Create an online course site or an exercise

Create an online course site or an exercise

         I think that creating an online course has become very easy in that time. Now we can apply some tools to build an online course: these are my real examples to be accessed

1-  I built a new class using www.nicenet.com . My class key is R344605E54

2- I built a blog using Google blogger . The URL is http://english4all4fun.blogspot.com/

3- I put a sample of an exercise in Google docs. The link is

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jp9g4oYW5zqMkRHMSoSiWGZeIul2QDsNudCVBD1QYlQ/edit?usp=sharing

         To reach the best use of these sites, I will put my topics and tasks in the conference page of the nicenet.com . The students should follow it by adding the key into the site to be added in the class. Then the students should read the topics and tasks and try to deal with them. After that, they have to go to the blog and write their answers, comments and ideas. They can answer them in written after viewing the exercises in Google g docs.

         These sites are suitable for students of prep schools, secondary schools and university. In the earlier ages, the students mayn't know how to use these sites in a perfect way. The students of higher levels can use them in the best way. They can read and write in a suitable way. They have a technology and computer experiences that qualify them to go through them smoothly and without problems.

        This site can help the learner autonomy. I can suggest some sites for him to be used for searching for book, references and useful sites. I can put the rubrics that in his way to learn. I can provide him with similar experiences in the form of article, pictures, presentations or templates to be followed as an initial imitation.   

Teaching with Online Tools

 Teaching with Online Tools

         I accessed the site http://www.toolsforeducators.com/ . I became amazed of what the site provides for us. It is really marvelous. I called it " all in one" in my favourite. I added it to my delicious.  I think that using the word search generator provides very easy and professional activities for word spelling revisions. I liked it and I will use it in my site and in my class and in the class blog or site. The crossword generator can help in the same way. I liked the dice tool. The students can make them in groups. The teacher even can use them as a starter or a game inside the class. I liked the game generator tool. It provides printable games with pictures. It can be used as a starter or ice breaker or a plenary for our lessons. It will help the students revise and memorize vocabularies. The spelling reading worksheets can help when the teacher tries to make a word reading sheet for his class. The best think that it is accompanied with pictures to help student keep the words by heart and memorize them with their mutual pictures.

         The website http://bogglesworldesl.com/ is very useful for writing activities, word spelling and making exercises. It contains varied collections of flashcards, songs, worksheets and exercises. It provides lesson plan for the teachers. They also can use the http://poster.4teachers.org/  as it is a free tool which allows educators to create a lesson, worksheet, or class page and immediately publish it online. Teachers can also set up classes and assign projects to students. Students complete the assignments by creating their own online projects or reports. Teachers and students can even add images and links to their pages.

         The easy test maker http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx is a powerful tool to make tests of all types. The site provides printed and pictured instructions for the teachers to be followed. The best part of the website is the inline tests where you can make automatic tests that are run and graded automatically online. This option is helpful for blogs and nicenet. It is also helpful for learner autonomy. Unfortunately they are used for upgraded versions only. But you can do so by using hot potatoes http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ . The site provides you a free install of the version of the software. It is easy to use it. You can use it online and offline as it provides the exercises in html form.

The levels or stages of learner autonomy and how they are assessed.

 The levels or stages of learner autonomy and how they are assessed.

 

        There are levels or stages of learner autonomy. I think that this type of learning suits all levels and stages according to the case of being intended or not intended. If it is not intended, it is suitable for students of earlier ages such as cycle 1 and cycle 2. The student can learn from the posters on the walls, the English corner, and the language center prepared by the teacher inside the class room. Doing manual projects helps much increase the experiences of the students so as to be recalled in similar situations. Many teachers realize that the students can learn indirectly, so some teachers prepare word walls for them in the class. Others ask the students to prepare a file for their flash cards and activities. In this stage the learner autonomy is limited. It lacks some of the strategies. The students in earlier ages can imitate, repeat, deduce, guess, and ask questions for clarifications. But they lack the ability take notes and have resources. But these can be provided by the teacher in an indirect way without telling the students that these resources have been put to help them work and learn autonomously. I myself put some games in the school yard for the students to learn from them.

        For higher levels and stages, this type of learning should be intended. The student himself wants to learn. He prepares his resources, references, books and websites that will be a start point to his learning process. The student assign his references according to his level and specialized learning. The students of prep and secondary schools can be active with this type of learning especially with the usage of technology as the students in this age are familiar with technology, internet and computer. The best one who can assign what suits his study life is the student of the university as he chooses materials that are suitable for his career of the future. Those who really work in specific jobs also can assign materials that are suitable for their jobs. Higher level students find it easy to find resources and the search engine play the best role here. They can imitate or even watch similar experiences in videos and websites. They can ask who know more about the topic. They have the ability to guess and deduce what's beyond what they really see. They can move through the metacognitive strategies. They can concentrate on general aspects of a task, pay attention to specific aspects of a task, check one's performance and reward oneself for success.


