Week 10- New Horizons for Netizens

In the virtual world you don't meet so you don't part. We will just be rearranging our network. Inhabitants of the WWW, we are just a-click-away from each another.

What a productive phase of life, rolling from one week to another, gathering knowledege and experience. Learning so many skills of technology and language, making international social contacts through each stretch well lived. At this moment, having moved beyond ten such stretches, I feel I have become a worthy netizen of the cyberspace. As I speak about the current course with web-based technology embedded in ELT and Linguistics, I want to bracket the course content into four sub-categories. Since each category works in conjunction with the other, it is difficult to measure their relative importance in an ELT professional or any other educationist's life. I learnt to use the following web-based resources as ones interdependent:

Forums: Nicenet, Delicious, Wikis (Jupitergrades and other pages), Blogs which served as platforms/ classrooms/ offices. Essential for any course. I have already started to use them in my PGCTE techer education classes. I can introduce college teachers to them.

Search Engines: Noodletools.com, google, etc which serve as vehicles of investigation threw open several resources like state govt documents, newspaper archives, libraries, etc. I used a few for my research project during the course and plan to use a few for my speech on Teachers Day on 5th September to begin with.

Modes: Websites which carry audio/video features for instance, Youtube or news features for instance various channels like discovery, ndtv.com, etc. Each a conduit of information of a specific type. 

Templates and Formats: Webquests (Zunal), Rubrics (Rubistar) etc which have information in prescribed formats. 

Generators of activities: Hot potatoes, Crossword Puzzles  and many others we learnt in Week 8. Tools which helped us produce activities, lessons, projects. These should be very useful for my teacher trainees as they won't waste time reinventing the wheel but have access to tools which give them readymade material of their specific requirements.

Content and Labs: Like Randall's ESL Lab. They are again like resource centre of specific courses, skills and subskills. I have already started to use Jennifer's ESL Lab in the class.

If anything out of these had been left out, we would not have had the confidence to operate as ones fully equipped. Varieities within each sub category were always there and we did leave out some due to paucity of time. I do wish we had more time to practise the others we left out like ANVILL. I will always have regrets till I learn it and use it. All we need to do is adopt them and practise them with our students.

The topics taken up are not only useful but they also created a great impact. The Nicenet discussions are a witness to this fact. Large classes (pedagogy and class management), multiple intelligences (some psycholinguistic insights), learner autonomy (pedagogy and class management), new technology in teaching listening, speaking, reading, writing, LoTi to assess one's technological strengths, they all initiated or updated the learners. The presence of guests like Racquel, Jesse, Jeffe, experts and creators, added value to the interactions bringing in new dimensions. The fact that participants were from different parts of the world  various politico-sociolinguistic perspectives emerged. It was good to find out about the peculiarities, the variables, which determine teaching and learning in different parts.

I feel like a child who says, 'it's nice' for everything and does not use critical faculty as he does not have one. But then given the amount of time, I don't see how anything else could have been added. 

I only wished that if there had been a Pre-launch session, we could have familiarized ourselves with some reading material and technology. Also if there was a Post-course completion session, we could have consulted the teacher as we honed our skills. Also the entire website for the class should have been left open for us for about a week. Due to the hectic schedule it was difficult to download and save a few important files.

Overall, I feel truly in sync with the current times. I can carry a lot of learning to the students in distant areas through my teacher trainees who I have included in the dissemination of learnings from this course. 

Robert deserves a special vote of thanks for bringing in not just his expertise and involvement but also that extraordinary zeal and spirit which motivated us to learn more and more.  

Will meet again Online.

Week-9 Finishing Line

“We are judged by what we finish, not what we start.” — Anonymous

It felt great posting the Report, as is true of most creative acts we take up. Strangely though I felt even more charged up after submitting it. Was it the effect of being a student in a virtual classroom? The project had progressed very smoothly. My trainees, the subjects of the project and I had enjoyed trying out different tools of technology. And later writing the report gave me a great sense of satisfaction. 

And now over to the weekly schedule of tasks and discussions:

To talk shop at social events may be bad manners but I can't help doing it. Like it or not, thanks to the course I don't just have lots to do but lots to talk about too. Such are the wonders of technology or its obsessions. 

