Peer review and Nicenet week 8

Regarding  my project American Holidays, I started a second group:

1.       Registered 10 students

2.       7 students are participating actively

3.       I have created a Hand Out, and changed the instructions on the course site

4.       I send alerts , and try to keep in touch

5.       I think results and feedback will be on time to evaluate the project  for the final report to our  teacher Robert Elliot

This week I had the chance to read Said’s project, he is going to implement it on his school in Egypt, and I learned many things, also from his comments on my project:

•      Teachers commitment is not restricted to class hours
•      Technology can be used to help change teaching style, Said will try a major change on the logic of grammar-translation and exam focus strategy used now, toward a communicative approach
•     Said blended the course content of his class with the project,  that is something we learned with Robert, and  is turned from theory to practice
•      Said recommended me to do things on an easy way, so students can more easily engage in the activities, I will keep his advice in mind.

I also reviewed Angels work, in this case not a project but an activity on a school in Spain:

•     It is possible to combine English with other subjects, as Biology, using in this case a Webquest for children
•    Multiple intelligences approach is possible with technology: Graphs, Videos, drawing are examples of different approaches used by Angels
•     Angels, recommends to work closer with the Institution to ensure students access to the Internet, and it is implied also that internet access should be part of the planning.

Finally, this week we concentrated on the Projects, but we had some Readings.

 I found it very useful to receive instructions about Nicenet. Although we use it almost daily since the course started, I hadn’t explored it properly. This week I created a sample course site for Debates, with the idea of helping student improve their writing skills. This is the course key: E346908O50

Luis

Week 7. Reflections

We are about to finish these great course, as we keep on moving, I see that resources on the Web are almost infinite, so when reading my classmates experiences and projects,

 I discover always new ways to use the same technology, or a new technology to work with the same idea, problem or skill. This universe of options, limited by time, program textbooks, and/or mandatory procedures, can be accessed inside a six-side environment (classroom) with only one gate or computer, with specific activities, and sometimes with resources provided by the course text book.

Technology is a means for the teacher to help students become more independent or autonomous learners, leaving the six walls of the classroom students may explore and discover new ways to improve their English command, at their own pace and perhaps setting their objectives, but student’s motivation to learn a new language is the key element here, so as teachers the challenge is to wake that motivation or help students develop it.

I see a double challenge when teaching English as part of a career or program, thus, students are in your class because they have to, not because they want to.

In terms of our final project, I’m working with Said and Angels, we are already on the class Wiky, I will learn a lot of their experience as teachers through their projects. For more on this, visit the blog on Sunday 26!

Implementing the Final Project Week 6

This week we started running our projects for the E-Teacher Program, so it’s been very demanding.  During the week, I have:

• 
  
•           Defined the details of the American Holidays WebQuest
•         Created a Google Site to work with the group on the WebQuest and  instructions
•           Enrolled the students as long as this is not a project for one class but for a group of grantees of an English and Leadership Scholarship Program
•          Shared the resources and created a Reading Comprehension test with Google Drive- Forms

·         For the future, I would have an introductory session P2P before launching the project, as this is the first time students participate on an online program, some instructions are not being followed properly-

·         Balancing the students knowledge and English content of the program is a hard and important issue.

Working with Large Classes

One problem with large groups or classes, specially in language learning is that students don’t receive individual attention,  feedback and perhaps also an individual chance to practice, so we have learned that:

1.       The “old trick” of making groups is still useful

2.       The use of technology through online tests, videos, interactive presentations, helps the teacher save time in class, and students have the chance to practice and learn individually at their own pace

3.       Team or Group work in the class require a random selection of the groups to control their work, if possible all groups should participate in the control process

4.       If you have a large group, creating an application that saves students answers in the form of a spreadsheet, it will save you a lot of time of the correction process, and you may give individual feedback to the students. Using the results to drive the in-class  discussion is possible too.

5.       From my point of view, although technology helps the teacher to work with large groups Speaking is the skill that need special  attention, so the time saved using the web could be used in the class to practice Speaking

Power Point Presentations

Power Point is a not completely exploited software for many of us (users), making linear presentations and rarely using the interactive tools available.

Power Point gives you the chance to change the routine and attract students attention toward the lessons

engaging them through the interactive options offered, making the class more interactive. 

Power Point/ Prezi (Cloud based presentation)  gives you the chance to use other resources as videos, animations, audio files, word docs, links, action buttons (PPT)  to innovate the class presentation and activities.

Beware of not making abuse of the tool or the animation-effects this could reduce effectiveness and create a different routine.  Content of the presentation as the content of  a regular class is a key element.

Don’t forget to have a B Plan just in case any issue comes with technology.
 

Week 5 Reflections

This has been a great week in our course, as a conclusion I can say that:  

1. (PBL) Project Based Learning is a great strategy to have the students learn and apply English giving it authentic meaning through the Project content

2. WebQuest can be used as part of a PBL activity or as an complete activity, can be less complicated for the students than PBL

3. Creating a Rubric and sharing it helps the teacher organise the the class on an effective way, and also will motivate the students to complete the tasks focusing on what really is important

4. Both  ZUNAL (WebQuest site)  RUBISTARS  (Rubric creator  site) are great sites, but are partially, free, so you may either get used the available options, or pay a reasonable access to the more complex options.  I think that Zunal.com can be more easily be substituted than Rubistar where you find pre-established content for general Rubrics that save a lot of time.


Luis

Curiosity . Week 5

This week we are reading and learning about WebQuest among other topics. 

The sites that were shared by Robert, are useful, and using a WebQuest gives you a number of benefits:

1.    You can save time having the students do the research and information analysis  using that time in the class for another activity  

2.    You may do the whole activity online

3.    You can integrate skills as you bring the result of the Quest, or part of the process, into the classroom for discussions or presentations

4.    As you assign the students a certain task using a limited information source  keeping  control 

5.    As Robert recommend in one of his tips, for Integrated Lesson Planing, do not  stick to one technology, site or application, to conduct the WebQuest there is a lot of options from Zunal   to Facebook.

 Curiosity may drive your students to complete a Quest!

Luis

PBL + ESP

Project Based Learning (PBL) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP)   make a great combination, I think that teaching an ESP class is the best and easiest time and chance to use PBL for ESOL. 

Why?

Firstly, most ESP courses include students that have a similar background, activity, profession, culture, or business, so the topics are much easier to be chosen by either the class or teacher, as Susan Gaers say: The project must be geared to the population.

Secondly, in general, the ESP content of textbooks makes it easy  to work on a final project

Finally, including as part of the evaluation a PBL activity will make the students to give a practical and monitored chance to practice.

Some examples:

English for Mechanical Engineering:  Writing a short project to solve a problem (real or fictional) with Curiosity Rover

English for Law: Role play on a trial using the Red Code movie

English for Business:  Analyze an article on an industry trend of Forbes Magazine  using Michael Porter’s 5 Competitive Forces model

Luis