Overview of the Course

The Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web courses are designed to:

Model innovative online teaching practices for ELTs.
Improve understanding of and actively engage in the analysis and systematic adoption of innovative materials and tools for ELT.
Offer opportunities for EFL educators to observe and analyze real-world application of such new materials and practices.
Provide ELTs with support and problem-solving mechanisms as they implement new materials and practices in their teaching.
Act as a train-the-trainers model so that participating ELTs can move forward after the course with concrete dissemination plans.

Learning Objectives

Participants in the course will develop a formal plan for incorporating technology into their teaching or class preparation in at least one new way and share their ideas with the group.

Participants in the course will practice with search tools, skill-building websites, project-based learning, and online teacher resources, then explain how they could use or adapt these for their own purposes.

Participants in the course will learn about writing behavior-based learning objectives, learning styles, learner autonomy, teaching large classes, the one-computer classroom, and a variety of assessment techniques, then explain how they could apply or adapt these concepts to meet their own needs.

Expectations

Participants in the course will read at least one of the assigned readings, think about how the readings apply to their own situation, and share their reflections with the group (and mentioning some of the ideas of others in their posting, as appropriate) at least once per week.

Respect, mutual help, and enthusiasm for learning will be cornerstones of all interactions, whether teacher-participant or participant-participant. Each week, ELT participants will complete the following activities and tasks. All materials and tools will be freely available at no cost to participants.

Beginning Week 1: Readings on language teaching methods (pedagogy) and practices; active experimentation with and reflection on the use of e-learning tools (e.g. email, asynchronous discussions, course management systems, etc.); weekly tasks related to the readings and tools.
Beginning Week 2: Weekly post on a personal blog, sharing what you did, what you learned, and how you will apply the information in your teaching. This will form the basis for the final project that will be due at the end of the course.
Beginning Week 3: Work toward a final project.
All Weeks: Analytical and reflective discussions and tasks related to the above.
All Weeks: Work in step-by-step with UO AEI instructor guidance to implement teaching projects in your workplace.

Assessment

Grading will be based on the following:

Discussions: 10 points per week (up to 5 points for each of 2 posts) - 20% overall
Blog posts: 5 points per week (8 points for your blog + 2 points for comments on another person's blog) - 20% overall
Tasks: 5 points per task - 20% overall
Project Tasks: 10 points per task - 20% overall
Project Report: 50 points - 20% overall

To pass the course, you need to participate in at least 70% of the discussions, post on your blog at least 70% of the time, and complete the project report with a score of at least 70%.

Weekly Topics

Following is a week-by-week list of assignments. This schedule is subject to change, based on course discussions and the interests of class participants.

Week 1- Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6 - Week 7 - Week 8 - Week 9 - Week 10

Week 1 (June 21-27): Introductions; creating an Academic Blog

Learning Objectives for This Week

Participants will log into Nicenet and share information about themselves with each other, starting to create a learning community.
Participants will collaborate in setting ground rules for discussions and rubrics for self-evaluating discussion board posts.
Participants will fill out a needs analysis survey to help ensure that the course topics are appropriate.
Task: Participants will create a blog on www.blogger.com using the instructions in Blogger how-to and share the URL with the group.
Having created a blog on Blogger, participants will write about what they have done and what they learned in the course so far In at least one published post on their blog.

Readings	Weekly Assignments
Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions. Ground rules for discussions (Word document) Online discussions - comparing rubrics (PDF file) Needs analysis - please check your email for the link. Blogs Blogger how-to (PDF to download) Blogging for ELT http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/blogging-elt Guidelines for Discussion and Rubrics - download and print this document to use as a reference when you post on Nicenet. Additional Resources: Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes - an introduction to blogs and what you can do with them http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html Sample blogs Teaching ESL to Adults (simplest): http://www.esl-tutor.com/ ESL Class Blog (simple:) http://dvmunca.blogspot.com/ Creating Online Content - Larry Ferlazzo's blog (advanced): http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/02/09/the-best-ways-for-students-and-anyone-else-to-create-online-content-easily-quickly-painlessly/ Deborah's reflective blog http://deborah-teachingonline.blogspot.com/ Sample blogs from Fall term's participants on the Blog page for this course Assessment Guides and Rubrics for Language Classes: Rubrics Resources	Discussion After reading the assigned material, go to Nicenet, log in, and participate in this week's topics. Participants registered for this course should have information about logging into Nicenet from your email. If you are registered and do not have Nicenet login information, let Deborah know. Read about Blogging for ELT and look at some sample blogs. How could you use a blog? What elements do you think you could use in a class blog? Share your comments on Nicenet. Make sure you read and reference other people's ideas as well. Download and refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. Task Blogging - create a blog on Blogger. Create your own blog at www.blogger.com, following the instructions on the handout. For your first blog post, describe what you learned while creating the blog and your reflection on using a blog for class. You need to post at least once on your blog each week, describing what you think about the things you are learning in the course. This will be your weekly report. See more information on the Blog Page. Please share the URL for your blog with the group on Nicenet so we can all learn from each other! Feel free to share your thoughts about creating your blog on Nicenet, as well.

Readings

Weekly Assignments

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.

Ground rules for discussions (Word document)
Online discussions - comparing rubrics (PDF file)
Needs analysis - please check your email for the link.
Blogs Blogger how-to (PDF to download)
Blogging for ELT http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/blogging-elt
Guidelines for Discussion and Rubrics - download and print this document to use as a reference when you post on Nicenet.

Additional Resources:

Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes - an introduction to blogs and what you can do with them
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html

Sample blogs
Teaching ESL to Adults (simplest): http://www.esl-tutor.com/
ESL Class Blog (simple:) http://dvmunca.blogspot.com/
Creating Online Content - Larry Ferlazzo's blog (advanced): http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/02/09/the-best-ways-for-students-and-anyone-else-to-create-online-content-easily-quickly-painlessly/
Deborah's reflective blog
http://deborah-teachingonline.blogspot.com/
Sample blogs from Fall term's participants on the Blog page for this course
Assessment Guides and Rubrics for Language Classes: Rubrics Resources

Discussion

After reading the assigned material, go to Nicenet, log in, and participate in this week's topics.

Participants registered for this course should have information about logging into Nicenet from your email. If you are registered and do not have Nicenet login information, let Deborah know.

Read about Blogging for ELT and look at some sample blogs. How could you use a blog? What elements do you think you could use in a class blog? Share your comments on Nicenet. Make sure you read and reference other people's ideas as well.

Download and refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts.

Task

Blogging - create a blog on Blogger.

Create your own blog at www.blogger.com, following the instructions on the handout. For your first blog post, describe what you learned while creating the blog and your reflection on using a blog for class.

You need to post at least once on your blog each week, describing what you think about the things you are learning in the course. This will be your weekly report. See more information on the Blog Page.

Please share the URL for your blog with the group on Nicenet so we can all learn from each other! Feel free to share your thoughts about creating your blog on Nicenet, as well.

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Week 2 (June 28 - July 4): The ABCD Learning Objectives Framework and Effective Web Searches

Learning Objectives for This Week

Discussion - web searching: After reviewing different search engines, participants in this course will analyze the search engines in terms of use in their own classes and share their advantages and disadvantages in at least two posts on Nicenet that include the web page (with URL), the search term, and their recommendation about the search engine.
Task - ABCD model for behavioral objectives: After reading about the ABCD model, participants will share a behavioral objective for a class they teach, using the ABCD model, in at least one post on Nicenet.
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree). This is an objective each week.
Project Task 1
Participants in this course (Audience) will analyze the students in one course (Condition) and describe them (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet (Degree).

NOTE: July 4 and 5 are a US holiday, so teacher responses may be delayed.

