Week 3

It is amazing to see the progression of the course work. With the beginning of the third week I felt that I have become a teacher thinking in different lines; more web based, technology based learning and teaching. This week objectives included;

• Discussion - Aural/Oral Skill-Building Websites
• Task - Using Delicious.com to Store Useful Links
• Project Task 2 and finally the Blog reflection.

Aural/Oral Skill-Building Websites
This week discussion based on Aural/Oral skill building gave me an insight to the two major skills. I read interesting articles and one such was based on  "New perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation" by Maria Grazia Busa` amply discusses about the applied linguistic aspects of pronunciation, how it entered the classroom with the Audio Lingual Method. There is a high demand for these two skills in my country and besides I am personally engaged in a special program launched eying on improving these two skills. Hence, I have a fair idea about onestopenglish website and was happy to join the discussion making a special reference to the very website. I read the comments made by my colleagues which enabled me to think about some other options as well. As always our course instructor Donna  facilitated us further with a new website called Voxopop.

Project Task 2
There were some sample project reports for us to follow and comment. Out of the project reports I got inspired by the project report of Nicolici Nadina Carmen which gave me an idea of what we ought to do for the project work. That work inspired me a lot. Interestingly she has discussed the concept Teacher Talking Time (TTT). Nicolici has used a blog to make her students engage themselves in reading. When reading I felt that I should consider the syllabus, the goals of the syllabus, my objectives the class strengths and weaknesses etc. All in all it gave me a good parallel learning opportunity.

Using Delicious.com to Store Useful Links
First I created a delicious account and saved very useful websites here. Until then I used to save all my links in different folders on bookmarks. Now I have the Add to delicious option as well. This in a way lead us to follow links of others and get more options. Hence, I do follow some of my colleagues and some do follow me. It is really an exciting experience.  I bookmarked some websites and out of them there are some of my favorites. The task we did for this week gave me a new experience and is something useful as well.

The work we did up to now had inspired me a lot to use more web-related teaching and learning work and I inspired my students to follow different websites as well. Still I read the first and the second week comments and I find them useful for me. Maintaining this blog is like maintaining a diary and as always I feel that it is good to reflect what we do. Week 3 gave me a novel experience and I look forward to get the work for the week ahead.
 

Week 2

I was happy to step into the second week though there were several tasks assigned to do. At first I wondered as to how I could manage my time to complete all.  Yet, managed to complete them as the necessary guidance was there. Further, I really appreciate the way the friends of this group contribute. It will always pave the way for all of us to be on the right track.

The discussion, assigned to us this week, made me to learn more about different search engines and did some reading as well. The Noodletool is a good site which was introduced and can use it where necessary in our pedagogical application. I believe I contributed to web searching discussion in a fair manner.

The ABCD objective writing was different from our way of writing. I had to read my objective several times before posting but had made a mistake. With the guidance of Donna I managed to correct it. I read other friends' objectives. Honestly, I learn a lot from peers. Luckily, the Yellow group members always contribute a lot.

It is good to commence the project work early. For the class description (the first step of the project), I selected one class where technology is used comparatively better than the other classes. I was commended for my work and it is always great and encouraging to get a feedback from Donna and all other friends. Finally, maintaining the  blog helps me to recollect the things I did during the week. I look forward to welcome week 3. 

Esala Erangi Malawithanthri - Sri Lanka

Joined  Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web course on 07/04/2014.

"Nothing is impossible"

Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web - Week 1

The course started on Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web  on 7th April 2014 exposed me to experience learning in a different way. Though this is not my first experience in learning online, from the outset I felt that this is has a smooth flow which is very good for any learner.

Since the course commenced with a self introduction every learner got the opportunity to get to know each other. I got a fair idea about my group colleagues.  It is always good to say "Hello" to different corners of the world. Yet, it is worth mentioning that it was not a mere "Hello" but a description about oneself which enabled the members to feel how important to deal with others in this kind of a learning program.


In any learning situation discussions carried out by the learners are important. Following the very thing the course led me to join a serious discussion. I selected the things I should mention there. Further, I read comments made by the group friends too. Honestly, I felt that I am in a round table discussion. The different practices of different countries/institutions/schools etc. and the opinions, stand points of  friends encourage learning from peers. The very task made me read the ground rules and rubrics. This of course is a important part of this week topics.

Final task for 1st week which is to create a Blog is something that made me happy. I personally believe in self reflection on any act. Thus, this Blog is one such to reflect on what we did during the course of each week. Though this is not my first blog, I got a sense of responsibility in maintaining this blog.


 It is very pleasant to get comments from Donna; the course instructor with continuous course work  given step by step. I enjoy this e-learning program and feel that this would expose myself to new knowledge.