Trial

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Week 10

I'm on the last day of the course and see that I've gone quite a long way in my professional development.
Ten weeks have passed very fast and I have learnt so many interesting topics that MUST be of great value to my job.

There were a lot of articles to be read, a lot of discussions to be taken, and a lot of tasks to be completed. All created in me a feeling of being strongly pushed behind. Discussion assignments were the area that I was worst at (by looking at my Jupiter Grade book) because I was not familiar with this, as the result of my previous training at schools as well as university which mainly emphasized on understanding and memorizing, not higher order thinking skills.

Among the ten weeks, I feel that week 6 was the most successful to me, in the feeling that it was not as tough as others, and I got full points for it.

However, the topic I find most useful for me and help me change my teaching is that of Week 5, i.e.,

Project-based Learning, WebQuests, and rubrics

in which rubrics is almost new to me. Rubric and WebQuests assignments were challenging for me, especially in the week of my mother's funeral. I tried to complete rubrics assignments weeks later and find that creating rubrics is made less challenging with the help of  http://rubistar.4teachers.org/.

The most important thing I learnt through this is that rubrics should be created and given to students in advance, so they can be well aware of what is expected, and can self evaluate their work. I never did this before, but will do this from now on.

This week's tasks are not very difficult, but the deadline is not Sunday as usual, while I had to attend an intensive course by Intel Vietnam for three days, so I was still pushed.

http://www.loticonnection.com/ is useful for me to review my technology integration although I couldn't do the survey. I thought it was my problem and intended to try another time when I received Robert's message about it.  However, I will read the article more carefully to compare it with TESOL technology standard framework and TIM (Technology Integration Matrix. We are building technology standards for teachers and students of Vietnam and these are valuable resources.

No method is the BEST method, so teaching by principles is considered as a solution that I found in this article: The Seven Principles: Technology as Lever - specific recommendations for improving teaching with technology usehttp://polaris.umuc.edu/~cschwebe/gsmt800/7principles.htm .

Every course in ICT in LT ends with the article of the future of CALL. This is useful for teachers to keep going on.

The final words I want to say about this course is that through it, I found that I as a teacher can deliver my courses online without depending too much on an LMS and IT experts. I have created and taught my courses on Moodle, but now I'm thinking of designing and organizing my courses with a combination of the tools I learnt in Webskills2013.

Once again, thank you Robert and my courses member for a GREAT time! Hope to "see" you more later.

Week 9

I had to spend 3 days this week travelling to a moutainous area of Vietnam on the occasion of International Women's Day, together with more than 200 of my collegues, and did many activities there.

However, thanks to Internet improvements now in Vietnam, I can bring my laptop and an Internet connection device, i.e. a USB, so that I can work with the course when I have time without worrying about Internet connection in a remote area.

We dealt with the topic of multiple intelligence by Howard Gardner this week. This is not a new topic for me, as for many of my course members. I have read about MI and how technology can help encourage this, compared to the traditional classroom. I even have introduce MI to my teacher trainees, and discovered that they hadn't heard about it before. But honestly, this is the first time that I look and read more closely about this topic. I found a lot of useful articles in the link http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm Robert provided. I was impressed with this article named  Multiple Intelligences: It's Not How Smart You Are, It's How You're Smart!and will keep this saying for myself. I think it helps us respect different individuals as well as our students. Some may not be good at this, but may be very good at other things, and we teachers should find out and encourage out students' good points/potentials. Through Nicenet, I saw that my course members have a lot of ideas related to MI. It's a great chance to follow these discussions, but it takes time, too.

I also try o review my final project plan to submit it ontime. I did it on Google Docs and just submitted a link on the Wiki. I intend to impliment this very soon, even before receiving Robert's feedback. However, after reading Brigitte's blog post, I think that I have to consider this plan more carefully. A new tool may take more times to be introduced and understood and used by students. 

This is just an extra class, so I'm wondering if I can write a report about this for a conferecne about ICT in LT.

Week 9 has closed when I saw Week 10 opened. I will have more work to do, especially next three days attending an intensive workshop about ICT for teachers - the starting course - provided by Intel Vietnam, which I join as a trainee and an organizer.

Week 8

Project Plan Draft
I started Week 8 with a change in direction of my final project. I had to move from Project to Project Plan. It's due to 3 weeks off (weeks 4-6) because of my mother's death and our lunar new year, so I couldn't implement what I intended and get the students' response. I had to think of what to do next when my course is still on the go and I have to keep track of new problems, and the one that I chose to solve in my project is the difficulties in face-to-face group collaboration due to shortage of classroom time, especially for project work which needs a lot of time and collaboration. Preparing the draft took me a lot of time, especially when I had to study about rubrics which I didn't do in Week 5 and found it difficult because I had never done it before. For my project, I tried to create two rubrics; one is for assessing students' online discussion and collaboration, and the other is for assessing final group projects.
I chose to write my draft on Google Drive (https://docs.google.com/document/d/18IL6aSlGiB35_677IeueuuWmdcifm5Xgp2p40fGYCjU/edit?usp=sharing), so it was convenient for me to keep working on it and improve it in my office, at my home, between meetings, etc. I tried to upload it on time to the course wiki, and while waiting for my group members to comment it, I still made improvement.
It was great to read and review my group members' drafts, too. I'm with Brigitte and Dagnogo in the same group. Besides commenting their drafts, I could learn something, too.
Preparing project plan and commenting my partners' drafts took most of my time for the week.

