Monday, April 24, 2017

Week 15: Enhance assessment with the help of technology



(How to use technology to provide feedback)



Enhance assessment with the help of technology




This week was about the article "How to use technology to provide feedback" It involves suggestions and provision of comments to enable learners  to make their own revisions as a dialogue ,and also it helps to gain new understanding of the topic or their homework assigments without dictating. The impact of technology helps to be more interactive and easy at the same time. Many teachers use technological programs such as, JING, ScreenR and Screen_cast_o_matic to asses students via virtual learning environment .It enables learners to take responsibility for organizing their own learning; also, this facilitates which elements of assessment fit together and why they are relevant and valuable by giving clear on how students can improve their work including signposting the most important areas to address.

Something I learned and that I immediately wanted to share with my colleagues was useful and easy it could be provide feedback through technology. This promotes the ability to manage own personal response to feedback, personal adjustment, develop students' autonomy, enhance communication and interpersonal skills, and enable a sense of self-control.



As teachers, we have to know what helps the development of metacognition by enabling students to engage in their own learning to know which learning, teaching, and assessment strategies work best for them; as a result of this we can adapt strategies to develop their skills. Technology facilitates this type of assessment or feedback is easy to use, interactive, and useful in distance learning, save time for the teacher and students.

Rate: ✰✰✰✰✰

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Week 14: Active learning through interactive classroom


(10 Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in Classroom Discussions and Think-pair-share)


 Active learning through interactive classroom



The readings for this week share interesting information about interactive English classrooms. This is a learning strategy in which students develop many skills that focus on the student’s needs such as, motivation, communicative skills, team work, initiative, self-esteem, cooperation and solidarity, and also respect towards diversity.


The articles "10 Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in Classroom Discussions" and "Think-pair-share" explain how to increase students’ interactions into the classroom and motivate them to be creative, to participate and to encourage critical thinking. These competencies will permit learner to be more confident about what they have learned and to encourage critical thinking. These competencies will permit learner to be more confident about what they have learned and show their understanding without fear of being wrong. Also, it fosters students to become autonomous in their own learning process. Moreover, in the second article "Think-pair-share" I learned how to apply smart strategies to promote those competencies like a "circle chat" this activity generates a fun and an interactive classroom environment. I think these are useful ideas to get students involved in the lesson and engage their interest and enable student free meaningful learning. To sum up, through interactions, students can increase their language repertoire as they listen to or read authentic linguistic material.


Rate: ✩✩✩✩






Wednesday, April 5, 2017

week 12: PBL as a great teaching method


(Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learningand Benefits of project work)


PBL as a great teaching method



Something that called my attention in this week was about Project -based learning (PBL). I found interesting information that I immediately wanted to share with a colleague was the benefits to implement this type of learning method. PBL offers flexibility when planning content and create opportunities, interactions and learning new skills.

The purpose of this method is to provide structures in which students will demonstrate mastery of a subject by creating, and also presenting a research- based project. This can allow students to foster their interest in a topic. Moreover, Project-based learning can assess the students' knowledge of concept , content and skills .PBL also allow learners to develop critical thinking , improved their language , increase metacognitive awareness , decision-making abilities, improve students' attention of the class , students' motivation , improved their social skills , and a familiarity with the target language resources.

Finally, projects are a dynamic way to help students to show their understanding. Teachers can implement in their lesson some activities that create a meaningful learning such as, driving questions, student’s voice and choice and inquiry and innovation. As a conclusion, educators can design final products to ensure success for all students by creating multiple opportunities for students to interact with their ideas.



Rate: ✩✩✩✩

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Week 11: The mobile generation

(Mobile assisted language learning)




The mobile generation



The article for this week entitled "Mobile assisted language learning" has a lot of interesting things that i want to take a count in my future classes ,and apply in my lesson plans to be more effective , dynamic and meaningful the learning process.


Something that made me want to read more about was how smart devices (cellphones, ipad, ipod, laptop) allow to test students in a more creative and interactive way. First, videos, applications, songs, games and social networks can be used to test learners by giving them a worksheet in which they can complete exercises related to a specific task. Also, this type of activity gets students' attention, and makes them focus on the lesson. Moreover, it develops students’ skills like a listening, writing comprehension, speaking and reading. Video games are used by students to practice any topic .As a consequence, learners tend to be more excited to learn and less worried when taking a test. To conclude, electronic devices make of the process of learning a more enjoyable and less complex, and also foster a more democratic atmosphere, more environmentally friendly than paper, a more inclusive classroom, and it offers an opportunity to educate students about media use tests.

Rate: ✰✰✰✰



Thursday, March 23, 2017

week 10: The use of Wikis

(Online collaborative writing using wikis)




The use of Wikis




Something i learned from this article and that every teacher should know is the use of Wikis to promote writing skill as a collaborative online activity. As we know this writing skill plays a larger part in our life than we may realize, so that in the reading for this week i could find two main areas that Wiki encourages to develop writing skill.

Firstly, Students actively engaged in various of learning-related interactions using the platform that extended to more meaningful offline interactions. Also, they can learn from each other, and students are able to contribute of what they are learned by sharing their findings and receiving feedback; as a result, this can have a huge impact in the learners' confident.

Secondly, student develops internet search skills and critical inquiring abilities. Students are able to apply their knowledge in the task, and they gain experience in self-assessment and peer assessment .Moreover, this website called wiki offers teachers to give suggestions at any time and at any place, and also teacher can follow students' work.


To conclude, as a future educators we should take account to apply different methods to make use of Wikis in order to facilitate more interactions among students and teachers.

Rate: ✰✰✰

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Week 8: Teaching vocabulary through technology


(Using technology to assist in vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension )

( Online English -English dictionaries boost word learning)



        

Teaching vocabulary through technology


This week i had the opportunity to read two articles about how technology helps to teach vocabulary. As Tozco and Coady observe, teaching vocabulary can improve to understand the deep meaning of a topic (pag.1).It means that it can help pupils to motivate them to speak, to create a context with which their speech will have meaning.


The use of technology to teach vocabulary helps to clarify or highlight these following things that deserve special emphasis. Firstly, the different teaching tools .Teacher could apply those tools such as, electronic dictionaries and vocabulary-building software in class to develop students' abilities, attitudes and oral ability.

Secondly, reading classes are a good way to introduce vocabulary in the lesson because this may help to hold attention of students. Also, if educator incorporates the vocabulary by using multimedia this can be powerful tool to enhance the impact of the class. 

Thirdly, instructors have to know how to select appropriate software to his or her class, and adapt the necessities to each student. Finally, teachers have to keep up with all of technology advances and different methodologies that have to follow by using visual aids to make the teaching process more effective.

To sum up, something I want to remember from this article is teaching vocabulary through technology is an excellent way to improve the education process. If educators are aware that teaching vocabulary plays an important role in the learning process because it can be helpful, interactive and interesting.
 

Rate:✩✩✩✩