         The teacher can assess this type of learning according to many aspects: the traditional assessment, the alternative assessment and the continuous development evaluations. For the traditional assessment the teacher can provide the student with worksheets, questionnaires and report forms in which they have to express what they have learned and the teacher has to assess their development in accordance with the targeted development of the age, level and stage. For the alternative assessment, the teacher should help students build their rubrics which will be their guide through their autonomous learning process. These rubrics can help the students change their actions when they find that they are not on the right way. For the continuous development evaluations, the students can put notes, marks and points when they achieve a stage of their learning. The total of these marks and points can form the final assessment and the notes can provide a feedback for what was done during the learning process.


Mustafa

Learner autonomy

Learner autonomy

Hello David Bentz, Robert and everyone
First of all I would like to welcome David. I wish to learn from him.

I have read the article entitled what is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? (Dimitrios Thanasoulas) . I liked the idea of learner autonomy. I felt that it's a completion to the previously discussed topic about PBL. The learner is still in the center but this time, he is not only responsible for his learning process but also he goes through it autonomously. He learns a set of skills in his self-directed learning. It is the situation in which learners study on their own. The learner here controls the direction of his learning process.


To be an autonomous learner, the students should enough courage and will to communicate in the target language at all costs. The learner should guess what's coming and this will help him to have a full knowledge of the form and the content of his learning items. The learner should also have choices which will allow him to feel that he has a control or ownership over his own learning. As a result of this control and ownership, the students develop a sense of responsibility and self-motivation. The role of the teachers in this task is to provide the students of those suitable choices to help them to be responsible and autonomous.

The autonomous learning process has many strategies to be achieved. We are going to deal with them according to the priority of each. The learner should prepared his resources, materials and references such as books, dictionaries, websites, CDs and any suitable materials for his task. Then he watches others, imitate them and at last do the same. In the language learning process, he imitates and then repeats what he noticed. If he finds anything significant, he should take notes. As a good guesser, he can deduce facts according to the available noted information. At last he has to apply all what he gained using the knowledge he acquired. According to the metacognitive Strategies, first the learner decides to concentrate on general aspects of a task. Then he/she pays attention to specific aspects of a task. After that, one checks one's performance. Hence, the learner evaluates his performance. At last he rewards himself for success.

To know how the students are going on their learning process, the teacher should know what strategies they are using and asks them to report what they are thinking while they are performing it.

When we try to apply technology in this type of education, we have much to say. Search engines are great providers of information of all types. The learner can download as much books and learning programs as he can. He can check, watch, imitate and do the same as others all over then world. His usage to technology will be enhanced with the passage of time.


At last we can say that this type of learning is a value that the teacher can plant inside his students. The students upgrade this value with their development in age and experiences. At that time, the learner will decide what to learn, how, where, what tools needed, who will help, what obstacle will face him and how he will plan to over come. So, it is a complete educational and learning process that affects both the student behaviour and his learning attitudes.

One Computer in the Classroom

One Computer in the Classroom

         First the teacher should decide where to put his computer. All students should see the computer. It is advisable that the computer can be moved and secured. Then the teacher should be sure that the computer contains the software needed for his work. The teacher may need all office software such as word, excel, access, PowerPoint and publisher. The teacher should install the clipart, the fonts and the templates which will be used later. He may need internet connection, web access to access search engines and email. To work offline the teacher may use software that helps him download pages on the computer to be run without the need of internet connection.


         Then the teacher comes to the management stage. The teacher should divide the class into small groups. He should also divide the project into small modules or small parts so students can work on different sections. To help groups work fast, they should work according to templates. For safety, each group should have a portfolio folder that contains their clipart, templates and folder to save works in.


         Now we can speak about what can be done on one classroom computer. The teacher can use the computer to assign the students attendance. He should have database of the students and their data. The teacher can make the worksheets, activities and tests on it. They can use the internet to send and receive messages to and from each other. They can also access useful websites and search engines. The search engines help the class provide the materials such as pictures, articles, sound and video files to be used in projects. The students can make projects such as PowerPoint presentations. The presentations, videos and projects of the class can be shown on the projector or even published on the class blog or website. The teacher's cam or mobile cam can play a role to record and document the projects and the learning process while going on.


         Many schools have materials in a form of CD or DVD. These autorun materials are very useful. The teacher himself can make such CDs using his one computer. The software of making autorun CDs has become available on the download sites. He can introduce the materials in interactive way. He can use software such as notebook to make interactive presentations that run from the HD.


