My reflections - Week 8 Web skills

Hi Courtney and all other colleagues,

Greetings.

It has been a great pleasure to share my experiences with the Web Skills - Week 8 Tasks.  First of all, let me thank Courtney for making great explorations to be tried out to this week through several ways.  I have learnt so many things in this week and excited with the different websites to be tried out with.

Firstly,  I have created many class sites to the students especially when I come to know that I can create a class using 'Nicenet', I am really impressed with that.  I created one namely 'psgtechstudents' to the students who are pursuing 'Communication skills in English' course during this first semester.  I shared the classkey with the students and I have informed them that 'what i am getting through 'Nicenet', you are going to get the same.  The students had promised me to join the class once their internal test 'Continuous Assessment' is over in the mid of this week.  I am happy with that.

Secondly, I created a class Wiki to the students prior to this week namely 'psgtechfirstyearengineering.wikispaces.com' and shared with all the students because through this classwiki alone, I have passed the information about the final project task and in which I have incorporated my rubrics, youtube videos, listening task transcript and my interactive powerpoint and the guidelines etc.    The students are really giving excellent feedback about the implementation of the project task.

Thirdly, I created a blog to the students to comment on the various inputs they received from this course and I specified them the link 'psgtechstudents.blogspot.in' .  They were quite happy with the exploration of different tools for the class and methods to link their ideas in  future. After that, I am impressed with the different online exercise creating websites and amazed with each sites capacity to bring the best input and look forward to the enormous out put on the part of the students.  I accessed the 'tools for teachers' and happy with different types of templates to be used for the creation of different types of exercises.  I shared this web link with all my colleagues and they looked at me with jealous that I am getting such an input from this course.  Then I accessed 'lanternfish' and 'easytestmaker' and found that the excellent things from each site.  I created an account with each site for the free edition.  I found interesting to create on-line exercise for my students under the topic 'Emotional Intelligence'- a reading comprehension task including MCQ and Matching the phrases with the summary statements of the passage.  But I was upset that I could not make it on-line because it needs 'pay and use' but I had downloaded the paper-based test in PDF file and happy with it.

I had installed 'hotpotatoes' in my PC and going to create exercises based on the six types of task templates. I am going to explore more on this site and I am planning to set the 'final assessment of Objective test' for my students using this.  I believe that the students are going to be exposed with this new tool.  After reading the comments from the instructor, I wish to make an attempt on 'ANVILL' and created the course for 'ESL' and 'ELT'.  I am planning to upload the contents based on these two.

Finally, the draft for the final project, which really stirred my effort to make the best out of it.  I enjoyed the painstaking effort and pleasure to do the task based on the project task template.  It needs meticulous planning and i am really trained to internalize the topics under each section.  When I read the project draft of other colleagues and my project review partner, I identified myself that how this on-line course has a tremendous influence on each member not as faculty of English but as the first-learner of this course.  We are highly indebted to the organizers of the course especially Courtney.  Without her help, this dimension of each one of us could not have brought out.  After assimilating the input from the colleagues and from my project review partner, I worked out the checklist for the project task. Each and every section of the checklist made me not to give the ejust like that but to do justice to the belief with each one of us.

At the outset, my experience with this week is highly motivating and happy to be the mirror of my inner voice to reflect the practices of every single attempt to make me excelled in the profession.

S.Sankarakumar

My reflections on Week 7: Web skills

Hi Courtney, Nate - the guest moderator and my colleagues,

Greetings.

I am indeed happy to post the reflections on Week 7 tasks of Web Skills course.  This week, I learnt so many things especially the articles of Samuel P-H sheu's "Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-Hand or Band-in-the- Bush" and Thanasoulas "What is Learner autonomy and How it can be fostered?" provided an excellent input on the areas of autonomous learning and self-directed learning.  The earlier article focussed on the teacher who followed the systematic approach and how the foster the habit of learner-centeredness in the classroom.  Further, it presents the information on the standardized tests that the teacher is imbibed to follow and help their learners do good in the exams.  There were no room for the teacher to inculcate the habit of making their learners to learn from outside.  As Anderson (2000) pointed out that the real learning takes place outside the classroom and the learners are given freedom to try new methods to complete the tasks.  The latter article gives an insight into the autonomous learning, its definitions, and characteristics of autonomous learners, the predominant theories such as constructivism, critical theory and positivism.  Further, it deliberated on the issues of the learners and their strategies like cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, learner attitudes, self-esteem and the use of diaries to make a note of the reflections of the learners.

