Reflections on Week 10

Having come to the terminal stage of the Web Skill Course, I would like to share with you my own evaluation and remarks of the course. At the outset, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my Instructor, Mr. Sean McClelland. Though, I have never  met him, I have always felt that he was always ready to help. I approached him several times with my questions and enquirers and found complete cooperation and support. Thank you Mr McClelland for every thing you did for us during the course and congratulations on successfully leading our group towards achieving the goals of the course. Splendid job!   May God bless you! I would also like to extend my deep thanks and appreciation to the authorities of the U.S. Department of State and the University of Oregon for having made it possible for me to pursue the online Web Skills course at the American English Institute by awarding me a scholarship under the E-Teacher Scholarship Program.

During the Web Skill course, all the topics were very useful and successful. I really benefited from all of them. However, I have felt that more topics should have been included in the course. A true dream of mine would be to have learned how to create small animated objects. I have wanted to make the “free” morpheme walks with two legs, while the “bound” morpheme depends on the “root”.  In what follows, I am going to give you a brief account of what we learned during the 10 weeks of the Web Skill course.

The first week was an orientation to the course. It was really a good idea to have an orientation week to make the participants familiarize themselves with the new tools such as Nicenet and Blackboard. In the second week, we learned how to search for relevant information using different search portals. We learned how to personalize the search portal. We also learned how to write down the learning objectives of a lesson using Pennsylvania State University's ABCD Style. In the third week, we were introduced to the development of aural/oral skills and creating an account using Delicious. Similarly, the fourth week focused on the development of reading and writing skills and vocabulary. We were exposed to many websites that provide us with excellent materials, games, quizzes and activities for teaching the four language skills as well as grammar and vocabulary. In week 5, we were introduced to rubrics, PBL and WebQuest. I created my own rubric and I started creating my amazing WebQuest for teaching the Structure of Words. I am really proud of this WebQuest and I will use it with my students. In Week 6, we learned how to engage students in large classes using technology and we learned how to create our own interactive Power Points. I created a game similar to Jeopardy. I tried it in my class and my students liked it very much. Since then, I have created 3 Jeopardy-like activities. In week 7, the main focus of the assignments is on three related topics: namely, learner autonomy, the one computer classroom, and the use of mobile phones in language learning. In week 8, we went through several websites that provide teachers with all kinds of teaching resources such as creating flash cards, puzzles, various activities and tests. I used Hot Potatoes and other tools to create my own quizzes, activities and Mid Term Test. They are very nice activities that I have been using in my classes. In week 9, the theme of the week is learning styles and technology tools for multiple intelligences. I used an online scale to know my own learning styles. I came to know that I am Naturalistic. Then comes week 10 which is a recap week whose focus is on how we can best utilize technology to help our students reach course goals and objectives. One of the merits of this course is that it introduced me to friends from all corners of the globe!

To sum up, this experience will help me play a key role in the effective delivery of e-learning initiatives in my department. Frankly speaking, I felt that all the topics that we were exposed to in the ten weeks were beneficial, interesting and of great importance to teachers. I really enjoyed each and every minute of the course. Had I been given another chance to continue the Web Skill course, I would have done so without any hesitation. In fact, I will be very happy to do so.

Reflections on Week 9

This is week 9 and we are approaching the terminal stage of the 10 week Web Skill course. The theme of this week is learning styles and technology tools for multiple intelligences. I started by visiting the following website http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz to learn about my own learning styles. I responded to some online tasks and I printed my learning styles results which is shown below. My highest score was on the Naturalistic style 100% and my least score was on the Linguistic one 67%.

A quick look at this result will show that I am Naturalistic. I do agree with this, but I was surprised to discover that my Linguistic intelligence was the least one. I do not really know, but I am skeptical so I will try the quiz again after a week or so to see what results I will get. Do you think that I will get the same results? I am not sure, but it is worth trying, isn't it? When I redo the quiz, I will compare and contrast the two sets of data just to have fun.

