Week Ten

Hello Everybody,

Is is very sad to say goodbye!
But what is the need to say that?
We can be in touch even after the course. We must think of making a wiki for ourselves..
I hope something will turn around this week.
Will be in touch with you all. Now attending an International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK)

Thank you
Best Wishes
Sujith

Week Nine

It is only this week that I realise that we are close to the end of the course. It also reminds me to begin the expedition on the wings of technology. What I really liked is the way project work was planned by Robert. If we distribute the project works in different steps and  in different weeks, the participants will not feel the weight of the project on the last week.  They only have to compile them to a final project. This is really interesting. I enjoyed the peer evaluation. I did not even stop there. I have read almost all the final projects of my friends. What a diversity! Looking at the same tool in different perspective. I hope perspectives makes the learning meaningful.

What I learned much is from a blind teacher's perspective on technology. I have scribbled about it on Nicenet. It reminds me the necessity of talking about softwares that help the blind and the deaf. I remember Mark Twain's words: Kindness is the word that the blind can see and the deaf can hear. We must be even technologically kind to them!

Best wishes
Sujith

Week Eight

Dear All,

I got introduced to different sites and ideas this week.
From the first week of the course, I have been listening to my friends talking about HotPotatoes. It's only this week that I realised  how interesting that software is. I must have read about it earlier. It's interesting for me because I can design activities that work offline. It is only this week that I realised Nicenet is a free platform like Google docs. Sometimes we do not really read about the software and sites we use. From today I made one thing clear to myself that I will read about them before using them!
Peer reading the report of others is a wonderful activity. It is not that I can commend on others report, but it demanded me to look into my self.

Regards
Sujith

Week Seven

Hi Everybody,

I could introduce the WebQuest designed as part of the project only week. As I scribbled on the previous post, I had to teach the basics of using internet in the previous week. This WebQuest http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=171109) was the first one of that kind that my learners got introduced. I could arrange ten computers in the lab for this purpose. I must thank my colleagues at the school for helping me do this. The LAN was not working. We had to spend a lot of time fixing it. I had saved a word file with URL of the WebQuest on the desktop of every computers. The learner are asked to ‘ctrl+click’ the link and they went to the WebQuest.

The learners were heavily dependent upon me how to go about it. I watched them for five minutes to know whether they will do the work themselves. Most of them clicked on the picture where there is no hyperlink. I had to go from computer to computer to guide them. Finally I connected a LCD projector on a computer and explained the things they had to do.  This is the problem with first time users! They found the WebQuest interesting when they got the concept of the icons and what they mean. The reading materials on different sites that were linked posed a lot of challenge to my learners. Many of materials were not ‘digestible’ to them. I think I have to rework and customize the reading texts to make them comprehensible. The learners found tasks interesting as there is an option to check their answer. They were happy when they got immediate feedback from the computers. What I realised is the need of introducing more interesting activities and less theories and definitions!

Thank you

Best wishes

Sujith

Week Six

Dear friends,

This week discussed one of my favorite area, power points. Garr Reynold's 'Top Ten Slide Tips' were really interesting and informative. The reading material 'Presenting with Power Point' gave a lot many ideas left out by Garr. 'B for Black slide' and Ctrl+L for hiding cursor are  new and  very useful tips to me.  

The other interesting area that had a lot of discussion was 'managing large classes' by engaging learners. Learners are manageable when we deliver challenging activities where every learner has a role to play. Web-quests,  projects, interactive power points and the like will make the class interesting and engaging.

I found an interesting video on YouTube. Watch it and find what the learners demand from us!

Implementation of the change:

When I took the learners to the computer lab, I found none of the learners have previous experience in using computers for surfing the internet. My learners have got only one period (one hour) in a week to use computer lab. This week I had to introduce browser, how to type address in the address bar etc.. What I could do is getting the learners familiarized with the internet.  I thought I should not lead them to the business of webquest right away. What they did was, google the names of the town they live in, finding their school using google maps.  I hope I can introduce webquest next week.

Best wishes
Sujith

Week Five

Hello Everybody,

Yet another interesting and inspiring week.
The heat of the course has started.
This is the week Robert started to say (for the first time) in one of his discussion posts, 'We've only two weeks..!'
Suddenly I felt the beads of sweat on my forehead.
The humidity of being engaged in a work unfinished.

This week taught me a lot of things. The concept of PBL, WebQuest, Rubrics...
I realigned the concept of PBL, studied about Webquests and got introduced to Rubistar.
WebQuests: I am still exploring it more.

Though the week is almost over, I'm reminded of Robert Frost.

"Miles to go before I sleep...."

Best wishes
Sujith

Week Four

Hi everyone,

This week was quite hectic and informative.

The week began with a visit to Eravikulam National Park, Munnar with a group of 35 students from our school. The camp was sponsored by the Forest Department, Government of Kerala.  Every year we take our learners to different forests in Kerala. These camps give us a lot of energy for the rest of the days in the year. These camps teaches the students and teachers the need of protecting the nature; its flora and fauna. 

If the effect of trekking was spiritual, the effect of doing assignments for the course is intellectual. I think I am exposed to greater plains in the teaching and learning of EFL. I could bookmark a lot of sites this week. I was closely following the sites recommended by my friends. Many of them are really inspiring. 

Writing a technology-enhanced lesson plan was the biggest challenge that I faced this week. I do not know whether what I attempted is right. The immediate response from Safa and from others made me revisit my lesson plan. Peer responses make the endeavour interesting. This is a very positive sign. The other interesting thing is 'narrowing down' the issue in the classroom. If somebody asks about the problems in our class, we will have a number of them. But, here the chiselling down of the issues to a very narrow area makes everyone a researcher. 

Thank you

Best Wishes

Sujith

About the place I visited:

Eravikulam National Park, Munnar harbours the largest surviving population of Nilgiri Tahr (Hemitragus Hylocrius). 

Nilgiri Tahr

It is also rich with exceptionally rare orchids. The spectacular mass flowering of the shrub Neelakurunji (Phlebophyllum kunthianum) takes place in this grasslands in cycles of the 12 years. The entire hills will be blanketed with the violet flowers. We could only see the plants now. It will bloom on 2018. 

 

      A blanket of  Neelakurinji Flowers

Neelakurinji plant