Secondly, I learnt the basics of making of use of a single computer in a classroom.  I have understood the strategies and applications for using a single computer for learning purposes.  It gave me ennumber of ideas though I did familiarize with the tools which the basic learner knew about the use of computer.  But, the identity of the learner is that how effectively he can use the computer as a resource and the computer as a tool and effective methods for assessing the learners.  Further, the seven steps/ categories of using a single computer in a classroom have made me think the effective methods of using the computer.  The seven categories which are highlighted are the administrative tools, communication station, presentation tools, information station, publishing tool, learning center and simulation center.  It makes me understand the different issues to be handled while using a computer in a classroom and outside.

Thirdly, the additional resources are very handy to work on the various topics related to learner autonomy and the teacher autonomy, 25 ways of integrating the computer into the classroom, self-access materials are assimilated and practiced throughout.  The designing of activities using ABCD model with the assistance of a single-computer which made me think innovatively and implement the creative skills of the learners.  The majority of the times the teacher has not had the autocratic approach to decide upon the kind of input to be given because of the constraints created by the system in an educational environment.  But the learner-trainer has the complete and controlled freedom to use the computer in a classroom and to make the classroom more interactive and appealing.  This systemic-approach of the teacher is many a times quiet handy to him. 

Fourthly, the use of ‘Wallwisher’ is an effective tool to create a web page posting and up loading of websites and videos and notice board, incorporating audio, .doc and .pdf files for effective use with fellow colleagues.  My experience with the wallwisher tool is really interesting.  I have added certain web links and video files with relevant activities to be tried out with the learners are worthy doing.  I have added an article and a book for the colleagues of this course concentrating learner autonomy in mind.  My perception of learner-autonomy has enriched by the inputs given. 

Finally, I was nominated by a colleague for the final project review to give the constructive and critical feedback.   The willingness to work in a collaborative environment makes each one of us more responsible.  I look forward to comment on others work as well to be commented upon my work. 

When the root of the tree has not been split and sprawled, there is no branching out of establishing the vast spectrum of knowledge.  Thanks to Courtney and her team.

S.Sankarakumar

My reflections on the Web Skills:Week 6

Hi Courtney, Donna and my colleagues,

Greetings.

I am indeed very happy to reflect on the skills learnt during Week 6 of Web Skills Course.  First of all, I wish to thank Prof. Donna Shaw for being the guest moderator for this week and enlightened with her suggestions to improve the skills of teaching.

Firstly, I have been exposed to the different technology tools through our university web site's Teaching Effectiveness Programme and assisted me to look into several things.  First and foremost, it provided an opportunity for me to view the different tools to assess the performance of students from framing questions for assessment to evaluation except essay type questions through Black board as an assessment tool.  Secondly, it is eye-opener for many teaching fraternity that how technology can assist them to make their classroom effective and help to create a place for implementing interactive approaches.  Thirdly, it helps us to look into a course website (that is the blue-print) before offering any course in an academic side and the method to implement the course in a graded manned and the various things to be incorporated in a syllabi.  Finally, it throws light on the areas of improving in-class discussions with the help of the help of technology such as priming, integrating, reinforcing, generating and facilitating engaging online discussions and online assessment technology tools.

Secondly, I read an article related to 'engaging large classrooms' which helped me to know the various things  required to make the classroom effective through several techniques such as Interactive lectures, JiTT, Beating the numbers game, Tomorrow's Professor mailing list,  Making the first year classroom conducive to learning, Classroom communication systems, Teaching with technology, Brave new world, Mobile learning, Lecture capture, Collaborative and co-operative learning, innovation in Large lectures and tips for effective teamwork etc.  These topics really help me to learn the technique of teaching effectively in a large classroom. Further, it gave immense confidence to deal with any type of classroom with at most effectiveness.

