This time I start my reflections on week 5 before I comment on Nicenet.
Mid week I had a look at the articles and additional material "project based learning" and "assessment".
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385
http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/
The articles were extremely interesting and somehow eye-opening. After I had read the articles I felt quite clear about the problems we face in our country with competitive international exams. Lerners' results do not climb over mediocrity or stay even lower. Still assessment in Austria emphasises ONLY on the learners' weaknesses instead of their strenths, what a sad waste of potential!
Teachers also complain about work, work, work and exhausting teaching szenarios in classes but when I read the lines "project based learning provides less teaching and more leaning" whereas the teacher centered learning szenario is too stiff and too book-oriented. Of course this teacher centered teaching style means too much teaching and too less learning in relation to the teaching-learning balance, in other words the autonomous learning process is missing and underdeveloped in class-project-work.
The video link (which is a briliant video, a must see) http://www.edutopia.org/stw-project-based-learning-best-practices-new-tech-video made me reflect my teaching style:
- Firstly I was proud that I do use a lot of off-line project-based-learning elements in my class, but still would have to improve, unfortunately world wide web hasn't been used in class yet due to off-line situation.
- Secondly when I watched the link a second time, I felt a strong need for internet and computers in class, unfortunately the comission decided to not invest money into internet connection and computer lab, not even one pc in class for the next two years. So I would have to put up with the current situation in my classes at the local adult education centres for another two more years.
- Thirdly, I do think there is only one chance to motivate my learners to work intensively at home. Pair work is a bit complicated, due to their distance to each other, because learners drive to class once a week, to meet for language lesson. Forcing students to pick this unique chance to consume very intensive language lessons with gaining web-skills at the same time, would be something outstanding and special at adult education centres in rural areas in Austria at the moment - a pionieering task! Offering traditional language training paired with technology from learners' homes, would enhance more regular and self-governing home-study, giving more autonomy to learners and finally improve their results.
Lots of good material, ideas, teaching guidelines! As I understand webquests, these are useful and material-filled platforms for both, teachers and students.
Webquests:
http://www.zunal.com/
http://www.webquest.org/search/index.php
Furthermore Robert suggested some great links:
http://www.wikispaces.com/
https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/pages/index.html
http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/02/what-are-the-best-free-hosted-course-management-systems-on-the-internet/
http://wallwisher.com/
Wonderful sites and tools that provide help in class management, collaboration and assessing as well as mindmapping and brainstorming. Now I am sure, these 10 weeks e-teacher training are much too short to explore enough helpful and inspiring tools for web enhanced teaching as there is still so much unexplored and undiscovered - an unbelievably rich pool of tools and rich week teacher training!
Mid week I had a look at the articles and additional material "project based learning" and "assessment".
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385
http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/
The articles were extremely interesting and somehow eye-opening. After I had read the articles I felt quite clear about the problems we face in our country with competitive international exams. Lerners' results do not climb over mediocrity or stay even lower. Still assessment in Austria emphasises ONLY on the learners' weaknesses instead of their strenths, what a sad waste of potential!
Teachers also complain about work, work, work and exhausting teaching szenarios in classes but when I read the lines "project based learning provides less teaching and more leaning" whereas the teacher centered learning szenario is too stiff and too book-oriented. Of course this teacher centered teaching style means too much teaching and too less learning in relation to the teaching-learning balance, in other words the autonomous learning process is missing and underdeveloped in class-project-work.
The video link (which is a briliant video, a must see) http://www.edutopia.org/stw-project-based-learning-best-practices-new-tech-video made me reflect my teaching style:
- Firstly I was proud that I do use a lot of off-line project-based-learning elements in my class, but still would have to improve, unfortunately world wide web hasn't been used in class yet due to off-line situation.
- Secondly when I watched the link a second time, I felt a strong need for internet and computers in class, unfortunately the comission decided to not invest money into internet connection and computer lab, not even one pc in class for the next two years. So I would have to put up with the current situation in my classes at the local adult education centres for another two more years.
- Thirdly, I do think there is only one chance to motivate my learners to work intensively at home. Pair work is a bit complicated, due to their distance to each other, because learners drive to class once a week, to meet for language lesson. Forcing students to pick this unique chance to consume very intensive language lessons with gaining web-skills at the same time, would be something outstanding and special at adult education centres in rural areas in Austria at the moment - a pionieering task! Offering traditional language training paired with technology from learners' homes, would enhance more regular and self-governing home-study, giving more autonomy to learners and finally improve their results.
Lots of good material, ideas, teaching guidelines! As I understand webquests, these are useful and material-filled platforms for both, teachers and students.
Webquests:
http://www.zunal.com/
http://www.webquest.org/search/index.php
Furthermore Robert suggested some great links:
http://www.wikispaces.com/
https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/pages/index.html
http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/02/what-are-the-best-free-hosted-course-management-systems-on-the-internet/
http://wallwisher.com/
Wonderful sites and tools that provide help in class management, collaboration and assessing as well as mindmapping and brainstorming. Now I am sure, these 10 weeks e-teacher training are much too short to explore enough helpful and inspiring tools for web enhanced teaching as there is still so much unexplored and undiscovered - an unbelievably rich pool of tools and rich week teacher training!
Well I love projects and planning actually and the sites you chose were really useful and interesting. Elena
ReplyDeletehi,
ReplyDeleteFalkner,
I do agree with your post and got impressed by your ideas. It was the really nice week for us to learn many useful thinks like creating rubric and moreover, PBL is good model for assessing students creativity. thanks.
Maheshwor
hi Brigitte!
ReplyDeleteyou and I are almost in the same situation. My students will also be using internet in their homes because we do not have computers and internet in the classes, which is why group works seems very difficult but can't we arrange discussions for the learners on skype after doing their individual tasks.
ya, I agree that WebQuests will be the best option in this context.
Aurangzeb Khan
Hello Brigitte,
ReplyDeleteAs the course aims at finding solution to the problems of our students, try to use technology to find a solution for your problem inside your class. You can build a permanent site and share ideas with your students through e mails. I like the saying " what we can't achieve all , we don't leave all.'. As Aurangzeb Khan told you, you can build a web quest for a monthly project. This can be easily achieved.
Mustafa
Dear Mustafa,
Deletethanks for your comment and suggestions. I have been using emails, blogs, facebook, virtual classroom technology, google docs and many other tools for my private English classes and In-company trainings since 2007, unfortunately I cannot use any of these tools in my classroom with students at the adult education centre. That makes me furious, sometimes. I would like to present and deliver my teaching service as webbased & traditional combination, but the institutes I work for are not interested in technology in class so there is only one chance to connect with my learners from home to their private PC. But all my home lessons and home-bound teaching sessions are not paid for at all, not even the preparatory work, because I teach adults in adult education centres who look for jobs or have difficulties, but do not receive a lot of financial support by local authorities.
Only public and grammar schools for children are best equipped with technology and internet. Once learners drop out of school during their teenage years too early and later decide to finish their education (beside having a job), they have to pay their education themselves as contrast to public schools, which are completely financed by the government.
My aim is to motivate learners to study English more intenslye and frequently, but there seems to be just ONLY one solution to stay connected - through world wide web!
My DREAM is to introduce web based teaching and learning to adults in adult education centres in rural areas of Austria, make it a widely accepted alternative to traditional classroom teaching.
best regards
Brigitte
Hi Brigette,
ReplyDeleteAs Elena I also liked links which you offered.I know you are experienced teacher trainer and it seems).
Good luck to you!
Best Regards,
Peri