Week 4, end week reflections: revival of reading and writing

Reading and writing in different directions ignoring the possible errors that may appear on the surface. Don’t be bothered by errors or how the learners may respond to English words, but rather be worried about how they can see their own sparkling light. Let them feel proud that English nourishes their restless soul to feel more and more, to give more and more, and to write more and more, non-stop till they will invade their developing human minds and gain the freedom of creation: doing their best to read and write well chosen words with coherent sentences and paragraphs suiting their own logic and style, swimming in the same large ocean of former readers and writers with whom we are glad to share many things. Eventually, seeing things as fate, hearing many hidden voices that cannot settle down without giving them the real chance to express themselves. Let them be strange looking for distinction and achievement because writing is an attempt to express with unfamiliarity what former texts couldn’t depict prior to them.

Revival of writing through the advent of technology:

   After reading this website http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Improving_Student_Writing_Using_Technology) I have found many good methods to help our students in writing:

Spell Check and Grammar Check. These tools are found on most word processing software. They are certainly not "foolproof," but they can help point students in the right direction in their composition. Critics say that spell check and grammar check cannot replace the "complexity of the human mind," which is no surprise.
Citation Machine. Here is an Internet resource that can build citations in either MLA or APA style for a variety of resources, including books, magazines, websites and many more. Find it at http://citationmachine.net.
Read Please.( http://www.readplease.com)is award-winning text-to-speech software made for Windows. The free version comes with a couple voices to choose from and will read anything you can copy and paste into it. It's a great way to motivate your students to proofread what they've written.
Turnitin Write Cycle ( http://turnitin.com/static/index.php) , not only is an online service that automatically checks for plagiarism, thus eliminating the ease of copy/paste, but also allows the online collaboration of peer feedback which can be used to improve a student's writing ability. Although the program is not free, you can find out additional information about the program's function, research, and pricing.
These ideas may help advanced students achieve better writing products, as for young learners I would like to recommend the following collection:
1-http://kidwriting.homestead.com/Index.html: a site that deals with writing starting from the very real samples from the classroom reality; the products of real children through time. there is a nice collection under the section of "Kid Writing Samples"
2-http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk: a big project with a huge number of resources of creative writing. it engages children to see what others can achieve while excel in different genres of literature.
3-http://www.stonesoup.com: It's a magazine written by kids and include some attractive pieces of writing that are worthwhile to be explored and adapted to be both read and reproduced fitting any teacher's context.
4-http://www.eslkidstuff.com/Articles.htm: this site proposes a huge number of helpful articles that may assist us as teacher when we deal with a difficult skill like writing...
5http://www.englishraven.com/ttools_writingworkshop.html: an accurate website that includes many writing materials with downloadable and printable worksheets for teachers of young learners.
6-http://www.ehow.com/info_8163810_writing-activities-young-learners.html: It's a helpful site for beyond school assistance. it offers parents as well as educators many ideas as a pretext to help kids in writing.
7-http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/writing/
a very helpful site with a huge number of interesting worksheets to teach young learners basic steps in writing as well as many ABC interactive writing activities.
Finally, I have thought of further suggestions thanks to what we have learnt in this course and other ideas that may be of great help as the pupils’ writings improved a lot after experiencing them:

1-   Internet chat: chatting software help a lot in improving communication (msn & yahoo messengers, Skype, live chat…) offer a real life opportunity to express oneself… the weak point is that the chat language may be very informal and has its special abbreviations so you can fix rules for discussion

2-   E-mailing: young learners can produce nice e-mails and I have tested them they can do it well but of course with the teacher as a guide who clarifies every step.

3-   Blogging: a good way to survey students through their reflections.

4-   Forums: register in a forum (you have to select a good one, I personally can suggest the following international forum: http://www.englishforums.com/English) because students can be involved in: first, editing their profile which helps a lot in introducing themselves. Second, react to other students’ topics hence they can express their visions and opinions. Third,  and this is the most important  thing,  the students own  contributions that may be a source to evaluate their written productions.  

5-     Connecting classroom programs: internet gives the chance to link different schools from all over the world. I have experienced this tool and gained many achievements. I recommend the British council program on the following link: http://cc.britishcouncil.org/welcome-to-the-connecting-classrooms-online-community

6-   PowerPoint, FrontPage Web design, flash web design: create something with the listed soft can help students gain nice knowledge in both technology and the English language. This is an advanced level of written creation so students need time and the teacher’s help in order to achieve good results. This kind of creation can be done in fruitful project works.

Further ideas and suggestions are welcome!

Thanks for sharing and contributing!

Khaled Hafdhi, Tunisia.

Week4, Post 1: towards being an e-teacher!

Hi dear friends!

A week of intensive reading and practicing has gone and it seems to me we are in our way to be good e-teachers.

