Module 17: The future and the end

I am going to copy Musti's ideas for future reference first of all: Using technology in a classroom environment a. isn't something to be afraid of b. makes your lesson more effective and fruitful c. inspires the students d. provokes students’ creativity e. promotes collaborative learning f. helps students to aware what happens around the world by involving a project g. helps you to create your own online audio materials h. is not just showing a film for an hour When using technology we should a. never forget that the aim is teaching not using the technology just to sake of using it b. pay attention to netiquette not to offend people c. be careful about copyright of the materials d. make our students aware of cyber bullying

The two comments that I like most are: 'not to allow technology to lead the pedagogy. Pedagogy must come first'--Naomi from the Phillipines. 'I now always ask myself 'will this be engaging?'. We mustn't allow ourselves to be blinded by technology'-- Clare from the Czech Republic. I particularly like the ideas of all my fellow course participants and my colleagues, who talked about the importance of 'purpose', 'netiquette', and 'beng a lifelong learner'. My comment would be: I learned an awful lot from this course, and from my colleagues. What I will take away with me is: Technology is a wonderful opportunity for us, language teachers, to make use of the wonderful resources provided to enhance our students' learning experience. However, we should not forget that still the most important resource in the classroom is the teacher and the empathy he/she has for the students' learning. And this teacher will continue to be a wonderful resource by being a lifelong learner him/herself and by being open to all innovations, and challenges around him/her. The future: Mobile learning The possibilities for learning in general and language learning in particular are huge. Imagine your students being able to do grammar exercises on their phone on the way home from school. Or getting background information from the internet via their phone while on an organised school trip. Virtual Wolds: Second Life.... I wish I was a teenager learning English so that I could become a resident in Second Life :)))))

There are csme communities to keep up-to-date with innovations in education: Classroom 2.0 (http://www.classroom20.com/): An online community that looks at using new technologies in the classroom. IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group (LTSIG) (http://ltsig.org.uk/): The British Council's TeachingEnglish - Talk (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk) section also has lots of discussions, blogs, forum posts and polls on the use of technology in the classroom.

Below are some publications that look at emerging technologies - the technologies that are likely to have an impact on education in the future. Handbook of Emerging Technologies: http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wikis/etl/index.php/Handbook_of_Emerging_Technologies_for_Learning This is a resource for educators planning to incorporate technologies in their teaching and learning activities. Horizon report; a report looking into emerging technologies in education, published yearly. The 2010 edition is at http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdf. New editions will appear at http://wp.nmc.org/. Each year six technologies are chosen that are predicted to have a major impact on education and practical examples are given on how these technologies are already being used.

A final word: In spite of my hectic lifestyle and multiple responsibilities, I am glad that I took this course. I would like to thank British Council, all the people who contributed to the development of the course, and our great moderators, Ayse and Nevin, for their great support.

Module 16: Practising Listening and Speaking with Online Video

Using Online video can be very valuable in practising listening and speaking skills. It is authentic, and versatile, and also there is a lot of variety. The students can be encouraged to make their own podcasts and videos, communicate with real people in a meaningful way, and practise pronunciation, intonation, and comprehension, and many more.....

Below are the ideas I got from this module: Teachers talk about three disadvantages of using online videos. These are the time it takes to stream videos, the reliability of sites and quality of the sound and pictures. Some advice on how to overcome these problems: YouTube is like a giant video flea market....so don't let your students use YouTube without an aim. The teacher should search ahead of time and be prepared by embedding the chosen video onto their own blog or wiki. The interesting thing that I learned here is to uncheck the box that says 'show the related videos'so that the videos that may not be appropriate are eliminated. Another very useful piece of information related to YouTube is the 'edu' section relevant to education, which teachers can benefit from. And lastly, you can upload your own videos on YouTube. By doing this, you can catalogue your own videos but other people around the world can make use of your videos as well.

Advantages of using video clips Students are exposed to authentic English in a natural context. You can really focus on the content, without students losing concentration. The visual element is stimulating to students. Short videos provide a nice alternative to reading or listening exercises which students are usually exposed to. Possible problems Technical problems can arise, either with problems of internet connection, or in the case of video on demand, a high demand at a given time for one particular video can affect the server. Some videos can be inappropriate, and the content may not be quite what you expect, hence it is crucial that you watch the video beforehand. All in all, another very useful module..... I wish I could refer to the materials, discussions, resources introduced/provided on this course all the time.....by having access to them after the course is completed.