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.	Weekly Assignments We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).
Learning Objectives For the rest of this course, we will be talking about and using behavioral learning objectives, following the ABCD model. Even if you are familiar with another model, please use this one so we are all speaking the same language, as it were. "How to Write Clear Objectives" from Pennsylvania State University's Teaching and Learning office gives the basic overview of the ABCD model that we will be using: http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/ An online slide show takes a look at using the ABCD model with achieving an information technology goal. You may find this very helpful as you plan your project for this course (adding a technology component to improve your teaching): http://www.slideshare.net/ashleytan/writing-specific-instructionallearning-objectives-presentation "Classifying Objectives" from the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee is a revised Bloom's Taxonomy. Make sure you think about writing learning objectives that address a range of skills on the hierarchy, as well as being observable. http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/classifications.html Web searching Google may not be the best choice for all searches. Take a look at www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html for some other options. Web searching tech tip-June 2009. This gives some basic but essential guidelines for creating better searches http://www.uoregon.edu/~dhealey/techtips/june2009.html Additional Resources: Web searching Twurdy ("Too Wordy") -this search engine reports readability, so you can choose how difficult a text to use with your students http://www.twurdy.com/search.php Digital Bloom's Taxonomy Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally http://www.techlearning.com/PrintableArticle.aspx?id=8670 Taxonomy for the digital domain (Word document)	Discussion: Web searching Look at Noodletools' Finding the Best Search for your Information Needs You can also look at the Web Searching Tech Tip for ideas about techniques for searching. Try some of the search engines or portals to see which ones work best for academic searches and for information for your class. Try something that is NOT Google, then post a comment in the appropriate discussion on Nicenet about 1) which search site you used, 2) what you searched for, and 3) whether or not you would recommend this search site. Please make sure you refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. If you see a red underline as you are typing in Nicenet, please check the spelling of that word. Task: ABCD Objective In one or more Nicenet posts, describe one of the classes that you teach (this can be the same class as in your Project Task or a different class). Please share a learning objective, done in the ABCD style (Audience-Behavior-Condition-Degree), for that class. This objective should be something you would share with students. Look carefully at your objective and the objectives that others share. Do they describe behavior that you expect from students? Would students understand the objective? How does your objective fit with those that others are describing? Project Task 1: Describe your class as it is now Think about a class that would benefit from making a technology-inspired change. This can be the same class that you described in the Weekly Task or a different class. In the appropriate discussion on Nicenet, describe your students and class setting. Make sure you discuss the technology you and your students have access to now, both in and outside of school. In later project tasks, you will talk about your plans - see the Project Page for more information about the overall project. Blog: Weekly Reflection You need to put at least one reflective post on your blog each week, describing what you did, what you learned,and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki. See more information on the Blog Page.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.

Weekly Assignments

We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).

Learning Objectives

For the rest of this course, we will be talking about and using behavioral learning objectives, following the ABCD model. Even if you are familiar with another model, please use this one so we are all speaking the same language, as it were.

"How to Write Clear Objectives" from Pennsylvania State University's Teaching and Learning office gives the basic overview of the ABCD model that we will be using:
http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingobjectives/
An online slide show takes a look at using the ABCD model with achieving an information technology goal. You may find this very helpful as you plan your project for this course (adding a technology component to improve your teaching): http://www.slideshare.net/ashleytan/writing-specific-instructionallearning-objectives-presentation
"Classifying Objectives" from the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee is a revised Bloom's Taxonomy. Make sure you think about writing learning objectives that address a range of skills on the hierarchy, as well as being observable.
http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/classifications.html

Web searching

Google may not be the best choice for all searches. Take a look at www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html for some other options.
Web searching tech tip-June 2009. This gives some basic but essential guidelines for creating better searches
http://www.uoregon.edu/~dhealey/techtips/june2009.html

Additional Resources:

Web searching

Twurdy ("Too Wordy") -this search engine reports readability, so you can choose how difficult a text to use with your students
http://www.twurdy.com/search.php

Digital Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally http://www.techlearning.com/PrintableArticle.aspx?id=8670
Taxonomy for the digital domain (Word document)

Discussion: Web searching

Look at Noodletools' Finding the Best Search for your Information Needs

You can also look at the Web Searching Tech Tip for ideas about techniques for searching. Try some of the search engines or portals to see which ones work best for academic searches and for information for your class.

Try something that is NOT Google, then post a comment in the appropriate discussion on Nicenet about
1) which search site you used,
2) what you searched for, and
3) whether or not you would recommend this search site.

Please make sure you refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. If you see a red underline as you are typing in Nicenet, please check the spelling of that word.

Task: ABCD Objective

In one or more Nicenet posts, describe one of the classes that you teach (this can be the same class as in your Project Task or a different class). Please share a learning objective, done in the ABCD style (Audience-Behavior-Condition-Degree), for that class. This objective should be something you would share with students.

Look carefully at your objective and the objectives that others share. Do they describe behavior that you expect from students? Would students understand the objective? How does your objective fit with those that others are describing?

Project Task 1: Describe your class as it is now

Think about a class that would benefit from making a technology-inspired change. This can be the same class that you described in the Weekly Task or a different class. In the appropriate discussion on Nicenet, describe your students and class setting. Make sure you discuss the technology you and your students have access to now, both in and outside of school. In later project tasks, you will talk about your plans - see the Project Page for more information about the overall project.

Blog: Weekly Reflection

You need to put at least one reflective post on your blog each week, describing what you did, what you learned,and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki.

See more information on the Blog Page.

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Week 3 (July 5-11): Skill-building Websites for Oral/Aural Skills and Saving Bookmarks with Delicious

Learning Objectives for This Week

Discussion: Using technology in teaching
After reading about using technology in teaching (Condition), participants in this course (Audience) will explain how they might use technology to improve their students' aural/oral skills (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet (Degree).
Discussion: Aural/oral skill-building websites
Participants in this course (Audience), after reviewing at least two different speaking, listening, and/or pronunciation web sites in terms of use in their classes (Condition), will share comments about the sites, including the target audience, skill(s) enhanced, and an overall recommendation (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet that includes the URL for the web pages (Degree).
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week related to aural/oral skill-building and Delicious and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).
Task: Using Delicious.com to store useful links
Participants in this course (Audience), after reading the instructions about using Delicious.com (Condition), will create and begin to use their own Delicious site, and share the URL of their site (Behavior) including at least three links with appropriate tags (category descriptions) (Degree).

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.	Weekly Assignments We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).
Task: Delicious.com Social Bookmarking Social bookmarking is a way to save your favorite web links online, share them with others, and have access to what others have saved and shared. Tags are how the links are organized, and how you find your own links when you have a lot of them. You can have many tags for any link. Using Delicious: Delicious is a way to save web links (Favorites/Bookmarks) and find them from any computer oh the Internet. It also lets you share links easily with others. Use this article to help you create your own Delicious page and start adding links. You can include links to other people's Delicious pages on your page, too. http://www.uoregon.edu/~dhealey/techtips/sept2009.html Teaching aural/oral skills - read at least two of the three articles here Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials (Word .doc file) http://www.elthillside.com/up/files/article4.doc New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation (right-click on the link to download it) http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/2850/1/bus%C3%A0.pdf The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills (right-click on the link to download it) www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/research/resources/student_res/postscriptfiles/vol3/vol3_1_gong1.pdf Speaking lesson plans (teacher resource) These are just a sampling of the many lesson plans available online. Look through them to see if there is something that fits your class and your students. Speaking lesson plans at One Stop English Conversation lesson plans at esl.about.com Communicative lesson plans at ESL-galaxy.com Websites to explore Just a few of the many possibilities. These are all designed for English language learning. Listening (student resource) Randall's Cyber Listening Lab: http://www.esl-lab.com/ This is one of the few websites that includes pre-, during, and post- activities. It's organized by topic and level. Students might be able to use this on their own at advanced levels, but beginners and intermediate students would do best with guidance. Listening RealEnglish video - advanced; multiple dialects. This is authentic speech by a variety of native and non-native speakers, so it's best for high intermediate and advanced students. A teacher could bring it into any class to demonstrate, however. http://www.real-english.com/reo/1/unit1.html Pronunciation Pronunciation links (student and teacher resources) http://www.uoregon.edu/~dhealey/138/pronlinks.html Pronunciation Tips from the BBC - exercises, videos, quizzes. This works best with teacher guidance. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ Speaking Best Sites to Practice Speaking English (Larry Ferlazzo) - high use of tech. The teacher should go through these to decide which ones are appropriate for his/her students. It is a teacher site, not a student site. http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/the-best-sites-to-practice-speaking-english/ Additional Resources: About social bookmarking - a blogger's view http://learnadoodledastic.blogspot.com/2007/12/discussion-of-strategies-for-managing.html Video - using Delicious (formerly known as del.icio.us) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1pOsYjCvE8 English, Baby! - audio, video, and chat for English language learners (designed for independent study, especially at high intermediate and advanced levels) http://www.englishbaby.com NPR podcasts - advanced; many different topics, and most have transcripts (not designed for ELT) http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php Pronunciation Thought groups (video) http://nadeen-grammar.blogspot.com/2009/04/thought-groups-part-1.html The Pedagogy-Technology Interface in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (academic article) http://lands.let.kun.nl/literature/neri.2002.3.pdf	Discussion: Aural/oral skill-building 1. Read one of the articles about CALL for listening, speaking, or pronunciation skills, and take a quick look at some of the lesson plans. Remember that technology can be used by the teacher in preparing as well as used with students in the class. Explain how technology could be helpful in improving your students' aural/oral skills. 2. Look at two or more of the skill-building websites with an eye to what would work for you in your class. Please share with the group a) which website you used, and which specific activity/web page. Please include the title of the page and the URL. b) what English level/age of students could best use this site, and what skills it enhances c) your overall recommendation about the site. Make sure you add the ones you like to your Delicious page! Do make sure you refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. If you see a red underline as you are typing in Nicenet, please check the spelling of that word. Task: Create a Delicious page Create your own page on Delicious.com and save at least 3 bookmarks. Share the URL of your page here with the group. It will look something like http://www.delicious.com/healeyd (that's my page). I will put the list of Delicious pages on our wiki as well. Blog: Weekly Reflection You need to put at least one reflective post on your blog each week, describing what you did, what you learned,and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki. See more information on the Blog Page.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.

