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.

Interactive Power Point Presentations

This week we could read about Power Point as an interactive tool to enhance students' motivation and engagement. Essentially, we read and had a chance to apply numerous tips on how to create and use this powerful tool effectively by breaking with linear, wordy, only-text and not eye-cathing presentations.

As I was familiar with some of the tips offered, I decided to create a Jeopardy game (you can watch it on our wiki page), something I had never donde before. I thogut it would be a good idea to set up and extension activity for last week assignment, a webquest on computers and computing by way of wrapping up the topic.

I knew it'd be challenging and it really was! Getting to hyperlink tiles and countless slides is a hard task. After numerous trail and error attempts, I logged on youtube and watched some tutorials to pull the PPT off. Here's the link to some of the videos I watched:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+create+a+jeopardy+game+on+powerpoint+2010&oq=how+to+create+a+jeopa&gs_l=youtube.3.1.0i19l3.922.3060.0.7830.7.7.0.0.0.0.1775.6369.2j6-3j0j2.7.0.eytns%2Cpt%3D-35%2Cn%3D2%2Cui%3Dt..0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.3NWFbor9xyc

I must admit it was really tiring but I managed to create an interactive Jeopardy Game, including images, links, sounds, videos and some techniques such as TPS / ConceptTest, etc.