Week 10: The sun set

The hardest thing to do is to say goodbye but at least it has a ‘good' attached to it that promises a better tomorrow.

 Though it's the time to part I want you to know that you have always been special to me for all the great moments we have shared together. I can't believe that our course is about to finish. It was a lovely and exciting journey. I am highly satisfied with the course and our dear instructors who did their best to guide and help us. To Courtney I say" May be tomorrow will be a new day without you but your teachings would always guide us.

That was the first time  I have an online course. It has been utterly beneficial. It has been an enriching experience to work with such active colleagues. I have learned and practiced many new things throughout the whole course.

The following are a summary of  what we have learned throughout each week. 

Week 1: Introductions; creating an Academic Blog

* Introduction to the course

* Setting ground rules for discussions

* Doing a needs analysis related to teaching and technology

* Looking at rubrics for self-evaluating discussion board posts

* Discussion: Self-introductions; ground rules for discussions; rubrics for posting

Week 2: The ABCD Learning Objectives Framework and Effective Web Searches

Week 3:  Skill-building Websites for Oral/Aural Skills and Saving Bookmarks with Delicious

Week 4: Skill-building Websites for Reading/Writing Skills and Technology-enhanced Lesson Plans

Week 5:  Project-based Learning, WebQuests, and rubrics

Week 6:  Creating Student-centered Classes and Interactive PowerPoint

Week 7: Learner Autonomy, the One-computer Classroom, and Mobile Devices

Week 8: Teacher Resources Online

Week 9: Learning styles - technology connections

Week 10: How we integrate  technology into our teaching

In addition to the above mentioned, this course has entertained a number of great moderators who ,by their sincere and technical hints, enriched the discussion. Like Andrea Banicki and Jiff  with his  speech-based course authoring tool " ANVILL".  and, all of them work  honestly with us and we are so grateful to them.

Week 9:Gardener 's multiple intelligences &Technology

 If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns.       (Rita Dunn)

This week had its unique topic  'Learning Styles and Technology'. According to Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences, we all have unique preferences and we exhibit a consistent way of perceiving, interacting with and responding to the stimuli in the context of learning. Therefore, it is one of the most important tasks for teachers to find the appropriate ways to incorporate the MI into the curricula in order to address different learning styles of their students. Technology proved to be a valuable and powerful tool for that. Technologies should be chosen to support a diverse student population and their unique learning styles. It is inappropriate for teachers to assume that all students can learn in the same way and can be force-fitted to one method of delivery.

This week also witnessed our final project completion. Using my partner's comments, observations from reading peer reports, and my own knowledge, I did my best to improve my draft and write the final version of my project plan. Then I finally submitted my final project plan on the class wiki. I hope I did well.

Week 8: Jeff's ANVILL

" If your actions inspires others to dream more. Learn more, do more      and become more, you are a leader."____John Qincy Adams.

 First, I'd like to welcome Jiff , our new comer this week, who   has   added  new colors to this course by his  speech-based course authoring tool " ANVILL". It  has  many tools . It is all in one. ANVILL allows teachers to create and organize their courses and receive assignments back from their students. It has been designed specifically for language instructors and their students. ANVILL has  many useful tools teacher can make use of them like Voiceboards, Live Chat, and Quizzes and Surveys. The  tool I like best is TCast, which allows teachers to record and place audio or video files anywhere in a lesson in three easy steps.

To create a class site or make online exercises was the first task of the eighth week. I've already created a Nicenet class, a wiki and a website using Google sites.

This week I surf  lots of web pages our dear instructors provided us to create our own exercises and tests. Hot Potatoes is one of the fastest and the easiest tool to create interactive exercises. With 'Hotpotato' many exercises can be designed in the form of crossword puzzle with pictures , multiple choice , drag and drop , and sentence match . All this exercises which greatly enhances students autonomy can be online or off line . I intend to make a group of various exercises on " Hotpotato ' and use 'Masher' application to gather them all. It is free software you can download from the website :  http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

Another tool for creating posters and worksheet you can find here:

 http://poster.4teachers.org/

This FREE tool allows educators to create a lesson, worksheet, or class page and immediately publish it online. Teachers can also set up classes and assign projects to students. Students complete the assignments by creating their own online projects or reports. Teachers and students can even add images and links to their pages. 

It is actually  a fruitful week . What great online tools we have learnt about this week!

