Do's' and Don'ts of Elmira Ilizarova

For future participants:


Do's
•   Plan and manage your working hours/timetable
•   Find the right balance between working on- and off-line
•   Start working as soon as you get the week tasks
•   Mind the deadlines
•   Make a draft in Word format, save and after rereading copy-paste into the Discussion Forum
•   Print out the materials for reading, highlight the main points and then start writing the posts
•   Give comments to your classmates' posts and blogs
•   Be Positive, Respectful, Prepared, Responsible, Patient and Helpful 
•   Remember that Learning online is both challenging and beneficial
•   In case of an emergency, let the tutor know about the problems
•   Save all the tasks and posts for the Discussion Forum in a separate Folder on your desktop

Don'ts
•   Put off everything till the last moment 
•   Hesitate to ask questions
•   Miss the tasks
•   Forget Netiquette rules

If I had another chance to take the course again, I would definitely take it in summer, during my holidays. I would have had more free time for studying. 
The advice that would have helped me is: "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Elmira.

5 pieces of sound advice by Avraham Roos

For future participants:

1. Read all articles and take notes while reading them
2. Save all Internet links you like in a place you can easily find them back (e.g. Delicious.com)
3. Avoid procrastination. Don't push off to tomorrow what you can do today.
4. Sometimes you learn more from your fellow students than from the course materials. Make sure to read what others write.
5. Have fun!!!

Reflection

Hi Robert and friends,

Everything that starts must come to an end. I really feel bad to know that this is our final week.
Honestly speaking, I wanted to learn many things from the course but it's my misfortune that I couldn't walk with the pace of time. I missed so many chances where I could have done better but things did not go as planned. I had thought that the classes would be of webinar types and we would listen to lectures and make notes about what we would learn. I was really surprised to know the way we were taught and trained picking from various parts of the globe.

It was almost impossible for me to continue the course due to much busy schedule but it was Robert who heated me guessing the potentiality that I have. Many times came when I didn't like to post comments looking others' comments similar to mine already there on Nicenet. When the topics are same, the possibility of similar comments goes up.

I thank to 'delicious.com' for keeping my website addresses save for my future learning. I feel that this life is not enough for me to study all the materials or links that I got during this course related with ELT. If one doesn't believe, they can visit my delicious page once at http://delicious.com/dear_deep where I have saved  195 links till now and I hope they will go up and up every week.

Deep

Review of week 7

Review of week 7:

Week 7 was also full of knowledge through the texts links available on 'Building Teacher Skills Through the Interactive Web' but the matter of pity is that I couldn't give much time on Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) for reading and commenting this week as well because I suddenly had to go out of the city for a few busy days. The bad thing for me was that I couldn't reply to Robert's comment that he made on my post on Nicenet.

Because I went out of the city on Thursday, I had managed to read and write something for the week. But it was all because of Robert's encouragement. I was not in condition to continue the course because of my hectic schedule of works. I was going to quit but it was Robert who encouraged me to continue.

I thank him for his greatness. 

Use of computer in class

Use of computer in class:

The goal of using computer in the class is to help ESL teachers help students use computers as a tool to further their acquisition of English.

According to Barry Bakin, the computer is a good way to reinforce information, add an interactive element to a lesson, or provide varied activities which meet the learning styles of different students.

We have to focus on Pre-use of computer, While use of computer, and post use of computer.

From the presentation given by Donna Ashmus at (http://www.seirtec.org/present/onecomptr.html) I came to know about the

7 Categories of Classroom Computer Use:

1. Administrative Tool

2. Presentation tool

3. Communication station

4. Information station

5. Publishing tool

6. Learning center

7. Simulation center

for both teachers and students. It's really very nice. I enjoyed learning new things.

One Computer Lesson

One Computer Lesson:

We were asked to create a sample activity for a one-computer classroom to share making sure that we include who the students are, when in the lesson you're using the activity, the behavioral objective (ABCD format), and why technology will make the activity more effective.

What I had posted on Nicenet:

Hi Robert and all,

I will use educational CDs/ DVDs and internet as administrative tool (condition) to engage the students in learning English culture who are of Intermediate Level age between 19 to 23 (audience) from which they will watch, discuss what they like while I pause at each level (behavior) and after the activity is over I will give them the written texts of one or two parts so that they realize the level of their understanding and be able to reply some of the questions confidently (degree).

The technology will make the activity more effective because teaching and learning with same methods may be monotonous for the students. Technology, in making the students more active and our teaching more effective, works like spice to change our taste.

Deep, Nepal

What Robert said:

• FROM: Robert Elliott
  SUBJECT: RE: One Computer Lesson
  
  Hi Deep
  
  Interesting use of the "DVD/CDs and internet". I guess I'd like to know a bit more about the listening: what is the topic, what does it cover, how many listening chances will they have and how many times can they listen to each, etc. That would help me see what you are doing a bit more clearly.
  
  As far as you ABCD objective, I wonder if your main goal is to have them discuss what they like (listed under behavior) or have them reply to the questions of the written text (listed under degree). To me these are both possible behaviors, so the objective might be reformulated to show us which one is your main goal.
  
  Robert

==

I got a bit upset when I found the comment of Robert after I came back from Kathmandu after a few days (on Tuesday). Sorry again, Robert!

Learner Autonomy

What Is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? by Dimitrios Thanasoulas

It was very nice to learn about "What is Learner Autonomy and How Can it Be fostered?" by Dimitrios Thanasoulas on (http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html) that autonomy is 'the ability to take charge of one's learning'. The term autonomy has come to be used in at least five ways:

·         for situations in which learners study entirely on their own;

·         for a set of skills which can be learned and applied in self-directed learning;

·         for an inborn capacity which is suppressed by institutional education;

·         for the exercise of learners' responsibility for their own learning;

·         for the right of learners to determine the direction of their own learning.

In my opinion, it would be very difficult for almost all of us to encourage greater autonomy in students without technology.

Within the context of education, there seem to be seven main attributes characterising autonomous learners:

1.      Autonomous learners have insights into their learning styles and strategies;

2.      take an active approach to the learning task at hand;

3.      are willing to take risks, i.e., to communicate in the target language at all costs;

4.      are good guessers;

5.      attend to form as well as to content, that is, place importance on accuracy as well as appropriacy;

6.      develop the target language into a separate reference system and are willing to revise and reject hypotheses and rules that do not apply; and

7.      have a tolerant and outgoing approach to the target language.

I also learnt about 'Learner Autonomy and Dominant Philosophies of Learning'

In this section, I found three dominant approaches to knowledge and learning.

1. Positivism is premised upon the assumption that knowledge reflects objective reality.

2. Constructivism is an elusive concept and, within applied linguistics, is strongly associated with Halliday. As Candy observes, '[o]ne of the central tenets of constructivism is that individuals try to give meaning to, or construe, the perplexing maelstrom of events and ideas in which they find themselves caught up'.

3. Critical theory, an approach within the humanities and language studies, shares with constructivism the view that knowledge is constructed rather than discovered or learned. 

I also found there two learning strategies: a) Cognitive Strategies and b) Metacognitive Strategies.

The text is very informative.