UNIVERSITY OF OREGON - 2013 WINTER WEBSKILLS COURSE

                              MY REFLECTIONS ON WEEK 10

Hello everyone,

Wow! How time flies! We’re already at the end of our 2013 Winter Webskills Course at the University of Oregon. What a huge experience!

We had ten (10) wonderful weeks in terms of learning. I can’t go through all the techniques and tools we had learnt, but I can say that I did appreciate “How to set a clear objective with the ABCD method”, the discussion board “Nicenet”, “The Blog” - because when hearing about a blog, I always had in mind something related to politicians – “Delicious” for tagging websites and pages of interest to us, etc.

I think that I’ll be using many tools we covered, but “Nicenet” is the only I have used so far. The use of that discussion board enabled me to initiate some of my students to the use of technology since the majority of them were not computer literate. But today, they are feeling, little by little, “comfortable “with the use of computers in addition to performing some activities on the Web.

I would like to say that all the tools we’ve gone through will be relevant, in one way or another, to what I do depending on what objectives I want to reach. Because I want to improve my students’ abilities in writing, I decided to work with “Nicenet” for the time being. When time comes for putting the emphasis of listening and speaking, I’ll certain use ANVILL.

I would like to say that talking about large classes was beneficial to me because I’ve only taught large classes since I entered the teaching profession. With the readings I went through, I had new ideas about how to teach large classes.

Long live the University of Oregon and the American English Institute! – because they succeeded in helping me to shift from the status of “a traditional teacher” to that of a teacher capable of using technology in his classes.

To conclude, I have to say that time has come for me to congratulate our dear Instructor Robert Elliott for his know-how and availability, Jeff Magoto and David Bentz for their rich collaboration. I’m grateful to all the other participants of this 2013 Winter Webskills Course. I have to say that you’re all smart teachers, and I did enjoy to be working with you for a span of time. To be honest, I’ll miss you all. But, what is endless in life?

Best regards,

Dagnogo

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON – 2013 WINTER WEBSKILLS COURSES

                                     MY REFLECTIONS ON WEEK 9

Hi all,

Week 8 is gone. Welcome Week 9. This week, we learnt what is referred to as “Multiple Intelligences”. I really appreciate this theory developed by Howard Garner from Harvard University because it helped me understand the kinds of intelligences that can exist, and encouraged me to be more tolerant towards learners. From what I learnt,  I come to understand that trying to find a person with all the nine (9) intelligences is a utopia.

This week was also the opportunity for us to “polish” our individual projects for submission to the Instructor. Wow! I come from far. In the very beginning of the course, when reflecting on the final project, one question was always going through my mind: “Will I be successful?” But with the expertise our Instructor displayed and the sincere collaboration with the other participants of the class, I moved smoothly towards the final project. Have I made it? Time will tell. All my gratitude to my partners, namely Brigitte Falkner from Austria and Nguyen Thi Lan Huong from Vietnam for the good job done when time came for reviewing my draft project.

The final point I’d like to mention is that I have a mixed feeling now because the countdown has already started. I’m happy because we’ve learnt a lot through the past weeks. At the same time, I feel nostalgia when I think of the days after the wrap up of these 2013 Winter Webskills courses. I’ll miss you Robert, Brigitte, Huong, Nazeer, Yves, Philippe, Irada, Peri, Nasim, Mustapha, Jinnat, Mandira, Renuka, Ricardo, Tatsiana, Elena, Aparna, Aurangzeb, Montana, Nahid, Sadia, Yubaraj, and Maheshwor. Anyway, “that’s the way life goes.”

Looking forward to starting the very last week, I wish anyone of us good luck for our final projects.

With regards,

Dagnogo

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON WEBSKILLS COURSE

                                             MY REFLECTIONS ON WEEK 8

Hi all,

This week, we’ve dealt with how to create a class site or make online exercises. We’ve also tackled online tools for enhancing learning. It’s in this respect that we spoke about ANVIL which stands for A National Virtual Language Lab. ANVIL is a speech-based toolbox for language teachers which is focused on the practice of oral/aural language. After going through the writings related to ANVILL, I can say that ANVILL can play a very important role in acquiring knowledge and enhancing learner autonomy.

In addition to that, in this same week, since we are approaching, little by little, the end of this Winter Webskills course, each participant was asked to submit the first draft of his/her project plan or project report to the partner(s) he/she has agreed to work with. I really appreciated this way of doing things because it enables us to put ourselves in the shoes of both a student and a teacher.

I also found the content of the webinar session of March 1, 2013 - with Jeff Magoto and our Instructor Robert - very interesting even if I joined it a bit late. It enabled me to hear some of my classmates' voices in addition to the videos of others.

In sum, it was a wonderful week despite the fact that we worked tirelessly.

With regards,

Dagnogo