One-computer Classroom, Learner Autonomy, Mobile Technology and Padlet

Have you ever gone to class, planning to engage learners interactively through technology but then realize you have only one computer and wonder how to go about it? Can one computer be effective in engaging students to engage in collaborative learning? As a teacher, how best would you just try not to survive in a one-computer classroom but instead thrive? These are questions worth reflecting on our teaching practices, especially considering the teacher – students’ ratio in the Ugandan classroom contexts. Limited technology in the classroom is a one way to test the teacher’s innovative and creative abilities. Can the teacher improvise? Can the teacher devise appropriated mechanisms for the technology to be shared by learners? This week offered great ideas which directly linked to the ideas of handling large classes. Even in one-computer classrooms, learning can still be made interactive and enjoyable. A teacher could use this single computer  to give learners group tasks to enter a summary of their respective groups’ views on a topic before displaying the work using a projector. The teacher could also use PowerPoint to thrive throughout the lesson. An article from Education World provides various strategies that one can use while using a one-computer classroom. Moreover, in his article Tech Alternatives for the One Computer Classroom, Richard Byrne suggests different activities a teacher can use to effectively utilize a single computer in the classroom.

 

 

The core and most controversial issue is about Learner Autonomy. A teacher, who believes he/she knows it all and that the learners know nothing at all, will see Learner Autonomy and a means to make education lose direction. A teacher who is liberal will understand and embrace learner autonomy because in the end, little can be done by the teacher regarding intrinsic motivation. The incompetent teacher or the money-minded teacher will always see learner autonomy as a threat to his job, thinking that it will become a substitute to his/her profession, which is not the case. As I read the article Emerging Technologies Autonomous Language Learning, I got clearer views about learner autonomy. It is completely different from independent learning. Teaching and learning do not need to be necessarily teacher centered and not entirely learner autonomous! There’s need to strike a balance between the two.

Ever thought about using your mobile phone beyond receiving, making a call and texting? Mobile technology is one effective and manageable way for a teacher to integrate technology into his/her classroom as elaborated by Hayo Reinders. A teacher could use a phone to record audio or visual material, as well as use it to play music for instructional purposes. 

As I wind up, this week I learned another interesting technology tool, Padlet. This is an online wall for sharing resources! I will use Facebook wall to explain: There are pages on Facebook that post information on their walls for their audience. The same is similar for Padlet except that Padlet is designed for sharing online resources – articles, videos and links. A teacher can create a class padlet to share resources for a particular subject or topic!

Overall, this has been an exceptional week: productive and essential!

Interactive Lectures, Large Classes and Project Plan

Days and hours have started vanishing unnoticed, given the nature of the tasks I have to accomplish for both my classes and other life-demanding activities! This week was an extra-ordinary one, in which one of the most outstanding challenges was addresses – handling large class! Moreover, this was a week in which I have had to think and rethink through my project plan for this course, a plan that I intend to implement, using technology and resources I have never used before! Thinking is a very interesting phenomenon! I had to think about my class, the problem they have – which I noted in my previous discussion as low motivation when it comes to learning grammar – and a possible technology-related solution that might help solve the issue.

I noted with concern that teachers who handle large classes can still engage learners into interactive learning. My classmate Tetiana shared this link about Christopher Emdin on how to create magic. Indeed, Sunday services were an ideal example to show how large classes can be kept active. Interactive learning was yet another remedy of handling large classes, and following the previous week’s readings I concluded that Project-Based Learning was yet another way to go for large classes. This week was extraordinary for me because I felt as though the authors for the articles I read were addressing it directly to me, to help resolve issue of large classes. I also like the criteria of Think, Pair, Share; in which the teacher engages learners in careful thoughts over a given question or a set of tasks then pairs them to share their thoughts.

As the days progressed by, I found myself engaged in careful thought, in regard to my project plan. I am currently not teaching as is the case with most of my classmates, so rather than implement a change in the class, I got involved in thinking about a possible plan I can develop and implement later. My thoughts involved resources planned for use, possible references as well as follow-up activities. As I thought through, I also had to sieve through different references and resources. For my learners to stay motivated, I realized that http://a4esl.org/ is an ideal reference site for teaching grammar and will use it in my plan. I also resolved that it is inevitable to use https://www.englishclub.com/ref/Power_of_7/index.htm for engaging learners interactively as they learn and develop their grammar, considering motivation as central factor that will drive learning forward.