Learning Styles and Technology Tools

Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard Graduate School, devised the theory of multiple intelligences with eight intelligences. The intelligences listed by Gardner include; linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, spatial intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence.

The main idea of the different learning styles and multiple intelligences is that our students possess different kinds of minds. Therefore, they learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways.

In what follows, I am going to share my own understanding and practices of using technology to address a variety of learning styles and multiple intelligences. When incorporating technology into our classes, we must remember that one type of technology does not fit all students. During the first sessions of my courses at the university, I will try to find out what learning styles the majority of my students in class possess in order to meet the needs of most of them, if not all.

Combining the multiple intelligences with the thoughtful and purposeful use of technology can have a great impact on students’ achievement. For example, the student blog can be a great tool for the intrapersonal learner while the interpersonal learner will work better in the class blog than in the student blog because the interpersonal learners will enjoy working in groups. I will assign the interpersonal learners as group leaders, but not the intrapersonal ones. I will engage my kinesthetic learners by making them my technology helpers. I will engage the visual learners by making them research famous quotes and pictures or images and then give a short presentation using a Power Point. This activity will also include the linguistic learners in the classroom. Students can perform an internet search to locate hundreds of quotes and pictures. Once their research is complete, they can share their work with the use of Power Point or Prezi. This activity allows the spatial students to express their creativity while still covering necessary content. Methods for mixing technology and the learning style linguistic intelligence can be recording each lecture and giving the students the ability to listen to each lecture by downloading the lecture onto the class webpage or onto YouTube.

Web searches for a linguistic learner would come easy because of the innate ability to use words effectively in the search bar. Creativity is the key for the visual learners. They enjoy video-camera projects. The linguistic learners have the ability to manipulate the syntax or structure of language, the phonology or sounds of language, the semantics or meanings of language, and the pragmatic dimensions or practical uses of language. Manipulating syntax can be made easy with a computer. Giving the students permission to bring their personal laptops into the classroom can give them more than the ability to take notes.

To sum up, a piece of technology can be used to meet the needs of more than one learning style, and one learning style can be reached by more than one piece of technology.

Reflections on Week 8

This week I have gone through several websites that provide teachers with all kinds of teaching resources such as creating flash cards, puzzles, various activities and tests.

 I downloaded Hot Potatoes version 6 which is a very simple and useful tool. I used the following link; http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ . I used it to create a quiz in Introduction to Linguistics. The items of the quiz are of the multiple choice type. I also created another Match activity in which the students have to match the definitions under A with the correct term under B. They are very nice activities that I will use in my class. I will divide the students into 2 groups and in turn they will ask and answer the questions. The group that will score higher will be the winner. I shared the two activities on the Webskills class Wiki under the section Week 8 Resources.

I also used the following link http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx to create a free  account and then to create a Mid-Term Test in Introduction to Linguistics. It consists of 20 items and I used three types of questions, namely: True or False, Multiple Choices, and Fill in the Blank. I found it a useful tool that makes our job easy. When you finish creating the test, you can either save it for future reference or you can print it. It also creates an Answers Key.  The free version provides the following features:

Free   $0/year
Core features to create tests

·               An easy to use test interface

·               All question types available

·               Answer sheets

·               Multiple sections

·               Automatic question renumbering when questions are moved

·               25 test limit

Some features like grading and printing students’ results require an annual subscription fee. I have uploaded a copy of my Test on the Webskills Wiki.

I used the following link: http://www.123certificates.com/makeit/certificate-of-appreciation-5.php  to create a certificate of appreciation on behalf of the Webskills course participants to our Instructor, Mr. Sean McClelland for his nice efforts and cooperation. This site is useful and freely provides us with all types of certificates that we can modify to suit our purposes and then print them out. I am planning to announce “The Student of the Course” competition at the beginning of the semester and I can award him or her a certificate. I think the students will be more motivated and will work harder. I can also award the top 5 students certificates of achievement to motivate them.