Creating a class site or make online exercises
Nicenet, Blogger and Google Docs are the things that I have tried and also used in my Project.
Creating a class website or wiki on Google Sites attracted my interest at the beginning of the course when I saw them created by Robert. I agree that this is the most complicated tool, but I will certainly try. Thanks Robert for posting the supporting link at :https://sites.google.com/site/ortesolwiki/.
For interactive exercises, I have used Hot Potatoes, Question Tools, and Violet (a program developed in Vietnam) and find them useful in different ways for different people. In 2008, we produced CD-ROMs for ESL/EFL school teachers and students in Vietnam, in which Hot Potatoes and Question Tools were used.
Through the links provided concerning this topic, I will try all the applications/soft-wares suggested, analyse and evaluate them to introduce them to teachers, as part of my job.

ANVILL
ANVILL attracted me due to its potentials in speech tools which is not available in Moodle, the LMS that I have explored in my teaching. What a pity that I missed the webinar because of my health problem and had to watch the recorded one. I have joined this platform, created my own beta course and started to discover it.

Week 7

I started this week by the discovery of the article "What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?" at http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html and found it challenging to understand, especially the upper part due to the language barrier. This is not the first time I hear about 'learner autonomy'. In 2001, I found this term on the Internet, and intended to do my MA thesis about 'growing students' autonomy with the help of technology'. But I failed at persuading my supervisor in how to define autonomy and how to measure it.  The lower part is more understandable and I found some interesting strategies to foster learner autonomy, some of which have been tried by me. I also find other useful techniques in the article by Samuel P-H Sheu at http://coyote.miyazaki-mu.ac.jp/learnerdev/LLE/8.1/sheuE.html, and I like the way she titled her article, i.e., Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush?

Another topic I learnt this week is one computer classroom, which is rather familiar to me, but I still find new strategies in the article 'Strategies and applications for the one-computer classroom' at http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm. The links to ESL Activities for the One Computer Classroom (S.Gaer) are interesting, but some links to examples are not working. The article '7 Categories for classroom Computer' which is short and simple, is worth reading, too. I paid my attention to the issues raised in the article.

This week I also had to choose a partner for peer project reviewing. Luckily Brigitte, Dagnogo and I are in the same group and I hope we can make great collaboration!

Week 6

I wish I had more time!

As Brigitte wrote in her week 4's blog post, tasks are increasing and getting more challenging every week.
This week came with a lot of readings, many of which consist links to other articles which, honestly speaking, I cannot finish reading all. I know that they are useful for me, so I wish I had more time, or I was a faster one!

This week, we deal with the topics of teaching large classes and interactive powerpoint.
Concerning teaching large classes which is also a common problem at Vietnamese state schools where there are from 50 to 100 students per class. In the article "Teaching Large Classes" at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/LargeClasses.html#engaged, I agree that "The effective use of technology and group work are two ways to enhance large classes, increase student engagement, and minimize the time you spend grading...". The most important word here is "effective" which require much of teacher's consideration and preparation.
In the link to "Teaching Large Classes" at http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/largeclasses/usingtechnology.html,  I was interested in Online Assessment with Blackboard together with tutorials to use this function. However, it seems that we can only use this when we own the commercial Blackboard system which is not cheap at all. Am I right? 
An alternative to Blackboard that I have been using for free is Moodle which also contain quite the same features as Blackboard.

Concerning interactive powerpoint, I have been using and training other teachers to use powerpoint in their English teaching. However, through the readings, I still learn something new such as techniques in presenting with PPT, i.e., Give it a rest and Hind your pointer, or "How to Give Interactive Lectures". There are so many links to articles to read about PPT and teaching with PPT that I will go on reading. Besides PPT, teachers as me also want to find its alternatives and I have known Prezi. Thanks Robert for inserting the link to the article "Top 5 alternatives to power point" through which I know more applications besides Prezi.

This week, I also start to worry about my course project when we are getting closer to the final week. My students have finished their two weeks off on the occasion of our lunar new year and I will start to apply my lesson plan designed in week 4 to see how successful it is.

Week 5

Coming back from my hometown due to my mother's death, I have to try to finish my work for Week 6, so I will return to this week's work later.

Week 4

Week 4 - Going on to Discover New Interesting Things

I start to write this post when we are at the middle of Week 6. It's because my mother's serious sickness and death the week before and I had to come back to my hometown in a rural area of Vietnam to take care of her and see her off to the other world.

There was a lot of things to do there and I tried to work with the course whenever I had time.

