Week 10,

It has been a great experience. The course has been well organized. The instructors have been available all the time and the feedback was always on time. This interaction with the instructors is one of the major factors that contributed to the success of this course - Thank you indeed Sandra and Debora.

I have been trying google docs with my students and I think it's a great tool. I use this 'facility' in every course I teach. My students have had one complain about Google docs and it has to do with the requirement to have a gmail account to utilize this service.

I liked the LoTi - levels os Technology Integration. This gave me a complete picture of the different ranks of technology integration and motivated me to reach the highest level possible.

We are very grateful to all the colleagues and our wonderful instructors Sandra and Deborah

I wish you the very best.

Ahmad Amer

Week 9

This week has been positively practical. The interactive tools are very useful. The learners themselves can be taught how to create such interactive exercises. Learner autonomy can be promoted using these technology features.

We should still keep in mind that what matters most is the methodology rather than technology. What I mean by that is that we as teachers should plan and design their lessons and objectives first and only then think what aspects of technology can be integrated.

Thank you indeed for the interesting and useful knowledge we gained this week and all previous weeks.

Best,
Ahmad Amer

Week 8

It's interesting how many teachers around the world face the same challenges. Research has shown that there are alternative instructional methods that teachers need to adopt but they need both system and administrative support.


I have found that the following points that appear in the articles are also relevant in my context (among Israeli Arab English Teachers)

1) Heterogeneous teaching and learning autonomy of learner or teacher depends more on the teaching system as a whole rather than on an individual teaching situation in terms of readiness and practicability.

2) Teachers have to revert to an authoritarian system and to complete an unchangeable syllabus which corresponds with a textbook. They have to accomplish the tasks in the textbook and achieve the objectives of learning English in the national curriculum and in the school syllabus made by the Ministry of Education, but nothing else.
3) There is no way for teachers in the frontline to communicate with the policy-makers, even though the policy does not always meet the realistic needs. As a result, it is unacceptable, or even unthinkable, to adopt anything apart from the textbook in the classroom.
4) Not only could many teachers not help, finding themselves at a loss as to what to do, but also learner autonomy (developed partly by heterogeneous teaching) was perceived as students' own responsibility in the learning process. Thus, it was usually considered that learner autonomy could not be developed in the classroom.
5) An examination-dominated system has made every learner of English gasp for breath. Teachers cannot escape from this notorious system either, because they have to complete the textbook within a term, and simultaneously, devote everything in the classroom to equipping learners with the necessary skills to get a high score in tests.

6) A high score in exams is considered to indicate that both the teacher and student are "good", and the prestige of parents and schools relies heavily on students' performance. Inevitably, competition derived from tests among them makes any new teaching method or activity virtually impossible in the classroom.


Ahmad Amer

Week 7

This week I was exposed to two important instructional aspects:

1) Teaching large heterogeneous teaching.

2) How technology can improve instruction and student motivation.

I learned about interactive PowerPoints and Google Docs. I have never used Google Docs before. Now I can use it instead of geeting many emails or faxes!

I have one concern related to technology. Technology should viewed always as a tool and it should not control the teaching process. Teachers should apply backward design. This will keep the control in the hands of the teachers.

I believe that having computers in schools or homes where teachers/parents are not qualified to best use the technology can be disasterous in terms of academic outcome.
Technology can improve learning exponentially when teachers/parents know how to integrate it into the learning/teaching process.

Ahmad Amer

Week 6

Learning styles and Multiple Intelligences are of paramount importance for me as a teacher to keep in mind. Although I do not totally agree that different learners have different learning styles all the time in every topic in any subject matter.
What I mean is that although different learners have different learning styles, some topics need to be presented in a way that most learners benefit from. Namely, what determines the teaching style can be placed in two categories:
1) The different learning styles among learners
2) The characteristics of the topic being taught

My project details are as follows:

1) particular class to work with: 10 graders in Kafr Qasem high school - the school where I teach

2) an issue they have: writing. They face difficulties and mainly lack of motivation to write

3) a technology tool use to solve the issue: Class blog. I will give permissions to and only to the students in this class. I will give them simple writing tasks to motivate them to write. Now they have audience to read their inputs

I am very enthisiastic about my project and I am positive that my students will benefit from this experience both in terms of learning outcomes and motivation.