I also visited Quiz Star and created a free account. I activated my account and now I can create my Quizzes and share them online. It is a useful tool for teachers. 

Project Task 6

According to my plan, (See Section 4) I first created a class blog in order to implement technology into my class. Creating a new blog is a novel tool to my students and I. I expected high participation from my students and that they would be very motivated to log into the blog and do the assignments. I invited my students via an e-mail to log into the blog and do two assignments. I allowed them a week to do the assignments. Only two students were able to log into the blog and respond to the assignments while 5 students were unable to log into the blog. In class, I discussed with them the assignments and the reasons for not be able to log into the blog. The main reason was that in order to log into the blog they had to have a g-mail account.

Flexibility on the part of the teacher determines the success of the integration process. Therefore, the plan was modified and I created a class page on Nicenet. I sent another e-mail inviting the students to log in and do the assignments. After creating a page on Nicenet, things started to work in the right direction: my students started using our class page on Nicenet and post their reflections on what they learned during the week. I started also sharing some links on Nicenet and I uploaded some handouts and documents. It is now used for promoting out-of-class integration and using English for communication in general.

Another technologically-related change involved using computer-based activities in class. The students were offered a chance to play a Jeopardy game developed on the basis of the handouts of the Theories of Language Learning course. The activity was met with enthusiasm on the part of the students. Working in groups of five, they were very interested and they eagerly participated in the game.

The students were  invited to freely express their opinions on the idea of establishing an online space for the Group.  All their opinions were positive: most of them said it was totally different from what they used to. One of them wrote: “ I feel that I understand each topic better than before because the feedback that we gain from the comments of the Dr. or our colleges on our assignments.”

My initial plan was also modified. I was planning to introduce my students to Delicious. I finally decided to implement it next semester. I will divide the whole process into stages (familiarization, implementation, individual exploration and feedback)  which seem necessary. 

Reflections on Week 7

Part One

This is our seventh week in the Webskills course. This week, the main focus of the assignments is on three related topics: namely, learner autonomy, the one computer classroom, and the use of mobile phones in language learning. In what follows I am going to reflect on these three topics and what I could do in my class to encourage greater autonomy in my students.

Learner Autonomy

I have read the assigned readings about learner autonomy. To give an exact definition or meaning of “learner autonomy” is not an easy task. Learner autonomy like poetry has become elusive. The term means different things to different people, depending on what angle one wants to view it from.

Researchers have coined “learner autonomy” and its sisters such as “ learner independence” , “Self access learning” and many more. In what follows I am going to reflect on how I practice and encourage my students to do activities that achieve this purpose. As a habit I divide my students into at least 3-6 groups depending on the size of the class. Working in groups students feel more secure and help each other to learn and solve the mastery of the activities. They develop their own intellectual and emotional aspects. They have to critically think, contribute to the group and evaluate what the other members of the group are saying, they ask questions and collectively they prepare a presentation to the other groups. In the long run, group work develops students’ independence. The students may find such technique difficult at the beginning, but as the time passes, they get used to it and become more motivated and confident. They in fact learn how to learn and become responsible about their own learning. They learn how to respect each other’s opinion and how to learn from one another. While the students are working in groups helping each other, I try only to check and help only if they ask for help. My role is as that of an advisor. I believe that doing activities in groups helps them to become autonomous and they learn English better than being on their own. I also encourage my students to do Jigsaw activities which indeed promote being autonomous and work in groups to solve the mastery of the Jigsaw problem. I also use games that encourage students to compete against each other in groups. In order to help them understand the task they perform in groups I usually ask a group to present a model or explain the task in front of the class to make sure that everyone understands the task. I help when necessary. In my class the only teaching aid available is the non interactive white board, but I use games and journal pictures to promote working in groups. I also divide my students into groups and get them work together and prepare a 20-30 minutes presentation in the semester. They share and search together and they learn from each other more than they learn from me.

