Week 10

Very sad to say that this is the end of the course. I would like to thank my country Nepal to select me for the course. Thank you very much to Oregon University to organize this kind of online course and give us opportunity to learn many useful things. Thank you US Embassy. Thank you Robert to be a ideal instructor, with you the course would be nothing. You were so helpful all round the course. Thank you so much dear class mates to be always helpful and cooperative.

The course is useful to deal with the students with modern technology. I did not know that I can do so much with the technology. Keeping bookmarks in Delicious.com is wonderful. Planing a project in Web Quest and setting Rubrics was the great job. It made my projects more easier and marking more objective. Links shared were very much useful. Making a power point presentation was not new for me but a systematic one.  Learning about search engine was a good job. I did not know that so many of search engines are present. I learned how to use and act according to ABCD objectives. I learned how to engage a large class room systematically. I learned how to use one computer in a class room. I learned how to create online course using nicenet. I learned how to make my wall and use it as the class wall. I learned howto use Google documents and plan a lesson here and so on.

At the end of the course. we have prepared a report. It was an interesting and challenging task to me. I had to read a partner's report then commented on him and did changes in my report according to his suggestion. I liked to do this task very much.

At last, I will advice my future participants to do the course with full dedication and interest. It is a useful course to update yourself professionally and use the modern technology in you teachings.

At last dear friends would miss you all...
Thank you so much everybody..

Aparna  

Week 9

"Seeing is worth a thousand times hearing."

A link between intelligence and second language learning has been reported by several researchers. Over the year, many studies using a variety of IQ tests and different methods of assessing language learning have been found that intelligence levels were a good means of predicting how successful a learner would be at language learning. Furthermore, some recent studies have shown that intelligence may be more strongly related to certain kinds of second language abilities than other.                                                                                    

Teaching aid and materials include any material, program or machine that can be used to help the teacher present or explain his/her lesson better. They are to help teacher save time effort and arouse interest on the part of the students.

Pictures and photographs can be used to stimulate the students to speak and as a basis of writing exercise. They are useful for teaching vocabulary and to familiarize the students with foreign culture. Posters include complex pictures or series of picture that can be displayed simply by sticking on the wall with the help of cork board or flannel board or by using multimedia and padlet wall. A good power point presentation worths a large lecture class. Over head projector can be used to present the drawn or typed materials to a large language class. Effective way of video can assist the teaching/learning of a language class. With the advent of internet, all aspects of education have been influenced. We can find any teaching aid here and use them in more effective way. Learners can view them even after the school, in their free time and in the time of studies at home. They can even search more effective and useful one and share to the class. These way students become more active than teachers and the learning becomes child centered.

This week I learned that we can use technology according to the student’s intelligence. The week was very much busy for me I read the comments given by my partner and followed what he said. I made the final draft of my project report and have submitted it. Now, we are at the end of the course, just one week is left.

Aparna   

Week 8

Students working out for power point presentations in groups.

This week was very much busy for me. I learned many interesting things and went through many useful sites. How to teach online was something difficult for me but the sites like: http://www.easytestmaker.com  http://poster.4teachers.org  http://bogglesworldesl.com/  http://www.toolsforeducators.com/  http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ helped me a lot. I found them useful for teachers. Writing report, this week kept me very much busy. I have worked hard on my report and waiting for comments from my course partner Ricardo. I have read his report and learned many things from him which will help me in my final draft of the project. Online video discussion was something new for me. I was keen interested to take part but due to electricity problem here in Nepal I could not. I went through  it afterwards and found my classmates are  working very hard. Their discussion with Jeff Magoto was wonderful on webinar on ANVILL. We can find it here:
http://tinyurl.com/mar1-anvill-webcast

Students busy in their group works

I created pddlet wall for my class here they can share their links, images, videos according to the topic being taught in the class room. Every one in the class can go through this link. Students would be independent in their searches and would feel free to write something or draw something and put on the wall to share with other classmates. For this I motivated my students on making short power point presentations in the class and presenting it in small groups, then they had to share it on the wall.

As a whole it was a busy week for me..

Aparna

Week 7

"Knowledge should be based on observation and only then the world can restore a truer relationship between observing mind and the observed nature and scientific progress becomes possible. Knowledge should be for the benefit and application to man. The sequence of knowledge should be from observation to understand the practical application of it." - Francis Bacon

Mostly, we in Nepal have one computer for one class or we take students to language lab for practice of foreign language. The computers used here are multimedia computers. Multimedia is the use of more than one unique medium at a time. A medium is the way of communicating information such as speech or text. In contrast to a traditional classroom, at a more advanced level people use movies and television to combine multiple types of media (sound, video, animation, still graphics, and text) to create different types of message that inform or entertain in unique or meaningful way. Multimedia programs are described as interactive if they accept input from the user and enable the user to direct the flow of information or action in the programs.

