I found ANVILL a fascinating tool for oral communication. However, in my Cultural Studies class I am more interested in helping students develop research and writing skills since they have the opportunity to enhance their speaking and listening skills in other classes of the Teacher Training Program.
After exploring the different teacher resources, I want to emphasize the usefulness of blogging in my own situation. Even when I have suggested the creation of a teacher blog as my technology-enhanced project, this week I reviewed the advantages of a class blog.
As Aaron Patric Campbell says in “Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes,” a class blog is the result of the collaborative effort of an entire class. With my intermediate and advanced learners, it can be useful for facilitating project-based language learning, where learners can be given the opportunity to develop their language skills by being asked to research and write on a given topic.
Apart from fostering students’ interest in using technology and promoting their independent learning, a class blog can be used as a virtual space for a class exchange. The entire exchange will then be transparent to all readers and can be followed and commented on by all learners.
What can make it difficult to use this tool is that reading posts and comments takes time, but for that I would try to look for another tutor’s help.
Thinking of my project, I used a Survey Results Sheet at http://bogglesworldesl.com/surveys.htm to make my own surveys. I will use them at the beginning and end of the teacher blog implementation with my Cultural Studies students.
I think surveys are a great way to start a technology-enhanced project and also to ask students their opinions related to the change at the end of the term. The final survey results will let me know if the change encouraged learner autonomy.
I liked very much your post and I am going to quote what you have said : "I think surveys are a great way to start a technology-enhanced project and also to ask students their opinions related to the change at the end of the term. The final survey results will let me know if the change encouraged learner autonomy."
ReplyDeleteSurveys are a great to way to hear what students have to say. Sometimes students are shy to express their ideas or ask the teacher about the doubts they have. This way, by giving them a survey to be answered we can garantee we get a comment or suggestion from every single member of the audience.
You also mentioned blogs in your post and I also see it as a group effort to bring life to it. From my experience so far, a blog can be one of the most powerful tools to promote interaction between the students and the teacher. The exchanges that take place there are really unique and would probably not happen if the group didn`t have one.