Week 8: The meadow is green but the goat is sick..!

    If there is a fact to be said in this week it would be that “These tools; Nicenet, Anvill, blogger..etc are the core of our course, I think. They are the soil where we can plant the seeds we’ve been accumulating so far in this course”

These tools have made the learning process as a bed of roses which nobody has ever thought of. Has anyone ever dreamt of this abundant of resources and references?! I am not only talking about ESL, but in all fields. Old days, not so long ago, people would suffer a lot to get a piece of information, they might also resort to travel to far places to get a reference or a book. But now we have everything we need, just hit the button! You can get an access to whatever you want, no matter what your field is. You could even excel in things that aren't your specialty, as long as you have the desire “learner autonomy”. We need to push ourselves ahead, as well as our students.

We want to take advantage of the 21^st century technology the right way. We don’t want the Indian proverb to be applied to us “the meadow is green but the goat is sick”. This week we learned how to use ANVILL. I even created my own account, but I sometimes feel as if there is something holds me back .. I don’t know if it happens to anybody else when coming across a new thing for the first time! And I don’t know what that is exactly..! Could it be nostalgia for the old techniques..!? But I don’t keep that good memories which make me feel such feeling..!

I also stepped one step ahead towards my goal. I have always wanted to create my own website, so I managed to make one this week using: sites.google.com. It might not be the site that I’m dreaming of, but it is just the beginning, and something is better than nothing.

Peace and Love

Week 7. Learner Autonomy..

   If we go to analyze the existing level of most ordinary institutes we would find that they don’t pay that much attention to the learner autonomy theory. By the way, what is the learner autonomy first of all !? As defined by experts, it is “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning”, meaning to take a whole responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of this learning. In other simple words; students are supposed to be sole responsible for their learning.

This ability is not inborn but must be acquired by the formal learning. But we’ve got questions remain unanswered; how can students acquire this ability? Do institutions, represented by their staff and teachers, help them learn that? Well, I think most of the time neither the staff nor the teachers promote learner autonomy..! Not because they don’t know what it really is but because they have set of regulations and fixed curriculum that they don’t want to go beyond.

Even if students are mature and know the importance of learner autonomy but still they need guidance, they need their faces to be directed to the right direction. And on the top of all that they need encouragement and motivational words, these words are like the oxygen. They might not last long, but they must leave eternal impact, and at the same time they cost us nothing.

As for “one computer” option, there is no question about the importance of using computer when teaching especially in these days. I wish every student have a computer in the classroom or his/her own laptop. Having a PC in the classroom along with internet connection can make the learning process a real fun.. You could run the entire class using the computer, as in literature classes; where you could play movie of the scene or the novel.. etc. Why taking all that time reading the literary work when you have it already acted..!?

I remember when I was in the university we had lots of literary works like Hamlet, Macbeth, Doctor Faustus..etc. We would spend the entire semester jumping from one scene to the other wasting most of our time in looking up words that aren’t used any more, and at the end of the day we could not comprehend the plot of the play or the novel. We could have saved a lot of time if we watched the acted movie. The same goes for other aspects of the language.

Peace and Love

Week 6: Collaborative learning...

    To me this week seems not to be like the previous ones.. I don’t know why..! Every time I log into the Nicenet and see the tasks I feel so scattered and don’t know from where to start. I stopped for a while, trying to make brainstorming but end up closing the page..

Anyway, let’s get started, this week was about how to teach large classes and how to use PP effectively. Two wonderful topics focused on the practical techniques of implementing technology in collaborative learning.

I have always been a big fan of collaborative learning, or say in-group learning, as it makes lots of short cuts to many things that could have taken several hours if dealt with individually. But, is it always good? Does it always have good impacts? Well, personally, I don’t think so. Sometimes it is quite the opposite, it turns to be time-consuming with very little outcome.

I like the “Just-in-Time Teaching” idea even though I don’t completely agree with the timeframe. As I mentioned in my post in the Nicenet, few hours before the class could make pressure to the teacher and might not be able to catch a whole idea of what the needs of the students are. Nevertheless, the idea generally is wonderful, and I think the timeframe is something changeable, up to the teacher.

