Lily's presentation: 2 online experience

-
Our second online encounter wanted to cartoon me because my screen was not showing me what I expected to see!lol. Anyhow, I figured it out and joined the class successfully.  Even though  I missed telling our guest professor about myself, I did not miss hearing her telling us about the advantages and pros of online teaching and virtual learning.  When she mentioned virtual online learning I thought of second life in Karen's class. Lily mentioned that online has come in handy in the sense that it has provided access to education especially for people who live in extreme remote and rural areas.  She mentioned that because of online learning, people who cannot physically make it to class or school, have the opportunity to learn and not miss out on anything.

Lily's comment coincided with what the Professor I'm observing said. They both agree that online class allows people who have jobs or people who are very busy with other things than just school to an opportunity of learning whilst at home or where ever they could be. What arose my curiosity was when Lily, mentioned that the problem with ESL teachers is that they tend to put more focus on teaching how technological tools are used rather than using technological tools to teach L2 learning and acquisition.  I agree with her when she says the focus should be how can we best use technology to teach L2 acquisition, not how to use L2 to teach technology use.  

Another point I liked the most was the pyramid.  I think the pyramid is good, because it gives the teacher a clue of which stages to start with.  However, I think it was absolutely and well calculated move by her to have that table broken down into simple but well defined stages. Her table showed stages of where the novice teacher and the experts are expected to function based on their teaching experience in as far as CALL is concerned.  

Apart from Lily's presentation Esther clustered us into our respective groups based on common features of the classes we are observing. We then discussed what we have so far seen and found out if we are observing the same things, in which case we discovered that we were not really having the same things in common.  we concluded the class schedule, by talking about voting on whether we would prefer to share questions for the second set of interviews with our professors or do it differently. We didn't conclude on this matter.

Comments

  1. LauraOctober 22, 2010 at 11:36 AM

    I agree with you, Dira, that an important point she made was that current and future teachers who use CALL really need to think of both the technology and the pedagogy when working in an online environment. Instead of having a single CALL class in teacher training programs, CALL should be integrated into all classes so that it is more connected to the theory and pedagogy that students are learning.

    I also saw the benefits of online learning for rural students. If students want specialized courses (like AP or PSEO) and their school doesn't have the staff or funds to provide those opportunities, online learning provides an opportunity for those students to take them, which "levels out the playing field" for all students. I thought it was quite agressive for the state of Michigan to require an online class for all students!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Esther SmidtOctober 23, 2010 at 6:56 AM

    I think we did decide on the sharing of interview questions. You are supposed to get together with your group in whatever format you desire and come up with a list of possible interview questions which you then e-mail to me by Monday. I'll have a look at it and get back to you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. XuOctober 23, 2010 at 5:45 PM

    In my opinion, the pyramid is based on the whole system contain all kinds of staff Dr. Lily mentioned during her presentation.The teacher just need to teach, and the other staffs will do the curriculum design and other work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. mandy_ines7October 24, 2010 at 10:08 PM

    I agree with what you said that "the focus should be how can we best use technology to teach L2 acquisition, not how to use L2 to teach technology use." I feel lucky that we have this CALL class to help us in that focus.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousOctober 26, 2010 at 9:34 PM

    I like your mention about people using technology who have other jobs or a busy life. While I don't want this to sound the wrong way, I'd just like to point out that these people deserve access to an education, too, even if that means they don't have the time or effort to get an "A" grade.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using Computers is a challenge for South African high school students!

-
I teach FET College students, who have almost not understanding of what a computer is and how it should be used. Many of my students argue that they were never taught about computers at school. They claimed that they only got exposed to the world of computers when they reached College level.  I wonder how will such students make it in a fast changing environment, where computers have become the order of the day?  I think teachers need to take a hard look at themselves, and make necessary effort to effect change in the lives of many students who, one way or another need to know what a computer is and how to operate.  Learning online is also a growing phenomena and many students need to know what a computer is and how to operate it.  CHANGE CHANGE
Read more

Identifying barriers to learn is key!

-
Barriers to learning and development are a major disturbance to students academic progress.  Mostly, lecturers assume that students fail because of lack of interest in their studies or because they don't want to be part of the learning process. Identifying the real challenge causing a delay in how the students learns is important.  I have noticed that sometimes invisible physical conditions of students can impact their learning negatively. For instance, I have a short sighted student in my class and he had challenges following our classroom discussion. We were working on computers and he had trouble seeing letters and words on the computer monitor.  I couldn't diagnose that he was struggling until after class when he approched me and siad, "Sir I have a problem." It was that phrase that made me wonder, "what is it now?" fortunately, he explained the situation and thereafter, I had to set up his work station and explain things to him on one one session with h
Read more

Online class interaction 3, guest presenter

-
Wednesday's class was very interesting.  Our guest presenter discussed how uses cellphones in his class.  I thought it was interesting to learn that while some of us are  still thinking about incorporating or infusing cellphone technology use in their classes, some teachers have already started the process.  I think using cellphones can be very cost effective for students and convenient for teachers, because in most cases students have cellphones that have internet access, and frequently, they use their cellphones for social networking sites such as facebook and twitter.  Such networks can be put to good use such learning and classroom discussions. The speaker also talked about the use of E-books which are usually cheaper than paper books.  He said the books they buy usually expire after 6 years. Secondly, we learned about MOOS from Karen's presentation.  I would have love to really experience MOOS in details but I was unable to do that since I could not follow in more detail
Read more