Week 7 " Padlet"
Learner Autonomy &
The Role of Technology
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.
