I felt horrible about this activity and the article was not enough. It was like they garanteed something and never check if we understood how to use it. Then in the class was terrible. I read what everybody wrote in the MOO session trying to find a purpose for the activity and I never found it.
But, I imagined this idea to prepare an assigment for my class.
1. Before going on summer vacation talk about your plans.
2. Give a reaction to the plans your classmate have mentioned.
3. Give your opinion about those plans.
Topic to practice: Subjunctive
When to do it. After having taught everything about this grammar topic.
It is just I or
there
is a strong tendency not to be critical in these articles. The authors
are
always trying to sell their projects as the best of the best and they
ignore
that the best way to sell something is to allow the reader evaluate the
product.
I think we need to see articles where the good and bad aspects are
shown.
Collen Ryna–Scheutz writes about her Progetto Italica form her point of
view,
we don’t get any info form external observers without any affiliation
or
interests on promoting the project. To evaluate a project like this it
is important to be able to analyze factors such effectiveness,
motivation, time
needed, instructor’s abilities needed to work with such a tool,
problems
to be solve from prior experiences. My point is that I don’t see an
objective
perspective; they create a product that needs to be submitted to
other’s
considerations and to show a process, which improves the initial idea.
Talking
mainly about the workbooks, have anyone had this online workbooks? How
did
it work? Was more helpful, less time consuming or more effective that
the
paper workbook? Did you have to deal with the cheating helper: The
answer
key? Does it matters to you to deal with this problem and the lack of
effectiveness
of this sort of homework? I don’t care about the students cheating
because
the lie themselves (there is a lot more involved there, though), I do
care about giving the students a tool where they are challenged and
take advantage
of that work.
On the other hand, it is
unbelievable
to be able to say that no student chose the options “No, because it is
frustrating…”
What were the conditions for this evaluation, how did the evaluator
dealt
with the cool factor affecting the answers? Maybe I’m too strict on
this,
but I don’t see a clear and non-filtered process.
Follow
Ups:
In Reply to: Progetto Italica posted by Carmen Guerrero on February 24, 2004 at 16:11:47:
Carmen, I totally agree with you (and Lori and Erica). The article does not present a critical analysis of the project. However, keep in mind that its goal is _not_ to do that. The goal, as with the other pieces in the text, is to show you what you can do with various technological media. Granted, we all want to pat ourselves on the back, so maybe that comes through as a "suspiscious" silence in the articles, but try to think of them more as idea generators than dictations as to what we should or should not do. Does that help?In Reply to: Progetto Italica posted by Carmen Guerrero on February 24, 2004 at 16:11:47:
I too found it suspicious that nothing is mentioned. There is hardly any class in technology that doesn't encounter at least some problems and it seems that the article may have tried to "gloss over" some of those. It did highlight the great benefits of up and coming technology very well though.In Reply to: Progetto Italica posted by Carmen Guerrero on February 24, 2004 at 16:11:47:
I totally agree. i think that technology is incredible and can be very helpful in the classroom, but only if it is used reasonably and with a purpose. The fact that there is going to be some frustration with the technology seems to be a given, and the fact that none of the students said that seems a little suspicious to me as wellHow does the instructor maintain students' motivation in distance classes if the culture and some assigments can be a facilitator or as an obstacle? I'm thinking about the values in the American culture (self independance, individualism etc.) and in other cultures like in Latin America where the values are different. another factor that can help and can't help is having a non native speaker with a native speaker student working together, the point is that they are not teachers and they don't have to teach someone else. You have to make them do it? what is the effect on motivation then?
Technology may become an obstacle in itself. It happened
today
in class. How effective are the plans B in maintaining motivation in
classes
like ours?
Follow
Ups:
In Reply to: Reasearch question. posted by Carmen Guerrero on January 27, 2004 at 18:04:28:
Hi Carmen,
In response to your second research question on technology... I think
teachers
always have to have a back-up plan. What do you think about the
teacher's
approach to using technology? Should it be always as a supplement to a
lesson
plan? In other words, should it be one way to approach a lesson, like
using
chat, and then do the same lesson plan in pen and pencil or orally in
class?
Do you think a teacher should poll a class to see how "comfortable"
they
are using the technology first?
In Reply to: research questions posted by Bin Li on January 26, 2004 at 21:18:07:
-> -> 1. What are the effective ways to integrate CALL and Internet into college-level foreign language teaching in large classes where there are more than 40 students in one class?
-> BinLi: this is an extremely practical and difficult to answer question. I am feeling the weight of it myself, in that, after I graduate, I will be going to China to teach English; and I am wondering how can this great tool, the computer, be used. Maybe, a good focus might be, knowing that there are limitations of time and # of computers, what kinds of task can be created or found that incorporate groups into the usage of a computer so that having a few computers might host the 40 students.
I have been thinking about the same idea since we began this
class.
I've heard Dr, Lord saying how big this class is. As you guys in China
we
have that big amount of students in Colombia, and all South America is
like
this. Is this something designed only for this country conditions? I
hope
not! We need to see what the data for tech in FL classes in big classes
in
countries different to USA can be found. Is is possible for the
instructor
to work under those conditions? Or is it better to have a team teaching
this
big classes?
hi everybody! I'm Carmen Guerrero, a graduate student at UF.
I'm
in TIFLE and I'm really scared but I like the challenge.
My major is Golden Age and I want to work with Baltasar Gracián,
a
Barroque writer for my dissertation.
I'm the mother of a two year old child, and 8 years ago I married
Alexander
Steffanell, my teaching coordinator at that moment.
I did all my undergradaute studies in Colombia and I have been teaching
in
pre, primary, middle and high school for 7 years. I finished my
Master's
degree at Miami University in Ohio, and taught there for three years.
Now
I'm teaching SPN 1131 at UF.
Well I have to leave, if I stay you will be reading a message typed by Navín, my son.