Weekly Assignments

We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).

Task: Delicious.com Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a way to save your favorite web links online, share them with others, and have access to what others have saved and shared. Tags are how the links are organized, and how you find your own links when you have a lot of them. You can have many tags for any link.

Using Delicious: Delicious is a way to save web links (Favorites/Bookmarks) and find them from any computer oh the Internet. It also lets you share links easily with others. Use this article to help you create your own Delicious page and start adding links. You can include links to other people's Delicious pages on your page, too.
http://www.uoregon.edu/~dhealey/techtips/sept2009.html

Teaching aural/oral skills - read at least two of the three articles here

Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials (Word .doc file)
http://www.elthillside.com/up/files/article4.doc

New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation (right-click on the link to download it)
http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/2850/1/bus%C3%A0.pdf

The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills (right-click on the link to download it)
www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/research/resources/student_res/postscriptfiles/vol3/vol3_1_gong1.pdf

Speaking lesson plans (teacher resource)

These are just a sampling of the many lesson plans available online. Look through them to see if there is something that fits your class and your students.

Speaking lesson plans at One Stop English

Conversation lesson plans at esl.about.com

Communicative lesson plans at ESL-galaxy.com

Websites to explore

Just a few of the many possibilities. These are all designed for English language learning.

Listening (student resource)

Randall's Cyber Listening Lab: http://www.esl-lab.com/
This is one of the few websites that includes pre-, during, and post- activities. It's organized by topic and level. Students might be able to use this on their own at advanced levels, but beginners and intermediate students would do best with guidance.

Listening RealEnglish video - advanced; multiple dialects. This is authentic speech by a variety of native and non-native speakers, so it's best for high intermediate and advanced students. A teacher could bring it into any class to demonstrate, however.
http://www.real-english.com/reo/1/unit1.html

Pronunciation

Pronunciation links (student and teacher resources)
http://www.uoregon.edu/~dhealey/138/pronlinks.html

Pronunciation Tips from the BBC - exercises, videos, quizzes. This works best with teacher guidance.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/

Speaking

Best Sites to Practice Speaking English (Larry Ferlazzo) - high use of tech. The teacher should go through these to decide which ones are appropriate for his/her students. It is a teacher site, not a student site.
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/the-best-sites-to-practice-speaking-english/

Additional Resources:

About social bookmarking - a blogger's view
http://learnadoodledastic.blogspot.com/2007/12/discussion-of-strategies-for-managing.html
Video - using Delicious (formerly known as del.icio.us)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1pOsYjCvE8
English, Baby! - audio, video, and chat for English language learners (designed for independent study, especially at high intermediate and advanced levels)
http://www.englishbaby.com
NPR podcasts - advanced; many different topics, and most have transcripts (not designed for ELT)
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
Pronunciation Thought groups (video)
http://nadeen-grammar.blogspot.com/2009/04/thought-groups-part-1.html
The Pedagogy-Technology Interface in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (academic article)
http://lands.let.kun.nl/literature/neri.2002.3.pdf

Discussion: Aural/oral skill-building

1. Read one of the articles about CALL for listening, speaking, or pronunciation skills, and take a quick look at some of the lesson plans. Remember that technology can be used by the teacher in preparing as well as used with students in the class. Explain how technology could be helpful in improving your students' aural/oral skills.

2. Look at two or more of the skill-building websites with an eye to what would work for you in your class. Please share with the group

a) which website you used, and which specific activity/web page. Please include the title of the page and the URL.

b) what English level/age of students could best use this site, and what skills it enhances

c) your overall recommendation about the site.

Make sure you add the ones you like to your Delicious page!

Do make sure you refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. If you see a red underline as you are typing in Nicenet, please check the spelling of that word.

Task: Create a Delicious page

Create your own page on Delicious.com and save at least 3 bookmarks. Share the URL of your page here with the group. It will look something like
http://www.delicious.com/healeyd
(that's my page). I will put the list of Delicious pages on our wiki as well.

Blog: Weekly Reflection

See more information on the Blog Page.

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Week 4 (July 12 - 18): Skill-building Websites for Reading/Writing Skills and Technology-enhanced Lesson Plans

Learning Objectives for This Week

Discussion: Reading/writing skill-building websites
Participants in this course (Audience), after reviewing at least two different reading and/or writing web sites in terms of use in their classes (Condition), will share comments about the sites, including the target audience, skill(s) enhanced, and an overall recommendation (Behavior) in at least two posts on Nicenet that include the URL for the web pages (Degree).
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week related to reading/writing skill building and technology-enhanced lesson plans and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).
Task: Preparing a technology-enhanced lesson plan
After reading about technology-enhanced lesson plans (Condition), participants (Audience) will create a technology-enhanced lesson plan and explain how it is similar to or different from the regular lesson plan format that they use (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet (Degree).
Project Task 2
Participants in this course (Audience) will reflect on at least one course (Condition) and describe the issues that technology might be able to help with (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet (Degree).

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.	Weekly Assignments We have four this week: a discussion, a task, Project Task 2, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).
Technology-enhanced lesson plans We all use lesson plans of one sort or another - including ones just in our head. With technology, it's important to plan ahead and to have all the resources needed on hand for a successful class. "Lesson plans" from the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee: http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/lesson_plan.html Lesson Plan with Technology Template (Word .doc file) Articles about using CALL in writing and reading activities Just a sampling of the many ways that technology can enhance reading and writing. Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction (2000) http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html A nice overview of ways to use CALL in writing. Some of the links may not work. Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books (2004) http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html This includes links to sources for e-books. Some of the links may not work. Websites to explore Reading/vocabulary Just to get you started... Breaking News English http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ This also has some listening activities. It provides a full series (11 pages) of activities to use offline, including pre- and post- activities, pair and group work, vocabulary building, and more. Multi-skill websites These are some of the better multi-skill websites. There are many more. I've tried to choose ones that have fewer ads and that don't require registration. The teacher should select among these and recommend specific activities to students, not just tell students to explore. Lauri's ESL Website - grammar, vocabulary, listening exercises. The Flash ones are especially interesting. http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/ ESL Independent Study Lab - Michael Krauss http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html Activities for Students (be selective about what you choose) http://a4esl.org/ Many Interesting Things for ESL Students http://www.manythings.org/ Additional Resources: E-mailing to Improve EFL Learners' Reading and Writing Abilities: Taiwan Experience (1999) http://iteslj.org/Articles/Liao-Emailing.html Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension (2007) http://iteslj.org/Articles/Constantinescu-Vocabulary.html	Discussion: Reading/writing skill-building Read some of the articles about ways to use computers to enhance ways to teach reading and writing. We have several multi-skill websites on our list this week. Find two or more specific web pages that would work for you in your class. Include the specific web address (URL) of the page, the title of the page, the target students, why you think it will work, and why you think it will be useful. What is an ABCD objective that you could create to go with this page? Make sure you save good sites on your Delicious.com page! Optional discussion: Lesson planning Read about lesson plans from the University of Tennessee. You may also have a lesson plan format that you have used before. Download the lesson plan template with technology from the class website. How is a technology-enhanced lesson plan, such as one using the lesson plan template, similar to or different from a regular lesson plan? What more do you need to think about when you use technology? Do refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. If you see a red underline as you are typing in Nicenet, please check the spelling of that word. Task: Create a technology-enhanced lesson plan Read about lesson plans from the University of Tennessee. Please share with the group a technology-enhanced lesson plan, using the template that you downloaded from the website. Make sure that it is clear who the target students are and the skills being addressed. Project Task 2: Describe some issues Thinking about the class and students that you described in Week 2, now write about some issues that technology might help with. Briefly describe the class and students so that readers will have the necessary context. The issues could be student-oriented ones related to motivation, group work, class discussions, etc. or teacher-related issues such as finding and organizing material, tracking student progress, etc. This should be leading to a NEW use of technology for you, not something that you are doing now. You don't need to think about solutions this week, just about issues. Blog: Weekly Reflection Add a reflective post on your blog, describing what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki. See more information on the Blog Page.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.

