Week7 Seasons of my learning

If the last week is mentally upsetting for me, this week is no way better. I lost my father-in-law suddenly. I am shell shocked with his premature death. I am still trying regroup my focus to get back to the track.


The reading and discussion this week focuses on Learner Autonomy. Empowering learners in the process of learning is an effective means to get desired goal in education but it is difficult to implement. What I tried to ponder on in this week's discussion is contexual constraints against fostering autonomy in the form of syllabus and curriculum from the adminstrative authority. Still, I believe, the creativity of the teachers even within the limitations can liberate students from the hurdles that apparently make them passive rather than (pro-)active in learning.

Our guest teacher Rachel comes with a question that I don't know I can reply in nicenet as it  is going through some technical upgrades and I can' log in. The question is if I were a part of designing syllabus and curriculum what changes I would make.

The first thing that comes to my mind is changing the assessment policy. I am simply fed-up with it. The burden of exams is making both students and teachers mechanical in our context. Students only think of exams; what will come there, how to get good grades and what to memorise etc. Tecahers, on the the other hand, concentrate on those aspects that might feature in the coming exams. If a teacher happens or tries to be innovative or experimental in trying out new things, everybody, students, parents, authority, will start screaming 'why?why?why?'. So, I prefer less exams if 'no exam' policy is not viable. And instead of summative assessment I would introduce formative assessment policy.

For all the changes to be successful I believe the mindset of the teachers need to be tailored in line with the innovations proposed. No matter how learner centred the syllabus and curriculum is, teachers are expert enough to alter it and use it in their traditional teacher centerd way.  In our context, CLT has been introduced but in classrooms it has hardly been visible. New aproach but old teaching method is like old wine with new label. So, teacher training is a must on different approaches to teaching such as learner-centred approach, project based learning, task based learning etc. along with practical demonstration on how to implement them in classrooms. Afterwards, the follow-up activities should ensure teachers are transferring their knowledge from training to the classroom.

Regarding the syllabus and curriculm I feel teachers should at the very begining make a mind map of the students of what they they want to be, what skills they need to master for the goals they set. In other words, the syllabus should be need based rather than the one  that comes from the top and for everybody irrespective of leaners with diverse nature. After determining the needs, the materials for the syllabus should be different projects and/or tasks. Such innovations teacher can not design and implement unless he/she is unburdened from excessive number of exams.

Padlet task has helped refine my thoughts on my project,  Ealier I was thinking of blogs for my research students to have reflective diary. It would have been nice but students need to learn blogging as it is new for them. Since I am planning to use padlet in classroom for ensuring interaction, it would be easier for them to use it for other purpose. They could write their reflection in doc file and paste it to the wall prescribed. Even if they are not comfortable writing on the computer they can do it in a diary and later paste the scanned page of the diary to the wall.


The progress of project work is sloth due to unavoidable circumstances. Foli has kindly agreed to partner me in the project. I should not do anything to let him down.

Overall, it is a great week with personal calamities.


Eftekhar

Week 6 Seasons of my learning

My kids are sick, my wife is not feeling well, my house became a hospital. Moreover, the internet connection throughout the week is very slow and it keeps breaking down. Everything reminds me of a famous proverb' Misfortune never comes alone!' Difficulties made me almost break down. Even I thought of quitting. I felt I could not do any task this week. Thank God, I could finally finish the assigned tasks, though I have made a little progress in project work. Still I feel panicked whether I could make it or not.

The PowerPoint gave me hard time. I was so confident in preparing it at the very beginning as I successfully made some interactive presentations before teachers and students.But now  I could not manage enough time and the video I have incorporated in my presentation seems not working in all the laptops and why I still could not specify. It took from me long hours to get the solution on line. In the end, only time lost, no solution found.


