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!