Weekly Assignments

We have four this week: a discussion, a task, Project Task 2, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).

Technology-enhanced lesson plans

We all use lesson plans of one sort or another - including ones just in our head. With technology, it's important to plan ahead and to have all the resources needed on hand for a successful class.

"Lesson plans" from the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee:
http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~bobannon/lesson_plan.html
Lesson Plan with Technology Template (Word .doc file)

Articles about using CALL in writing and reading activities

Just a sampling of the many ways that technology can enhance reading and writing.

Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction (2000)
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html
A nice overview of ways to use CALL in writing. Some of the links may not work.
Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books (2004)
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html
This includes links to sources for e-books. Some of the links may not work.

Websites to explore

Reading/vocabulary

Just to get you started...

Breaking News English
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
This also has some listening activities. It provides a full series (11 pages) of activities to use offline, including pre- and post- activities, pair and group work, vocabulary building, and more.

Multi-skill websites

These are some of the better multi-skill websites. There are many more. I've tried to choose ones that have fewer ads and that don't require registration. The teacher should select among these and recommend specific activities to students, not just tell students to explore.

Lauri's ESL Website - grammar, vocabulary, listening exercises. The Flash ones are especially interesting.
http://fog.ccsf.edu/~lfried/
ESL Independent Study Lab - Michael Krauss
http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html
Activities for Students (be selective about what you choose)
http://a4esl.org/
Many Interesting Things for ESL Students
http://www.manythings.org/

Additional Resources:

E-mailing to Improve EFL Learners' Reading and Writing Abilities: Taiwan Experience (1999)
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Liao-Emailing.html
Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension (2007)
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Constantinescu-Vocabulary.html

Discussion: Reading/writing skill-building

Read some of the articles about ways to use computers to enhance ways to teach reading and writing. We have several multi-skill websites on our list this week. Find two or more specific web pages that would work for you in your class. Include the specific web address (URL) of the page, the title of the page, the target students, why you think it will work, and why you think it will be useful. What is an ABCD objective that you could create to go with this page?

Make sure you save good sites on your Delicious.com page!

Optional discussion: Lesson planning
Read about lesson plans from the University of Tennessee. You may also have a lesson plan format that you have used before. Download the lesson plan template with technology from the class website. How is a technology-enhanced lesson plan, such as one using the lesson plan template, similar to or different from a regular lesson plan? What more do you need to think about when you use technology?

Do refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. If you see a red underline as you are typing in Nicenet, please check the spelling of that word.

Task: Create a technology-enhanced lesson plan

Read about lesson plans from the University of Tennessee. Please share with the group a technology-enhanced lesson plan, using the template that you downloaded from the website. Make sure that it is clear who the target students are and the skills being addressed.

Project Task 2: Describe some issues

Thinking about the class and students that you described in Week 2, now write about some issues that technology might help with. Briefly describe the class and students so that readers will have the necessary context. The issues could be student-oriented ones related to motivation, group work, class discussions, etc. or teacher-related issues such as finding and organizing material, tracking student progress, etc. This should be leading to a NEW use of technology for you, not something that you are doing now. You don't need to think about solutions this week, just about issues.

Blog: Weekly Reflection

Add a reflective post on your blog, describing what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki.

See more information on the Blog Page.

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Week 5 (July 19 - 25): Project-based Learning, WebQuests, and rubrics

Learning Objectives for This Week

Discussion: Project-based learning and WebQuests
After reading about project-based learning (PBL)and WebQuests (Condition), participants (Audience) will describe how PBL could affect student motivation and behavior in class (Behavior) in at least two posts on Nicenet and comment on it in their blog (Degree).
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week related to PBL and WebQuests and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).
Task: Rubrics
After reading about rubrics (Condition), participants in this course (Audience) will share a rubric for a lesson (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet - or on the course wiki - and comment on it in their blog (Degree).
Extra credit task: Project-based learning and WebQuests
After reading about project-based learning (PBL) and WebQuests and viewing some examples (Condition), participants in this course (Audience) can share a project-based learning lesson plan or the outline of a WebQuest for one or more of their classes, including why the students will benefit - students work can be in class or outside of class (Behavior) - in at least one post on Nicenet and comment on it in their blog (Degree).
Project Task 3
Participants in this course (Audience) will consider the issues and possible technology tools (Condition) and describe a technology-related change that they will implement to address one or more of the issues (Behavior). This should be something that they did not do in their classes before taking this course (Degree).

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.	Weekly Assignments We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).
Project-based Learning (PBL) Project-based learning is an approach to teaching. Generally in PBL, learners are given instructions and resources (scaffolding), then they work in groups create a project. This is similar to problem-based learning, where learners work to come up with a solution to a specific, usually real-world, problem. If the task is authentic and the audience is broad, this is especially effective. Focus on Basics: Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer gives some background information about project-based learning: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385 The "Student Projects Sampler," also by Susan Gaer, provides a number of examples of webquest-style project-based learning: http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/ WebQuests WebQuests are a form of PBL that follows a fairly specific pattern. The teacher creates the task statement and designates the resources (learners do not "just search"). Learners work in groups and have a specified product. The teacher produces an evaluation in the form of a rubric for students to use as they are doing their project and for self-evaluation when it is finished. The teacher evaluates with the rubric as well. About WebQuests - a brief introduction. This also explains non-web WebQuests that you can use offline. http://www.zunal.com/ WebQuest Page - the original. Read the background information (http://www.webquest.org/index-resources.php). You can also find video resources describing what a webquest is and how to create on on that page. Search for examples that fit what you do at http://www.webquest.org/search/index.php Rubrics Rubrics are a wonderful way to clarify expectations for holistic grading, such as for writing or speaking. The rubric becomes a kind of contract between the teacher and the learners, so that learners know that if they do the things associated with "excellent" in the rubric, they will get an "excellent" mark. Students are more motivated, and assessment is easier. Students must get the rubrics when they begin the task. Rubrics and PBL assessment tools - web project rubrics and more: http://www.globalschoolnet.org/Web/pbl/plan/assres.htm Recommended Internet tool for creating rubrics: RubiStar. Sign in to save your rubrics.http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ Additional Resources A project-based learning activity about project-based learning - a good how-to, step-by-step approach: http://www.sun-associates.com/lynn/pbl/pbl.html Video- Introduction to PBL: http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning Project-Based ESL Education http://www.atesl.ca/cmsms/home/newsletters/december-2007/project-based-esl-education/ A framework for project-based learning, and a discussion of applying project-based learning in China Essential parts of a WebQuest http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub3.html This page includes some video clips of teachers talking about WebQuests (you can read transcripts if you can't see the video). You can continue to the Demonstration section, where you can view more videos of teachers who use WebQuests or read the transcripts. Rubric Tutorial http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/eta/Rubric_Tutorial/default.htm	Discussion: Project-based learning Read about project-based learning and WebQuests. Note that you can create a paper and pencil webquest, too. How could project-based learning (including WebQuests) help your students become more autonomous learners? How could it change the teacher-student relationship in a class in general? Do make sure you refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. If you see a red underline as you are typing in Nicenet, please check the spelling of that word. Task: Create a rubric Create a rubric or alternative assessment tool that you might use in a class. Include information about the class and students so that we can understand the context. Share your rubric on our wiki in the Participant Files area and tell people about it on Nicenet. Extra Credit Task: Create a technology-enhanced project or WebQuest After reading about project-based learning and WebQuests, think of a similar project or a WebQuest you might do with your class. (You can find PBL examples at http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/ and search for WebQuest examples at http://www.webquest.org/search/index.php). Create a WebQuest on Zunal or QuestGarden with all the elements, at least briefly sketched out for extra credit. This could even become something you expand for your Course Project. Share the URL for your WebQuest. Project Task 3: Describe a potential change Describe a technology-related change that you will implement to help with one or more of the issues you mentioned before. This should be something that you are not doing now. Respond to at least one other person's ideas with helpful suggestions. Blog: Weekly Reflection Please create one reflective post on your blog each week, describing what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki. See more information on the Blog Page.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.

Weekly Assignments

We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).

Project-based Learning (PBL)

Project-based learning is an approach to teaching. Generally in PBL, learners are given instructions and resources (scaffolding), then they work in groups create a project. This is similar to problem-based learning, where learners work to come up with a solution to a specific, usually real-world, problem. If the task is authentic and the audience is broad, this is especially effective.

Focus on Basics: Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer gives some background information about project-based learning:
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385
The "Student Projects Sampler," also by Susan Gaer, provides a number of examples of webquest-style project-based learning:
http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/

WebQuests

WebQuests are a form of PBL that follows a fairly specific pattern. The teacher creates the task statement and designates the resources (learners do not "just search"). Learners work in groups and have a specified product. The teacher produces an evaluation in the form of a rubric for students to use as they are doing their project and for self-evaluation when it is finished. The teacher evaluates with the rubric as well.

