Week 7 Reflection

Hello everybody,

Another wonderful week of learning of this awesome course with friendly instructors and our guest moderator, nice and friendly classmate whom we feel like close friends and amazing materials that fill our minds with the latest knowledge about how to be a professional teacher.

The reading: What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? By Dimitrios Thanasoulas

defining what “Autonomy”

quote Holec (1981: 3, cited in Benson & Voller, 1997: 1) who describes it as 'the ability to take charge of one's learning'. On a general note, the term autonomy has come to be used in at least five ways (see Benson & Voller, 1997: 2):

for situations in which learners study entirely on their own;

for a set of skills which can be learned and applied in self-directed learning;

for an inborn capacity which is suppressed by institutional education;

for the exercise of learners' responsibility for their own learning;

for the right of learners to determine the direction of their own learning.

And this what happens when you have Autonomous learners:

1.          Autonomous learners have insights into their learning styles and strategies;

2.          take an active approach to the learning task at hand;

3.          are willing to take risks, i.e., to communicate in the target language at all costs;

4.          are good guessers;

5.          attend to form as well as to content, that is, place importance on accuracy as well as appropriacy;

6.          develop the target language into a separate reference system and are willing to revise and reject hypotheses and rules that do not apply; and

7.          have a tolerant and outgoing approach to the target language.

This amazing article gives you even co Conditions for Learner Autonomy as we cannot leave our students without guidance or rules: repetition, when imitating others' speech;

o   resourcing, i.e., having recourse to dictionaries and other materials;

o   translation, that is, using their mother tongue as a basis for understanding and/or producing the target language;

o   note-taking;

o   deduction, i.e., conscious application of L2 rules;

o   contextualization, when embedding a word or phrase in a meaningful sequence;

o   transfer, that is, using knowledge acquired in the L1 to remember and understand facts and sequences in the L2;

o   inferencing, when matching an unfamiliar word against available information (a new word etc);

o   question for clarification, when asking the teacher to explain, etc.

The ideas of learner attitudes and motivation, self-esteem and how learner autonomy can be promoted, self-reports and at last making diaries and evaluation sheets were so much useful.

The second reading about Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush? Samuel Sheu shows  the difficulties in encouraging learner autonomy in Taiwan's highly constrained educational system and I liked the ideas discussed as we all might be faced with the same problems.

The One-computer classroom what an interesting topic ESL Activities for the One Computer Classroom (S.Gaer): Word-Processing Ideas: http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/wordprocessing.html  and Internet ideas: http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/internet.html and strategies and applications for the one-computer classroom http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm  are also great to refer to.

This one was also very beneficial “A list of ideas with a US school focus, but most ideas are relevant to any setting.” &7 Categories for Classroom Computer http://www.seirtec.org/present/onecomptr.html

http://legacy.lclark.edu/~krauss/campusvisits/home.html

The part about PowerPoint presentations that are produced by intermediate level students at the Institute for the Study of American Language and Culture (ISALC) at Lewis and Clark College has inspired me with great ideas. You find students taking the Communications Skills class choose a campus office or department in which they are interested, and conduct an interview of personnel in that department. Students take notes and photos during the interview, which they then incorporate into PowerPoint presentations. Students later use their PowerPoint slides as visual aids when they present oral reports of their campus visits to their classmates. This page serves as a resource to introduce new ISALC students to campus services and departments at Lewis & Clark. In addition, students can look at these PowerPoint presentations as samples of the work they will be producing when they complete their Campus Visits project in the Communications Skills class. Here is what you find in this useful website or page.

o   Student PowerPoint Presentations and Campus Locations

o   Teaching Materials for PowerPoint

o   Benefits and Challenges of the Project

o   Campus Safety (30)

o   College Outdoors (36)

o   Counseling Center (36)

o   Health Center (36)

o   Information Technology (26)

o   International Student Services (36)

o   Overseas Programs (26)

o   Writing Center (26)

Return to top.

The part about  Teaching Materials & Introducing Students to PowerPoint gets teachers the Benefits and Challenges of the Project:

Benefits

o   Students become acquainted with campus personnel, department locations, functions, and services.

o   Students call for appointments, arrange and conduct interviews, take digital photos.

o   Students take notes during the interview; prepare concise, logical outlines from the information.

o   Students learn to create presentations in PowerPoint.

o   Students gain experience in oral presentations.

o   Students use a large screen projection system as a visual aid.

o   Students listen to, take notes from and ask questions about classmates' oral reports.

o   Reports are better organized, more interesting, and professional looking with PowerPoint.

o   Students are more motivated to present and to listen with PowerPoint visual aids.

o   Teachers gain expertise in teaching PowerPoint.

o   Campus Visits reports become accessible as a program resource.

