Week 6: Project task- begin the change

After a few days thinking on how to improve my project and looking for alternatives to grow motivation in my students to do the assignments, I came to the conclusion that having an interactive Power Point, combination of listing special links in Delicious.com and a google group mail account to send information will do good to the class dynamics. Many digital materials will be easy to distribute by email to my class so they can download it and bring it to class to use it as part of the classroom activities. At the place I teach there is no internet connection provided, but students can bring printed copy or the downloaded documents in their laptops.
I was also thinking of using nicenet to challenge my students to have a sort of forum to discuss certain issues or topics like we do it in this class. But this is still understudy. Thank you to Janine, I have a file to set up my own nicenet class in the future!

Interactive Power Point
After reading tips on how to make your ppt more interactive in class, rather than being a boring lecture (to read more on this go to:
http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/powerpoint/docs/presenting.pdf
http://www.readwriteweb.com/biz/2010/11/hate-powerpoint-here-are-5-web-based-alternatives.php
http://thejournal.com/articles/2000/08/01/creating-an-interactive-powerpoint-lesson-for-the-classroom.aspx

I posted on the wiki class a possible class I might use in the future. I think it is great fun! https://sites.google.com/site/webskillswikiwinter2012janine/interactive-ppt


This week we read about how to make classes interactive even though sometimes we have a large class and have students engaged.

http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/collaborationtools.html
Carnegie Mellon, in this above, lists the possible tools that could be used in various ways.
For instance, social booking to save special links to share with student when doing research to write an essay or a list of links to practice certain grammar points or other skills.
Also applying cooperative learning principles in class will help, specially to make class interaction and engage students. Of course, it should be applied correctly. Look more on here http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/cooperative/index.html

I really enjoy this link and check some tips for cooperative learning in class.
But the one I discovered this week really got my eyes, because it would allow my students to create and share (problem-solving, diagnosis, procedural training, and surveys/questionnaires.)
http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary.php

Socratic method and critical thinking, loved this site! It gives clear examples on how to engage students with this simple and at the same time complex teaching technique in order to develop critical thinking. Have a look around and discover it yourself.



Technology is Panacea?
I want to share what my classmate Lina from Lithuania had to say to this. Found it interesting and agreed with her.

"... technology in school becomes more and more popular and it seems that it is a cure for all kind of illnesses – panacea, I'd say. If there are problems of any kind – technology will solve them. For me it sounds so primitive, as a good lesson does not necessarily has to have technology involved, a "chalk and talk" can be a very interactive, thought provoking, cognitive experience. Of course, no doubt – technology is a very powerful tool and I greatly enjoy using it, however, you cannot use technology "per se" only."

Personally, I see technology powerful too, in the sense that opens a lot of opportunities to be exposed to different kinds of sources to learn a language or anything else. Access to information is much easier now and there are more options for planning. http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/collaborationtools.html In this link shares some tools that can be used for class.


To finish up, I want to share with you a blog of a teacher that put the class work in this way. Really nice and might like to do something similar as a possibility
http://fabulousfutures.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/your-dream-career-or-worst-nightmare/