I also read “How to Create Memorable Lecture”. The article mentions very important points, but what I liked most is “You can also ask students to generate their own examples from personal experience in class or as a written assignment” This statement made me pause and ponder upon our over-used educational systems, where teacher (so-called good teacher) goes into the classroom pouring out information and thoughts in a full and unrestrained way..!! Is that really a good teacher at all..!? To me this is a robot..!

Unfortunately, this is the typical image of a good teacher, but in reality that’s not right. The role of the teacher is not just delivering the information. If it was all about information then there are much more reliable sources e.g. books, internet…etc. On the contrary, teacher should be seen by students as a father, a brother, at least a friend with whom students can share experience, happiness and sadness.. We should not forget that we are dealing with human beings, just like us, with emotion and feelings. Nothing makes you better, the only difference between you and your students is that you are more knowledgeable than them, and this not because you’re smart or talented, it’s most likely because you’re older than them.

This might be considered as an idealism but believe me, if you managed to build a strong relationship between you and your student, a relationship that goes beyond the walls of the classroom, then you’ll enjoy teaching more.

It is not necessary that you go deeply into private matters. It’s enough to ask them for example about their families, about things they are interested in, things that are irrelevant to teacher-student relationship. Once you did that soundly you’ll see how they dedicate themselves to your subject.. I am sure some teachers do that and they agree with me to some extent.

In this week also we learned about thing that’s well known but unknown at the same time..! Mystery.. hah!? That is power point. Most people know what it is but don’t know how to use it properly. Me, having seen many poor presentations made me think this application is useless, but the reality is the opposite. “Top 10 Slide Tips” gives us brief but perfect information on how to make better presentation.. I hope we can make use of all information in this week..

Peace and Love

Smart Ideas

       “Less teaching and more learning” it’s an attractive title for someone like me. I have always been skeptical about the traditional way that the language is taught. I am convinced that for the language to be learned, the student should be part of it. It’s quite hard for any thing to be leaned, whether it be a language or any thing else, unless you make the learner feels as part of that thing.

We see in Gaer’s article how she managed to make her students part of the learning process. She stated at the beginning that she used to use the traditional way of teaching, which is obviously used by most English teachers, but that did not work with her group at all.

She said her students were kind of mixture of different people from different countries, who came to US as immigrants or refugees. Now those people apparently are adults and they need to indulge in the community to live normally, which means the desire is already there. But at the same time it’s hard for such people at this situation and at this age to learn a new language and we all know what learning a new language means. I could picture those people occupied with lots of concerns e.g being away from home, heading to unknown future, adapting to a new life, culture..etc. How possibly could a teacher make such group learn a new language..?!!

Susan Gaer, I think, has answered this question practically in a perfect manner. In the first example she made students talk about folktales. This is a smart idea.. why..!? Because she noticed how those students felt homeless, so she triggered something that would generate information and let them speak elaborately. She made students indulge deeply into the learning process.

Likewise the second group, with which she issued the newspaper, they showed a good extant of success because they were given the chance to talk about what they feel like to talk. In other words, they became part of the learning process, that’s why they participated enthusiastically.

I wish I could talk more about this, but for the reader not to get board and acting upon Roberts’ word “a reflection, not a lecture”. This what I hope to be done in my home country, instead of the traditional military-like education; "I say, you do". I have a dream that our students come to the classroom with the feeling that they are going to a meeting, where their opinions, words, thoughts, will be respectfully heard. I have a dream that the teacher will shift from his old and antique ways to the environment where he becomes a friend, a helper ..whatever,, you name it. I have a dream that students will enjoy the learning process as if they are going to a picnic or so, rather than feeling they are going to a prison, where they start counting the minutes down… Could these dreams come true by any chance..?! Hopefully, InshaAllah (God Willing).

One last thing we learned this week is the webQuest. It walks you through the basics to create a simple but fruitful lesson. You might not even need to create a lesson if it’s already there. For example, “Hamlet” is a play by Shakespeare. It’s an absolute theoretical model to let your students read the original text “which some literature teachers still do”. Rather, you can grab it from the WebQuest, take what you think suits your students best, and make use of the materials and resources given there.. And the same could be applied to any thing else other than literature. Generally speaking, it’s a wonderful and formative website.. thank you Robert.. and thanks to all who posted to it ..

Peace and Love