Challenges

o   Scheduling conflicts: department staff, computer lab, digital camera

o   Over-reliance on visual aid

o   Technical difficulties during presentation

o   Lost/damaged presentations

I liked so my much the teacher’s idea of getting all her WebPages in one page :

“Where you can find all of Susan's Webpages in one place”

http://www.susangaer.com/

Quick Links

o   Web Projects

o   Archive of Susan's Classes

o   Games

o   Technology Training

o   Low Beginning Webquest

o   Hours of Operation

o   The Project Based Learning Place

o   Internet Enhanced Lessons for ESL

o   The One Computer Classroom

My curiosity led me to explore Internet Ideas where you find:

Group Projects

Google Images

Over the Counter Medicine

Land's End

Supermarket Prices

Quick Individual Projects for the lab

Shopping for a home

Home Remedies

http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/blueball.gifFood Project (combined with Internet for low literacy learners)

Larger Individual Projects

Student Stories

Student Web pages

This link about strategies abnd applications for the One Computer Classroom http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm is also a great page to refer to with:

Use the Computer as Teacher Tool to have great ideas of great help to all of us such as:

o   Keep records, manipulate information, produce individual letters to parents.

o   Produce a class newsletter.

o   Create customized follow-up work for lessons.

o   Make personalized certificates of achievement.

o   Create customized graphic organizers and direction sheets.

o   Create charts, student lists and name tags.

o   Communicate with other professionals and subject experts via email.

Tips:

Use Stationery and Template files in the Global Shared File

Use spreadsheets for class lists and charts

Use database for student information

  Then Use the Computer as Multi-Media Chalk Board or Flip Chart:

(whole class on TV monitor or overhead or small group on the computer monitor)

Also:

 Have Students use the Computer as a Tool for Individual Input as Part of a Larger Group or Class Project, Use the Computer as Learning Center or Station, Use the Computer as Cooperative Learning Tool, (Use for writing, organizing, synthesizing, brainstorming, comparing, contrasting, etc.), Have Students Use the Computer to do Individual Work for Practice or Assessment and use automatic features such as bibliography in Student Writing Center or the Outline feature in ClarisWorks. (Great Ideas)

The Interactive Projects might be useful to teachers and students to get ideas and see model work. http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/int.htm

Also: Strategies and applications for the one-computer classroom http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm A list of ideas with a US school focus, but most ideas are relevant to any setting is very useful to read.

Another amazing pages are

Interactive Game for web

http://www.globalschoolnet.org/GSH/project/gg/?CFID=42519726&CFTOKEN=20695856

But I Don't Have a Computer Lab!

Using One Computer in the Classroom

http://www.seirtec.org/present/onecomptr.html

Create a Basic Grade Book using a Spreadsheet

http://www.seirtec.org/present/gradebook.html

This part about the 7 Categories of Classroom Computer Use is AWESOME!!!

1. Administrative Tool

o   Word processor- letters, class notes, quizzes, word searches

o   Test generator

o   Database for mail merges

o   Attendance and grade book

o   Communications- e-mail other teachers, join educational listservs

o   Research tool- educational CDs, Internet

2. Presentation tool (see Display options at bottom of this page)

For teachers:

o   display notes, quizzes, video clips, etc.

o   science/math class to create graphs, charts

o   demonstrate computer basic skills/training

o   review information/drill facts

For students:

o   use with oral reports

o   show multimedia projects

3. Communication station

o   E-mail other students/classrooms (i.e. “keypals”), other teachers, subject experts

o   http://www.askanexpert.com

o   Quick Cam to take pictures of students or communicate face to face

4. Information station

o   Use CD-ROM encyclopedia for research, pictures, video and sound clips, etc.

o   Use Internet to access libraries, projects, databases, addresses, etc.

5. Publishing tool

o   Monthly class magazine, newsletter, anthologies

o   Classroom journal

o   Ongoing story center

o   Brochure for project

o   Web publishing

6. Learning center

o   Specific content software to reinforce or remediate skills (drill and practice)

o   Use templates for student projects

7. Simulation center

o   Use specialized software to create simulations (i.e. Tom Snyder’s software)

o   form teams of students

o   students complete worksheet as they work through the program

o   students make predictions

The Issues in the One Computer Classroom

Issue #1-  Hardware

Issue #2- Software

Issue #3- Internet

Issue #4 Management

In the Additional Resources I found this page that is worth reading and applying:

25 Ways to Integrate the Internet for all ages of learners:

http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?tour_id=13326

The task: Create a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom was also a sort of refreshment to mind to read what other classmates do in their classes.

Also choosing a partner is a great idea to share our work and self correct it before being published and to give out feedback to each other.

Also Discussions about learner autonomy (Thanasoulas, Sheu, Interconnections). Effective self-directed learning starts with learner autonomy and  using one computer in their classes also inspired me a lot after and before I wrote my comment in the Nicenet. I end my reflection here with my quote: “I cannot imagine my life without my laptop or my coffee :).” I wish you all good luck and the best in life.

 (Picture googled)