Prize distribution at school 

We use multimedia programs in a wide variety of ways. Commonly we use CD-ROM based reference materials and tutorial and use the Internet to collaborate with students in other location. Students may receive hours of listening input at the computer with appropriate comprehension questions, easily controlled repetition and immediate playback. Speaking recognition technology allows students to control computer actions with speech input. Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary provide CD-ROM with accurate pronunciation of the words by native speaker. Reading can be enhanced by timing student’s reading, by creating jigsaw paragraph or jumbled texts. Students can go through the timed passage and answer the comprehension question in the space available. An important use of computer is as the means of creating ‘key-pal’ or ‘mouse-pal’, the e-mail equivalent of pen-pal. Getting students to write e-mails in English to other around the world can be extremely motivating. Similarly, beyond naked drills and exercise, teachers find that grammar and vocabulary games can be very motivating for learners in twos or three around one computer screen. For example, online Puzzle maker allows users to construct puzzles online based on their own word lists. Online version of games and sports are valuable for introducing or reviewing structures such as the imperative, conditionals and the passive voice. Web quest and Rubrics are helpful for teachers to take project works in a more organized manner.

This week, I learned about creating a useful wall for students. Here teacher can put any image, link, video etc. for students according to the subject matter learned. Students can go through it and even share their own links, videos, images etc useful to the class.

At last my project work is going on. I am enjoying the change in my class room.   

Feeling the Change.....

I am Aparna, teach English in a public school, run by the government of Nepal. Our schools are not so much resourceful but it is one of the model school in Nepal. For Nepal it is the school full of all infrastructure needed. Here, students do not know much about modern technologies and uses of computers. We have a computer lab with ten computers and we have to take every class turn by turn there for practice. I teach English from class six to class ten. For my project work I have chosen students of class eight. Their age group is of 13 to 15 years. This is the group who has learned English for eight years and can read and write English properly but has difficulties in listening and speaking. They can only do short conversations in English. In my class there are 45 students and they are of mixed gender, means we make girls and boys sit together,work together and co-operate each other. We have traditional system of class room management means teacher in front with a black board. We take students outside of the class room for group works,here we have good space and we can sit down on green grass for discussions, group and pair works.Similarly, we take them to computer lab to practice listening and speaking. We do not have any Wi-fi or intranet in our schools. We use internet with a modem. Very few students have internet access at their home, they go to cyber or use at school. Facebook is very much popular here with my students. Most of them have their account there. Very few do Google search or any other for project works, mostly use library. But yes my students are very curious to learn new technologies and they are creative learners.

Week 6

“Each lesson plan should have its roots in the previous lesson and its branches and leaves in the next one..”

Learning is individual process. It is related to the behavioral changes of an individual. Each person learns according to his or her ability of learning. But human beings are also a social animal. Their all activities are correlated to the group in which they live. Group process such as competition, conflict, cooperation, exchange, assimilation, accommodation etc. has positive effects on learning.

Week 5

 Seeing is worth a thousand times hearing.....

“One of the most important student-centered techniques in modern language teaching scenario is the project work. The project work is an activity which centers around the completion of a task, and usually requires an extended amount of independent work either by an individual student or by a group of students. Much of this work takes place outside classroom”. (Richards et al, 1985)

A picture taken during discussion on PBL at American Corner, Dhangadhi

PBL is student centered rather than teacher centered, the teacher may need to develop a more flexible attitude towards the students’ work. The project is not necessarily designed to suit a syllabus, and the language derives not necessarily from the text book but from the nature of the project itself. PBL also provides one solution to the problem of the learner autonomy of making the learner responsible for his/her own learning. By its very nature it also places responsibility on the students, both as individual and as member of a co-operative learning group. Autonomy becomes a fact of life.

Week 4

With the growing use of English in the world community, English is no longer the language of English people. It has gained the status of an international language not only because it is used as a lingua franca but because people in different parts of the world use as their ‘other tongue’.

Here, I remember a joke:

A mouse, hiding in a hole in the wall, was scared of venturing out where a huge tomcat was poison to catch it.

After an hour, the pouring sounds stopped, and the mouse could only hear the sound of a rooster crowing. I can go out now, the mouse thought. The danger is gone.

Unfortunately, the cat was still patiently waiting for its prey. He pounced on the mouse, gobbled it up and turned to a kitten, saying, “You see, being a bilingual has its advantage.”

This week, we practiced Reading and Writing skills. Reading obviously is a receptive skill because we receive message by reading something. Reading without understanding is just barking at prints and therefore reading involves understanding and comprehension. Similarly, writing is the act of putting down something, which has been spoken, in conventional graphic form.