The One Computer Classroom

I have read the article entitled: “Strategies and Applications for the One Computer Classroom”. It presents a list of ideas with a US school focus, but in fact most of the ideas are relevant to any setting. Most of the ideas presented by the author are practical. The article is very relevant to my teaching setting where I have only my laptop. Therefore, I am going to reflect on the uses of my computer (laptop) inside and outside my classroom. I use it as an administrative tool. I keep the students’ names and their attendance. I also use it to record their grades in my courses and keep the files for future reference. When my students ask me to write them recommendation letters, I refer to such files which help me comment on the student’s performance in my courses. I also use my computer to make my exams and store them. I also use it as a teaching tool. I use it to prepare my games, handouts, puzzles, lesson plans, letters and many materials that I use in the classroom. I also use the one computer as a research tool. I write my research work and publications using my laptop. I also use SPSS to analyze the data that I collect for my research studies . I use it to keep the files that I download from the internet. In other words, it functions as my desk and my personal library. When I teach very small classes (10 students or less), we gather in class around it and I use it to show Power Point presentations. My students also use their own laptops in their presentations to remind them with the steps of the presentation. I taught in some universities that had Data Shaw Projectors in the classrooms. Whenever there exists a Data Shaw Projector, I use it to show my students Power Point presentations that I have in my laptop. In short, I use my laptop as an effective tool that helps me plan and prepare my lessons. It influences my classes directly and indirectly.

Mobile Assisted Language Learning

I also read the article entitled: “Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning”. It reports some of the studies that were conducted to study whether or not mobile phones were useful learning tools. Most of the results of such studies concluded that mobile phones are very effective tools for language learning. Right now, I am going to reflect on the uses of mobile phones for educational purposes in my own setting. All students have their mobile sets, but they are mainly used for voice and SMS communication. Many of them have digital dictionaries and they use their mobiles to look for the meaning of new words or synonyms. Some students use their mobiles to play some listening activities in class when they do their Micro Teaching. Honestly speaking I have never ever tried to use my mobile for teaching purposes. After reading the initiatives of using mobile phones in the field of education, I started thinking of how to make use of this wide spread device in my teaching. I have started a brain storming activity to think of ways of incorporating this fascinating tool into my teaching.

To be Continued

Project Task 5

In what follows, I am going to write down my reflections on the first steps of implementing my project. I meet my Theories of Language Learning class once a week for three hours (Sundays 2P.M. – 5P.M.). In the second week of the class (October 27^th, 2013),  I started the implementation process of my project by collecting background information about the participants  and their access to the internet  via a closed ended questionnaire consisting of 13 items. Table (1) below presents a brief summary of the most relevant results obtained via the questionnaire.

Table (1): Relevant Data about the Participants

Item	Yes N= 10	No N= 10
Do you teach in the morning?	6	4
Do you have a computer?	9	1
Do you have an internet connection at home?	4	6
Do you use the internet café?	5	-
Do you have an e-mail account?	10	-
Do you have a Facebbook account?	8	2

On (November 3^rd,  2013), I exchanged e-mail addresses with the students and I gave them a brief idea of the project. At home I created a class blog on Blogger and sent its URL http://mohammad-abdu-al-mekhlafi.blogspot.com/ to the students via an e-mail inviting them to visit the class blog  and to do two tasks. The first task asks the students to write down freely their own perceptions and views on this new technological tool (the class blog). The second task  asks them to write down their reflections on what they learned in class and during the week. I expected high participation, but unfortunately only 2 students (20%) wrote their reflections on the first task. Concerning the second task which asks them to write down what they learned during the week only 7 students (70%) did this task.

