“It is not about the technology; it’s about sharing knowledge and
information, communicating efficiently, building learning communities and
creating a culture of professionalism in schools. These are the key
responsibilities of all educational leaders”.
Marion Ginapolis
In these days
people say that the newborns come to this World with a special chip in their
minds as they know so many things about technology starting almost from birth J . It is for
this reason that it is not suprising for our students, especially young
learners, to be familiar with using technology.
Another point which is not a suprise is that most of the teachers today,
including myself J, are not as familiar to technology as their
students. But still as being a teacher, there is a mission to be completed J Although the students know many things about
technological tools, they are not much familiar with the use of these tools for
the purpose of their learning. We, as
educators, are responsible to guide our students to the point where they can
benefit from technology for educational purposes. It is for this reason that we
have met in this platform with the support of University of Oregon.
This week’s
first study was to create a rubric for a lesson as an alternative assessment
tool. In order to do this, the programme called “Rubistar”
was introduced to us by our coach, Courtney. It is another magical tool to be
used for the sake of our language classrooms. This tool brings out a solution
to one of the mostly discussed topics in Language departments; “rubrics”. At
the beginning, I found it to be a bit confusing but as everything else in the
programme, once getting use to doing it, you will find it as one of the easiest
things to prepare as long as you know your needs. Creating a rubric is
important as it gives you a chance to meet your personal classroom needs.
Our second
task for the week was to read about rubrics, project-based learning (PBL) and WebQuests. PBL is a very popular approach of the contemprary language
classrooms. Project Based Learning is
an instructional approach built upon authentic learning activities that engage
student interest and motivation. The main idea of Project Based Learning is
generally to have students in groups, working together toward a common goal.
Performance is assessed on an individual basis by the quality of the product
produced. It is when alternative assessment tools start to get into our
classrooms. As the tutor is different from the traditional method, the
assessment will also be diffrent. At this point the article The article
"'Practical Ideas On Alternative Assessment for ESL Students" by Jo-Ellen
Tannenbaum. The article introduces alternative assessment models and I highly
recommend the article to my colleagues who will visit my page.
Brainstorming
on a “Technology Related Change” in
our Project Classroom was another task we needed to complete as part of Week
5’s study. When used properly, technology can be an interesting and motivating tool
for our students. With a touch of well -prepared and organized lesson, the
teachers have a chance to “make a difference”. Technology is a great tool to
create that “difference” in an ordinary language classroom. At this point, in
this week’s study everyone in the programme came up with many interesting ideas
that can easily be applied in language classrooms. Sometimes it is the small
details that changes everything. With a small “magical touch” we can engage our
students to our classrooms.
Creating a WebQuets, was another challange of the
week. It was a great experience. I think it is true that we feel afraid of the
things that we don’t know. Once you become familiar, you also become friends
with the new things which was once a threat. As the below quote indicates, the
best part is not the technology in WebQuest, it is the sharing of
knowledge and information, it is about building learning communities and
creating a culture of professionalism among each other without having borders in
our minds.
It is really
suprising to face the fact that it is our 5th week in the course. It is also
suprising to find out so many tools within those 5 weeks. As everyone else in
the course, I am also excited about the tasks for the coming weeks.J