I liked the technology enhanced lesson plan for it helps too much in achieving many advantages among which I can count:

1-It saves our time .

2-It motivates students.

3-It improves the quality of teaching.

4-It includes some detailed steps of the lesson that may help us better see the classroom reality.

 5-It offers the chance for a better communication.

 6-It allows the presence of many collaborative ideas.

7- It deeply changes the relationship between teacher and learner.

8- It proposes a real context for learning.

9- It helps the students acquire many skills: not only linguistic skills but also technological ones.

10- A gradual funny learning is granted.

I cannot stop listing the advantages of using technology in our lessons but in one word it’s a kind of revolution in education!

week3, orpphan reflections:Just feel the pressure with me!

   

    Another week has gone and I am here still chased in the maze of internet discovery. I began to feel the pressure of many readings urging me for more readings and for more writing as well. Digging in the fertile world of imagination, evaluating other minds’ products with a never ending thirst to express what gaining some skills through the web may mean.

 Internet has offered us a memory where we can store; links and networks of many websites we used to cross and others we are meant to come through! It has granted that utopian world where ideas can be safely discussed and shared by noble beings, moving from a virtual neuron to another declaring human fulfillment and revolutionary success with the advent of machines!

How do I feel now!? Maybe exhausted, yet deeply still defiant to discover more! I have never realized that everything in this virtual world is under my own construction so the more I react the more I produce…Therefore, I am trying to build what I may see as my mind.

 This week gave us the chance to read more, and we were supposed to write as reaction to what we read.. All in all, I found myself forced to write though the restraints of space with no choice but to be addict to the letters I trace as if to give them from myself a breath and a meaning that may make them alive and full. I was experiencing while reading the pain behind writing as well as the joy of liberation. I was writing while discovering myself growing gradually as I was writing with a steady development, feeling all what I had in mind from English without fears that perhaps the language may escape my strong engaged pen. I was trying to decipher what I could not understand all my straight way along my short journey in this nonsensical virtual world. The whole work was ready in my mind beforehand fully complete word by word, page by page in a whole scene with even the smallest details. I waited some days till I found myself unable to stop seeing my thoughts shaped .My brain was torn between reading and the limits of space: the limits of both time and space of our forum of discussion, limits of midweek days and the other left days and I was distorted by them all, all these artificial absurd instruments that may distort our inner thoughts at their essence, without losing the writing battle or surrendering faithful to myself I declared: you just began to feel the pressure, behold you are mastering these tools!  

Week2,last vision: Noodletools.com under criticism

Hello everybody!
I started to deeply dig between the lines of the first URL suggested (noodletools.com) hence evaluating in a way what I can  gain from this source: Let's have a look into these statistics:

Search engines	the Number of their occurrence in noodletools.com
Google Yahoo Ask Wikipedia ColombiaEncyclopedia IPL2 INFOMINE Other engines	(13times) (8times) Twice (4times) (3times) (3times) (5times) Once

As shown in my personal statistics above, noodletools website suggests repeatedly google and yahoo to be the frequent search engines in different subjects of research; though these engines are described by Deborah Healy in her article:"Technology Tip of the Month June, 2009: Better Web Searching" as:" not the best choice if you are looking for academic sources or other specialized needs"
The noodletools approach uses the verb "need" so many times as if deciding for us though it's silly copy-paste descriptive sentences taken from the engines themselves.
The site does not list the exact address of each engine providing just links for them as if suggesting itself as a search engine for further search engines.
The other engines that are listed just once seem to be neglected though I suppose they are more interesting because they are related to specific domains of research.
The other suggested reading by Deborah Healy offers general technical tips but rather few search engine links. I supposed it needs also to be updated.
According to my personal point of view concerning the subject matter of search engines I would like to suggest one of the earliest and best books I have read :Gould,Cheryl. Searching smart on the world wide web: Tools and techniques for getting quality Results. This book suggests that though it's easy to find a lot of information on the net there is a total chaos on the net so that every user needs a guide. Internet is like that baby that is in the process of growth that's why we need some expert guides to help us evaluate such a field.

Finally, looking for web search engines is rather a matter of personal experience ; it's a kind of an endless discovery of web-surfing and the power of the user's fingerprint, a space created by the user (him/her)self in an alienated virtual environment.
However, you shouldn't be deceived by everything but rather make an intelligent selection then try to discover by your own,  your own special needs...My own search engines used to be the following: www.searchedu.com/ www.wikiwax.com/ www.highbeam.com / www.edusafe.us/ www.eduhound.com/ www.proprofs.com they are all good engines in the field of education but I wouldn't recommend them in other fields of research.

looking forward for your comments!

best regards!

