharing docs, etc. What I found disadvanteous about it is that  students will inevitably have to set up a google account to be able to use it. Also, the tutor has to have the students in his circles in GOOGLE+, which may be inconvinient. On the other hand, I also tried ooVoo. It is also quite good as functionality goes with the advantage of signing up with any e-mail account, it is not restrictive to Gmail. Another pro it presents is that you can have 12 people interacting live, 2 more participants than its competitor.
• Voxopop: added complimentary tool where students can still share ideas, interact, and get some feedback asynchronously. Since time arrangements and students' schedule become so entanggled, this recording voice web app can give them the chance to participate, give opinions, share ideas or pose questions even if they cannot be present during the video conference session.
• Due to time and space constraints, the project will aim at reinforcing traditional instruction particularly having in mind weak students. Sessions will be timely arranged and small groups up to 12 participants will be set up. I think that video conferencing could be set up twice a week.
• JiTT before the video session. I think that using a JiTT technique before the video session could be highly productive. Having an idea of what the students find difficult before hand can help bridge gaps.
• Power Point Presentations during session. To actively engage students.
• I asldo thought about having my students keep a record of their learning experience using www.penzu.com 
• Rubrics: using rubistar for the creation of rubrics to assess online speaking sessions.

PBL

WEEK 5

PBL (PROJECT BASED LEARNING) - ASSESSMENT - POSSIBLE SOLUTION FOR DESCRIBED ISSUE.

Hello everyone!

From Spoon-feeding to Scaffolding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMCZvGesRz8

This week we had the possibility of reading and working upon PBL, project based learning. This methodology implies a drastic change in educational paradigms since it puts the emphasis on the students' active involvement in realistic, meaningful tasks with an objective in mind. This student-centered methodology has the participants engaged in solving problems, resorting to critical thinking skills and collaborative work. On the other hand, PBL advocates "less teaching and more learning", this means, the teacher becoming a facilitator of tools and resources for the students to work upon and transform knowledge, scaffolding learning and promoting learner autonomy.  

As stated in one of the articles we read, PBL promotes the emergence and fostering of 21st c. skills, needed for the upcoming future.

I particularly had the chance of working on mini-projects (short webquests) but I would like to have PBL as the backbone of our curriculum, i.e., making PBL "the main course and not the desert" Unfortunately, it's not our call but I'm positive students will highly benefit from it if we adopted it.

to get more info please visit http://www.bie.org/

Alternative assessment was another topic we explored in connection with PBL. AA is based on authentic tasks to accomplish communication goals, the foundation of PBL; and the information to work upon can be drawn from the World Wide Web. 

In addition, a few characteristics about AA are worth mentioning. Firstly, AA is built or designed around topics which the students find interesting. Secondly, students have the possibility to get to know assessment criteria and they can evaluate themselves and peers. Thirdly, by using AA, students' strengths instead of weaknesses are made to stand out. 

What I found really useful when reading about this topic was the webpage RubiStar, which Courtney kindly shared with us. The site helps you create diversed rubrics to assess different tasks based on numerous templates. Give it a whirl!

This week, we've also been brainstorming solutions for the issue we presented last week. My issue is essentially crowded classes, students being reticent, unwilling to speak / express opinions or to ask question in class. This problem might be put down to shyness, a low level of proficiency in the target language or their introversion exacerbated by fear of ridicule in front of peers.

A technology-related solution is to be found to tackle this issue. As the outset, what I came up with is to take advantage of video conferencing and voice recording tools. Weekly meeting would be set up and arranged. I would organize small groups of weak students to interact off-campus during their free time. This way, i think I would be giving students a voice.

As far as connectivity goes, I reckon the idea is plausible because most, if not all the students, have internet access at home and a PC. If that were not the case, students have smartphones where they can install video conferencing apps (Google hangouts or ooVoo - http://www.oovoo.com/home.aspx?lang=en, for example).

This is just my inital idea that needs a lot of brushing up!!! Suggestions are welcome!

Have a nice weekend!

WEEK 4:

READING, WRITING AND VOCABULARY - TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LESSON PLANNING - ISSUE.

Greetings from Argentina!

This has been a hectic week! So much to learn and share! We began the week by having some insightful reading assigments on productive and recpetive skills along with dimensions (vocabulary) this time. So much was shared in Nicenet that was difficult to keep up! LOL. Really hard work but 100% productive.

I wanted to share the link that I found the most comprehensive when it comes to web tools and ideas for classroom implementations:

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Writing+Tools

Bookmarking

WEEK 3 - BOOKMARKING

Keeping up with the spirit of this course, this week we've been offered a chance to explore, work upon and share social bookmarking networks such as Delicious, Diigo, Digg, etc. They are extremely handy web 2.0 tools when it comes to having your favourites sites organized and tagged.