On Sunday November 10^th, 2013, I met them in class and asked them about  the blog. 3 students expressed their support of the new tool and the other three were skeptical while the other four expressed their dissatisfaction with the blog because they did not have free time to spend in the internet cafe. One of them pointed out that some commercials containing photos that are not suitable for a conservative society like Yemen were displayed on the blog . I explained to them the advantages of the project and promised them to do something about the commercials. I also stressed the importance of the continuity that electronic communication can create for them between class meetings. To solve the problem of commercials, I decided to create a course page on Nicenet. Again I sent them an invitation to join our course via e-mail. Till now 9 students (90%) have registered themselves on Nicenet.

It might be worth noting that my first plan was to implement the project with the undergraduate students, but I expected many problems. Therefore, I decided to first implement the project with the graduate students instead because they are grown up and they have facilities like computers and access to the internet. I also expected their full cooperation and that they would show a positive attitude towards the integration of such technological devices.

When I feel that the students have fully accepted the class blog and Nicenet and they are comfortable using it, I am planning to introduce Delicious and using the websites  (Next week).

Reflections on Week 6

Part One

Engaging Students in the Classroom

I am going to write my reflections on how I engage my students and promote their interaction in my class. After that, I will reflect on the readings assigned.

Being in the field of learning/teaching English for a considerable amount of time (33 years) and in different settings (Yemen, Egypt, the United States of America, Britain, France, India and Oman), I have been exposed to different methods and techniques of teaching. Nevertheless,  I belief that there is no single superior method or technique that works all the time for all students. I always tell me students that a teacher is like a bee in that it goes from one flower to another and the outcome is “honey”. Therefore, we should be eclectic and choose the most suitable technique for our current situation. Furthermore, in order to grow we should keep our eyes open to incorporate whatever is new and possible in the field of technology.

In my class, I turn any task into a game. Students have fun with that and learn more. Games come first in motivating  students to work hard and take their boredom away. Besides, my students’ interaction is very high during games and they may learn from each other about the topic of the game more than they learn from me. While many teachers use games to fill a gap or to warm up their students, I use games to reinforce a learning point and I use them to deliver the content of my course. Therefore, I have developed my own activities (games) for the teaching of content areas such as Linguistics, Transformational Generative Grammar, The History of English, Theories of Language Learning, Methods of Teaching ..etc.

I have taught in different settings and situations and whenever technology is available in my class, I do not let that chance go without integrating it into my teaching.  Some time ago, I had the chance to use the Electronic (Smart) Board for my research presentation. It helped me bring life into my presentation by highlighting, underlining, changing colors, easily bringing multimedia pieces such as sounds, pictures, maps, document, etc. I wish I had that chance to use the Interactive Board to teach my students.

I would like to finish this reflection by commenting on an article that I read in “Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning” website. The topic, “Texting in Class”, got my attention. It reports the results of a recent study that was conducted in the USA. The study has reported that 90% of students admit to using their devices for non class activities during class time. Only less than 8% said that they never do so. I find such results very strange and alarming. I think they happen only when the students are bored or not engaged.  As a teacher trainer, I advice my student teachers  to find ways of engaging their students in the class. Whenever, the students are not  busy doing any task in class, they either use their mobiles or they start talking with each other and they lose attention. The best solution for such situations is to get them busy and involved in the lesson by using the elicitation technique. I always elicit things instead of saying them myself.  I also encourage students’ questions and I encourage them to answer their classmates’ questions. The second solution is using games to kill boredom and the students get busy competing against each other. The third solution is to set rules at the beginning of the semester and to firmly apply them. If a student needs urgently to use his or her mobile, he or she must go outside the class and come back quickly.

Teaching in Large Classes

The best article that I read this week is entitled: “Beating the Numbers Game: Effective Teaching in Large Classes” which is written by Richard Felder of the North Carolina State University. He suggests some techniques to make large classes almost as effective as their smaller counterparts. He recommends  a technique called” the in Class Exercise” and “the out of Class Assignment”. I really do agree with all his ideas to improve the classroom and make the students learn by doing and not by listening to passive lectures. In my classes, I usually involve my students through games and through in class activities that promote their interaction.  My normal classes are between 40 to 50 students. Sometimes as large as 120 students and some other times as small as 10 students. I divide the class into 2 groups whatever is the number of the students and they compete against each other. I prepare cards on which I write the tasks they will do in class. One student  comes to the front,  selects a card and reads it. One member from each group comes to the board and does the task while the whole group support and help if necessary. My role as a teacher is a facilitator. I get them vote for the best task and the winner gets a point. The following are some tasks that we do in class:

Draw and label the vocal tract.