Module 15: Practising Listening and Speaking with Online Audio

Podcasting has made broadcasting Personal and available On Demand. I didn't know that POD comes from Personal On Demand. 3 reasons why podcasts are so popular: 1. Anyone can do it, no satellites, studios needed. Only a microphone and a video camera, a computer, and a connection to the web is enough 2. You can subscribe to podcasts 3. Gatgetry: You can download the podcast onto your computer, but also an MP3 player. No dependence on traditional media. Podcasts are great for language learning because: a podcast is usually a structured audio text (has a beginning, middle and end section), a podcast usually follows a common entertainment genre such as a talk show or magazine type programme. content is usually scheduled at regular intervals (each day/week) and each episode often follows the same or similar structure to build into a series.

Benefits for teachers include: they are updated regularly easy to access copyright free for classroom use often free of charge and often have additional materials for teachers to use in class to teach extensive and intensive listening skills.

Using audio online for communication Considerations when recording online audio.

Audience e.g. is it for other students? what age? parents? Theme / topic Structure of content / genre Length Script Rehearse You Vs students Platform Media format Support materials All the resources, and tasks as well as discussions very useful again.

Module 14: Social Networking for Educational use

In our daily lives, we don't have much time for social contact unfortunately. Facebook is a substitute for this. I love finding out what people dear to me are doing, and responding to them, and kind of socialising with them in the virtual world. I have used Facebook with my students, but only for sharing information.

According to digizen.org, the activities listed below are some of the most popular that learners become involved in while using social networking sites. Communicating with existing networks, making and developing friendships/contacts Represent themselves online, create and develop an online presence Viewing content/finding information Creating and customising profiles Authoring and uploading content Adding and sharing content Posting messages – public & private Collaborating with other people

Micro-blogging is a Web service that allows users to post brief text updates or links to media such as photos. I have found out in this module that Twitter is a micro-blogging service although I have had a Twitter account for some time now..... I believe that Micro-blogging is useful for reporting breaking news, or some controversial issues. Also, at a personal level, it helps us to socialize.....Unfortunately no time is left to socialize in real life due to our hectic lifestyles. When it comes to using SNSs for educational purposes, I admit that I have got a long way to go.... First I need to rationalize it within myself, and feel comfortable, and then..... I will try.

Module 13: Collaborative Online Writing

I had never been very fond of wikis, and avoided using them as much as I could, the reason being the chaos created by many people revising the same text and sometimes ending up creating something really incorrect. Years ago, a colleague of mine started a wiki for professional development, and I opened a page there which I started using with my students. Yet, when I found myself in the world of MOODLE, I forgot all about wikis, and stopped using them altogether. This module has made me think that wikis have their own use as well. For collaborative work tidily presented to all the readers, wiki must be the solution....Also I did not know that there is a Simple English Wikipedia: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki . I will definitely suggest this to lower level learners. And here are my reflections of this module: Wikis are good for tasks that need planning and coordination. If planning is attempted through e-mail exchanges, the email exchange becomes chaotic, as the important information is scattered around everyone's inbox. With a wiki, coordination is easy....as the text is edited and chaos is avoided, on the condition that the users are trained in using wikis. The most famous wiki, Wikipedia, is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects: Commons: Free media repository, Wikiquote: Collection of quotations, Wikiversity: Free learning materials and activities, Wikibooks: Free textbooks and manuals, Wikisource: Free-content library, Wiktionary: Dictionary and thesaurus, Wikinews: Free-content news, Wikispecies: Directory of species, Meta-Wiki: Wikimedia project coordination