Ahmad Amer

Week 5

PBL and Webquest are great teaching methods that are based on task-based methodology. Task based teaching is very effective since it integrated the accuracy components (grammer, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation) and the fluency componenets (reading, writing, speaking & listening). The accuracy componenents serve as means to an end, which is the fluency componenents.

I learned about the free sites that allow teachers to create webquests. It's great since I can integrate multi-sesory teaching with my students. Having youtubes link in webquest can enhance motivation and language learning in my context

Ahmad Amer

Week 4,

Although there are many ESL and EFL excellent sites, we often are not aware of their existence. We there are two many trees we do not see the forest (something close to the original idiom). The skill building sites are great to complement what we teach in the classroom. For many of my students, it's very motivating to learn together in the classroom and then learn individually on their computers at home.

One thing I need badly is a webpage where I can keep records of the students who come late. I teach the first lesson three times a week of a tenth grade and most of them come late. I would like a webpage where I and the students (and maybe their parents too) can keep track of how often each students come late.

Ahmad

Week 3 Reflection

In the article "Best Practices in Technology and Language Teaching", three statements attracted my attention:

1) "Technology allows us to reduce contact time between teacher and student, while maintaning quality of instruction and achieving comparable learning outcomes (p. 231)"

In the high school where I teach, classes are 35 students in average. They are sitting in row, each two share one table. This structure is no longer suitable to this generation. School need more than reform; they need restructuring. I beliive that students can learn much better using methodology-based technology than in the classroom where the setting is boring and there are a lot of distractions.

2) "The potential of using cell phones as devices for language learning is not even fully understood yet. Applications for mobile telephones for language learning will require creativity and careful planning, just as was required when computers were first introduced into the language classroom. New pedagogies that make effective use of these devices will develop rapidly (p. 232)"

The vast majority of my students have mobile phones. I always think about how to integrate these devices into teaching English. I am planning to download some files of pronunciation of vocabulary and I will ask my students to explore learning vocabulary from their mobile phones

3) "a computer is not a substitute for a teacher, and it cannot transform a bad teacher into a good one (p. 232)"

I totally agree. What matters most is not technology, but methodology
Ahmad

My knowledge on the field of integrating technology into teaching EFL seems to be on the increase. I like the idea to be able to set a course online free of charge. I like the idea of Google Sites where we can upload files and then it's possible to have links in our blogs to open or save these files.

Still, it's not clear for me how to upload files and how the goole sites serve as wikis. I created my own google site, but still do not know how to upload files or how to use it as a wiki. I chose one template and I do not know how to change the home page. I wanted to personalize the homepage but without success.

I have read the material about writing educational objectives, such as the ABCD model and the revised Bloom's taxonomy. I think both models are in line with "Backward Design" where teachers are supposed to first consider their objectives, then the assessment methods then and they consider the learning experiences - the what and how.

Ahmad

Dear Colleagues,

I feel lucky being chosen to take part in such an interactive course. I have always tried to integrate technology in my teaching but without much success. Now I feel that there is a framework (http://umbc.uoregon.edu/eteacher/webskills/index.html) that links everything together.

I read the article on blogging for ELT and I came up with some questions:

1) In a tutor blog, only the tutor can POST messages. Others can only comment. Is it true or false

2) In a learner blog, only the learner can POST messages. Others can only comment. Is it true or false

3) In a class blog, all students and the teacher can both POST and COMMENT. Is it true or false? DO they have the same identical username and password?

4) What Internet sites or serivces you recommend can be used for SITE FEED if the teacher wants to be updated when any student update his blog?

Ahmad