Write down 3 examples of the following structure: S + V + BO + DO

Classify the English consonants into voiced and voiceless.

Draw a chart of the Arabic consonant

Draw a chart of the voiceless sounds

Write down the inflectional morphemes

Write down A-Z and then for each letter come up with one language that starts with the letter, e.g., A = Arabic, Z= Zulu.

Write down the types of prefixes in English, ….etc.

These in class activities make the students concentrate on the task and it kills boredom. The students subconsciously compete against the other group and they learn better when they do the task collectively. It creates a lot of interaction among them. When we finish the cards that I prepared at home. I ask each group to create another two cards and write similar tasks that the other group will do. In this case I make the class student- centered and a lot of interaction takes place. What is more important is that they learn by doing and not by listening and watching. Therefore, the principal aim of such activities is to get students reflect and do, the two ways that facilitate learning.  Those types of activities also suit the three types of learner styles that we mentioned two weeks ago when we wrote our lesson plans integrating technology, namely: the Visual learner, the Auditory and the ones who like to move (Kinesthetic).

Our Webskills course is a good example of a student-centered program. Our instructor is only a facilitator. He directs and helps when necessary, but we learn by searching for information and we learn by doing. It is indeed less teaching and more learning.

The second article that got my attention in “Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing List” website is titled : “How to Create Memorable Lectures”. It reports the results of a recent study which has reported that students capture only 20-40 % of a lecture's main ideas in their notes. It adds that without reviewing the lecture material, students remember less than 10 %  after three weeks. These figures are alarming and they call on us to evaluate our own ways of teaching and think of new ways to involve our students in our classes in order to make them understand and remember what we say in class.

What  I like most is their quick and easy ideas for better lectures. I totally agree with the 13 golden points they make at the end of the article. They are good strategies for involving the students in the lecture and they guarantee that the students become active learners instead of passive ones. They are really useful strategies to make any classroom student-centered and they can be applied in any teaching setting.

Creating an Interactive Power Point:

As required, I created an interactive power point slide show that includes about 30 slides. Creating Power Points is not new to me . Some time ago, I started learning and creating PPs and Prezi to present shows in class, but the absence of technology tools in my classrooms de-motivated me to continue Prezi or even PPs. What is really new to me is making my PP interactive. I liked the idea of making the PP interactive, so I started reading the article entitled:”How to Create and Use an Interactive Power Point Quiz Game”. I also read another article entitled: “ Creating Interactive PowerPoint Presentations for Teachers and Students” by  Drs. Terry and Cathy Cavanaugh of the Florida Center of Instructional Technology. The two articles are very useful and explain step by step how to create a PP presentation. The second article provides some examples of concept testing, but unfortunately, all the examples are from science disciplines, such as Biology, Geology, Earth sciences, and others. I could not find a single example in Linguistics. Furthermore, I watched many videos on YouTube that explain step by step how to create a PP and how to add flavors and spices to it (making it interactive and adding pictures, sounds, etc.). I found that the videos are really more helpful because we listen and watch the buttons and how they function.

After that, I started creating a General Quiz in Linguistics that I can use with my students as a general review of the five subfields of linguistic studies, namely: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics. I spent some time in trying to sequence the questions in such a way that suits the number of points given to each question (10 – 50).

I am planning to create other PPs for each subfield of linguistics as well as the other subjects that I normally teach.  In my classes, I usually turn any task into a game that we do in class using cards. Here, I am trying to integrate technology into my classes.