The two reading articles of this week are interesting to me. The first one, named Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction (2000) at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html, is rather long and took me a lot of time reading, but is the one that I really like because it gives me a review of previous research in using Internet in ESL writing instruction and detailed ideas of teaching genres using Internet together with usefule links, which is a good source of reference for my related studies in the future. I did a study on using computers and Internet in teaching and learning ESL writing in 2002, when Web technology was very limited.

I found the second article, i.e., Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books (2004) at http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html useful, too, with concrete classroom techniques. However, it is beyond my sixth grade students' proficiency level now. They may be applicable to my class in one or two years. Vietnamese youth nowadays is said to read less, and teenagers like my students usually use computer and Internet for fun. So, this is a good suggestion to lead them to make full use of this technological advance for learning purposes.

This week I also 'had to' describe my class issue, problem, or need. In fact, there are quite a lot issues, but I chose the problem with project work to describe here, which I think technology can help.

I was also asked to write a technology enhanced lesson plan, and project work is the one that I decided to be my lesson content. I sometimes integrate technology to my classroom, but this is the first time I write a detailed lesson plan about this. This job was made easier with the template file given by Robert. I have used Google Docs and shared files with others, so I had no difficulties in this. It would be good if I could try this plan, like what Brigitte Falkner did with her class, to see how successful it is. However, my students here are having 2 weeks off on the occasion of the lunar new year and I have to wait until they come back.

With what I learn and prepare this week, I hope I can make some positive changes in my teaching.

Week 3

English Pronunciation  - My Experience and Interest

Starting learning English at grade 10 at a rural secondary school with teachers of Russian owning one year experience learning English, and hardly with any authentic materials except textbooks in poor quality, I entered the University of Foreign Languages for Teachers in Hanoi, Vietnam thanks to my result of tests on Maths and Literature. The firsts days at university was a disaster for me because I couldn't understand what the teachers said and it was difficult for them to understand me.

My pronunciation was not much better when I finished my four years at university. I knew this through the feedback from my students. Then I by chance got the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary on CD-ROM with sounds by native speakers in both British and American English. I started to practice with this program. Whenever I found a new word or a word of which pronunciation I was not sure about, I checked and practiced it. One year later, I started studying for a master degree and gave presentations in front of the class. I usually got the compliments from my classmates about my good pronunciation. Some of them who studied with me at the tertiary level even asked if I had attended any courses on pronunciation. I felt happy and encouraged. I also received good feedback from my foreign partners and my students.

Later, I got more advanced versions of that electronic dictionary which the allowance for users to record their own voice. And now in the Internet era, it is very convenient to use online dictionaries, but I still keep the installers of those softwares and introduce to my students or my collegues when they ask me for experience in learning English pronunciation. The CDs still work well with those who do not have regular access to the Internet.

My interest in English pronunciation does not stop at that point. I also want to do more to help my students and teachers in Vietnam to better their English pronunication. I am interested in softwares and programs that allow us to record, to analyse, to compare and then to improve our pronuciation. I have searched for swebsites on teaching and learning pronunciation to introduce and guide them.

In 2008, our university bought a speech analysis system from KayPentax, USA for research purposes. I have learnt how to use this system but it is for very professional and special research. I think that I have to study more to able to apply this system.

Attending this course of webskills, thanks to my instructor and my collegues around the world, I know more things relating to this field. I am interested in the article named "New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation" suggested by Robert though it is not very easy to read. I am also very interested in Robert's site at https://sites.google.com/site/pronunciationstuff/links with a list full of useful and interesting links for me to discover. And after this week exploring Delicious.com, I can search for the links, keep them in my Delicious at https://delicious.com/#lanhuongnckh and share them with others.

I hope that with my interest and those informative resources, I will be able to create some product on teaching and learning English pronunciation soon.

Week 2

My New Experience in Webskills Course

Week 2 of the course nearly comes to the end, in which I have spent a lot of time reading and discovering new things. This week is quite challenging for me because I also have loads of work at the university to do and many classes to teach.

With search engines, I am used to using Google. I used Yahoo long time ago when I started to use Internet, but not any more now. Thanks Robert for adding "Search Engines" section to the course wiki. It's easier to follow. I think I will spend more time trying those ones.

I spent a lot of time to read about writing objectives and Bloom's taxonomy. I realize that writing objectives is important. This is not the first time I hear about Bloom's taxonomy, but it is the first time I read it carefully and try writing objectives. It's not very easy for me to understand and to write this. I look forward to receive Robert's and my global collegues' comments on what I have done.

I also got started with my course project with a description of one of the classes I teach. I tried to describe it as detailed as possible. I really want to know if my students learn better with the help of technology. Maybe I will do an action research about this.

Week 1

This is not my first blog. I create this just for reflecting what I learn in this webskills course.

I have tried another blog where I write posts and share them with my students in Google's Circles.

I think blog is a useful tool for language teaching and I will try to create one blog for each of my classes.

I also intend to teach my students to create their own blog to post their  project products.