About WebQuests - a brief introduction. This also explains non-web WebQuests that you can use offline.
http://www.zunal.com/
WebQuest Page - the original. Read the background information (http://www.webquest.org/index-resources.php). You can also find video resources describing what a webquest is and how to create on on that page. Search for examples that fit what you do at http://www.webquest.org/search/index.php

Rubrics

Rubrics are a wonderful way to clarify expectations for holistic grading, such as for writing or speaking. The rubric becomes a kind of contract between the teacher and the learners, so that learners know that if they do the things associated with "excellent" in the rubric, they will get an "excellent" mark. Students are more motivated, and assessment is easier. Students must get the rubrics when they begin the task.

Rubrics and PBL assessment tools - web project rubrics and more:
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/Web/pbl/plan/assres.htm
Recommended Internet tool for creating rubrics: RubiStar. Sign in to save your rubrics.http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Additional Resources

A project-based learning activity about project-based learning - a good how-to, step-by-step approach:
http://www.sun-associates.com/lynn/pbl/pbl.html
Video- Introduction to PBL:
http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning
Project-Based ESL Education
http://www.atesl.ca/cmsms/home/newsletters/december-2007/project-based-esl-education/
A framework for project-based learning, and a discussion of applying project-based learning in China
Essential parts of a WebQuest
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub3.html
This page includes some video clips of teachers talking about WebQuests (you can read transcripts if you can't see the video). You can continue to the Demonstration section, where you can view more videos of teachers who use WebQuests or read the transcripts.
Rubric Tutorial
http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/eta/Rubric_Tutorial/default.htm

Discussion: Project-based learning

Read about project-based learning and WebQuests. Note that you can create a paper and pencil webquest, too. How could project-based learning (including WebQuests) help your students become more autonomous learners? How could it change the teacher-student relationship in a class in general?

Do make sure you refer to the Guidelines for Discussions and Rubrics in all of your Nicenet posts. If you see a red underline as you are typing in Nicenet, please check the spelling of that word.

Task: Create a rubric

Create a rubric or alternative assessment tool that you might use in a class. Include information about the class and students so that we can understand the context. Share your rubric on our wiki in the Participant Files area and tell people about it on Nicenet.

Extra Credit Task: Create a technology-enhanced project or WebQuest

After reading about project-based learning and WebQuests, think of a similar project or a WebQuest you might do with your class. (You can find PBL examples at http://susangaer.com/studentprojects/ and search for WebQuest examples at http://www.webquest.org/search/index.php). Create a WebQuest on Zunal or QuestGarden with all the elements, at least briefly sketched out for extra credit. This could even become something you expand for your Course Project. Share the URL for your WebQuest.

Project Task 3: Describe a potential change

Describe a technology-related change that you will implement to help with one or more of the issues you mentioned before. This should be something that you are not doing now. Respond to at least one other person's ideas with helpful suggestions.

Blog: Weekly Reflection

Please create one reflective post on your blog each week, describing what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki.

See more information on the Blog Page.

Return to top

Week 6 (July 21 - August 1): Creating Student-centered Classes and Interactive PowerPoint

Learning Objectives for This Week

Discussion: Technology tools for creating student-centered classes, including large classes
After reading about examples of different student-centered, interactive large classes (Condition), participants (Audience) will share ideas about what techniques might be useful in their own settings to create a student-centered environment (Behavior) in at least two posts on Nicenet and comment on it in their blog (Degree).
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week related to technology aids in large classes and/or interactive PowerPoint and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).
Task: Creating an INTERACTIVE PowerPoint document
After reading about ways to create active learning lessons while using PowerPoint and viewing some examples (Condition), participants in this course (Audience) will create and share an example of interactive use of PowerPoint (Behavior) on the course wiki and comment on it in their blog (Degree).
Project Task 4
Participants who are teaching this summer (Audience) will use the information in Project Task 3 (Condition) to begin to implement a technology-related change in their classes, keeping a log to record what was done and what happened (Behavior), and describe what they are doing in at least one post in their blog (Degree).
Participants who are not teaching this summer (Audience) will use the information in Project Task 3 (Condition) and continue to refine their project plans, adding more details about at least one of the changes. The details can be resources that they plan to use, or references for their planned change, rubrics/other planned assessments, or follow-up activities (Behavior). They should describe their plans in at least one post in their blog (Degree).

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.	Weekly Assignments We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet or the wiki, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).
Engaging Students - Technology Aids (read at least 2) Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes from the University of Oregon's Teaching Effectiveness Program - especially note the section on enriching discussions with technology Teaching Large Classes: Engaging students in large classes - take a look especially at the technology section Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students, from Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw - these techniques are forms of alternative assessment. Think about how you could add a ConcepTest or QuickWrite to a PowerPoint show (PDF document). Interactive PowerPoint (read at least 2) Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint - from the UO's Teaching Effectiveness Program (PDF file) You Can Create Interactive PowerPoint Presentations (Word file) Interactive PowerPoint - sample with interactive elements. Make sure you look at this in edit mode so that you can see the notes associated with the screens (PPT file + Word doc - download both into the same folder) Additional Resources Large Classes Interactive Lectures: A Summary of 36 Formats - brief descriptions of a variety of techniques to add spice and interactivity to a class. What could technology add? Teaching Strategies for Large English Classes - suggestions from China. Where else could technology have been used to help? (PDF file) How to Give Interactive Lectures. This has several links. Look at the Feedback link in particular for some ideas about involving students during the lecture. http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/howto.html This YouTube video shows the Think-Pair-Share and ConcepTests techniques in a lecture hall (physics content) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQra4baNwP8 Interactive PowerPoint Top 10 Slide Tips - basic information about making a better presentation http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html Advanced - creating PPT for students to use on their own Creating an Interactive PowerPoint Lesson for the Classroom YouTube video showing how to create interactive PowerPoint: Making a Jeopardy game Using PowerPoint to Make an Interactive Story http://www.microsoft.com/education/story.mspx	Discussion: Post at least once in each thread. Make sure that you refer substantively to what another participant has written at least one of your posts and add value to the discussion overall. 1. You can use many of the same techniques to do a better job of teaching small classes as well as large classes. Look at "Teaching Large Classes" and "Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes." Think about project-based learning, WebQuests, and some of the ideas in "Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students" to help in your response. What techniques and technology could you use to make your classes more interactive, and especially if you teach large classes? 2. PowerPoint is very commonly used in teaching, but it is rarely used interactively. Watching the screen is not interactivity. Read "Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint" from the UO's Teaching Effectiveness Program to find ways to turn a lecture into an interactive experience for students. The sample PowerPoint may also help you in your response. What could you do in your classes with PowerPoint AND be more student-centered and interactive? (Think about what students can do with PowerPoint, for example.) Task: Create an INTERACTIVE PowerPoint show Create a short PowerPoint slide show that includes 1-3 interactive elements. These may include a ConcepTest, QuickWrite, hyperlinks/jumps to other sections of the PPT show based on student responses, blank slides to shift attention, etc. You could even try to make your own Jeopardy game or interactive story, using information from the optional readings. Describe what you did on Nicenet, and post your work on our wiki in the PowerPoint files section. Project Task 4: Begin to implement the change If you are teaching this summer, begin to implement your technology-related change this week.You do not need to post anything on Nicenet related to what you are doing, but it would be a good topic for your blog post this week. If you are not teaching this summer, continue to refine your project plans, adding more details about at least one of the changes. The details can be resources that you plan to use, references for the planned change, rubrics/other planned assessments, or follow-up activities. This would be a good topic for a blog post. Your draft report is due to your partner by Wednesday, August 11, and the final report is due by noon on Friday, August 20. Blog: Weekly Reflection Please create one reflective post on your blog each week, describing what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki. See more information on the Blog Page.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.

Weekly Assignments

We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet or the wiki, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).

Engaging Students - Technology Aids (read at least 2)

Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes from the University of Oregon's Teaching Effectiveness Program - especially note the section on enriching discussions with technology
Teaching Large Classes: Engaging students in large classes - take a look especially at the technology section
Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students, from Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw - these techniques are forms of alternative assessment. Think about how you could add a ConcepTest or QuickWrite to a PowerPoint show (PDF document).

