One of the next things I am planning to do with all the information acquired through these ten weeks to have our Mentor Teachers at Centro Cultural is to assess our technological/teaching gap, something we have been experiencing for some time now. Our institution decided to invest several thousand dollars in getting Active Boards to transform our language classes into much more meaning learning experiences for our students. The fact is that we have not been able to meet this objective; interactivity is not precisely present in our classes yet. Besides, the students are getting "bored" with these boards because they are being used much more like a whiteboard than a real Active Board that can engage students into real, meaningful learning with lots of interactive functions.
The potential of Promethean Active Boards is not limited to just plugging it in and work. But how can my partners, the ones in charge of mentoring, get to realize what is actually happening with the teachers and this "sophisticated gatgets?" One thing is what they get to see when visiting student teachers in their classes, and one other things is what they actually do when they are not being supervised. There is a generalized feeling in our Academic Department that students are not being stimulated, cognitively speaking, by our language teachers with the Interactive Boards.
The potential of Promethean Active Boards is not limited to just plugging it in and work. But how can my partners, the ones in charge of mentoring, get to realize what is actually happening with the teachers and this "sophisticated gatgets?" One thing is what they get to see when visiting student teachers in their classes, and one other things is what they actually do when they are not being supervised. There is a generalized feeling in our Academic Department that students are not being stimulated, cognitively speaking, by our language teachers with the Interactive Boards.
In order to attack the problem from its root, a Nicenet virtual class has been created to have Mentor Teachers reflect on what is going on with teaching and technology assessing where our institution is standing by using the LoTI framework. Results will eventually been posted here, since we will start with this assessment starting Monday, March 22, 2010. In addition to this assessment, we will cover a range of topics to produce a cascade effect and help as many teachers as possible and train the trainers (mentor teachers) to better prepare our language instructors.
On Wednesday, March 17, my colleagues at Ulatina and Centro
Cultural had the chance to attend to training sessions with Penny Ur. This particular event was a joint effort sponsored by Universidad Latina and Cambridge University Press. Among the many ideas that Mrs. Ur shared with the audience, there was one that stood out from most of the things that were explained: "how to increase student interest." Based on what Penny Ur was explaining regarding student interest, I want to share a couple of things she stated and then I transferred to the use of technology.
On Wednesday, March 17, my colleagues at Ulatina and Centro
Cultural had the chance to attend to training sessions with Penny Ur. This particular event was a joint effort sponsored by Universidad Latina and Cambridge University Press. Among the many ideas that Mrs. Ur shared with the audience, there was one that stood out from most of the things that were explained: "how to increase student interest." Based on what Penny Ur was explaining regarding student interest, I want to share a couple of things she stated and then I transferred to the use of technology. On the one hand, if students are involved in a task, and there is enjoyment, learning can take place nicely and easily. Using technology for the sake of making our class look "sophisticated" does not mean that it is fostering learning. Creating lesson plans that include technology and Internet resources can increase student engagement and get them have fun; "learning with enjoyment can be memorable and long-lasting." Raising interet, based on Penny Ur's words, will lead us towards "achievable goals, game-like challenges for students, student collaboration, full participation in class, and success-orientation." Can we maximize this with a "shade" of technology? You bet we can!!
On the other hand, Mrs. Ur pointed out an interesting concept or idea that called many of her workshop attendants: book mutilation. What did Mrs. Ur mean by saying that we teachers have to "mutilate" our coursebooks? Well, she meant that, to create student interest and make learning meaningful and "fun." it is our task to "make variations" on coursebooks exercises to make them more experiantial. If we move a step ahead in terms of technology for eduacational purposes, all these wonderful sites for material development we can find on the Web can become useful "book mutilators" to enhance our teaching, and as a logical consequence, student learning.
On the other hand, Mrs. Ur pointed out an interesting concept or idea that called many of her workshop attendants: book mutilation. What did Mrs. Ur mean by saying that we teachers have to "mutilate" our coursebooks? Well, she meant that, to create student interest and make learning meaningful and "fun." it is our task to "make variations" on coursebooks exercises to make them more experiantial. If we move a step ahead in terms of technology for eduacational purposes, all these wonderful sites for material development we can find on the Web can become useful "book mutilators" to enhance our teaching, and as a logical consequence, student learning.
To conclude, I invite everyone in our field to share bits of one's expertise to make our life as teachers easier and more rewarding and to help other teaching professionals to achieve higher standards in language learning with students.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Hi Jonathan,
you definitely have a technological edge over us.
Promethean active boards! I am impressed of how much your institution is committed to provide its students with the latest teaching "gadget".But, you are right,it's up to the teachers to make of it a powerful assistant.
I was wondering whether or not you have trained your teachers to use these boards interactively with students.If not I think this is where your administration should have started.Your students are already getting bored , beware of having them get into a "not-learning" mode.You should use this new technology to raise their interest which is quite tough with teenager, I admit.
In addition, with your new promethean active board, you can apply Mrs.Ur's concept of "book mutilation" and make all the great websites we find on the web accessible to all during your classroom as fully integrated segments of the lesson.
Good luck Jonathan for all your projects
Hassina
Dear Jonathan,
among your other talents, you are so obviously endowed with organizational skills. It is another precious professional competence.
With your training initiatives that you intend to use to mobilize the teachers in your community, hardly anyone will b able to say: We didn't know it was happening. This is
where the change begins.
Good luck with your projects,
Andreja
Dear Jonathan,
Your thoughts toward education and innovative ideas have inspired me a lot. Thank you for sharing them and good luck with your new project.
This web course is the start for me and I am looking forward to learn more about technology enhanced teachings in the future.
Kazumi
Dear Hassina, Andreja, and Kazumi,
thanks for your comments, but I guess we should continue to share our thoughts, ideas, and plans to coach one another. Although we live very far away from each other, the Web will bring us together when in need of a helping hand. Keep on posting. Your ideas also inspired me a lot.
Jonathan