Week 4: Technology Enhanced Lesson Plans

Hi everyone, 

How have you been? This week we have read articles mostly dealing with benefits of using technology for instruction. The most important is we have to write a technology-enhanced lesson plan. Let me honestly tell you that we have never written lesson plans at our university; I learned how to write lesson plans when I was a university student. Actually, we do have lesson plans but they are the intrinsic ones, in our mind and we do not need to submit the plans to the university academic section. We know what we are going to do in a class because we have relied on course descriptions which we have to set contents accordingly. Mostly, we are encouraged to produce instructional materials by ourselves. Personally, the material quality cannot be compared to commercial ones but ours suit the students. 

The lesson plan model of the University of Tennessee directs me to be more professional in my career. My technology-enhanced lesson plan proposed in nicenet might not be best because I have never used the Internet for my teaching. However, it is my first step for further plans. I do agree that planning the instruction is much more difficult than delivering the instruction as mentioned in "Lesson plans" from the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/lesson_plan.html

I think the new generation of teacher of English should take technology-enhanced lesson plan into consideration since they are surrounded with technologies. Perhaps they can easily apply them to language instruction. What do you think?

Best,

Moo

Week 3: Delicious !!!

Dear all,

It is very nice to share my reflection of what we have learned in week III with all of you again. I do realize that we as language teachers in the era of technology have to inevitably rely on CALL. This week, I learn a lot from the websites suggested by Robert and my classmates. I can be able to create my own Delicious site: delicious.com/panidatasee to keep my favorite webs, learned about new perspective in teaching pronunciation, and known how computers are used to improve language learners’ four skill. 

Following the instruction of creating Delicious site is not difficult. However, I missed  one point. That is, I used a space bar when naming tags. Consequently, I had separated tags so I had to go backward to combine the words into one; I always learn from my mistakes! To me, the Delicious site is now like the big door of a house leading to other rooms.

Regarding sharing bookmarks among group members or social bookmarking, you all have numerous interesting and useful bookmarks.  After having surveyed some of your Delicious sites, I tried some and found that they fascinate me to go further to other topics in the same site. However, using Delicious site helps me store my online finds and I am able to access the desired sites more rapidly. In addition, my students and my colleagues can share their favourite websites with me. I think this could promote learning atmosphere and rapport between teachers and students.

One more point I would like to share with you is that I am concerning with my students’ computer use. In class, we can set things for them to follow but we cannot do that when they are out of class. I am afraid that they might be virtual Internet surfer and might lose their studying track. At my university, some students failed in their studying because they exceeded the Internet games. With this respect, teachers play an important role.

Best,

Moo

Students Blog ^0^

Charbel www.charbeltadros.blogspot.com
Andhika www.andhikakurniawati.blogspot.com
Rahmat http://ryedutech.blogspot.com
Shakhnoza http://webskillshahnoza.blogspot.com/
Nada http://nadaelsoufi.blogspot.com/
Carol http://carolina-ortiz-ruffinelli.blogspot.com/
Irina http://irina-rumyantseva.blogspot.com/
Hassan http://hassanrahmeh.blogspot.com/
Eugenie http://eugeniewebskillcourses.blogspot.com/
Cecilia http://arriagada-cecilia2010.blogspot.com/
Moo http://arjaanmoo.blogspot.com/
Yudi http://milleniasetia.blogspot.com/
Perizat www.perizat-astana.blogspot.com
Nourit http://englishworldwidenet.blogspot.com/
Francis    http://francismbatia.blogspot.com
Maria S. http://maryhelentheteacher.blogspot.com/
Andrea http://lookinginsideforabetteroutside.blogspot.com/
Tony http://www.vaialabeachside.blogonize.com/
Hala http://technoenglishusers.blogspot.com/
Ola  http://olasabagh.edublogs.org
Georg http://gjacquelinuo2010.blogspot.com
Margarita http://margaritawebskills2010.blogspot.com/

Week II: Reflection

What I have learned and could be applied to my students are as follows:
Before teaching, it would be great if a teacher and students can set agreements together. This can direct them to the same destination.

Telling students to read instruction or direction carefully before doing tasks or else they may redo them and this would waste time. Don’t jump into conclusion because when we missed some steps of the instruction, our work will not be like as expected.

Suggesting students to relax themselves in case they get obstacles. After taking some time to finish assignments and you still cannot do it, stop doing for a while and come back to it later. Sometimes helps from other people are needed.

Having reviewed Bloom’s Taxonomy, I gain more confidence in creating my learning plan for the next semester. In my department, we have never seriously discussed about how to write the learning objectives. What we do is just following the previous ones produced by other teachers which need further improvement for my instruction and students’ efficient learning. I will start by proposing the topic of writing objectives to my colleagues as one of my department meeting issues. It is more likely that they would be enthusiastic especially teachers with less teaching experience.

According to the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, verbs suggested to use for writing learning objected, it appears that some words can be used for two levels, i.e. ‘summarize’ and ‘conclude’. The former is suggested to use for the level of understanding while the latter for applying and evaluating levels. Personally, both of the written verbs suggested have the same meaning and they should be used for the level of applying because students have to implement the information they learned for a new work. As noted on objective writing, affective objectives are difficult to write and assess; however, they are essential in my context because the affective domain is emphasized when students study general courses. We would like them to learn happily and be good citizen. Therefore, if there are some written verbs illustrated, it would be helpful.

Best,

Moo