Having been exposed to Rubistar, I also thought it would be motivating for learners if I engage them in developing a rubric for assessing grammar which I would then make available on Rubista. I would then give them the link so that they explore and read the rubric through using technology as opposed to my usual teacher rubric oral explanations!

I am confident to say that I now see a direction for which project plan is head and I am working towards this achievement!

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING, RUBRICS AND WEBQUEST

Knowledge is limitless and dynamic! Through this week I was able to distinguish between busywork and projects! In one of the week’s articles, Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning, I reflected on my previous classroom practices and discovered that most of my “projects” were actually busywork since they involved lesson activities which ended within that lesson. This article was an eye opener into what real project work is and I a looking forward to engaging my students into project work. Indeed, most teachers engage students in busywork during a lesson and regard that as projects. The readings for this week reminded me about my previous readings concerning seamless integration of technology into the classroom. Similarly, I noticed that project work should weave itself into content to be learned such that as students enjoy the 21^st century skills, among them collaboration, they are actually learning effortlessly!

Dealing with rubrics was very interesting. It was very clear and worth noting that rubrics provide a kind of contract between the teacher and the students in terms of assessment and expectations. Learners are made aware of what their scores would be like, depending on when they meet or fail to meet some requirements. Rubrics are therefore understood by both teachers and learners prior to assessment. I found this essential for objective assessment and saves time. In most cases here, the teachers create the rubric but do not expose learners to it, although learners are supposed to meet the teachers’ expectations set out in the rubrics. As I read about rubrics and got engaged in creating my rubric through Rubistar, I reflected on my previous assessment of learners: how fair have I been in my assessment of learning especially in narrative and persuasive writing? Wasn’t my assessment greatly biased by the learner’s ability to impress? My previous assessment practices have to change through use of rubrics. Rubrics save time since the teacher is guided during the process of assessment, and learners know what is required of them.

WebQuests were yet another area that I explored. I cannot hesitate to recommend this site to any teacher who would like to learn how to use Project-Based Learning. This site provides, various options and uses simple, comprehensible instructions to guide the teacher through!

With the course half-way through, a course project is underway. What a week!!

Incorporating Technology into a Lesson Plan, Reading, Writing and Vocabulary Skills.

Learning is lifelong and continuous! A teacher is an advanced student who learns new ideas or reads to understand concepts in order to teach others and facilitate learning. This week has been exceptional and academically challenging to me since I had to figure out several technological issues while using Google Docs! Through out this week, the phrase that kept ringing in my head is ‘seamless integration” from the article What Is Successful Technology Integration?. The other phrase that runs through my head is “the internet here is to stay” in the article Weaving the Web into an EAP Reading Program. This particular phrases made me realize that teacher has to adapt to and adopt technology use in the classroom. This week, as I read through various articles, I learned how to incorporate technology into the lesson and even up with a technology-enhanced lesson plan. I also got exposed to different resources for teaching reading, writing and vocabulary skills. One of the resources that captured my attention was Creative Writing Prompts in which varieties of topics and prompting phrases are advanced for the writing class.

Looking back at my classroom practices, I discovered that I have never taught reading, writing and vocabulary skills by incorporating technology into the classroom yet there were several resources available online. This week was an eye-opener to those resources and I could never explore all within this week. Good enough, technology is here to stay so I can always explore further on, what I have not been in position to explore this week.

I got so immersed using Google Documents and was a little teased when I tried to “paste” and dialog box displayed that copy and past options are not available but I could use short-cuts. Goose pimples ran all over my body and I thought whatever I had typed offline, I could not upload online. However, I got this rectified. I also had a challenge of ensuring that I could change the settings such that my lesson plan document could be shared. As this happened, I remembered the fact that technology can fail, even in the classroom; and the need for “Plan B”.

This week has been exceptional and unique and I look forward to another exciting week of learning more about technology and “webskills”.

Daniel