We are now linked and as instructors, we can now benefit from and take adavntage of the folksonomy created by collegues, avoiding wasting time browsing looking for quality CALL material to be used in the EFL classroom.

Mainly, we devoted time to work on Delicious (formerly del.icio.us) is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site was founded by Joshua Schachter in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. By the end of 2008, the service claimed more than 5.3 million users and 180 million unique bookmarked URLs.^[2][3] The site was sold to AVOS Systems on April 27, 2011^[4] and relaunched in a "back to beta" state on September 27 that year.^[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_(website)

This is how it works:

I would like to share another bookmarking site which I used to have in the past. That one is Symbaloo which is an alternative more eyecatching tool to bookmark your favourites. This is a more visual tool though it is not as social as Delicious or similar sites, though you can share your profile through Facefook or Twitter or you can also embed the patchwork or webmix, as it is called, in any other platform you're using.

Let's keep sharing and learning!

Computer-Assisted Audiovisual Language Learning

WEEK 3: CALL (Computer assisted language learning)

Let's understand the concept:

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is succinctly defined in a seminal work by Levy (1997: p. 1) as "the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning".^[1] CALL embraces a wide range of Information and communications technology applications and approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, from the "traditional" drill-and-practice programs that characterised CALL in the 1960s and 1970s to more recent manifestations of CALL, e.g. as used in a virtual learning environment and Web-based distance learning. It also extends to the use of corpora and concordancers, interactive whiteboards,^[2] Computer-mediated communication (CMC),^[3] language learning in virtual worlds, and Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL).^[4]

(...)

The design of CALL materials generally takes into consideration principles of language pedagogy and methodology, which may be derived from different learning theories (e.g. behaviourist, cognitive, constructivist) and second language learning theories such as Stephen Krashen's monitor hypothesis.

A combination of face-to-face teaching and CALL is usually referred to as blended learning. Blended learning is designed to increase learning potential and is more commonly found than pure CALL (Pegrum 2009: p. 27).^[7]

Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning

This is how it works...

Personally, I think that at the present time, the use of CALLin combination with Web 2.0 tools is a must in a foreign language classroom. Furthermore, in EFL contexts of language learning such as ours; additional and varied input is essential since our students do not have contact with the foreign language except for the exposure they have from the media or scarce exchanges with native speakers of the language. That being the case, it thus becomes necessary to reinforce their exposure to L2.

Additionally, I am positive that the implementation of CALL in and out of the classroom is highly beneficial for students for a number of reasons: 

•We cater for different learning styles,
•Input is reinforced and recycled,
•Mechanical and Meaningful aspects can be worked upon,
•We live up to our students' expectations,
•CALL promotes autonomy and self-study, enhances creativity, paves the way for collaboration and strengthens communication skills. 

Week 2: Web searching

Week 2: Web searching. 

retrieved from:https://www.google.com.ar/search?hl=es&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=979&q=web+serch&oq=web+serch&gs_l=img.3..0i10i24.1254.10370.0.11645.13.12.1.0.0.0.383.2460.5j1j2j4.12.0...0.0.0..1ac.1.17.img.--ceytSzvE0#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=xwO-KxqIzNOucM%3A%3BD5ZqhR-EyW-y-M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Flaparasha.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F02%252F13.-Search-Engine-Marketing-Service.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Flaparasha.com%252F2012%252F02%252F%3B364%3B300

At this time, we live in a world of permanent change where tecchnology is pervasive and our audiences (our studentes) belong to the digital native generation, i.e., they were born and brought up in a technology -dominated environment. However, they find themselves inmersed in an unfamiliar environment when it comes to education. The botom line is that in most Latin American countries educational paradigms are rooted in ideologies and ideas that were thought for 19th c. contexts. As a result, methodologies / practices have become obsolete for  the majority of our students who don't seem to find their expectations met. Fortunately, things are gradually changing for the better. 

We teachers belong to the digital immigrant portion of the population, i.e., we had to learn to make technology part of our lives. Nontheless, many of us are learning to "speak" our students' language (we will always have an accent, though :) ), we are learning to master technology to make it part of the teaching-learning processes. This is just the beginning of a long lasting journey, but the results have shown to be really promising so far!

Personally, I believe that blogs are marvellous web 2.0 tools for implementing in the EFL classroom. At the university, we have been using them for a couple of years now in combination with CMSs such as schoology or Moodle as part of a blended learning experience. Their main purpose was to provide extra reading and writing opportunities for the students. We've also implemented them as portfolios for their writing assignments.

Welcome to my blog!

I'll be posting thoughts and ideas in connection with NICTs in the EFL classroom.