Week 7 " Padlet"

Learner Autonomy & The Role of Technology

 "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."(Socrates)

This week I read many articles assigned by our instructors for us , about learner autonomy and what we could do to promote and foster  learner autonomy with or without technology. Reading the article "What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?" by Dimitrios Thanasoulas helped me refresh my ideas for education and what our role is as teachers. They also motivated us to be autonomous learners.

 Learner autonomy is a word coined in 1981 by Henri Holec,the father of learner autonomy. The concept of learners autonomy is: learners study entirely on their own, applied in self-directed learning with their own responsibility and determine direction of their own learning. So learners study freely on their own pace and it emphasizes education as a social process. It is students centered reading technique or self-directed learning. I read about many techniques available to help students gain a greater degree of autonomy in learning with or without technology. With technology, things seem to be quite evident and easy, but the first thing to do is to choose the proper one.

Another thing that we have learnt this week is creating activities  with one computer classroom. A school needs just a simple computer lab for teachers and learners  to access.

In addition to the  two main issues I have learned this week, we have been acquainted with a  new tool. What a wonderful tool it is! It is  absolutely new for me to use Padlet tool in learning. Padlet is a tool which can help learners achieve independence learning by sharing their ideas on the related topic. It can be used in classrooms to share resources so that anyone can refer to it when they have to do a research or a project. It can also enhance the cooperation among students and also gives them a chance to express themselves in a technology friendly classroom setting. Since learners have the freedom to choose within the scope of the context, it somehow motivates them to participate in class activities. Hence, student involvement will be highly encouraged if we use this Padlet. 

My concern now is teaching my target audience how to use technology in teaching and learning.

Week 6 PROJECT STEP: Implement the Change

To learn is to change. Education is a process that changes the learner.(George B. Leonard)

Thanks to Courteny's supportive suggestion and her kindly instructions, I am going to concentrate on introducing certain tools not all in my workshop for teachers to implement in their teaching context so as not to overwhelm them. I intend to introduce easy tools for them to use with their students. My PowerPoint presentation that I created this week is just a sample of what I intend to do.  Now  I am trying  to refine my project plans adding some activities to enhance my audience learning. I am thinking of applying the same course with my target audience. Do you think it works?

Some changes may be implemented on my project plans as a result of  some advice and feedback of  my instructors and my colleagues.

Week 6 : PowerPoint &Large Classes

This week  through exploring the additional readings and the websites suggested by our instructor, I have been navigating  many techniques and approaches of how to engage students in large classes and how to enhance lecture classes and promote student engagement and learning. To do that, the writer mentioned various factors including: Variety, Interest, individualization and collaboration.  Actually they are very useful techniques  for teachers. They are also so varied that the teacher can select the suitable one for his students  of different learning styles and contexts.

As for the other topic, I have created and design a lot of PowerPoint presentations before but this time has a unique taste. I have learnt that PowerPoint presentations can be used for education in three general formats: 1-Teacher to Audience 2- Teacher to Individual 3-Student To Audience. I have also learnt some design considerations to be always  put into considerations . In addition to the previous things, I have learnt new approaches of  how to use it in the classroom. I have  created and designed  my  interactive PowerPoint presentation. It is a workshop about "Using The Internet Resources for Teaching & Learning". Next time  on creating PowerPoint presentation I'll put in mind  some guidelines of what I have learnt through reading the articles and the web pages recommended by our instructors. In fact it is  a busy but fruitful week with so many materials and so many activities.

Week Five ,Webquests week

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the

world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”—Margaret Mead

This week  was so busy but  it was full of  useful  tasks. It  has  three  important activities  ; Project -based learning ; assessments and Webquests . I explored and compared several PBLs and learnt how they develop the ideas of inquiry , search and collaboration , and require students to work in teams . I also gained a clear idea about kinds of Webquests and how to plan a "Pencil-paper" Webquest. Webquests are based on the ideas of inquiry and constructivism. Webquests also incorporate cooperative and collaborative learning, since students work on projects in groups. We can use  it to promote interaction for meaningful and authentic purposes and to increase learner  motivation. 

Week 4: Andrea week

Wherever there are beginners and experts, old and young, there is some kind of learning going on, and some sort of teaching . We are pupils and we are all teachers. (Gilbert Highet)

 We are very Lucy this week to have a guest in our discussion, Andrea Banicki, one of our instructors.

