Week 7

Well, it’s already the end of the seventh week, and that means we’re getting closer to our final project. Again, this week’s topics, learner autonomy and one computer classroom, are quite helpful. First of all, according to many studies, students in Taiwan become less motivated as they study inside the classroom along the way, and they usually sit quietly and listen to what the teacher has to say throughout the whole class. So, how to foster learner autonomy is a big challenge to most teachers in Taiwan.

Then, we do only have one computer in the classroom, and the required readings provide many useful techniques to engage as many students as possible, such as learning center, presentation tool, communication station, simulation center, etc. The idea is to make the most use of the only one computer, and teachers can make the classroom such a wonderful learning environment full of outside and interactive resources with the help of Internet connection.

As for the tasks, we need to find a peer reading partner and create a one computer classroom lesson plan. I was honored to be invited by Thin Peng to be his partner. What’s more, we talked in person through Skype on Thursday night. Not only did we exchange ideas and thoughts about this online course, I also introduced a little bit about Taipei, such as the good food, night markets and the MRT. Following that, I created a lesson plan based on the ideas and techniques of one computer classroom from the suggested articles. When I was in the middle of doing this task, I suddenly realized that I also gained many clues of what I should do for my draft final project.

Now I already have difficulty imagining life after this online course because I’m so used to reading articles, creating posts and doing the tasks every day. They gradually have become a part of my life, especially every time when I feel I learn something new and useful and just can’t wait to give it a try to see if it works in the classroom. Besides, talking to one of your classmates in English is really a good learning experience, and I was already quite impressed by the way he always effectively organizes his thoughts in his posts before talking to him. So, though the course itself is a little demanding and tiring, I do believe I’m also making myself become a more professional teacher.

Week 6

I have learned two things this week. One is teaching large classes, and the other is interactive PowerPoint. I read the suggested articles about how to engage students in large classes and checked the given links that provide resources to help teachers get the job done. Also, I followed the instructions of how to make an interactive presentation step by step, implementing some techniques and adding Action Buttons as well.

Giving proper individual guidance in a large class is extremely challenging. Teachers can easily find excuses of not trying to create a student-centered class simply because lecturing is just a very effective teaching technique if you can ignore the fact that there is no interaction at all. Thus, how to give interactive lecture sounds more plausible for me under the circumstances, and I found Interactive Lecture Techniques,  http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/typesoftechniqu.html, provides many doable techniques that are worth trying.

Reflective Journal for Week 5

   I don’t think I am good at multitasking, so I was working much harder to finish all the assignments within two days. Why? Because I have a three-hour long presentation to do next Tuesday, and I also don’t think I’ve prepared well enough for it. And, there’s a whole-day workshop about speaking fluent English tomorrow. On top of that, I’ll have to go to Taipei and celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend. Finally, I can be fully concentrated on my presentation after this reflective journal.

   Enough complaining now. Then, what have I learned this week? Well, first of all, I read the suggest articles about PBL, WebQuest, Alternative Assessment and rubrics, and I found not only do they have a much in common, but this online course itself is exactly based on PBL. All of the topics this week are talking about one thing, which is to have learners demonstrate what they can actually DO with the language, instead of showing their mere knowledge on traditional paper-pencil tests. In order to do that, teachers have to develop rubrics in advance, and students are supposed to know the criteria even before they work on the project.

   As for practical web skills, I have learned how to develop rubrics through RubricStar at http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ . Rubrics play a curial role in evaluating students’ speaking and writing performances when a teacher decides to implement PBL in his or her classroom. With the help of the website, teachers can easily develop rubrics that suit their needs. The other skill I learned is to create a WebQuest through Zunal WebQuest Maker at http://www.zunal.com/ , which you can sign up and follow the instructions to create your own WebQuest step by step. To add some failover to your page, you are also allowed to upload pictures, music and videos to make it more appealing.

  I finally spent quite some time organizing and stacking my links on Delicious.com, and I’m going to introduce my page to other teachers at a workshop next Tue. After that, I can finally concrete on this online course without worrying about failing to hand in my homework on time. After the final project, it’ll be drawing even closer to the end of this semester. Being subsidized by the MOE, I can’t wait to go to Australia to study for five weeks this summer. Anyway, all I want to say is learning makes me happy, and being able to study abroad in a English-speaking country and see whether my English is good enough to survive there makes me even happier.

Reflective Journal for Week 4

Reading and writhing in English has become an important part of life since I took this online course, and I feel like I’m a student again. Each week, we’ll have a different topic and several assignments to do that really make time fly even faster. Not only will I gain lots of new ideas and web skills through this course, but I’ll also improve my writing skills by writing in English for all the discussions, tasks and journals, which also is related to this week’s topic, building reading and writing skills.

When I was doing my homework, my daughter was also very curious about the website, Starfll.com, that I surfed because it has vibrant colors and animated games to practice phonics and spelling. She was immediately attracted and wouldn’t let go of my laptop. Watching her getting everything right and laughing while playing those games let me think how lucky this generation is. When I began studying English in junior high school, my teacher just asked us to memorize all the facts and then gave us lots of tests, and many of my classmates have lost interest in learning since then.

Robert mentioned that our goal is to have a need-driven technology project, and we don't what to use technology in the classroom without knowing how the technology is going to satisfy our needs or solve the problems. I couldn’t agree with him more. Three or four years ago, English teachers here were asked to attend many workshops about the interactive whiteboard, telling us it was going to revolutionize the way we teach English in the classroom. But now, we still don’t have any whiteboards in my school. Moreover, a teacher who has used it for quite some time told me that he thought the whiteboards can be replaced by tablets. So, what’s the point of the wasted time when it is just a topic for the workshop, or it might be replaced some day?

Now, I want to talk about something which is irrelevant to this week’s course. I’m thinking that if it is possible some day technology can help all English learners to practice speaking at their computers, and I mean real and meaningful communication, just like you’re talking to a real person and exchanging ideas and thoughts with each other. Of the four language skills, you can always improve yourselves on your own by listening to English-speaking radios, reading English novels or keeping your diary in English. But, when it comes to speaking, you really have to talk to someone in person. With the technology of speech recognition and correction, learners of English can improve their pronunciation and intonation. Then, how about meaningful communication? Can technology like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPIbGnBQcJY ) really be happening in the future? If this is true, it’ll definitely revolutionize the way we, nonnative speakers, learn how to speak English in a much more fun way.