Khaled, Tunisia.
 

week2:a man of literature displaced by technology

The activities assigned for this week seem to be important in number and in content as well in comparison with early steps in this online course. I took a short span of time to read the weekly assignments then I said to myself take your time"it's never late to learn khaled!"...Then two days were gone so quickly in reflection but in vain I couldn't write any word, in fact,I couldn't read my thoughts! I was displaced by the net, the computer and the screen , they all constructed an obstcle against easy pure fruitful thinking.Then I said try a plan; print every thing, rely on technology and read, try to read but not from  virtual screens,  read but not through virtual lences try to escape from that artificial world...read from black ink on white virgin papers, afterwards write by your fertile pen your own new ideas about your topic, better achievements will come! perhaps if you change the battleground of learning things will be grasped so easily! I made a distance in time as well as in space and it's then that I regained my pen- that of creation and criticism- to produce a plausibe vision of what might seem to be web searching for me. Fortunately, I have started web browsing since so long so I could compare what I know about search engines with what was proposed by our website readings.Yet, the topic is much deeper than I thought so in a hurry I tried to sum up a three days reflection on one topic but I was not satisfied. I was convinced that web searching is just a pretext to start with before any further deep engagement in using the net.  

week 1 day 2: special note for Nada about blogging

Hi everyone!
I wanted to post this message in  my friend Nada's blog, I tried so many times but in vain! it didn't work though it was not my mistake in posting my comment in her blog because I did comment on others blogs and it was lovely! but in her blog there was somthing wrong!? and to let everyone profit from my reflection on blogging I decided to post it in my own private blog perhaps it will gain your attention.
 I was really impressed and attracted by your nice and sincere post. I lived with you every word you wrote, feeling the dilemma you have undergone, tasting the paradox you have faced in order to answer how far blogging is interesting in our field of teaching. Let me -therefore-share with you this burden of thinking and analyzing, let me express what I may see from my own point of view:
First, I will consider the matter from the angle of the learner: I do agree with you that at the first glance young learners will not cope with such a tool given the fact their age and the computing limited knowledge will hinder them from doing great things in the world of blogging. Yet, the practice shows the opposite result ;children have shown an active concern in the process of the dialogue with computers. Let’s consider the article entitlled: Mapping Learning Potential: students’conceptions of ICT in their world by BRIDGET SOMEKH & DIANE MAVERS from the Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. This paper explores « how students aged 10–16 conceptualise the role of computers in today’s world. »And to sum it up I would like to borrow the picture that one of the students drew : a spider gram with the computer at the center and everything(school, Tv, internet, home…) around it.This is how the children may see the computer; it seems present in every corner of their lives. Therefore it suggests that kids are aware of its importance and deeply struggling to defy such a challenge from an early age.
From my own personal experience, I must add the fact that I have tested some young learners (age category 1Oto 12) in writing an e-mail and most of them succeeded after few weeks in understanding the process easily. Children are intelligent learners and they may be involved easily. Besides, they quickly develop different strategies in coping with many tasks though such tasks may seem so difficult at the start.
My final remark will be the same as what you have finished your blog with: the communicative skill that is granted by the process of blogging. Let me explain myself in a literary way; writing a blog reminds me of writing a memoire. It also reminds me of medieval ages when Puritans used to confess their sins in poetry as well as in prose. The analogy is so clear but the means have changed. Today we are exposing ourselves and our opinions in a different “silhouette”-the blog- and trying to exchange these thoughts through a virtual world.
Hopefully I wasn’t so boring in my analysis, yet if you want further discussions I will be pleased to share ideas with you. Happy to be the first to comment upon your speculation and I am sure it will not be the last time to follow your posts.Best regards!

week1: getting to know each other

I started my day by using nicenet and discovering my new online class. I introduced myself to others in my first virtual classroom. It was a great experience meeting other teachers from other places of the globe. I am so eager to know from their own opinions and experiences in teaching English, hence exploring how difference can offer richness...I began to believe in variety and exchanging my view of the world. Now I can safely say I have started to know some good beings on earth.
Then I started by reading about the benefits of blogging in a brief but to the point article posted by the British Council website. I turned to be convinced that such a tool is of great help in teaching, yet because I am still a beginner in profiting from it with my own students things seems to be a little bit difficult at the start taking alot of time I must add. I am so determined to deeply use blogging as a way of communication outside school as well.

week 0: browsing an academic website

These were my first reflections on an academic website I was supposed to go through during my early contact with the net. I expected the site I visited to be colorful with the decent animations: some music perhaps, few pictures maybe let alone any swf macromedia flash animations...surprised I started reading again and again till I got bored so I began to reflect is teaching meant to be like this? mere words and spoon feeding data!
sure many things has to be done, and because internet offers us this opportunity to use all what may make both teaching and learning enjoyable and attractive I decided to think: it's time for change.