Besides multiple intelligences, there was plenty of information on learner types. Learning styles, learning environments, learning tools. Together, they should prompt teachers to determine learning strategies for the classs. There was Teacher Tap with information on technology and multiple intelligences, and then there were Felder's and O'Connor's and Montgomery's articles. One of the articles took me to Howard Gardner too.  But the essence of them all was captured in the NYTs article. It addressed teachers' approach and learners' learning style, the importance of study locations, modes and materials. The best quote was the comparison of cramming (of the traditional style of learning) with a hurriedly packed cheap suitcase which will burst open spilling out contents. 

I plan to make a grid of the important contents from the articles but after the course. Their application is a reality for all of us. Almost all teachers shy away from them - are on denial mode . Higher education teachers in colleges teaching literature and other subjects have the gumption to question the very need to use even the one-computer classroom. Many of them detest the idea of having to make PPTs. They call those using them being 'dependent' on technology. For them a teacher is complete and the ones using other tools are doing so because they are not self-sufficient. How do I convince them that technology augments what the teacher does not substitute or replace them? Amidst such reservations vis-a-vis technology, recognition of multiple intelligences, learners possessing individual learning styles, convincing teachers to use technology is a tall order. It makes my task daunting but I won't stop trying.

So, I have a rough plan or rather plans:

1. Have my PGCTE syllabus converted to digital (ICT) format and offer it online to not just school teachers but college teachers too.

2. Incorporate ideas of ICT-based learning in the syllabus.

3. Offer the courses to many more groups of teachers directly or through organizations like RELO, British Council.

4. Guide those in material production.

5. Organize a series of seminars on ICT based learning.

6. Create Webquests and websites/ forums for managing courses, educating others on methods and preparing materials. 

Doing this course feels like I have found the next purpose of life. I have always been a very application oriented person so I would like to see myself implementing all that I learnt.  

     .        

During the week I systematically went through almost all the blogs and found some of them to be carrying interesting video clips. I plan to save them for future use.

That is it from me. More next week.

Sharda   

Week-8-Treasure Trove of Technology

My proposing the analogy of Treasure Trove with the words 'Open Sesame' as its key, for the assortment of sites and tools of technology, met with some opposition from Marisol who looks at technology as an organic substance and would rather compare it with clouds and the universe in general. Every week brings in a fresh assortement of technological tools. So did this one. ANVILL was the most popular choice what with its creator Jeff on the Nicenet site extending support to the new architects in the fray. I determined to venture into it at a later date while I experimented with hot potatoes and crosswordpuzzlegames and easytestmakers and all the others. It is amazing to discover the resources teachers have at their disposal. I now have a blog, a wiki page, a sidewiki and a nicenet site to interact with trainees. 

And this brings me to a vital observation:

When I did MA TEFL in 1990, I told my professors that there were so many theories on teaching language but not much material for students to learn from. The last 2 decades saw the market get flooded with customized material. I have myself contributed to it with a dozen odd titles.

Then came the time, 10 years back, when everyone began to speak of ICT-based learning. And I would say, 'but where are the materials?' ... Now Robert has shown us there is no dearth of Online teaching/learning tools. I once again want to pose a question to my professors and colleagues, 'But where are the course designers-syllabus planners-material organizers?'

Adopt, adapt, create, refine. There's plenty to do. Learning will never be the same again if we learn to plan things for students.

The project work was a bigger obsession. I felt happy to work with Hala and Nagwa. It also felt getting close to the two girls, a great feeling of bonding. The feeling that this would be a long term association. That we would continue our professional association. That I would meet them in Egypt when i went there for a holiday and that they could visit me in India. 

Well, I need exactly 3-4 days to finalize my paper. My trainees loved all the technology we used. From video voice (new speech training technology) to video recording. They just love me for bringing it to them. They are a motivated lot and my hypothesis has stood the test. 

I have divided the classroom work into three sections:

1. Needs Analysis (Survey on and Sensitization to Prosodic Features)

2. Lessons

3. Assessment and Evaluation

And all this involves the trainees in planning, selecting, using and reflecting.

