Week 10: Reflection

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”       Confucius 

Dear Colleagues,

We are now on the verge of finishing the ten week course on enhancing teaching using web skills. As part of the course requirement, we had to do some reflection for each week. However, this week being the final week has given me the chance to look at the whole course and share my ideas on the course. 

Looking back at the course, I have the impression that all the topics were so relevant, useful and practical. I have found them so useful for improving my teaching. At the very beginning I got the idea of writing learning objectives following the ABCD model of behavioral objectives. This is something that will always help me to think and plan critically about the lessons I teach, with or without technology. Analyzing my own students in terms of their background, expectations, learning culture etc. is another good practice that I have developed from this course.

The course has dealt with the issue of teaching the four skills using technology and I have valuable insights in to what technological devices or tools I may use while dealing with listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The issue of teaching large classes has also been covered with special reference to using technology. I have found this topic particularly relevant to my own teaching context in Bangladesh. Two very useful topics were covered in week 5- Project Based Learning and Alternative assessment. This week offered me such good opportunities to understand the concept of PBL and explore ways of using it with the help of web based resource like WebQuest. I found the reading given on the site http://www.nclrc.org really useful and informative. The article titled "Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer also gave me very interesting and encouraging accounts of the authors own experiments with project-based learning. In the same week I read about alternative assessment and I must mention the reading on  alternative assessment on the website http://www. nclrc.org which helped me greatly to develop my understanding of alternative assessment. The best part was to try out the ideas using the tools to create my own WebQuest and Rubric. I used http://zunal.com for creating my WebQuest and RUBISTAR for rubric. I must say these hands-on and practical exercises constituted the best feature of this course. 

We have some more exciting and very time befitting ideas throughout the next few weeks. Particularly, I must talk about week 6 which focuses on using technology based resources and tools for creating students centered classes. Learner centered classroom is a much talked idea now a days but the focus of incorporating technology for promoting learner centered teaching gave me a great insight. I knew that  there are many tools available on the internet to provide my students more engaging and interactive learning experiences. The article titled "Beating the Numbers Game: Effective Teaching in Large Classes" was full of innovative ideas to use technology for making classes more learner centered. I was really convinced after going through that article by Richard Felder and started thinking positively about using some tools such as interactive power point slides for making my classes more learner-centered. 

The topic of learner autonomy is, in my view, one of the most important topic covered in the course. I have long been hearing people talking about 'learner autonomy' but I had no clear understanding of the term and no idea of implementing it in my class. But I must say how the article titled "What Is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?" by Dimitrios Thanasoulas worked as an eye opener for me! It was such a well written piece that I can not but thank the course tutor for sharing it. It's just a classic piece and I know I'll read it again and again in the coming days. Now I know what do we actually mean by that much heard term 'learner autonomy' and how can we actually promote this in our class. And the idea of integrating alternative assessment and one computer classroom for enhancing learner autonomy was so well thought out. I actually did try things out as I created my own WebQuest and incorporated some rubrics in it to provide my learners some experiences of autonomous learning. And finally, we were introduced with the idea of the need for addressing various learning styles by incorporating suitable technology based resources. In this regard I, again, am compelled to mention one more reading that I consider one of the best. I am talking about the article titled Learning Styles and Strategies by Richard Felder and Barbara Solomon. This one reading helped me understand how I can address the need of my learners with a variety of learning styles, especially with the help of technology.

We have been taught to create our own tools/resources throughout the course and in week 8, we had a real trial of all our skills. I discovered the fact that by now I have done so many things which included creating my own blog, crating my documents to share them on Google Docs, creating and sharing my first ever WebQuest project, creating my Delicious page for storing important websites, creating checklists and rubrics for alternative assessments, creating quizes using HotPotatoes, creating web posters, puzzles, games using http://www.toolsforeducators.com, creating web based lessons and posters using the Web Poster Wizard, and creating my own video clips using the exciting resource called ANVILL! 

Owe!This is an amazing list of tools and resources I have learned to use. This tools/resources were meant for promoting the best practices of teaching and learning in and outside the classroom. In my opinion, this is the best feature of this course where we are not only informed of the  innovative ideas on improving our teaching, but also taught how to use technology to promote those ideas in our own classroom.  

I take this opportunity to thank  our tutor Courtney Cunningham  for her all out support, care and advice provided to me throughout the course. I also express my sincerest thanks to all my fellow participants for sharing your precious ideas on your blogs and Nicenet. Your participation, contributions and presence have made this course a pleasant learning hub for me. 

Enjoy your teaching!

Haider