To use wikis educationally, the STOLEN principle could be useful: Specific Overall Objective Clear objective for the wiki The wiki needs to have a simple clear objective - a clear purpose, explaining the benefits of either contributing to it, or the benefits of the end product once produced. Understood by all All people editing the wiki must understand the objectives, to allow them to edit the wiki in accordance with these objectives. Not a 'general' area Although ideologically there would be some merit in giving people a 'blank space' for them to explore their thoughts and possibilities, in reality with the relatively small number of students on any one course, module or unit - a 'blank space' is unlikely to magically get converted into a media rich knowledge bank like wikipedia (Here is an addition I consider important) Grading strategy If your wiki is not graded, that's fine. But if you plan on grading your students on their work on the wiki, establish some rules ahead of time so students can be aware of what they will be graded on. You might have to assign individual or group spaces in addition to a common space. (Mathieu Plourde, Instructional Designer, University of Delaware) Timely Definitive times for different 'stages' of use It is very easy for this sort of activity to 'get put off until I have more time'. To avoid this, setting intermediate deadlines, is advantageous. Sending reminders (e.g. emails) will usually trigger a rush of activity so can be used as a mechanism to keep up a wikis momentum. Definite end point - even if left open after Resources like Wikipedia have no definitive end point, the resource will continue ad infinitum When creating a wiki for educational use, it is unlikely that such a resource will get created or be useful, so wikis should be set up for specific purpose, with a specific end point. There isn't a problem with leaving the wiki open afterwards, nor is their a problem with people continuing to edit the resource, as this would also be ideal. Ownership People need to feel that they 'collaboratively own' the wiki Students will create highly imaginative blogs, Myspace or Facebook areas - because they belong to the students, and these areas are a reflection of them and their personality. To get high levels of creativity in a wiki, then creating some element of ownership can be advantageous, although there is a risk that this 'ownership' if individual will inhibit the collaborative nature of the wiki. The conclusion therefore is to try to create a 'collaborative ownership'. This could be done by using language appropriate to the natural language of the group, or by having a soft touch when moderating the activity on the wiki. Another option is to designate certain areas to certain participants (of groups of participants) - it may be possible to make the exerise competitive, with different groups set a challenge of creating a resource that is 'better than other groups'. This will depend on the nature of the groups involved and will require deligence from the tutor. Localised objective Some structure of what is expected Wikipedia has evolved organically, effectively with no starting structure, however this has only been possible by the high numbers of people involved in the editing of the site. This model will not replicate itself at a smaller level with an educational wiki. Therefore the wiki creator will benefit from creating some structure of what is expected - this could be some headings to use, an example page etc. Starting points for editing For most people wikis are new concepts, and the thought of this collaborative editing is daunting to many, especially if presented with a 'blank canvas' - it is therefore beneficial to create some starting points for the students to edit - this will probably be linked to the structure that is being created. Engagement rules Who can edit Some people will be nervous about editing, so reinforcing who can (and is desired to) edit the wiki should be made obvious on the site. Which parts they can edit Clear guidance on which parts can (and is desired to) be edited should be made clear and obvious on the site. Acceptable and unacceptable use Depending on the ages and nature of the people who will be editing the wiki, it may be beneficial to provide some acceptable and unacceptable use guidance. This would benefit from not be presented in a formal 'Thou shall not' style, but could be incorporated in other information (e.g the purpose of the wiki) and should definitely be 'light touch'. Navigation Clear navigation structure One of the beauties of wikis is the way that they 'grow organically' however this often results in different people creating different styles of navigation structure, which can result in confusing navigation. The wiki moderator could create their own structure for people to follow - which should ease this problem, but may inhibit the 'freedom' of the site. The best that someone can do when using a wiki educationally, is look at what they have created through the eyes of the students, or ask a colleague, friend, relative to look at. Simple navigation As well as the navigation being clear, it will ideally be simple, usually this means not too many clicks to find a specific part f the wiki, but balanced by not having a long list of links or information. With some wiki providers it is possible to create menu pages, which sit at the side of the wiki - these can be used to help with the navigational structure.

Finally, it was nice to open a personal wiki after quite a bit of time: http://nilgunhancioglueldridge.wikispaces.com/

Module 12: Online writing for students and teachers

I have always loved blogs because of their ease of use, and the wonderful opportunities they offer....Ok, it has got some disadvantages. For example, the older posts are not visible on the home page, but by means of tags, you can access all the related information about a particular topic.

