My final reflection within the course

SKILLS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        The greatest changes that education has face in the last decade are uncountable, from paradigms to materials every single aspect of education has evolve. Technology has brought us so many things we can do easily. But definetily in countries like Ecuador also we need to change our ATTITUDE  towards the use of technology. The challege of implementing new tools in education has just started. I believe that the next decade will give us more advances and in this way our lives will be easier too, but with the demanding condition of being prepared to use these tools.

 

In 10 weeks my whole vision about language learning has changed. I will be devoted to prepare my lessons better with the help of web tools. Now I am so eager to share what I have learned during this course with all.

 

Now, more than friends the participants in this training proccess will be a community. Please let's share anything. It does not matter if our context or realities are different, we can adapt and enhance any idea.

 

Finally if you happen to be in Ecuador come to visit me. Some years ago I heard an spanish quote by an american guy "mi casa es su casa", which means "my place is yours".

 

Thanks friends for sharing your toughts and effort in this program.

 

The most common among us is that  " WE LOVE ENGLISH".

 

Blessings,

 

Boris.

 

 

Howard and Me!!!

This week has made me reflect about how I like to learn things and how I should develop strategies for my students taking account their interests, but also their multiple intelligences.

Howard Garder gave an important turn to modern education with his theory, the first time I knew about it, it sounded great to me, nevertheless the more I read about the more curious I am about it.

I feel that technology can really provide us important ways to incorporate Gardern's vision into our lessons.

Using web tools gives different sources and materials:

• Images, videos for visual learners
• Grammar for logical learners.
• Lyrics, Music videos and Culture for musical learners.
• Blogs for intrapersonal learners.
• Chats and Social networks for interpersonal learners
• Watch and do for Kinesthetic learners.
• Information about world problems for Natural learners
• Poems, stories, novels for verbal learners.

Well we have everything in the web. It is amazing to see how much we can do it.

Boris.

The evolution week !!!!!!

During the whole course I have devoted important time to learn and put in practice interesting things. This week has been one of the hardest because the amount of tools we have to see and be familiar with.

The role of technology in education is questioned mainly for those who see it as something harmful, the time and interest that new generations put on technology. Nevertheles I think this week we could see how the process can be complemented through this tools, I mean how valuable can be the use of technology when teachers lead the students to use the web tools for learning and enjoyment.

The on-line activity I did, is part of my plan too. Honestly I will be busier than before but I feel it worth.

Changing paradigms is to evolve. I am part of the permanent evolution process. I am a teacher who dares to try new things in spite of the reluctance of students or authorities. The game is on and will be not the best player but I will try to do my best.

Borisito!!!!!!!

Autonomous Reflection and more!!

This week brought me hope to see a brighter future, the responsability of teaching goes beyond the teachers hands, not just an active role of students and adecuaded material can help us to see results. I strongly believe that sharing is the key for success. Language learning has been changing so fast in the last years, new visions and techiniques are spread all over the world in seconds, but put them in practice is taking more time, attitudes of all the member of the learning community have to change too. At the moment of giving self-learning tools to our students we are giving them also the opportunity to grow up as a person not just increase their knowledge about language. Being an autonomous learner will permit to a learners to achieve their goals no matter what they be. There are no limits when a person set up his/her own goals. just the sky is the limit.

Let's face this new stage assuming a positive attitude, planning the activities that can motivate to our students to learn by themselves, guiding them to do them as they need them, assessing thier progress as part of the process and giving them the biggest step to be an active learner, the guidance to be an autonomous learner. As we see in this cartoon theory is not enough we have to practice it!

Also I have reflected about how much we can do with just one computer in our classrooms, and uncountable activities that have come to my mind  which worth to be applied.

Care,

Boris.

The power of power point

I have so many memorables experiences from power point, the first time I hold a lecture for 600 students in an auditorium I felt so nervous, when I realize that the power point was guiding me through the topic I started to feel calmed and relaxed, since that moment 10 years ago I heavily rely on power points. This week in our course about web skills we had shared interesting points of view about not just power points but other fantastic strategies to improve students engagement.

I see that using power point permits me to include so many cultural aspects about language learning such as cartoons, music, videos, quotes, etc in a very interactive way.

Now technology has provided us so many new things and we have to take advantage of it, using and appliying things  like clicker  are valuable for our students.




Boris Cadena Murga.

Evaluation and Assessment week.

At the end of every day we have to take a look at the result of our actions nevertheless we should reflect about the way we got them.

Evaluation is a concept widely defined and discussed in education; new trends in language learning have introduced the concept “assessment”, which has a deeper meaning in the new class. The generational gap provoked mainly by technological advances had been in constant growing, now through the use of tools as blogs, rubrics, web quest, etc teachers can understand better to their students, and reduce the existing gap.

Instruments like rubrics not just permit to the teacher to be objective and clear at the moment of evaluate students’ progress (cognitive abilities), they also could permit to the teachers to be aware about the whole process. It means to consider the material, equipment, procedures, goals, resources, building rubrics for each one of the components. In another words not just what the students were able to memorize or repeat as traditional methods used to measure.

The appreciation of all the elements in the learning process is an important contribution of the new models of assessment.

We have to promote in our learning environments the understanding, construction and application of these tools. Thanks Donna and University of Oregon, you are helping us to have a better performance as teachers and of course to improve education in Ecuador and other countries of the world.