Interactive PowerPoint (read at least 2)

Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint - from the UO's Teaching Effectiveness Program (PDF file)
You Can Create Interactive PowerPoint Presentations (Word file)
Interactive PowerPoint - sample with interactive elements. Make sure you look at this in edit mode so that you can see the notes associated with the screens (PPT file + Word doc - download both into the same folder)

Additional Resources

Large Classes

Interactive Lectures: A Summary of 36 Formats - brief descriptions of a variety of techniques to add spice and interactivity to a class. What could technology add?
Teaching Strategies for Large English Classes - suggestions from China. Where else could technology have been used to help? (PDF file)
How to Give Interactive Lectures. This has several links. Look at the Feedback link in particular for some ideas about involving students during the lecture. http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/howto.html
This YouTube video shows the Think-Pair-Share and ConcepTests techniques in a lecture hall (physics content) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQra4baNwP8

Interactive PowerPoint

Top 10 Slide Tips - basic information about making a better presentation http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html

Advanced - creating PPT for students to use on their own
Creating an Interactive PowerPoint Lesson for the Classroom
YouTube video showing how to create interactive PowerPoint: Making a Jeopardy game
Using PowerPoint to Make an Interactive Story http://www.microsoft.com/education/story.mspx

Discussion:

Post at least once in each thread. Make sure that you refer substantively to what another participant has written at least one of your posts and add value to the discussion overall.

1. You can use many of the same techniques to do a better job of teaching small classes as well as large classes. Look at "Teaching Large Classes" and "Using Technology in Teaching Large Classes." Think about project-based learning, WebQuests, and some of the ideas in "Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students" to help in your response. What techniques and technology could you use to make your classes more interactive, and especially if you teach large classes?

2. PowerPoint is very commonly used in teaching, but it is rarely used interactively. Watching the screen is not interactivity. Read "Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint" from the UO's Teaching Effectiveness Program to find ways to turn a lecture into an interactive experience for students. The sample PowerPoint may also help you in your response. What could you do in your classes with PowerPoint AND be more student-centered and interactive? (Think about what students can do with PowerPoint, for example.)

Task: Create an INTERACTIVE PowerPoint show

Create a short PowerPoint slide show that includes 1-3 interactive elements. These may include a ConcepTest, QuickWrite, hyperlinks/jumps to other sections of the PPT show based on student responses, blank slides to shift attention, etc. You could even try to make your own Jeopardy game or interactive story, using information from the optional readings. Describe what you did on Nicenet, and post your work on our wiki in the PowerPoint files section.

Project Task 4: Begin to implement the change

If you are teaching this summer, begin to implement your technology-related change this week.You do not need to post anything on Nicenet related to what you are doing, but it would be a good topic for your blog post this week.

If you are not teaching this summer, continue to refine your project plans, adding more details about at least one of the changes. The details can be resources that you plan to use, references for the planned change, rubrics/other planned assessments, or follow-up activities. This would be a good topic for a blog post.

Your draft report is due to your partner by Wednesday, August 11, and the final report is due by noon on Friday, August 20.

Blog: Weekly Reflection

See more information on the Blog Page.

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Week 7 (August 2-8): Learner Autonomy and the One-computer Classroom

Learning Objectives for This Week

Discussion: Learner autonomy
After reading about learner autonomy and reflecting on what they do in their own classes (Condition), participants (Audience) will share specific ideas about what they currently do and what else they could do to encourage greater learner autonomy in their classes (Behavior) in at least two posts on Nicenet and possibly in a lesson plan (Degree).
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week related to learner autonomy and/or the one-computer classroom \and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).
Task: After reading about the one-computer classroom (Condition), participants in this course (Audience) will create a lesson plan for a one-computer classroom (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet that includes behavioral objectives (Degree).

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions. Please post at least once in both topic forums and in the Task forum.	Weekly Assignments We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).
Learner autonomy What Is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? by Dimitrios Thanasoulas looks at an essential component of a self-access center: a self-directed learner. http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush? Samuel Sheu looks at the difficulties in encouraging learner autonomy in Taiwan's highly constrained educational system http://coyote.miyazaki-mu.ac.jp/learnerdev/LLE/8.1/sheuE.html One-computer classroom ESL Activities for the One Computer Classroom (S.Gaer): Word-Processing Ideas: http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/wordprocessing.html Internet ideas: http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/internet.html Strategies and applications for the one-computer classroom http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm A list of ideas with a US school focus, but most ideas are relevant to any setting. Additional Resources Interconnections: Learner Autonomy Teacher Autonomy http://coyote.miyazaki-mu.ac.jp/learnerdev/LLE/8.1/smithE.html 25 Ways to Integrate the Internet - some very good ideas to think about, with links to resources http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?tour_id=13326 101 Activities for the One-Computer Classroom - lots of links to look through http://www2.drury.edu/dswadley/101/ Microsoft Word and PowerPoint in the Classroom - some hints for more effective use of these applications, with Insert Comments, Track Changes, AutoSummarize, templates and clip art. http://www.deborahhealey.com/techtips/may2009.html Creating a Computer Lab/Learning Center - some suggestions for getting started. You can start small with a teacher resource room and go from there. http://www.eltexpert.com/complab/index.html Self-access: A Framework for Diversity by Michael Rodden and Michelle Parrington gives some reasons for setting up a self access center, as well as some tips for saving money while creating your self-access center. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/self-access-a-framework-diversity	Discussions: Read about learner autonomy (Thanasoulas, Sheu, Interconnections). Effective self-directed learning starts with learner autonomy. What could you do to encourage greater autonomy in students, with and without technology? Let's hear from those who are using one computer in their classes. What have you done, and how did it work? What have been the pluses and minuses? If you aren't using one computer in a class now, what ideas do you have after reading about it and hear ing the discussions? Task: Create a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom Most people don't have a computer lab all to themselves, and many do not have a lab in their school at all. A one-computer classroom is a way to start. Read about activities for the one-computer classroom and some strategies and applications. Create a sample activity for a one-computer classroom to share. Make sure you include who the students are, when in the lesson you're using the activity, the behavioral objective (ABCD format), and why technology will make the activity more effective. Project Task 5: Suggest a partner for peer review Continue to implement your technology-related change this week or to work on your project plan. You will need to have a partner for peer-review. Use this discussion thread to ask for a partner or suggest someone as a partner. Deborah will assign partners if you do not have a specific suggestion. Your draft report is due to your partner by Wednesday, August 11, and the final report is due by noon on Friday, August 20. Blog: Weekly Reflection Please create one reflective post on your blog each week, describing what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki. See more information on the Blog Page.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions. Please post at least once in both topic forums and in the Task forum.

Weekly Assignments

We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).

Learner autonomy

What Is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? by Dimitrios Thanasoulas looks at an essential component of a self-access center: a self-directed learner. http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html
Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush? Samuel Sheu looks at the difficulties in encouraging learner autonomy in Taiwan's highly constrained educational system http://coyote.miyazaki-mu.ac.jp/learnerdev/LLE/8.1/sheuE.html

One-computer classroom

ESL Activities for the One Computer Classroom (S.Gaer): Word-Processing Ideas: http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/wordprocessing.html
Internet ideas: http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/internet.html
Strategies and applications for the one-computer classroom http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm A list of ideas with a US school focus, but most ideas are relevant to any setting.

Additional Resources

Interconnections: Learner Autonomy Teacher Autonomy http://coyote.miyazaki-mu.ac.jp/learnerdev/LLE/8.1/smithE.html
25 Ways to Integrate the Internet - some very good ideas to think about, with links to resources
http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?tour_id=13326
101 Activities for the One-Computer Classroom - lots of links to look through
http://www2.drury.edu/dswadley/101/
Microsoft Word and PowerPoint in the Classroom - some hints for more effective use of these applications, with Insert Comments, Track Changes, AutoSummarize, templates and clip art. http://www.deborahhealey.com/techtips/may2009.html
Creating a Computer Lab/Learning Center - some suggestions for getting started. You can start small with a teacher resource room and go from there. http://www.eltexpert.com/complab/index.html
Self-access: A Framework for Diversity by Michael Rodden and Michelle Parrington gives some reasons for setting up a self access center, as well as some tips for saving money while creating your self-access center. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/self-access-a-framework-diversity

Discussions:

Read about learner autonomy (Thanasoulas, Sheu, Interconnections). Effective self-directed learning starts with learner autonomy. What could you do to encourage greater autonomy in students, with and without technology?

Let's hear from those who are using one computer in their classes. What have you done, and how did it work? What have been the pluses and minuses?

If you aren't using one computer in a class now, what ideas do you have after reading about it and hear ing the discussions?

Task: Create a sample lesson for a one-computer classroom

Most people don't have a computer lab all to themselves, and many do not have a lab in their school at all. A one-computer classroom is a way to start. Read about activities for the one-computer classroom and some strategies and applications. Create a sample activity for a one-computer classroom to share. Make sure you include who the students are, when in the lesson you're using the activity, the behavioral objective (ABCD format), and why technology will make the activity more effective.

