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