That’s all for this week folks!

Boris

Views about technology

Many things from this cartoon made me reflect this week:

- When people have opportuniesties to make things in a different way there always be resistance, mainly because they do not know, understand or appreciate the "new" thing.

- Ecuador is in what the rest of the world have called third world or underdeveloping countries, one reason can be the technological advances, but mostly our attitude to chance has kept us in this position.

- All the materiasl shared in the web can be adapted to our reality but I believe and hope that someday we can make pages for our studentsd like the ones we used this week just integrating skill as well indivual skills.

- If we see some situacion in our planing as problems they will be more difficult to face, so the problems are part of every process and we have to create forms to deal with them from a visionary attitude for using tech in  our school.

Borisiño

Delicious week and much more!!

When a teacher becomes aware of new developments in pedagogical theory or technology, the first reaction is frequently “Sounds great!”, and the second “but?”  There is almost invariably conflict between the ideals stimulated by the linguistic theory, the pedagogical approach or the technological innovation, and the practical matters which must be taken into consideration for effective implementation of those ideals.

Brian McCarthy, 1992.

 

I want to share with you an interesting summary about CALL from a material that I prepare for a workshop in 2007 for English Teachers. I hope you can enjoy it.

Language teaching has not been out of the influence of computers. Nowadays, there are plenty of CD-ROMs and other sources for the English teacher to take advantage of. Computer first helped teachers as tools in the making-up of tests (word processor) and the keeping of grades (spread sheets and data bases). But teachers realized that technology was also helpful in learning processes. Thus CALL was born about thirty years ago.

Phases in CALL:

n  Behaviouristic

n  Communicative

n  Integrative.

Behaviouristic CALL

n  It consisted of repetitive language drills where the computer’s role was as a tutor (Taylor, 1980) which gave the students instructional material. This kind of CALL was supported by these

n  It consisted of repetitive language drills where the computer’s role was as a tutor (Taylor, 1980) which gave the students instructional material. This kind of CALL was supported by these

Advantages:

n  Repeated exposure to the same material is beneficial or even essential to learning.

n  A computer is ideal for carrying out repeated drills, since the machine does not get bored with presenting the same material and since it can provide immediate non-judgmental feedback.

n  A computer can present such material on an individualized basis, allowing students to proceed at their own pace and freeing up class time for other activities.”

Communicative CALL:

n  Focuses more on using forms rather than on the forms themselves;

n  Teaches grammar implicitly rather than explicitly;

n  Allows and encourages students to generate original utterances rather than just manipulate prefabricated language;

n  Does not judge and evaluate everything the students do nor reward them with congratulatory messages, lights or bells;

n  Avoids telling students they are wrong and is flexible to a variety of students responses;

n  Uses the target language exclusively and creates an environment in which using the target language feels natural, both on and off the screen; and

n  Will never try to do anything that a book can do just as well.

n  These games and programs are not always designed by teachers, and not always these programs provide the teacher and/or the student with what they need. New trends in language teaching are generating a necessity of new software.

Integrative CALL

n  Integrates the various aspects of the language learning process;

n  Is truly interactive;

n  Understands the user’s spoken input; and evaluates it not just for correctness but also for appropriateness;

n Diagnoses a student’s problems with pronunciation, syntax or usage and then intelligently decides among a range of options such as repeating, paraphrasing, slowing down, correcting, or directing the student to background explanations.

I did a research for getting this information from these sources:

n  http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/technology.html

n  http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/

n  http://www.techlearning.com/teacher/index.php

n  http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/video_podcast.html

n  http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/search/label/education

Boris

Reflect or not reflect ... that is the question!

During my second week of the amazing virtual travel of learning, I have thought about how much time had been misused when we ignore the benefits of the web.

First of all, ABCD are not just the first alphabet letters, they stand for Audience, Behavior, Condition and Degree, which is an easy, practical, and simplified way to state Objectives for a lesson.

Then, I made a summary of the sources where I get information from, in this way I realized that Google is not the best and unique way to access information mainly when you are looking for Academic Contents. There are so many ways to get materials one important thing is to use the "key words".

Finally my proyect has started to be in shape. I believe that it will improve the system of information delivery to my students as well the assessment practice.

Always at your service,


Boris

First on-line week

Well our first on-line week is about to end, I feel so happy for all the things that I have learned. First of all, creating a Blog was such amazing experience, now I think that I can share everything with the whole world, and so I am doing.

Second, I want to say thanks to all of you who have visited my blog and of course for the kind comments on it.

Now I am beginning our summer vacation from school so I feel so eager to start classes again and use my blog with my students.

I would like to suggest to everybody to make a list of activities to be developed in a blog for ELT students. Please share your experience using blogs academically.

My Summer Webskills Program

Hi all this is my first experience using a blog, so I hope I can do it well. Let's start this adventure of learning and sharing!

Right now I don't feel so confident using these tools but I am pretty sure that everything is going to be fine after all.

All the tips and experiences learned, will be enhacing our knowledge about language teaching but the ones who will be more beneficiated by the effort done, will be our students.
Today for instance I realize that you can share information with your students in a very attractive way, since the display you got once you have published your entry is very modern and can be modified using basic editing tools. This is an excellent way to motivate the digital natives as the new generations have been labelled. They would be more willing to do their homework or projects using technology like this, I mean  easy, modern, and practical.

Boris