Project Task 5: Suggest a partner for peer review

Continue to implement your technology-related change this week or to work on your project plan. You will need to have a partner for peer-review. Use this discussion thread to ask for a partner or suggest someone as a partner. Deborah will assign partners if you do not have a specific suggestion.
Your draft report is due to your partner by Wednesday, August 11, and the final report is due by noon on Friday, August 20.

Blog: Weekly Reflection

See more information on the Blog Page.

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Week 8 (August 9-15): Teacher Resources Online

Learning Objectives for This Week

Discussion: Teacher resources -exercise generators
After exploring the different teacher resources on the course website (Condition), participants (Audience) will share specific ideas about what they might use (Behavior) in at least two posts on Nicenet (Degree).
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week related to teacher resources online and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).
Task: Create a template for a handout, exercise, or a class site
After exploring different sites with templates and exercises and reading about creating a class site (Condition), participants in this course (Audience) will create a handout, exercise, or class site and share what they have created (Behavior) on the course wiki (if a handout or exercise) and in at least one post on Nicenet (Degree).

Project Task 5 [Wednesday, August 11]
Participants who are teaching (Audience) will reflect on what happened when they implemented their project (Condition) and write about it in a draft report to share with their partner(s) (Behavior); the report will follow the Project Report template (Degree).
or Participants who are not teaching (Audience) will thoughtfully create a detailed project plan (Condition) and write about it in a draft report to share with their partner(s) (Behavior); the report will follow the Project Plan template (Degree).

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions. Please post at least once in both topic forums and in the Task forum.	Weekly Assignments We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).
Create a class site Choose any of the following tools. Start by thinking about what you might want to do with the site, then select the most appropriate tool for that purpose. For class discussion, it would be Nicenet. If you want learners to post their own comments, then Blogger is good. If you want to share sites and files with students and have them share with each other, then Google Sites is best. Create a Nicenet class for one of your courses (Word .doc file to download) Create a class blog on Blogger: log into www.blogger.com, (make sure you log in first!) then click on Create a Blog. Create a class wiki on Google Sites: log into sites.google.com with your Blogger username and password, then click on Create New Site. This is the most complicated of the three tools. You will need to click on Edit Page, then Save Page to make changes to each of the pages. Make exercises online to print out Tools for educators - word search, bingo, crossword puzzles, and board games: http://www.toolsforeducators.com/ Personal Educational Press - flash cards, bingo games, matching, multiple choice exercises to print out: http://www.educationalpress.org/index.asp Easy Test Maker (paper tests): http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx Make exercises to use online or offline on a computer or to print out Hot Potatoes - download this program at http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ to use it on your computer. It's easy to use and lets you create matching, cloze, scrambled sentence, and multiple choice exercises and crossword puzzles. You can get help online or download this how-to PDF. See some interesting exercises at http://eolf.univ-fcomte.fr/index.php?page=technically-interesting-hot-potatoes-pages Xword Puzzle Generator - create crosswords to save and use on a computer or print out: http://www.edict.com.hk/xword/generator/ Make exercises online to use online: Web Poster Wizard - free website for teachers and students to use as part of a course. It uses a very plain format, but it's very easy to create something with text, one graphic, and links on each of 4 pages: http://wizard.4teachers.org/ SMILE- a variety of web-based activity generators. Requires a free registration. Cick on "I am a new user" on the opening page in order to register. The applications here are quite interesting, but they take more time to learn to do. http://clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/mimea/smile/v2/index.php	Discussion: Online tools for enhancing learning After exploring some of the different tools and exercises for this week, share your ideas about how using these might change the way you teach and/or the way that your students learn. How could using these tools promote learner autonomy? What are the constraints that would make it difficult to use these tools, and how will you overcome them? Task: Create an online course site or an exercise to use online or offline Create something that will be useful for your teaching. Use one or more of the sites on our course website to create an exercise, test, flash cards, or other tool. Share with the group: a) What tool you used (please list the website) and what you created b) How you will use it in your teaching - please be specific c) The type of students who would use it c) How you will encourage learner autonomy with this tool d) If it's an online class or exercise, please share the URL; otherwise, post your creation on the class wiki in the Teacher Tools section.You can get up to 5 extra credit points for creating a new class site and at least one good exercise. Project Task 5: First draft and peer review - due Weds., August 11 Write the first (draft) version of your project report or your project plan, using the Project Report Template or the Project Plan Template on the Projects page. Share your draft project report or plan with your partners by email, with a cc to Deborah. Offer comments on your partner's draft, using the project checklist as a guide. The checklists are also on the Projects page. Your draft report is due to your partner by Wednesday, August 11, and the final report is due by noon on Friday, August 20. Blog: Weekly Reflection Please create one reflective post on your blog each week, describing what you did, what you learned, and how you might apply it in your teaching. This should be a personal account of how you will use what you are learning - a reflection, not a lecture. Also, post at least one comment on another person's blog. You can see the list of blogs on our course wiki. Contact Deborah if you do not have the address of the course wiki. See more information on the Blog Page.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions. Please post at least once in both topic forums and in the Task forum.

Weekly Assignments

We have four this week: a discussion, a task, and a course task that you will do on Nicenet, and your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).

Create a class site

Choose any of the following tools. Start by thinking about what you might want to do with the site, then select the most appropriate tool for that purpose. For class discussion, it would be Nicenet. If you want learners to post their own comments, then Blogger is good. If you want to share sites and files with students and have them share with each other, then Google Sites is best.

Create a Nicenet class for one of your courses (Word .doc file to download)
Create a class blog on Blogger: log into www.blogger.com, (make sure you log in first!) then click on Create a Blog.
Create a class wiki on Google Sites: log into sites.google.com with your Blogger username and password, then click on Create New Site. This is the most complicated of the three tools. You will need to click on Edit Page, then Save Page to make changes to each of the pages.

Make exercises online to print out

Tools for educators - word search, bingo, crossword puzzles, and board games: http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
Personal Educational Press - flash cards, bingo games, matching, multiple choice exercises to print out: http://www.educationalpress.org/index.asp
Easy Test Maker (paper tests): http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx

Make exercises to use online or offline on a computer or to print out

Hot Potatoes - download this program at http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ to use it on your computer. It's easy to use and lets you create matching, cloze, scrambled sentence, and multiple choice exercises and crossword puzzles. You can get help online or download this how-to PDF.
See some interesting exercises at http://eolf.univ-fcomte.fr/index.php?page=technically-interesting-hot-potatoes-pages
Xword Puzzle Generator - create crosswords to save and use on a computer or print out: http://www.edict.com.hk/xword/generator/

Make exercises online to use online:

Web Poster Wizard - free website for teachers and students to use as part of a course. It uses a very plain format, but it's very easy to create something with text, one graphic, and links on each of 4 pages: http://wizard.4teachers.org/
SMILE- a variety of web-based activity generators. Requires a free registration. Cick on "I am a new user" on the opening page in order to register. The applications here are quite interesting, but they take more time to learn to do. http://clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/mimea/smile/v2/index.php

Discussion: Online tools for enhancing learning

After exploring some of the different tools and exercises for this week, share your ideas about how using these might change the way you teach and/or the way that your students learn. How could using these tools promote learner autonomy? What are the constraints that would make it difficult to use these tools, and how will you overcome them?

Task: Create an online course site or an exercise to use online or offline

Create something that will be useful for your teaching. Use one or more of the sites on our course website to create an exercise, test, flash cards, or other tool. Share with the group:

a) What tool you used (please list the website) and what you created

b) How you will use it in your teaching - please be specific

c) The type of students who would use it

c) How you will encourage learner autonomy with this tool

d) If it's an online class or exercise, please share the URL; otherwise, post your creation on the class wiki in the Teacher Tools section.You can get up to 5 extra credit points for creating a new class site and at least one good exercise.

Project Task 5: First draft and peer review - due Weds., August 11

Write the first (draft) version of your project report or your project plan, using the Project Report Template or the Project Plan Template on the Projects page. Share your draft project report or plan with your partners by email, with a cc to Deborah. Offer comments on your partner's draft, using the project checklist as a guide. The checklists are also on the Projects page.

Your draft report is due to your partner by Wednesday, August 11, and the final report is due by noon on Friday, August 20.

Blog: Weekly Reflection

See more information on the Blog Page.

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Week 9 (August 16-22): Learning styles - technology connections

Learning Objectives for This Week

Discussion: Learning styles
After reading about learning styles and technology tools for multiple intelligences (Condition), participants (Audience) will share a specific example of how they could use technology to address different learning styles in one of their classes (for preparation, in class or for students to use outside of class) (Behavior) in at least two posts on Nicenet and comment on it in their blog (Degree).
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned this week related to learning styles and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).
Project Report [noon Friday, August 20]
Participants (Audience) will use the information from their partners (Condition) and create a final version of their Project Report or Project Plan (Behavior); the report will follow the Project Report/Project Plan template (Degree).