Thanks to blogs, we have all become news reporters. Each and every one of us can have their own version of any news, and make sure that our views are accessible to others, only if they are interested in what we think of course :)

Because people can comment on material on a blog, a blog is also a discussion and interaction forum. We have got a lot to learn from each other, and a blog provides a sharing and learning platform for us.

Another advantage is that we can subscribe to a blog, and get all the updates instantly without wasting time to visit the blog on a regular basis. In addition, people can keep their blog strictly personal and use it as a diary. A further advantage is that pictures, videos, or audio files can all be uploaded, which makes blogs very versatile.

Another feature of blogs is their collaborative nature. Blogs allow 'comments by other people who are interested in this topic'. Through this feature, students and teachers can contribute to each other's learning, and construct knowledge together, which is the basis of social-constructivist approaches. A further advantage of this feature for the students is that they practise and therefore improve their writing skills. As for the teachers, they can monitor the progress of their students, and observe the problems they are having with the target language. This feature has one major disadvantage though. Sometimes, the comment may be irrelevant, culturally, personally, or socially insensitive, or plain rude towards certain individuals. The solution: The owner of the blog should have the power to monitor all the posts, and allow a post to be published then.

Finally, what does the ability to publish freely to the Web mean for our students? Through blogs, students are opening themselves up to the whole world. The sense of purpose, relevance, but most importantly audience will develop, and as a result they will try to make use of all their language resources and end up developing their writing skills.

Long live blogs!!

Module 11: Using the interactive web in the classroom

As a regular user of Web 2 applications like gmail, Facebook, Authorstream, Youtube, blogger, Skype, Wikis, Moodle, etc, I thoroughly enjoyed this module, as it has both given and also will give me the opportunity to extend this knowledge, and benefit both myself, my students, my family, my colleagues, and my institution. I reflected on how Web2 has changed language teaching and learning in the forum, so I am going to cheat and paste it here as well :)))) But before doing that, I would like to do two things...First I would like to thank my friend Steve for introducing not only me but also a lot of people to Web 2 applications. And secondly, I would like to thank the course designers for creating the platform for us to actually see and listen to Nik Peachey talking about these applications.

And now my reflections:

I remember that in the past, when teaching directions, we used to draw imaginary cinemas and supermarkets on imaginary streets in imaginary towns to make it easier for our students to understand the language for giving instructions.... In the same way, we used to ask our students to buy a special notebook and keep diaries of their language learning experiences to personalize each language learning experience. We also asked our students to take photos of their rooms for descriptions, and we had to wait for a week for the photos to be printed. We created imaginary characters for our students to write letters to.

The world is a different place now due to the ever-improving technology, and accordingly the whole language learning and teaching experience has changed beyond recognition. Web 2 applications have made this new experience even more meaningful with their flexibility, interactive nature, variety, and diversity.

Which teacher or student today would think of buying a notebook and using it to record language learning experiences? Would we draw imaginary roads in imaginary towns when there is 'google maps'? How many of us get our photos printed today when our photos are ready at the click of a button and can be readily used to describe our rooms and shared with our classmates in a blog? Or uploaded on Flickr or Picasa to be shared with the whole world? Who would think of creating imaginary characters to interact with when our students have friends from all over the world on Facebook?

The Internet, but more specifically Web 2 applications....... They have changed the way we live, buy, sell, communicate, socialize, and teach and learn. Teaching and learning have become more fun, more meaningful, more outcome based, and more globalized.

Module 10: Using learning technologies for school links projects

If they are planned, executed, and reviewed with care, taking into consideration the target, the level and motivation of the students, and the steps to follow, projects are very useful in language learning since they engage students in the task at hand, there is cooperation, and an outcome, and the students feel they are creating something meaningful.

Using learning technologies makes the experience even more valuable, as the students improve not only their language but also their ICT skills, they can create partnerships with students far away, and therefore improve their cultural awareness, as well as their general knowledge.

For the last 5-6 years, I have been teaching thesis writing.....The things I am learning on this course, and the insights I am acquiring thanks to this course are making me want to teach intensive English so that I can put those ideas into practice.

