Explore the Technology tools

WEEK 8

This week was a bit tough for me due to some personal problems. I was disturbed due to some problems which became hurdle in the progress of my week 8 learning. Week 8 shared some valuable information and methods of teaching with us which are useful to use in teaching. we had to explore some technology tools which are used in teaching. I have explored many websites given on wiki they are amazing and useful. I loved them for many reasons; they are equally valuable for all level learners, students can access and get benefit from it and teacher resources are useful too. I found http://www.toolsforeducators.com/ very interesting and useful it includes word search, bingo, crossword puzzles, and board games many exercises which create interest in students and motivate them to read and understand the lesson. It can help me in different ways like preparing different activities for class and conducting different games etc. 

There are different activities which assist teacher to conduct in the class to enhance the class autonomy. bogglesworldesl.com is the website which include puzzle, multiple choice questions, games and bingos which can boost up the class autonomy, other websites are too very useful in all regards. 

The constraints are less but I have some hurdles to conduct most of the activities due to resource and our course planning which is given to us by our program coordinators. 

We have taken final initiative of making final projects, It was time taking activity but was useful, my partner is khadija i shared my project and she did her's. over all week was tiring and interesting for me.  

meet you next week Inshallah.

One Computer Classroom and learners Autonomy

Asalam O Alaikum and Hi to All!

This week we came through two more ideas of teaching 'The One Computer Class' and 'The Learners Autonomy' which assist the teacher and students both in their classes. I liked the both ideas, i found it very useful in my class. I chose to discuss on one computer classroom therefor i am going to share my ideas about it.

One computer class is an interesting idea for those who don't have computer lab or doesn't need many computers in class room. I am using one computer in my class. Though I wasn't using technology much with the teaching of English language but now I would use the related technology with the teaching of English language.

I have been using computer for few purposes in my class those are listening activities, subjective videos etc. I teach American headway course books to the students, I get the listening and videos material from their official website than I store them in my computer and use it with the lessons. Before this course I wasn't feel it very interesting and informative as I do it now. I learned the way to use the technology in teaching, I can apply the Interactive Power Point Presentation in teaching, I can manage the interactive classes, I can use computer as tool of motivation to the students and I can use one computer as an administrative, teacher and student tool in class for learning. Thats all from my side and I would love to listen from you and appreciate your positive critics because i believe that there are always than your's the one who can accept and follow and lead to success.

Interactive Lecture and Power Point Presentation

As we go forward we find new and informative material for teaching. This week was relax but interesting we had interactive lecture and Power Point Presentation which are going to be very useful for the teaching. I read about both the interactive lectures and Power Point I chose the Power Point to work on. The interactive Power Point Presentation has valuable benefits. 

There are always some factors which try to push us near success and when find them in our routes we get to the summit of success. I am pointing towards the methods and material we get during this course I am really fond of them now I feel every week an emerging steps in my teaching career. I have read the instructions of an effective interactive lecture and power point I found both of them very much interesting and valuable. I chose the power point discussion to post about. The instructions are though simple but are outstanding.  The ABCD objectives really play a vital role in the preparation of PPT presentation.

Following are main points of interactive Power Point which differentiate it from the standard Power Point;

·         Think about goals and purpose of handouts.

·         Minimize the number of slides.

·         Don't parrot PowerPoint.

·         Hold up your end.

·         Time your talk.

·         Give it a rest.

·         Make it interactive.

·         Mix up the media.

·         Hide your pointer.

·         Rehearse before presenting.

We can simply set up the interactive power point presentation in our class by following the aforementioned steps. Adding/mixing media to the PPT presentation makes it interactive and interesting. Parroting the Power Point is very common which creates negative impact on the audience so it should avoided as much as possible and another important thing is rehearsing before presentation because it’s very necessary for an effective lecture.

Power Point Presentation is a useful tool for addressing or presenting/sharing ideas and knowledge to the targeted audience. We can make it more affective by making it audience center presentation, like we engage the audience by asking them questions during the presentation, by adding attractive and informative images to the presentation or by providing them handouts that the do not worry to note down the concerned information during the presentation. Another thing which can make it more interactive the presenter should carry the audience along with him himself by adding some interesting extra information in the presentation that the audience don’t get tired and go along with him. There are some other techniques as well to make it effective, interesting and interactive which can be found online and in books.

Related Technology Tool

I have selected the video conference tool for the improvement of my students’ confidence. I couldn’t implement it now because we had off our classes for few days because of Election here our country. I have suggested the students to access the internet for some activities I conduct in my class for the students’ confidence improvement. Each student has to bring one joke, new English word, general knowledge information and Traditions of our religion. It helps them to raise their confidence level, improve the knowledge, know own tradition like PBL and improve the vocabulary.

WebQuests, PBL and Rubrics

      

          Week 5 is the center of our course it has much importance to us because we are now on stage where we learned the basic and important part of the project materials. I was much excited when I read the Madam Dona's mail as she described week 5 as her favorite and interesting week. I was enthusiastic to read the topics and as I read about the WebQuest, PBL (Project By Learning) and Rubrics I was so much impressed by them. I really found it interesting and useful. Rubrics were introduced in the beginning of the course I found it beneficial that time but WebQuest and PBL are added to increase the essence of learning.

WebQuest

        WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity that uses resources on the World Wide Web. The First WebQuest In 1995, San Diego State University's Bernie Dodge and Tom March developed a type of lesson plan what they termed a "WebQuest" that incorporated links to, from, and along the World Wide Web. The students were given Internet resources and asked to analyze and synthesize the information and come up with their own creative solutions. Over the next three years, teachers wrote their own WebQuests. It is the tool to use to benefit the students/learners of every field as it assists them to search thoroughly in deep in the selected areas of the subject. Therefore I can use it in my class to assist my students to search the specific areas of their need and can make the WebQuest as a record. I went through different WebQuests on zunal.com I found them very interesting and I learned that we can find very valuable information on webquests. One thing I felt about the procedure of the WebQuest was it resembles the lesson plans and the six steps are interesting and useful to get information and to create a WebQuest.

PBL:

         The only constant is CHANGE (Heraclitus). I like the change by the passage of time in terms of innovation. PBL is a useful and interactive team work tool. It helps learners to put the strength together and find the solution of any problem on the basis of experience and knowledge as quoted by Susan Gear in her article about the PBL. She mentioned the example of Asian students as they presented the historical stories of their vicinity. This approach resists the traditional way of learning I can find useful in my class as a teacher because we follow the traditional books of western culture here in Asia which are not clear to the learners but now thanks to PBL I can engage them in the activities of their own culture, recipes or any other open ended topics. 

Rubrics:

           Rubrics are the alternative way of assessment. It has been followed in this course and I liked the rules and I can find it useful in teaching because it encompasses the core areas of learners, learner is not any more in dark he can persuade the success in the light of his strengths and weakness shown to him.

          We are trying to solve our own or students problem through technology, The problem I face in my class students is that they cannot express their knowledge in class with the teacher or other colleagues, this is due to the lack of confidence in them and I am willing to assist them to overcome their problem with the help of technology.

          I am planning to connect them online with other students from the different corners of the world where they can talk with each other and can find out the confidence in other students and share their ideas with each other. I am going to use the video conferencing technological tool in my project and here I can find the students of my online course colleague’s students. I hope it can solve my problem.

Overall week 5 was very motivating and beneficial for us.