I found this week to be extremely helpful. I use a lot of PPTs in my work and in class. I am always looking for new ways to make my powerpoints innovative and fun. The readings and feedback from this week's discussions helped with that.
First, I made a Jeopardy game from scratch for the first time. It was fun to make and interesting to see the powerpoint hyperlink to other sections. This means the routine slide by slide method. I also incorporated lots of hyperlinks into an interactive PPT on Action Research which I delivered yesterday in a graduate English Education class. They loved the short quiz which I incorporated at the end of the lecture. It was simple, but they liked the addition. I also experimented with using the blank slide - which did exactly what it was supposed to do - to draw the attention to me and not the PPT. Donna, our guest this week, spoke out using blank slides often and about loving the effects of them. I totally agree. I had never thought about that before.
For our final project, I have started to develop some technologies which might be helpful in preventing plagiarism in my program. I am working on one online storyboard and am developing new handouts and lessons that I can use. I have also found some good games on the Internet which might help with this. I am creating handouts on APA and MLA citation which students can keep in their notebooks for whenever they are in doubt about how to cite something. My school has created a handbook which it hopes to distribute to all students regarding the issue of academic integrity. I am going to make an interactive PPT with that, so that students won't be bored just reading from the manuel. Hey, who knows, maybe I can make a Jeopardy game out of that too!
This week, I had several committee meetings at my job. I sit on a CTLE committee task force which is in charge of developing online courses for my university, which currently has NO online courses. Thanks to Courtney and all the ideas I have gotten from this course, I have a clear idea about how to incorporate tons of technology into an online course. I have never taught a completely online course, and I hesitate to teach one for EFL students (I think language learning needs a human touch). I also incorporate hybrid modes for doing forums, blogs and projects at home, along with an independent learning component as well, but even with that, the courses I have taught have never had more than 20% outside of classtime work online. How does one make a language class completely online? What resources do you need? What support to you need? These are all questions which the committee and I have to work through before we begin to formulate any online courses at my university. This is the beginning of what will be a very long project for me.
Well, I look forward to seeing more of our classmates great PPTs this week.
Hi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteOne of my primary motives for this course was to convince my faculty management that introducing a course in any form of CALL would be extremely beneficial.
A background note: we have been a partner in a TEMPUS project, which is huge in Serbia. Part of the funding we received was in the form of the famous SANAKO lab for 15 stations with a three-year licence and Adobe Connect! I can't tell you how thrilled I am!
Anyway, I suggested we needed to introduce a course which would be supporting this technology. And guess what: I was asked to prepare the syllabus for a course called "Computer application in learning languages"! I can't tell you how happy I am!
I am positive you will manage to cope with all the assignments ahead of you.
Jasmina
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ReplyDeleteHi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see how you can make use of what we are studying right now. What a busy lady you are!
I love your picture and good to see that you too have kids and keep the balance between your family and your job.
Eszter
Hi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteUsing a blank page did prove to be effective in my case too. I think at first some of the students even thought there was some kind of mistake there. Anyway the aim was achieved – I received their undivided attention.
I enjoyed your jeopardy game and felt in your students’ shoes. I’m sure they’re going to love it. In fact, you encouraged me to try to do one too :)
I see what you mean by ‘language learning needs a human touch’. I have never taught a language class online before, though I have moderated a couple of teacher training programmes, e.g. TKT Essentials. On the bright side, the more I familiarise with technology and get to grips with its application to teaching the easier it seems to teach any type of classes online. From my own experience, there are issues you just need to experience and master while moderating a course. This basically applies to monitoring, instruction, guiding and socialising to build a community. Technical side is yet another issue which you of course get prepared for in advance. I think it would be a good idea to add a synchronous meeting to a language course, it can be a chat, Adobe connect or some other similar software online platform can support. I moderated my first online course under a mentor’s supervision which I think is absolutely essential.
I hope this gives a little help.
Nino
Dear Jasmina,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear that you are in the process of creating a CALL syllabus. I wonder if you are incorporating lots of tools that we have been using in this class, such as a class Wiki or class Blog? I think that when I create an online course, I will be borrowing lots of ideas from Courtney and this class. As I prepared for a presentation on teachers' beliefs, we often teach the way that we were taught. So, in line with that, Courtney has done such a great job at teaching us that I want to be like her in an online environment. It is amazing that she has brought us together, just like an in-person class!