Module 9: Using Office software in a computer room

This module has been a real eye-opener..... The things you can do with especially PowerPoint is amazing. I learned so many new things in this module. I liked the 'How people live' activity in Word, as you can adapt and use it in so many different ways.I also like the 'description' activity again in Word, as I thought that such an activity might get the students to feel like a teacher when they get boring texts without any details from the students—instead of a vivid description that activates imagination.

My favorites have been the PowerPoint activities though.....'Add a caption'--- and reported speech. Getting the students to create their own conversations and stories.... Never taught reported speech in this way....Would like to try it one day when/if I have students at this level. To promote creativity and trigger imagination, creating picture stories by using clip art is a very good idea. What is even better is getting the students to take their own photos, and then create their own stories by uploading the photos and using them in their PowerPoint story creations.

I enjoyed this module a lot. First time I produced speech bubbles in PowerPoint. I am proud of myself :)))

Module 8: Office applications for whole-class teaching

The recent trend of pair-work and group-work activities has been so powerful that we sometimes seem to forget how valuable whole-class teaching is..... This module has made me aware of the different functions of each of the interaction patterns.

Whole-class teaching is very valuable as students are exposed to exactly the same input and feedback, contributes to collaborative class spirit, weak students learn from strong ones, and despite the recent trend of student-centered approaches, sometimes teacher-centered classes are necessary.

I really liked and I am going to use the 'weed read' activity in my thesis writing class as my students definitely make the mistake of using redundant words in their texts. For this, I am planning to use 'Word' and focus on the importance of lexico-grammar, as the extra words are mostly related to prepositions accompanying verbs. Again I am planning to use Word to focus on synonymy, which is very important for cohesion. I will use a text where the same word is repeated over and over again. Then I will get the whole class to discuss what the problem is and how the text can be improved. If the students don't come up with good synonyms, I will show them how to use the 'thesaurus' option in Word, attracting their attention to the fact that although two words may be synonyms in one context, they may not be so in another.

For coherence and unity, I will try PowerPoint. I will put one complete sentence on each slide, go on to the next slide and the next sentence and ask the students whether the next sentence follows the previous one logically and smoothly. I think PowerPoint will be good for this to construct the text bit by bit, sentence by sentence, and to get rid of the 'weeds', in this case sentences that do not unite with the whole text.

As I have not been teaching lower levels for a long time now, all I can come up with at the moment is 'writing', and the elements of good writing.

Module 7: Cyber well-being

This module gives very useful information about staying safe online, and cyber-bullying.

Two of the resources provided are appropriate for young kids, and the information is very well presented to suit that age group. I found the cartoon very effective, and the SMART (safe, meet not :)))), accept not :)). reliable not, tell an adult or carer) rules easy to remember, and worth remembering even by us, adults.

The video on cyber-bullying affected me a lot. I very strongly dislike bullying and bullies. I have always thought that real-world bullying is really bad. Most of the time, the person bullied in real life has got some kind of soft spot well identified by a bully, and life may become unbearable for the person bullied. What a shame!!!

This module has made me think that cyber-bullying is even worse, as the act of bullying can reach a wider audience through technology and make the victim's life more unbearable. Visuals, name calling and the like can affect a child or teenager so negatively that it can cause life-long damage to the victim.

Especially the parents have a huge responsibility here. By making sure that they are up-to-date with technology, and by educating themselves on the problems that can be encountered by children or teenagers in a certain age group, they can alleviate some problems faced by their children and support and guide them

Module 6: Copyright and copyright-friendly resources

Short and sweet module....

Unfortunately, I cannot say that our country is very successful in dealing with copyright issues. Most people are not aware of copyrights, and those who are do not really adhere to the rules. Photocopying is a craze, and pirate CDs, DVDs are everywhere.....

The most interesting 2 things I learned in this module are that you can only copy 5-10% or 1 chapter from a book, and another one is the copyright rules for music.....In order to be able to use music in your classroom, you need to get permission from the artists, recording label, lyricists, and composers.

When I finished my PhD thesis, I put it online immediately, and for the accompanying online thesis writing course, I got a Creative Commons license thanks to the guidance of our dear friend Steve.

"Creative Commons license is one of several copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. The licenses differ by several combinations that condition the terms of distribution. They were initially released on December 16, 2002 by Creative Commons, a U.S. non-profit corporation founded in 2001" (http://en.wikipediajavascript:void(0).org/wiki/Creative_Commons_licenses).

