Reflection on week 10

Dear colleagues...
Can you imagine that the course is almost over!!! Reflecting on what I have learned means to mention many things that I have already mentioned some in my posts on NiceNet. I just want to mention that I have tried many software, programs and technology-based ideas and they are really amazing...It was my first time to hear about NiceNet, ANVILL, Jupiter Grades, Blogspot authoring and many other great ideas. Thank you Donna and the team for this wonderful ride that I personally enjoyed much and I think the colleagues too.
The challenge I am facing now is how to transfere this knowledge to others and this means two things:
1. Training my colleagues in teacher training workshops in Egypt.
2. Applying this in my classes till it becomes part of my teaching practices.
I recommend my colleagues to follow this dual direction in the next step. Thisa experience should be enjoyed by others too.
I hope all the best for every colleague in the next challenge
Regards
Haggag

Week 9 - Reflection

This week I read new articles about learning styles and reviewed how various the learners are. What I liked most was the examples provided through the links of the course about the activities which can meet the variety in the learning styles of the students.
Reading about the nine Intelligences by Gardner made me think of the big challenge we are having in our classes. This made me think of combining various activities and exercises to meet these differences.I have reviewed the activities which are technology-based in the current project I am working on and I found out how technology can meet the differences between the students. I think to have various activities and teaching techniques is not new to any language teacher but what activities to add, for what learner and what objective(s) behind is also important to consider.

Another important thing to reflect on is the peer-feedback we have this week from our colleagues in the course. I think most of us keep using peer-feedback in his classes but to give it and use it is a different learning experience. If I meant to evaluate this week, I would say that it was really valuable.
Regards
Haggag

Week 8 : Reflection

Hello.....
If I am to reflect on this week,  three important points should be stated:
1. Google documents: This week was another very good week in which I could learn how to use Google to upload documents and share them with my students. I could use it in uploading an online questionnaire for my students in the current course I am teaching to fill in. I believe this will save me much more time and effort.

2. ANVILL. I have been exploring and trying the various aspects of ANVILL and the first impression I had was that how complicated to design and implement various resources in one author-ware butafter I reviewed the comments and saw the screen shots by Jeff and the colleagues, I believe it is a very good tool. I just need more time to use it in an online class or implement it in my class.

3.Peer-review for project report.
This week was a good chance to share my project with my colleague Mr.Mohamed Rashid. I think his comments will enrich my project. I did review his project and I think that he is really a brilliant colleague and his project is very academic, promising and valuable. I think I am lucky to have online colleagues like him.

Regards
Haggag

Week 7: Reflection

Week 7 was a very informative week to me. It reviewed my ideas and schemata about learner autonomy and the one computer classes. This week opened the horizons for me to find effective means to use the lectures which is mainly one computer based more interactive. I think my idea about the computer as a tool to play in the lecture is not correct, it is rather a partner to depend on the lecture and to add liveliness to the lecture.
Teachers should think of new jobs to this partner in the form of interactive software and activities. I think hyper-linked and interactive web based activities can change the traditional lecture into a more live one. I browsed the internet for this new lecturing form and I found that they call it "the modified lecture" and it is one
for of the active learning strategies which can promote learner autonomy. I think yhis week I could find a connection between ;earner autonomy and the one computer class. This connection is, you can use technology to promote learner autonomy even if it is a one computer class.
Regards

Week 6 reflection post 2: Refinement in my project

The change I will add to my project after this week's readings and skills is - as described in NiceNet - the following:The change that I already started to implement is the interactive PowerPoint presentations which is hyper-linked to online resources. I will prepare presentations and upload it to the website of the course that I am designing for the course and then I will ask the students to download the presentations  and use the hyperlinks for home practice. I will make sure that the presentations contain some sort of feedback (i.e. the correct answers). This modification may help me solving the challenge of home assignments.

Week 6: post 2: Interactive power point slides reflection

One of the merits of the power point is its possibility to integrate the four language skills together in one presentation. Using action buttons in the slides can bring the students into a unity of skills in one activity or a task. When I read this week about how to make the slides more interactive, I though of our mere use for power point and how teachers fall into mistakes about the colors, design and the motions. After designing a presentation for my class using the actions buttons and hyperlinks, I found that I was mistaken. The Power point can be really a good mean to integrate the skills and add live interaction with students. I have reviewed some presentations where teachers hyperlink the answers with the correct answers and with positive feedback or correction slides; this is really amazing. This week is another plus to my understanding for the true implementation of technology in our EFL classes. 

Regards

week 6 technology and large classes

Dear colleagues,

I would like to share the question that I posted in NiceNet about the levels of technology. The question again was what is the relation between technology and the large classes? First I know the apparent common relations which refer to the ease of instruction, student interaction, student-oriented notions etc. The point I would like to make is that there are levels of technology and speaking about the integration of technology for the large classes is now an old notion about technology due to the new form of the wholly technology-oriented classes, which are small in their settings. Do you agree with me that using technology for large classes was one reason for the implementation of technology and that now technology is more than a mean? Do you think that now educational technology specialists should think of using new technology for large technology-oriented classes?

Regards