Please keep me informed about your CALL class creation. I hope it goes well.
Evelyn
Dear Evelyn,
DeleteI am most certainly going to implement all the things Courtney has taught us as well as all the things I have learned from my colleagues. I did have a general idea earlier when I first introduced the possibility of a CALL course to faculty management but it was far from what it will be now after my experience in this class.
Yes, Courtney has done a great job and I am very lucky to have had this opportunity! However, I am also truly grateful to all the people participating, sharing and collaborating!
I will keep you posted about the CALL course. For the time being, it has been included in the curriculum and now it is up to the accreditation board to re-accredit both our BA and MA. All my colleagues and I have invested a lot in making these two programmes fresher and more innovative, we have included new things, developed the old ones just as the standards require. Now we have to wait for the final verdict. It usually takes several months.
Thank you for being interested. I appreciate it a lot.
Jasmina
Good luck, Jasmina, and I appreciate all of the fine details that you are always willing to share. I hope that you will continue to blog even after this course is finished, and that we can stay in touch. Thanks to technology, today's world is very small and maybe we can even meet someday!
DeleteI am glad to have friends now on the other side of the world, thanks to this course!
Take care.
Evelyn
Dear Nino,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. I was glad to hear that you have done some type of teacher training programmes which incorporate technology. I agree that as we become more familiar with technolog that the easier it becomes for us to visualize how to teach a class online, even a language class. Plus, in today's world, there are just so many resources online to make the job easier. Moderating, like you said, is the key. Even though the typing takes 10 times more time than actual speaking, this helps to make an online course more successful. Like Courtney has done for us, we are a true community of learners thanks to her. Maybe I can spend next summer in developing an online course. I would like to challenge myself, even though my school is not willing to invest money to pay teachers extra to develop an online platform. It would also be good experience for my resume!
Thanks for sharing your great ideas!
Hope you enjoyed week 6.
Evelyn
Hi, Nino.
DeleteYes, I agree with you that online courses are worth the effort even though they take a lot more time than face-to-face classes. I would love to develop one from scratch and then hold the class myself. That is exactly what I am encouraging my faculty to do. However, there is little incentive when the university does not want to compensate either salary or with a course load reduction for the work that goes into online classes. As it it, my teachers teach far more than faculty in other departments, so it is hard to ask them to get involved in yet another time-consuming activity.
Thanks for sharing!
Evelyn
Hi Evelyn,
DeleteI completely share your enthusiasm about developing and conducting an online class and your university is very lucky to have you on board. Even more so considering they are not compensating the work and effort. I suppose often times online work is undervalued and taken for granted by those who have never done it themselves. Hopefully things are going to change.
I have never developed an online course before. The only similar experience is adding an online component to my face-to-face class which made it into a type of blended learning. Now I think I would love to have a try but I'll have to encourage my faculty first:) Would be very nice to hear about your experience afterwards. Good luck!
Nino
Hi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to hear that you will be embarking on your first fully online course in the future! I love having a balance of face-to-face instruction and online instruction. I think you will do a fantastic job at facilitating an online learning community.
I hope that this course has not only introduced you to technological tools to help enhance language learning, but also given you a clear idea of how to design an online course, the tools you can use, the structure that is necessary, and the level of work that is involved on both the student
and teacher.
Please let me know if you ever have any questions.
Thank you for your continued enthusiasm!
Courtney
Dear Courtney,
DeleteYes, thanks to you, I have tons of great ideas for creating an online course. Like you, I would love for my students to create a weekly reflection blog. I would love to use a google document to store all our weekly information and a wiki where we can update and all new information. Wallwishers will be fun to introduce new materials into the lessons, such as favorite parts of a book or interesting independent learning activities that they have done outside of class. I even like Nicenet. That might work even better than a Moodle site. Everything that I have read about online courses are illustrated perfectly in this course of ours. You are a good expert to learn from!
Thanks as always for your kind support!
Evelyn