Module 5: Searching

Unfortunately, I can only log onto this course at the weekends due to my thousands of responsibilities during the working week. I really feel upset and anxious about this when I see that my friends are ahead of me as some of them find time to log in during the week. Anyway.....

Yes, this was another useful module..... I became aware of and familiar with searching tips I was not aware of and was not using before..... Wildcards, using quotation marks for exact words and phrases, cutting down on redundancies, limiting your search to time periods, and many more.....

Also, I did not use any other search engines other than Google. I am sure I'll be using these 3 a lot (www.ask.com, www.dogpile.com, www.metacrawler.com) as two of them are meta-search engines that search multiple-search engines.

The most useful part have been evaluating the validity and reliability of websites while searching section. I will be using these 6 questions when I am searching for something and when my students are searching for something on the Internet:

1. Who has written the website?

2. Why has the author written this?

3. What is it about? Is it factual?

4. Where does the information come from? Do the links provided go out to other websites?

5. When was the site last updated?

6. How good is the information?

And I'll be reminding myself as well as my students and my friends that we should validate and check a website, and should not believe everything we see on the Internet, and ask some key questions before we decide that the website and the information is reliable.

Module 4: Integrating the Web

This module has been the most challenging so far as it required the most time and effort. However, I believe it has been the most thought-inspiring.

It is important to remember that integrating the web into the syllabus or into the lesson requires careful planning, and should not be done for the sake of it. Deciding what the web will serve in the lesson is the first step to take, and then the second step is in what stage of the lesson it will be used, how, etc. Letting the students browse the Internet to come up with a suitable site may be time-consuming. Therefore, if the aim of the lesson is not browsing the net, the teacher should make sure that the websites to be used are determined so that no time is wasted.

Websites may bring authenticity, variety, and fun into the lesson. They can be exploited for many different purposes with careful planning.

The website that our students use extensively in their everyday lives is undoubtedly Facebook. I have got colleagues who say they are using Facebook for educational purposes, yet if what they mean is connecting with students through Facebook and communicating with them, I do not believe that this can be considered 'educational'.

I am looking forward to finding out how Facebook can be used for genuine educational purposes on this course. ---- Hopefully :))))

Module 3: Evaluating and selecting websites

Sometimes, the knowledge that you take for granted suddenly becomes questionable for yourself. I thought that I knew a lot about websites, choosing the best website for my students. However, I found that I am learning much more than I thought I would on this course.

The five criteria, namely 1. Accuracy and acceptance 2.Authority and coverage 3.Audience and relevance 4. Educational focus and 5. Ease of use will help me a lot when I decide to use the web in class. Especially considering the educational focus, I realise, is something we need to be extremely careful about. Appealing to different learning styles, and to different senses, being linked to a reputable and accredited examination body are all important considerations. Moreover, we need to think about the purpose for using a website before we even start looking at different websites, and evaluating them keeping in mind our purpose and the 5 very important criteria introduced in this module.

In addition, the publisher of the website being reputable and trusted, ease of use, content being relevant, the references being reliable, the speed of downloading different pages will all play an important role in how I choose websites.

Modules 1 and 2

In spite of using Moodle, Youtube, TED talks, etc in my teaching for quite a bit of time, I feel that I will be benefiting from this course a lot. It is always very useful to refresh and polish knowledge on a topic, as it leads to a deeper and better understanding of it.

In 'Getting Started', I benefited the most from 'Netiquette', the rules for communicating in the virtual world..... I believe that learning these rules should be compulsory for everyone before they are allowed to enter the virtual world. Some emails are so out of focus that you read a long email and start wondering what the message was....Or sometimes the discourse, the tone is so inappropriate....

In the 'introduction to learning technologies' module, again I read about things many of which I already use.... Can we perceive doing a conference presentation without the aid of a powerpoint where you can use images, figures, symbols, and key words to make your message clear? On the other hand, I learned things I did not know about..... I think I'll be using Teachertube and Vimeo extensively; they are already added to my favourites on my laptop.

All in all, I am happy that I decided to be a participant on this course in spite of my very busy schedule, and very hectic lifestyle.