In the project work I could not reach where I should be by now. The works so far done are as follows:

1) The complete outline of course materials I have already prepared to upload either in my blog or in my Schoology account. For this regard, I have scanned some materials, prepared some quizzes, listed linked I am goint to use, prepared rubrics, hand outs and organised them into 14 weeks( the duration of the course, Research Methodology, I am teaching and preparing materials for). Regarding the materials I already talked with my collegues to find out whether anything is missing or not. Upon their suggestions I made some changes also

2) I have prepared a plan with deadline to implement the change I am trying to make. My currrent students in research methodology course are half way through and already finished their midterm-exam. By the time we will finish this webskill course they will only resume their classes after midterm. So, they can't be active participants. Thats why I have decided to present a plan project. However, with some of the students and teachers I am planning to make a trial run  of the course I have designed to see how it goes  and what kind of hurdles and positives there are.

I have planned that the next two day I would finalise the complete organisation of course materials with necessary resources. And the next two days I have booked appointments with my teachers and students to implement the trial run with my course. So within these busy four days, if everything goes ok, I would get an impression on my course.

3) In order to understand plan project I have read the previous plan projects and printed out the templates to understand what to be done.

On the whole I must admit I unintentionally lagged behind this week and I don't know whether I can cover it up or not.

Eftekhar

Week 5 Seasons of my learning

I could not believe that we have finished the half way line of this course! Every week seems to be running a hundred meter's race. And I am always coming last. Unfortunate!

For last five weeks I have been thinking of making some additions to my blog. But thoughts remained thoughts only. Only thing I could add is a background music tool. Alas! it's not working and I could not find why.

The tasks for this week are intellectually enlightening. The reading gave us a comprehesive idea about Project based learning, Alternative assessment and Webquest.

Rubistar proved a real ruby for me. Earlier I was reluctant to create rubrics for my student. Now, I would not teach a lesson without rubric since I have Rubistar with me.

The project thoughts as usually seemed difficult for me. I had to come up with ideas to solve the issues I raised last week. I now wish I raised less issues to solve! It was not at all a happy problem solving for me. I was writing my thoughts directly to the nicenet message box for posting. Unfortunately, the connection was lost and my finished discussion disappeared. I didn't notice that there is no auto saving option in nicenet. So I had to rewrite and it was painful.

The webquest is fun. I browsed so many templates to prepare one and still browsing. I don't know whether I could finish it before the deadline. No matter what happens I am determined to create it.

In one of the week's posting I said I love challenges. And my love is approaching towards me so vigorously I feel panicked!

Week 4 Seasons of my learning

Another week went by!Phew! It was a stress. Last week I thought I settled down but this week I felt different!

The first mail from Sean this week was enough to unsettle me. The project outline given there made me thinking all the time. I am still in a puzzle how to frame the project, whether I could finish it or not. I know it will continue until I submit it.

Between my project thoughts and this week's reading I really struggled to make a link. The readings covered articles on reading, writing and grammar, but my project focus is developing research skill. The articles and the related websites are very interesting and the ideas such as extensive reading  with e-books and writing development through email, web pages and class blogs are fascinating and surely I would try them in my context.

The Nicenet discussion threads posed a problem for me. The initial post by Sean regarding the discussion on reading, writing and grammar didn't say anything about articles. It says to explore links of the tech-tools, websites given and comment on their suitability in my context and also to add an ABCD style objective for the link/website/ tool I feel appropriate for my learners. I was not sure whether the discussion  should include my comments on the articles I read or not. Eventually I decided to incorporate them.

The technology inspired lesson plan was time consuming and proved nerve breaking for me. Preparing assessment criterion,  organizing activities with allotment of time, mentioning expected outcomes,etc. all these in a single go was challenging. When it was finally finished, there were a sense of relief, a sense of achievement, and also a sense of satisfaction. It will definitely help me to step forward with my project.

The last task was on finding issues that I want to address in my project with technology.

So we are gradually preparing ourselves and heading towards our final project submission.

Overall, this week is exhausting for me!