talk by Jennifer Verschoor at http://connect.pi.ac.ae/p57572846/
I have attended Jennifer’s PPT
and I can say it has been very fruitful. During her talk, she showed us the way
she uses technology to teach English, she mentioned that she teaches both
technology and English to do this she uses blended teaching in order to foster learner’s autonomy, through
technology she opens the classroom to the world.
She quoted Michael Kapor “Getting
information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant “and
used a similar picture to this.
I would like to include a picture which shows how I sometimes
feel while doing this course.
This picture clearly depicts my feelings when I come
across all the information we are provided. But then, as I sit in front of the
PC to process the information I can see it is not like that. I have to select
what I consider is going to help me in my classes. (this, was also mentioned by
Jennifer).
(While googling these pictures I came across this
article: Information
Overflow, though it has to do with Marketing , I believe in some way can be
applied to teaching.)
Going back to her talk:
She showed different tools she uses in her lessons:
- · Glogster
- · Voki
- · Animoto
- · Voicethread
- · Mixbook
Jennifer also mentioned some of the characteristics of
Digital Natives
- · Graphics come first –> they need to see, everything should be through images.
- · Multi- taskers -> they can do different things at the same time.
- · Instant Feedback -> they want everything straightaway.
She explained why she created a blog for her daughter and
she also showed us the wiki
she has for her students. Through these two examples she told us about the
way learners work, learn and play on their own blogs/wikis. She has noticed a change in classroom
management, as students are constantly asking questions.
I’d like to finish this, by including
two quotes she used In her PPT :
“Don’t try to innovate for the
future, innovate for the present” by Peter Drucker.
“If you are not failing every now and
again, it is a sign you are not doing anything innovative” by Woody Allen.
All in all, If I take into account Woody Allen's quote I can say I am doing something innovative.
NICE post, and it was great to see you at Jen's presentation. Did I mention the address of the recording to this group? It's http://connect.pi.ac.ae/p57572846/
ReplyDeleteMany people fail to realize that Internet is media. Information overload exists in all media: radio, tv, newspapers, magazines; yet we rarely feel anxious thinking about what radio shows we are missing right now because there's just not time to listen to them all, or think at a newsstand, how am I going to read all that??
Also like any media, if it's important it will come your way eventually as long as you tune into one or two channels occasionally.
If you watch news or documentaries on TV or glance at a newspaper, you're likely to find something there that will benefit you. If you are hungry you might satisfy your hunger by catching a fish. But you don't think about all the fish you didn't catch.
So don't worry about what you're missing by not constantly keeping up and current. Rejoice in what little bit you GAIN each time you tune in to the channels you follow. Those who give up and don't tune in because there's so much, and it's just TOO confusing, will soon fall behind YOU :-)
Hi Maria,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review of Jennifer's talk. Very helpful to have the links here.
-Patrick
Thanks Vance for your comments. I think you've made a point when talking about all the information we get form all media, I hadn't thought about it.I think that sometimes I waste my time trying to get things, which in the long run, won't be useful. I have to concentrate on things which will be useful for me. Thanks once more for your comment, really comforting.
ReplyDeletehi Patrick, glad you found my post useful. I just concentrated on the issues which I consider to be relevant for my teaching environment.
ReplyDelete