“ It is only by listening English that you learn to listen English; it is only by speaking English that you learn to speak English; it is only by reading English that you learn to read English;  and it is only by writing English that you learn to write English.”

Next, I made a lesson plan, I can say an electronic lesson plan. It was a new experience for me. I did this task at last because it at first confused me. I did not know what to do. I waited for my friends to post at first. I read them then only could to any thing. I read  many reports and liked the report of Jarek Krajka jkrajka [at] batory.plo.lublin.pl Stefan Batory Pallottine Secondary School (Lublin, Poland) Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poland). The report was about Using the internet in ESL Writing Instruction.

The last task was of the third step of our project work. This week we had to find out problems. I analyzed my students and could say that my students are very poor at speaking of the second language. They are not confident while speaking and always tried to escape.

“Knowledge should be based on observation and only then the world can restore a truer relationship between observing mind and the observed nature and scientific progress becomes possible. Knowledge should be for the benefit and application to man. The sequence of knowledge should be from observation to understanding the practical application of it.”  -Francis Bacon

As a whole the week was fantastic… I enjoyed a lot and learned a lot….

Aparna

  

Week 3

Every normal human being learns his first language in the few years of his life. He is competent enough to communicate in his language before he goes to school. Some people also learn two or even three languages simultaneously in their childhood. This happens particularly if the community where the child is born and bought up is bilingual or multilingual.  We call first language acquisition and second language learning. First language is acquired unconsciously,  in a normal and the natural way while second language is learned in an artificial situation. The purpose of learning language is to enable the students to communicate in that language. It is essential, therefore, that every second of every language class is directed to equip students with the language skills they really need. According to Haycraft,1978:

"To be able to use the language, to convey thoughts, intentions, wishes, information  etc, a person needs a various elements."

A Picture taken during NELTA international conference

This week we learned about Listening skills. I got to know that only CD ROM is not enough for practicing listening skills. There are a huge number of web sites available from which we can take out task for effective teaching/ learning activity. This time I did so and I took my class to computer lab and we did activities online. Students enjoyed and I found them more curious and creative. As a whole they showed active interest in the role of listening comprehension.

This week I learned many new things which were dream land for me. I only heard about using book marking, never used. I got to know about Delicious.com. And I was proud to bookmark my own site www.aparna.com.np on delicious.com and share the link. This the first time I am using Delicious.com and proudly say that you can find me here https://delicious.com/appudada_aparna

This week I read many reports of my previous students of the course Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web, University of Oregon. I found report of Tendouinde Bruno Nikiema, American Language Center, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and was curious to do some project work as her. Her situation of the class and mine is same. As her class, we are also in the lack of technology in our class room and we have to find out everything by ourselves. We have to take the student to the computer lab to practice language and that is also only when it is our turn.  Many students neither know about  internet nor how to use computers. They are depended on the school for everything. The students are from low class and they can not afford computers at home. I found her very hard working. She first of all made her students able to use computers then use internet then only she started the lesson. Hats off  for her....

Aparna..  
www.aparna.com.np

  

Week 2

The Pulitzer Prize winning writer John Tracy Kidder has stated that "Most teachers have little control over school policy or curriculum or choice of texts or special placement of students, but most have a great deal of autonomy inside the classroom. To a degree shared by only a few other occupations, such as police work, public education rests precariously on the skill and virtue of the people at the bottom of the institutional pyramid"

Week 1

Nepal is a bit behind in using the modern technology. People of rural areas do not access to the computers and they know very less about them, while the people of urban areas who have access seem busy in chatting with the opposite sex rather than using computers for earning knowledge. It is said that educators do not use computers because they may be unfamiliar with the technology and those who are familiar with them have fear that they may not control them properly. Still many are depended on paper and pen for every simple to complex deeds.

It is no doubt that computers may bring varieties in the language classroom if it is used properly. Learners can learn language with fun. They can have rigorous practice as they do not have to be worried about making mistakes, as fear of making mistakes is the main cause that they hesitate to practice the target language in real situation. Students can practice their work in their free times. In the similar way they can test their answers themselves immediately. It encourages the learners to be the active learner and risk taker. In short, students are able to learn many things better and more quickly than in a traditional classroom setting.

Computers are not only helping students, they can also be helpful tool for the language teachers, which can save time, effort, and search reference materials. In searching of reference materials, teaching language websites and blogs have an important role. We can find anything we want in google and other search engines. For me too, creating a blog and being a part of google search is a matter of proud. In the beginning, I used to write on face book and now I am writing on my own blog is something that I had never expected. The all credit goes to the UO AEI, Winter 2013: Webskills. I am proud to post my first blog.....

Aparna
www.aparna.com.np

Hello Everybody....