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.