So Robert and all my classmates, we will meet each other with our Artifacts towards the weekend. Until then let me get back to the project.

Sharda

PS: I am learning to be brief.

      

Week-7:Technology at its Modest Best

Week-7

Technology at its Modest Best

Technology, kind of took a back seat this week, this is how I perceived things, as far as the lessons from Robert were concerned. The One-Computer lesson plan was something one could manage more easily compared to Rubistar and Zunal, or even PPTs and the first lesson plan... and also the initial stage of blogging when my posts to peers protested no end before making imprints on peer possessed blogs. However, had one had more time to spare, there was lots to try out this week too.

I enjoyed reading other people's lessson plans; some of the ideas I couldn't have thought of myself. PK introduced me to some lessons on prosodic features on youtube and Nagwa had a research based game. Can be applied in my trainees' class. 

The articles categorized the use of computer in the class very systematically: I might as well make a list for ready reference: Computer as a (i) Teacher tool, (ii) Multimedia chalkboard (iii) Student tool (iv) Learning centre (v)Cooperative learning forum (vi) Individual S-assessment, etc and then  (vii) Administrative tool (viii) Communication station (ix) Information station (x) Publishing tool and (xi) Simulation centre. I undestand most of them but to learn to use them and then to internalize them will need time.

And then there were articles on Learner Autonomy and learning strategies. I had read about learning strategies in a chapter by JC Richards. He talked about different strategies learners employ, i.e. meta-cognitive, cognitive, affective, social, intellectual and compensatory strategies. Thanasoulas takes up some of them. For me her best in the article is in the detailing of what is Autonomy. I just loved her reference to, "actively seeking meaning from events". I have done it all my life. And not just in the academic contexts. Even life skills are learnt that way.  I also like the way she strings together a few approachs to teaching English including my favourite, "Monitor Model ...".

And here lies the beauty of this course. It takes up Technology the "hands on way", i.e. training us in its use in all the different ways and means that it can be exploited in. The tools we have learnt to use, when combined, can be used very well to bring the real and the virtual classrooms together. The course also gives a lot to the learner by way of Methodology. Hardly going into the theoretical constructs, it follows the "bottom up approach" by addressing issues like large classes, small classes, learner autonomy, multimedia lab, lesson planning, project-based approach, alternative assessment, rubrics and then each of the language skills like LSRW and of course loads of technology. The syllabus couldn't have been better what with the activities designed creatuvely, the reading selected so thoughtfully and the tools of technology taught well (let me quickly revise what I have learnt while I am at it: Nicenet, Blog, wiki page for PPTs, LPs, Signing Partnerships, etc and Delicious, Google Page, Rubistar, Zunal, PPT, ... am I forgetting anything?. All packed into 10 weeks.

But the course organizers have an advantage over many of us vis-a-vis our students: their learners are comfortable using English language skills and basic computer skills. So the learners deserve compliments here:)

This is running long, it's 3 a.m. at night and I have to go to work at 9. And I still haven't talked about the main issue Robert wants to read about. The Project.

The week was thrilling. I explored the possibility of downloading Prat, and many others. Nothing worked till we found Video Voice. The free sample is limited in range. It doesn't give me the visual display of the original version of the S's speech. Once the S has practised enough to acquire the model speech it lets me print it out. But I have found a way out and will implement it. It is going to be fun with the trainees giving me their print outs of recording tomorrow.

I have already conducted the survey and have prepared a worksheet for them and we will work on them tomorrow. They are going to be marking pause groups, sentence stress and intonation on the worksheets to show thier understanding of the features. I have also found the model speech now and can't wait to use it. I have met the trainees 3 times already. I need another 6 sessions with them, I suppose. I have enough time.

At least 1/3 of the project's first draft is ready. I plan to work on one subhead each day so by wednesday the first draft will be ready. Though most of the research work will be completed by Wednesday, I will be working with the trainees on it even after I have sent my first draft to Hala and Nagwa. I am sure it is allowed. 

I must wind up now. I think this time my blog is a little boring. Can't be helped. I had some official work (editing) to be done today which I had set aside for the blog and the project. Well, the next one will be interesting.

Good Night

Sharda