         To publish what is going inside the classroom the teacher can make his publications go in two ways: one inside the school and the other in the World Wide Web. He can make a class magazine, weekly news letter and letters of involvement for the parents. He can inform the other teachers and colleagues in the school of what is going in his class through a brochure or through e mail. Then he can publish all the class actions on the class blog.

Thank you

Classes of one computer

Classes of one computer

          To speak about classes of one computer, it's important to compare between what was at the beginning of applying computer technologies in school and what is going on these days. In the past, there were no computers in classes. There were only computer labs. The teachers who were in charge weren't well qualified. They hardly knew anything about how to use computers. They were afraid lest these computers should have any problems. There were no internet connections, no LAN and no wifi. Students may visit these labs as they visit museums. They didn't have to touch anything. They had to look, watch and listen and nothing more.

          But the students nowadays are very fortunate. Labs are everywhere. Teachers are well qualified. For the class of one computer, there is much to be done on it. The computers are connected to the school internet connection. Some computers have wireless cards for wireless connection. There are also a data show and smart boards. The computers are connected to speakers and printers. Teachers use them to do the following:
1-   Using database of the students names for evaluations, development and personal information.
2-   Some teachers prepare presentations on PowerPoint or Notebook which is more useful for presentations of all types than PowerPoint.
3-   Teachers can make searches on the internet for pictures, clipart or topics related to their subject matter.
4-   Some teachers use videos, pictures and other materials for discussion.
5-   Previously prepared CDs or DVDs of the subjects can also be used.
6-   Songs and listening materials can also be applied using the one computer.
7-   All the language skills can be dealt with through smart boards when connected with computers in classes.
8-   Preparing worksheets can also be achieved through the one computer in the class.

Teach large classes techniques

Before this week I had the idea that teaching in large classes is a problem with no solution. After going through the sites available and the suggested ones, I found that the teacher can overcome these troubles and reach the top of his class working. For me, I don't teach large classes. Anyhow, through reading and discussion, I knew the challenges and the ways to exceed them. In my article now, I am going to speak about the challenges with the technology ot the techniques that can be used with them.


The large number of the class may make the teacher embarrassed. So, individual and face to face instruction may be useless in this case. The teacher has to minimize the number of his audience. Instead of speaking to 60 students, he can speak to 6 groups of 10 students. He speaks to them as a one unit. In the group, there should be a group name, logo and roles. Students who learn in collaborative settings both learn and retain 1.5 times as much as students who learn individually. The teacher may have the problem of not knowing the names of the students. This can be solved easily. He can ask each on in the group to write his name and put it in front of him in the group or on the wall beside him.


There are many techniques that should be used to benefit from the group work. The size of the group is an important factor in this process. The increase in group size leads to an increase in complexity. This is because larger groups have more non-participants than smaller groups, group size affects levels of cooperation and Group members tend to be less satisfied with groups of ten
or more. To achieve that, the teacher should assign students to groups rather than allowing them to self-select. He/should teach students how to work in groups. For more details, you can access this link http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/groups.pdf .There are many activities that can be used with the small groups: think-pair-share, think-pair-square, conceptest, quick-thinks re-order the steps, paraphrase the idea and support a statement .



Collaborative learning of small groups that work together is a fruitful way. In such a way, each group member's success is dependent on the group's success. Students who engage in cooperative learning learn more, and develop better critical-thinking skills than students in traditional lecture classes. By the passing of the time the students may get bored. But they enjoy cooperative learning more than traditional lecture classes. The Collaborative learning can be used either in small exercise or even a big project according to the students' levels or grades and in online classes.


The number of the student is a great challenge in the field of classroom management. I remember a saying which I can say that it's the best solution to any classroom management problems in small or large classes: "keep them always busy." The teacher should lecture the class. By the passing of the time the students may get bored and other students feel afraid to participate. Techniques like lecturing won't be fruitful if it isn't enhanced. The use of technology such as computer projections, PowerPoint presentations laptops and projections are a great enhancement to the teachers' lecture.


Therefore, now I am going to speak about PowerPoint presentations and how they can be used interactively. I read many articles about making interactive PowerPoint. Most of them are listed here: http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/powerpoint/powerpoint.html I also viewed Roberts's presentation. I learned much from them. I learned that many techniques can be used to make interactive such as the following: the blank slide, the think-pair-share techniques and the think-pair-square technique. The presentation should be varied in materials to match all the types of the students. They should contain pictures, videos, flash items and hyperlinks. The text font, the text size, the colour , the background. To engage the class, the lecturer should provide printed handouts for those who don't write notes while lecturing. The teacher should comment and do not just read the presentation. There should good use of time. Giving the class a rest through the blank slide, using many types of media, and hiding the pointer are helpful techniques to make the presentation more interactive.

Mustafa