Thirdly, I learnt the technique of making an effective and interactive presentation through several guidelines from Teaching effectiveness programme –how to make use of power point as an important resource for engaging the classroom.  Then, the article written by Drs.Terry & Cathy provided an insight into the method of making the presentation.  It helped me to know the use of different action buttons to make the presentation more effective.  The sample power point and word document endorsed the power of PPT as an important tool to engage in a large classroom.

The additional resources provided in this week which highlighted the importance of interactive lessons and 36 types of activities are really awesome.

With all the assistance of interactive power point presentation articles and guidelines, I created an interactive power-point presentation to check the ability of the students’ listening skills  and reading the transcript of the video and write the summary of the reading simultaneously. It was a wonderful experience and found myself.  I showcased my own concern for too much dependency on computers which made the teachers to think beyond the cleverness of the classroom in order to make it more interactive.

I am planning to make technology change as suggested during the week 4 and have informed the students about the rubrics based on technology need and the possible exchanges. As far as I am concerned, I am happy with the progress of Web skills.

S.Sankarakumar

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My reflections on Web Skills - Week 5

Hi Courtney and other colleagues,

Greetings.

I am really happy to reflect on the practices for the Week 5 related to Rubrics, Project-based Learning and Technology - related change and Web Quest, etc.

Firstly,  I learnt several things about the requirements of teacher through the article 'Alternative assessment' from NCLRC.  The article highlighted the following issues:

1. The methodology of teaching English
2. Survival tips for the new teacher
3. Teaching Portfolios
4.Reflective practices
5. Communicative competence
6.Learner-centered Instruction
8.Guidelines for instruction
9. Setting Lesson goals
10. Identifying resources
11. Learner Motivation
12. Alternative Assessment
13. Teaching different skills of the language such as Grammar, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.

I learnt the techniques and rubrics for making an effective teaching through the article.  Further, it makes us more conscious and cautious about the different requirements from the teachers of English in order to excel in the profession.  I accessed the web tool 'Rubistar' and created an account and the rubrics for my class dealing with Reading for clarification - Summarizing the given reading passage.  The rubrics made the ideas on a particular task more clear and the ways of assessing the individual learner more transparent.

Secondly, I read the articles related to Project Based Learning which gave more insights on the topics to be dealt in the classroom and the ways of making the final project using PBL.  I watched several videos of the PBL based projects done by the students and  amazed by the quality of work involved.  Further, the questions from the instructor had aroused my interest on the topic PBL about the implementation.  Her questions such as how to motivate the learners using PBL?, Technology driven classroom using PBL and the limitations for implementing in the classroom? , What is the role of rubrics / Alternative Assessment using PBL? and How to promote independent learning using PBL?  had made me think beyond and to find out possible solutions in the task.

Thirdly, I read the methods of making Web Quest through several articles and video clippings.  I created an account in webquest but it needs more internalization before adding more values to the concept of creating web quest.   I followed the information from zunal.com and found interesting.  The webquests are really a handy tool for making the classroom more interactive and technology -driven.  I visited the web quest of my colleague and very much impressed with her work.  I discussed this information with the students and stated how technology can be made use of teaching - learning purposes.  I had shown some videos  of the project based learning of the kinder garten school children piloted the PBL and the web quest related to 'finding an apartment'  and listened the experiences of the teaching fraternity through 'thirteen.org' .  All the video clippings are really impressive and made me to create a wonderful webquest for my class.

Finally, I discussed the project step 4 on how the technology create a change in the potential project of mine in the future, though I have not discussed completely about the solutions.  But the week 5 of Web skills course had really grilled the inner thoughts to achieve perfection in the profession.  I whole heartedly thank Prof.Courtney and her team for bringing such a "CHANGE" in all of us... which led us to the best.

S.Sankarakumar