Saturday, December 8, 2012

Week 10: Wrap-up



This last reflective blog is not easy post. There are many mixed feeling inside me. I am happy because I achieved a personal objective in my professional career but I feel sad at the same time since this course is ending. My eyes are wet and I feel a pressure in my throat. I cannot understand why if I had not seen you personally, dear classmates and Courtney, I feel like crying. 

We have spent many weeks together and we have learned a lot. So, I will try to summarize what we learned week by week in the course “Building Teacher Skills through the Interactive Web” imparted by our special instructor, Courtney Cunningham:

Week 1: During the first week, course participants introduce themselves on Nicenet,  a tool for running educational programs. As well, we read and discussed about the course ground rules and rubrics for evaluating. We also learned how to create a reflective blog through observing previous participants ‘reflective blogs. Additionally, we posted a comment on at least one of our classmates’ blog.

Week 2: The course focused on discussing about web searching. Besides, we learned to create class objectives using the ABCD model for behavioral objectives.  The fist task of our project report was also digitally delivered on Nicenet. In this first task, the course participants analyzed and described the students of their courses. Finally, a new submission of our reflective blog was posted by narrating what we had learned during the week and also posted on someone else’s blog.

Week 3: The third week was extremely interesting since we analyzed and discussed websites for teaching listening and speaking making references to our classmates’ comments. In the same way, after reading about bookmarking and delicious, we created a “delicious” site where we posted interesting links to share with others. We analyzed a past project report and discussed it. At last, we posted our weekly reflecting blog, stating what we learned this particular week. Besides, a comment was posted in at least one of our partners’ blog.

Week 4: We analyzed and discussed websites for teaching reading and writing making reference to at least one of our peers’ remarks. Furthermore, it was created a technology-enhanced lesson plan and explained how it is similar to or different from the regular lesson plan format. A reflection about one of our courses and how technology would benefit our classes was the project task to be accomplished during week four. Lastly, we made comments on another participants’ reflective blog and created a new entry on our own one.

Week 5: This is one of the most interesting course weeks for me. During this week, a discussion on Project-based learning and webquest was raised. After reading about rubrics, we created our own rubric in “Rubistar”. Also, the fourth task of this course consisted in describing a technology possible change for the chosen course.  An extra credit task was offered by our instructor to improve our grades. So I decided to design a webquest that I had to re-post in the course wiki a week later because the original one expired. To finish, as in any other week, we posted the corresponding reflection on our blogs and commented on someone else’s blog.

Week 6: My other favorite week was week six. After reading the suggested material, we discussed about techniques to implement in our classes in order to create a student-centered language context. An interactive PowerPoint presentation was designed and shared in the course wiki by each course participant, too. The fourth task of the course was to begin using a technology change in our classes and to start keeping records of this implementation. Finally, a new version of our reflective blogs was posted, describing what we had learned during the week and also posted one of our partners’ blog. 

Week 7: Another special course week was week seven. During this week, we read about learner autonomy. We reflected about this topic and suggested ways to enhance learner autonomy in the language classroom. Then, I posted two articles and a video about learner autonomy on the “Wallwisher” that was placed on our course wiki. We kept track of the progress on the technology change implemented in one of our courses. As in any other week, we shared a new reflection on our blogs about what we did during the week and posted a comment on a peer’s blog.

Week 8: After reading and analyzing the provided websites, we discussed about the use of these resources in our classes. Exploring these sites allowed us to decide what online tool to use in order to create an activity or site. In my case, I created a wiki for one of my courses. We also submitted our first project report draft and posted it on the course wiki. Two of my partners, Ina and Raj, gave me feedback about this draft and I gave them my feedback on their drafts on week 9. To finish week eight, we made comments on another participants’ reflective blog and created a new entry on our own one. 

Week 9: This was the penultimate week of the course. After reading about learning styles and technology tools for multiple intelligences, we shared an example of how to use technology to address different learning styles in one of our classes. In addition, we created and submitted the final version of our project report and posted our penultimate blog entry, reflecting on what we accomplished on week nine. We also commented on someone else’s blog.

Week 10: It was the wrap-up of the course. We had to give suggestions to future course participants. We took a LoTI survey and described my LoTI level in one post on Nicenet. To conclude, I had to write this reflection that you may be reading and commented on a partners’ blog.


I will  miss you a lot, dear classmates and Courtney!!! I wish you all a Merry Christmas! God bless you!

Mary


1 comment:

  1. Hi Mary

    Your Introduction can make any one of us emotional.These productive ten weeks will be cherished in our memories.It was a great collaborative learning experience.

    You have posted an excellent summary of the course under time pressure.Thanks again for giving your valuable observations for my project.

    Merry Christmas & best wishes for your future.

    Regards

    Raj

    ReplyDelete