Week 10 : Seasons of my learning: Looking back

How time does fly! I am writing my last blog post for this Webskill Course 2014 though at the eleventh hour. My blog journey started with this course. I hope it would continue with manifold colours.

This week we are given prompts in Google site to look back to sum up what we have learned so far.

Prompt 1 Most successful topic: The discussion on learner autonomy and learning style I enjoy most. Fostering learner autonomy is a challenge I have taken to make the paradigm shift in my educational context from teacher centred to learner centred approach. The understanding of different learning styles makes teachers, I think, motivated to be creative.

Prompt 2 Tools I will use: I wish I could use all the tools. Instantly the tool that came to my mind is real Englsh Video. These are authentic resources and could be very effective for my learners. Noodletools have made me free from the confinement of Google. I have just metioned a couple.

Prompts3 Relevancy of tools introduced: I think more or less all tools are  relevant provided that they are used pedagogically. Technology should not be used for only technology's sake, rather it should be used for learning's sake.

Prompts 4 Other tools I would have liked to be covered in this course: I missed Skype here. It is becoming a very common tool for video chat and presentation. I missed live interaction among participants and teachers through it. Besides, I wish there could be a project based task involving participants from different regions. It could give us insights about prospects and problems of project based learning.

Overall, this experience I could not forget and definitely take me a long way ahead!

I strongly wish all the participants and teachers remain in touch to sustain and stregthen the multi-cultural teacher community we have built here.

Eftekhar

Week 9 Seasons of my learning

I can hardly believe that I am on the verge of completing the course. It seems yesterday we kicked off the course.

The project work is mentally absorbing. I could rarely sleep last couple of days. I lagged behind earlier so I had to struggle to catch up. Even I messed up with deadline. I though it was 12 pm, fortunately I noticed at the last hour that it was not. Rather it was 11.59 am to be precise.

The important lesson I have learnt that one should not think big. I tried to prepare a complete course. It turned out to be a mountainous task that seems not to finish. I could have opted for a simple technological change. Life could have been easier!


This week we also read about Multiple intelligence. The reading makes us more motivated to incorporate innovation in our teaching practice so that we can reach diverse learners.

I should make a folder for all the resources, tools, blogs we have been introduced and used here. I wonder whether time will allow me or not. I should ask Sean how long we can get access to the materials.


I wish all the tasks I completed go right!

Week 8 Seasons of my learning

This week we have revisited some tools we are using in this course such as Nicenet, Blogger, Google doc, Google site etc. The revisit has definitely made me thinking how to use them in my context. Hopefully I could use them in my context as effectively as the way we are actively engaged with these tools.

The focus of the discussion thread this week is to have a link between these tools and learner autonomy. The bottom line of this discussion for me is that these tools have affordances to foster autonomy provided that teachers use and design them judiciously.

The project gave me hard time. Time was limited but lots to finish. I was puzzled. I felt necessity of a companion to lean against while preparing the course. It makes me realise the importance of collaboration. The draft was half done but the important thing is I was able to submit it. The feedback I got from Foli helped me to regroup my thoughts.

I felt I should create lots of tasks with all the tools mentioned in the wiki. I couldn't. However, I explored SMILE. The variety of tools available here made me amazed. The audio dropbox, the video dropbox, Mashup etc. I would definitely love to use with my students.

Now I wish I would be able to finish the project work on time!