I enjoy participating in this course day after day though things has been growing harder and more divergent . And one has to work  day and night to achieve the assigned tasks., for the discussion session this week, we have to read at least two articles. I read two articles concerning reading in an EFL setting - which have paved   my way to exploring lots of web pages related to using CALL in writing and reading activities. The two articles were about new ways to approach reading activities in class. More practice has been done on creating technology enhanced lesson plan based on the four language skills using multi-skill websites .This opened my eyes on exploring , searching , finding a relevant websites and topics that suit my purpose and meet my students level and needs . Now I can develop extra –curricular activities  supporting English language learning. I shared these websites with my colleagues adding the websites URLs  and description on Courtney's  Wiki.

I really enjoyed the  valuable website provided by Courtney. : http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Home

 I stayed the whole night surfing it and I'm still exploring its links and try its applications. The important point here to be taken into consideration is how to use these technology tools inside our classes and how to make them available and usable by our students. 

Week 3 "Delicious week"

That week  we have done 3 tasks ,Week 3 discussion about aural/oral  skill building, week 3 project step 2 and  week 3 task  how to create delicious  page.   I feel really excited to share  that site with others, which serves as a private bank for the one he uses ,  with my colleagues and my students . It's a web hosting or organizer for saving all the favorite links that we found on the internet so you don't have bookmark  these links. Delicious site provides us with  a good opportunity to keep our favorite sites and web pages. You can include links to other people's Delicious pages on your page, too. You have a choice to share your links with other people. Really it is considered a big treasure. For all what mentioned, I called  week 3 , Delicious week.

Lindsey Miller's article ‘Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials' has significantly added to my  knowledge of teaching listening. I have learnt how to plan a listening lesson effectively and I'm going to apply these steps on planning my listening lesson.  I have also learnt that listening exercises could be divided into three main parts: Pre-listening, While-listening, Post-listening activities.

Related to the previous task we were asked  to visit Aural /Oral skills building web site to explore only those site which help building listening /speaking skills and make a practical search for a specific topic then judge to which extent these sites suit and serve the needs of my students.

I explored many sites and shared many other useful ones with my colleagues . I booked them all in my delicious bookmarks to be a reference to me , my students , and my teachers . I found : http://www.real-english.com/as a very suitable website for my students' needs and interests .

It is so fascinating for me to see all those websites which deals with teaching listening ,speaking and pronunciation that provide students and teachers with useful tips and plans. I went through some of the quizzes, listened to conversations, and read some of the articles beside reading the posts and the reflection of my colleagues in the nicenet or in their blogs. Really it is a fruitful and  delicious week.

Week 2 Web Searching

Week 2 Web Searching

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who doesn't ask a question  remains a fool forever.

( Chinese proverb)

Two weeks  week  Passed. Or say One was an  Ice breaker week and the other had wonderful and interesting tasks. Thanks to our instructor, now I am highly satisfied with the skills I have acquired from that course  up till now. Do you believe that I have created my own class on Nicenet  web site? Not only that  but I My performance has shown that I have developed my ELT knowledge, skills and attitudes. The most  important thing I have learnt is how to write teaching objectives using ABCD method.  I've updated my old method in writing objectives.  I think This course is an eye-opening experience for me. I have benefited from every thing that was practiced.

We have shared a good number of new resources and tools. How great it has been to be familiar with Nicenet , wikis , blogs . I am really fascinated by the new tools I use now to communicate with each other  It took me two nights to be able to evaluate a few of search engines listed in Noodle tools. There are a huge amount of web sites dedicated to searching such as Google ,INFOMINE, Yahoo, etc. Google and Yahoo  are probably the most well known search engines. When they launched they were considered the most relevant. search engine results are also updated as frequently as Google. At least from the sites I have seen listed in Noodletools, iseek Education is considered a treasure for me as a teacher. I should advise  my colleagues to try iseek  Education. I myself tried it  exploring  some sites that contain information concerning efl and through it I could d find a huge amount of sites related to teaching English.  They have variety of teaching  materials and resources.

A heap of Greetings from Luxor

Week 1,  A good start

I think this course will be fruitful and useful for us. It will provide us with a lot of  practical information technology skills. Frankly ICA is something new for me and I'm proud that I am the first one ( pioneer)  to use it  as an exciting and Wonderful tool in my education. Regarding to blogs, I  used to create  my own blogs and I had  one on Geocities. But this time I feel that it is something different as I am going to use it actively in my next training courses instead of(old fashioned tool) reflective Journals. I think it is a very useful tool for creating a learning environment for learners. Really I am so happy to use and share such an innovative tool  with my colleagues and my students. My own personal hope for the future  is to support using blogs in our language courses. How exciting to share and exchange  experience with participants from so different countries as well as different cultures...!

I can't forget to thank our instructors who are very friendly and supportive.