Week 8

We have arrived to the last part of the course. This week I wrote my Project Report draft, it was very stressful because I had to prepare another project presentation for Wednesday, but as this project is based on what I have learned and done in this course it helped me to organize my ideas.

Finally I managed to write it in several stages. I think I will have to add some missing information though.

The process of peer-editing has helped me a lot because reading Marsi's Project Report draft and using the checklist I realize what information I missed.

The task for this week was to create an online course or an online or offline exercise. It is incredible that we are still learning new tools after everything we have seen and tried.
I have found some of the tools before in the process of searching we have followed so far, however I have never used a wiki, HotPotatoes, Test Maker or heard about ANVILL.

I decided to create a wiki to compare it with a class blog. I must recognize it was really difficult to create it and learn how to work with it. And I barely know the basics, so I wonder if my students will find it too difficult to manage.
But that's the idea to see its adventages and disadvantages and take an informed decision.

Week 7

This week there were two topics of discussions: Learners Autonomy and One Classroom Computer.

As I work mostly with one computer (I tried to use a the library at school where there are some computers but only four of them work and they are very slow, besides the physical space doesn't allow to group work) I chose to focus on the second topic.

Reading the material about the topic I discovered many more uses for Word that I didn't know they existed!, like templates for brochures, project presentations, invitations, and of course letters.

There is also the possibility of organisation of group work while using One Computer, mostly given different tasks for groups while one is using the computer. Simple ideas that help to organise class work with the available resources.

However another thing is when technology is not available, which happens to me this week, but that's another story.

The resources I found most interesting to me were:

http://www.deborahhealey.com/techtips/may2009.html
http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm

Week 6

This week was much better for me, I wasn't as mixed up as the previous one.
I found some very useful ideas reading Discussion Boards that can be applied also to blog discussions. My students have started posting comments on their class blog, at last!
Some of them have had problems with the link to the blog, others have had problems creating their google accounts, so we dedicated one class to use the four computers to do these tasks while I went with the rest of the students to another room where there is a LCD TV to show them how to make comments and posts. It was all an adventure!!

This week I created the Interactive Power Point for this class with the idea of fostering short discussions during the presentation and after it to set a guided discussion in pairs. So in this way I will be addressing the objectives of promoting speaking skills, preparing them for the formal assessment: discussion, and showing them a different way of presenting a topic because when we discuss about presenting their work they only think about presenting folders.

I must recognise something that Mariah told me that made the difference to me. I was stuck with the topic of values and how to face it, and ask for help on the discussion and she advised me to ask my students what values rule their lives. As my students are young adults and adults I decided to ask them which 'area' of the topic Values they wanted to work on and they came up with Human Rights. So here I am, I finished my Interactive Power Point about it an hour ago.  

Week 5 learning

This week we have been reading  and searching about Project Based Learning and Alternative Assessment.

In relation to assessment I use to assess students' work 'informally' a lot with different degrees of objectivity (or subjectivity, as you want to see it), because I keep a template to record students' performances in different areas of language learning and attitudes towards learning, cooperation, solidarity, writing comments about them and even when this will be translated in a grade at last it is a way of taking the whole learner into account.
I had been reluctact so far to use rubrics because I had seen them descontextualized and fixed to any situation or level, but the posssibility of creating a rubric according to the task, level, context and purpose has showed me the usefulness of this tool to assess students' work in a fairer way.

Project Based Learning was not new to me. I had read a book and put it into practice, but it was not a technology based project, so it was completely different.
I wanted to create a web quest to be used with the topic I have to work with my students: Values, but I think the links I got are too difficult for them, so I think the webquest will have to wait a bit and I will start working with the blog as I had planned.

Final reflection of Week 4

This week wasn't easy for me. I wasn't able to organise my time as I did in the previous weeks and yesterday late at night after I wrote  my Technology Enhanced lesson plan and clicked to post it, everything disappeared!!
I think my internet connection failed and all the work I had done was vanished and it was 4 a.m.! Then I quitted and I decided to do it on Sunday again. Finally I did it.

It was really helpful to write this lesson plan because I am a bit stuck with two groups at Secondary school, because we are supposed to work with a coursebook, but it isn't available yet. So this plan helps me to organise my teaching for nearly three weeks.

I'm starting the class blogs with my other classes. I wonder if I will have time to manage so many class blogs!!