Week 10: The end!

“You teach best what you most need to learn”- Richard David Bach

Technology is going on huge steps, teachers are digital immigrants and students are digital natives, these are the 3 main reasons for which we as teachers should learn about tech in order to be at the same level of our learners (at least).

If so, there are many options but I think that the biggest one is attending to  online courses due to the time that is not enough for teachers who have to teach, to prepare plans, to review tasks and so on.

What I have learned is a lot about technology enhanced to the teaching process, I learned for example how to create my own blog and now I can work in it with ability, how to work in Nicenet (Internet Classroom Assistant) and how to post in it, I also learned how to write the general and specific learning objectives based in the ABCD method A (audience), B (behavior), C (Condition) and D (Degree). I also got that there are a lot of web pages to investigate something and not only the google page but the noodle tools that present many different options of webs, also I created my own account in www.delicious.com a page on which we can bookmark and interact with people around the world. Also I learned about listening and reading activities to be done in class with the students. The reading and writing activities were developed in order to obtain experience in the development of these skills, also I learned how to elaborate a lesson plan; this was very useful for me especially because I used this new plan in order to participate in an academic contest in the place in which I work, of course that with this plan I got the first place.

I have also learned about how to work in the Web Quest a page on which there is a model to do lesson plans and also to find more information about different educative projects useful for both teachers and students, another important web is rubistar, on which we can create our own rubric of evaluation needed for all of teachers around the world and where you can use the models to create rubrics; I also learned about different strategies to work with large and small classes using technology, since that it exists CCS (classroom communicative system) a technique to work with technology in the class because it makes students feel more comfortable than in a traditional class making us interactive teachers.

I read a lot about autonomous learning and how autonomous learners do their best when they are studying giving the teachers the opportunity to develop the science in an easy way, also I learned about ANVILL (A National Virtual Language Lab) and the developing or oral and written skills in the teaching learning process.

I finished my final project that took place since the beginning of this online course; it was a very hard task however with the guidance of our tutor Donna it turned easier. To develop a project of such dimension involved creativity, responsibility, and effort from all of us.  Other good point was the co evaluation because we created a friendship relation with our partners and they evaluated our project with honesty and professionalism.

Arriving to the end of this webskills course I learned about the learning styles, the multiple intelligences created by Howard Gardner and how teachers should use this in order to improve the quality of education of the students, even though this is a topic widely analyzed; now we know that it requires continuous study.

More than all, I learned to express my opinions in a written way, I learned that everybody respects other opinions, I learned that there is no problem if you have mistakes while you are expressing your thoughts sincerely, in other words I learned to learn.  Of course I will not be an expert but as Nicholas Murray says: “An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less” now I know that I learned to study more and more.

 “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself”

--Chinese Proverb.

Maggie