Week 7 Reflection

There are four tasks this week: a Discussion, a Project Task, and a course Task that I did on Nicenet, and reflective post on the blog. Week 7 was also busy and through discussion and reading I have got many ideas and strategies to use when teaching a class with only one computer and to encourage greater autonomy in my students.
Discussions:
Discussion 1: I read about learner autonomy (Thanasoulas, Sheu, Interconnections) and discussed what I have already been doing and what I could you do to encourage greater autonomy in my students, with and without technology. Then in
Discussion 2: Then I participated in the forum as I am using one computer in their classes, to describe how I use the computer in my lesson how it benefit all the students.
Task: Create a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom
I have created a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom on the topic writing summaries for Advanced Certificate level students (they have got this topic in their syllabus). I have posted this on the Nicenet and waiting for my colleagues comments.
Project Task 6: Suggest a partner for peer review
For peer review I have got Deep as my partner and when we complete our report, we will share it through the link give by Robert and comment on each other (draft report is due to the partner by Wednesday, November 16).
Blog: Weekly Reflection
I have been uploading most of my postings, comments and other work on my blog and commenting of a friend’s blog as well as this is something we have to do each week.

Week 7 Task: One Computer Lesson

My Lesson for One Computer Class

Students: Advanced Certificate level 20 students.
AGE: 20-35 years old.
Topic: Summary Writing (an article)
Duration: 1.30 hours
Resources: one computer, multimedia projector and texts for summary writing
Links:
Summarizing http://www.tnewfields.info/Articles/sum.htm
Sample Summaries: http://www.tnewfields.info/Articles/sumE.htm
Summary Ball: http://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/SummaryBall.html
Passages for summaries: http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Reading%20Comprehension.htm

ABCD objectives:
After listening the teacher explaining about summary writing (using the projector) (Condition) the students (Audience) will play the game Summary Ball (Behavior) and each student state at least two points (Degree).

Students (Audience) in groups will discuss and note down (Behavior) at least five points (Degree)they want include in their summary by looking at the text given to them(Condition).

Students (Audience) in groups will go online in the specified time for the group (Condition) read the sample summaries, and type their summaries (Behavior) and complete it in the given time (Degree).

Activities:
The teacher explain about summary writing (20min)using a slide show and then after that students play the game summary ball where the teacher throws a soft ball to one of the student and that student tells two points which are important for summarizing. (This will be for 10 min).Then students are divided into groups of 5. Each group is given a text of 400-500 words and they work in groups to note down the important points. A schedule is given to students the time for each group to go on the computer for reading the sample summaries and typing their own summaries. Each group take turns and use the computer and finish their summaries in the given time. (Each group gets 15 minutes total 60 minutes to use the computer).

Your comments are welcome!

Week 7- Project Task: Find a Partner for Peer Reading -

I requested Elmira and Vinicius to become my partners, however, before I got an answer from them Deep has requested me to be his partner. So I immediately accepted and we are ready to start with our peer reading of our final project when it is ready. Right Deep!

Week 7 Discussion- Learner Autonomy

According to Dimitrios, learner autonomy is shifting the responsibility from teachers to learners and changes to the curriculum itself towards a more learner-centred kind of learning.

Students differ in their learning habits, interests, needs, and motivation. So, in order to encourage greater autonomy in students, we can try to create a friendly atmosphere where learners can get the freedom of studying by their own, get open and positive feedback, respect others ideas and take the responsibility of their own learning while the teacher acts as a facilitator of learning.

We can include learning strategies like different activities which involve critical reflection, decision-making, cognitive and metacognitive strategies, note-taking; repetition, resourcing, contextualization, self-report, diaries and question for clarification. Contextualization can be very important here it provides opportunities for the students to use what they learn in a meaningful context. Also diaries and expectation/evaluation sheets can play a huge role as they offer students the possibility to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning, identify any problems and suggest solutions.

Of these activities I have been using cognitive and metacognitive strategies, note-taking; repetition and mostly expectation/evaluation sheets. I still need to use more contextualization activities and critical reflection in my lessons

Week 6-Project Task 5: Begin to implement the change

I have started implementing the change related project two weeks back. I am using Voicethread and upload photos and (hopefully videos and audios) for the students to comment using voice and writing. This is to try and improve their communication skills. During week 1 there were some comments from students, however, in this week students have not responded yet.

I feel that this time of the year is not good to start such a project for my students. There are many reasons for this. My students are having their final exam this coming Tuesday to Thursday and as they are preparing for their exam they might not be getting time for this. After their exam they are going for their annual vacation of about two and half months. I have been contacting the students with email and sms and through telephone, however, the response for the Voicethread is very low.

Week 6- Discussion on interactive power point

I have done all the readings about power point presentations and got some very important information, like the ten best practice tips which I have been trying to practice.

1. Think about goals and purpose of handouts.
2. Minimize the number of slides.
3. Don't parrot PowerPoint.
4. Hold up your end
5. Time your talk.
6. Give it a rest
8. Mix up the media
9. Hide your pointer. Presenting with PowerPoint
7. Make it interactive.
8. Mix up the media
9. Hide your pointer.
10. Rehearse before presenting.

I normally use different media such as audio and video and photos, try to minimize the slides while I present and also do rehearse before my presentations. I learnt the setting of a Kiosk Show while doing a presentation for my faculties’ advertisement. From then I use that feature in all the advertising fairs. However, I have to agree that sometimes my presentations may not be very interactive. In fact this week after reading the handouts I have learnt how to add action buttons to a presentation. Adding action buttons are quite interesting and took me some time to learn. This will help me to make my presentations interactive. I am excited that I will be able to add quizzes, multiple choice questions etc to my presentation. Of the techniques listed in the articles to promote interactivity, I have tried Blank slide, ConcepTest, Think-Pair-Share and some more in my slide show created for this week on Online Learning which you can access from our class Wiki.

Week 6-Creating an INTERACTIVE Power Point

After reading about ways to create active learning lessons while using PowerPoint and viewing some examples I have created an interactive PowerPoint presentation on the topic Online Learning.

I have used blank slides, photos, hyperlinks of articles and videos, and other techniques to make my presentation interesting for the students. In my presentation I have asked the students to use ‘Think-Pair-Share’ techniques to discuss about what online learning is and then read about it from a given website, watch a Youtube video on the same topic. After that students do a small multiple choice quiz.

The most important thing I have learned this week is creating a quiz by inserting action button and this is quite useful for me. I will be using it in my future presentations.