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions. Please post at least once in both topic forums and in the Task forum.	Weekly Assignments We have four this week: a discussion and a task that you will do on Nicenet, your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog), and your revised Final Project/ Project Plan.
Learning Styles/Multiple Intelligences Tech tools that support multiple intelligences: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm Understanding different learning styles is an important part of effective teaching, with and without technology. While there are a number of different ways of exploring learning styles, this article from Richard Felder explores the impact of different learning styles on classroom performance: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm Additional Resources Learning styles Learning styles assessment chart http://www.chaminade.org/INSPIRE/learnstl.htm More on learning styles from Richard Felder http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html Using learning styles to adapt technology for higher education - from Equity and excellence in Higher Education: http://iod.unh.edu/EE/articles/learning-styles.html A longer scholarly article that also compares different learning style inventories: Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no10.pdf Sailing the 5 C's with Learning Strategies: http://www.nclrc.org/sailing/	Discussion: Learning styles Technology can help provide a range of learning styles in the classroom. Share your ideas about ways that you could use technology to address a variety of learning styles in your classes. What do you think would work best? Remember that using technology can mean finding material online to bring into class as well as using technology in class. Project Task 6: Final Project/Project Plan- due at noon Friday, August 20, Oregon time Using your partner's comments to help you improve your draft, write the final version of your project report/project plan. Make sure you use the appropriate template from the Projects page. Self-evaluate with the appropriate checklist and rubric (they are also on the Projects page). Post your final version on the wiki in Participant Final Projects. Please email your Project Checklist to Deborah. The final report is due August 20 at noon Oregon time. Blog: Weekly Reflection For your blog post this week, give an overview of what you read and tried, how you will integrate what you have learned in this class into your teaching, and how you will continue to learn about technology after the course is over. Course Evaluations Please fill out a course evaluation. The surveys will close on August 31st. You will get the password in your email; let Deborah know if you don't receive the password, and I will email it to you again.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions. Please post at least once in both topic forums and in the Task forum.

Weekly Assignments

We have four this week: a discussion and a task that you will do on Nicenet, your reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog), and your revised Final Project/ Project Plan.

Learning Styles/Multiple Intelligences

Tech tools that support multiple intelligences:
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm
Understanding different learning styles is an important part of effective teaching, with and without technology.
While there are a number of different ways of exploring learning styles, this article from Richard Felder explores the impact of different learning styles on classroom performance:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

Additional Resources

Learning styles

Learning styles assessment chart
http://www.chaminade.org/INSPIRE/learnstl.htm
More on learning styles from Richard Felder
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html
Using learning styles to adapt technology for higher education - from Equity and excellence in Higher Education:
http://iod.unh.edu/EE/articles/learning-styles.html
A longer scholarly article that also compares different learning style inventories: Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching
http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no10.pdf
Sailing the 5 C's with Learning Strategies: http://www.nclrc.org/sailing/

Discussion: Learning styles

Technology can help provide a range of learning styles in the classroom. Share your ideas about ways that you could use technology to address a variety of learning styles in your classes. What do you think would work best? Remember that using technology can mean finding material online to bring into class as well as using technology in class.

Project Task 6: Final Project/Project Plan- due at noon Friday, August 20, Oregon time

Using your partner's comments to help you improve your draft, write the final version of your project report/project plan. Make sure you use the appropriate template from the Projects page. Self-evaluate with the appropriate checklist and rubric (they are also on the Projects page). Post your final version on the wiki in Participant Final Projects. Please email your Project Checklist to Deborah.

The final report is due August 20 at noon Oregon time.

Blog: Weekly Reflection

For your blog post this week, give an overview of what you read and tried, how you will integrate what you have learned in this class into your teaching, and how you will continue to learn about technology after the course is over.

Course Evaluations

Please fill out a course evaluation. The surveys will close on August 31st. You will get the password in your email; let Deborah know if you don't receive the password, and I will email it to you again.

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Week 10 (August 23 - 27): Wrap-up

Learning Objectives for This Week (Note: this week ends on Friday, August 27th)

Discussion: Recap/Overview
After reflecting on what they have tried and learned during the previous weeks in the course (Condition), participants (Audience) will share specific ideas about what topics worked well (Behavior) in at least two posts on Nicenet (Degree).
Blog: Participants in the course (Audience) will share their reflections on what they did and what they learned throughout the course and comment on another person's post (Behavior) in at least one post on their own blog and one comment (Degree).
Task: Self-evaluation with the LoTI framework
After reading about Levels of Technology Integration (LoTI) (Condition), participants (Audience) will describe their L0TI level (Behavior) in at least one post on Nicenet (Degree).

Readings Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.	Weekly Assignments We have three this week: a discussion, a task, and your final reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog). Note that this week ends on Friday, August 27th.
Feel free to go back to a previous week and read something that you didn't have time to read before. Task: How are you integrating technology into your teaching? LoTI (Levels of Technology Integration): Digital Age Framework offers a way to evaluate how technology is being integrated into the classroom. http://www.loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html Additional Resources: A couple of good reads... Larry Ferlazzo's Best of Series - many, many interesting links http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/my-best-of-series/ The Seven Principles: Technology as Lever - specific recommendations for improving teaching with technology use http://polaris.umuc.edu/~cschwebe/gsmt800/7principles.htm	Discussion: Overview of the course What topics were most successful? Most useful for you? Which, if any, do you think were not relevant to what you do or will do? Task: Levels of Technology Integration Read the LoTI framework (http://www.loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html) and use it to assess your level of technology integration. Think about where you are now and where you would like to be in a year. Share your thoughts with your colleagues on Nicenet. Be sure to include ideas about how you will get to where you want to be in the future, and comment on other people's ideas. Blog: Final Reflection For your final blog post, please share one piece of advice - something that you have learned during this course. Course Evaluation Please fill out the course evaluation - it will close on September 4th. Contact Deborah if you haven't received the link in your email.

Readings

Readings are required! Go carefully through them and use them to help form a basis for your postings in the weekly discussions.

Weekly Assignments

We have three this week: a discussion, a task, and your final reflective post on your blog (plus a comment on someone else's blog).

Note that this week ends on Friday, August 27th.

Feel free to go back to a previous week and read something that you didn't have time to read before.

Task: How are you integrating technology into your teaching? LoTI (Levels of Technology Integration): Digital Age Framework offers a way to evaluate how technology is being integrated into the classroom. http://www.loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html

Additional Resources:

A couple of good reads...

Larry Ferlazzo's Best of Series - many, many interesting links
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/my-best-of-series/
The Seven Principles: Technology as Lever - specific recommendations for improving teaching with technology use http://polaris.umuc.edu/~cschwebe/gsmt800/7principles.htm

Discussion: Overview of the course

What topics were most successful? Most useful for you? Which, if any, do you think were not relevant to what you do or will do?

Task: Levels of Technology Integration

Read the LoTI framework (http://www.loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html) and use it to assess your level of technology integration. Think about where you are now and where you would like to be in a year. Share your thoughts with your colleagues on Nicenet. Be sure to include ideas about how you will get to where you want to be in the future, and comment on other people's ideas.

Blog: Final Reflection

For your final blog post, please share one piece of advice - something that you have learned during this course.

Course Evaluation

Please fill out the course evaluation - it will close on September 4th. Contact Deborah if you haven't received the link in your email.

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Project

Starting in Week 2, you will begin work on a project. The full project will be due by noon Oregon time on August 20. Go to the Projects web page for more information.

Course Evaluation

We want your ideas about what worked well and what could be improved about the course. Please fill out the online evaluation form at the end of the course- it's easy and anonymous. It is especially helpful to have your written comments explaining what you think. The web link and password will be sent to you via email in Week 8. Course evaluations will close on August 31st.

End of Term

Participants must submit final reports by noon Oregon time, 20 August 2010 and all other work by Friday, August 27 at noon Oregon time.

UO AEI instructors will complete grades, certificates, and reports by September 4, 2010.

All participants who successfully pass the course--with 70% or higher completion of assignments (see details above)--will receive certificates of completion. Certificates will be priority mailed to the US Embassy, Public Affairs Section or English Language Office in your region and then distributed locally. Please allow a minimum of 4-6 weeks for receipt of certificates as efforts may be impeded due to unforeseen local events and irregularities in local delivery systems.

Previous terms

Winter 2010 assignments page

Spring 2010 assignments page

Summer 2010 assignments page