Week10

Coming to the end of the road

It's been a great opportunity to be part of the course and it's a most fruitful course I have taken. I have learned many new aspects concerning technology-related practice and experienced many learning activities useful for my professional and personal development. The course has built and strengthened my teaching skills little by little. It has also broadened my horizon because it made me find new ways of looking at the world outside the classroom wall. The course participants from different parts of the world have joined and shared their teaching experiences and knowledge. Next, I'll try to share myself as much as I can to cover the following questions.

- During our course, what topics were most successful? Most useful for you?

Actually all topics are useful and helpful in enhancing teaching skills. Considering what topics were most successful I would like to mention firstly ABCD objectives. I think I have learned to write better and clearer learning objectives. With clear learning objectives, it will not hard for me to lead my students in the right path of learning. Secondly, I would say that sharing links and discussing English skills-building websites were very useful and Delicious.com is found to be a practical and effective tool to make an online search more convenient for a teacher. Next, I would say that the course has provided many useful articles to study and they have widened my views towards teaching and learning in some ways. Many assigned reading articles and other resources provided on various topics like learner autonomy, MI and learning styles, and PBL have made me become more aware of importance of the students who are one of key components of the classroom teaching. For additional reading articles and related resources, they are also available for all participants to make their own choice for further reading and studying. That's good indeed. The last task, self-evaluation of technology use, is in the right time to have me evaluate myself how technology is integrated in my classroom, in which level I fit and how to develop to the next level. All in all, the course is well-organized and supports better learning of the learners to reach the course goal. 

- Which tools will you use in your classes?

There are many different tools that are going to be very useful for my class. However, the tool that I have implemented lately is Padlet. Personally, Padlet is a nice board which I have found to be an appropriate learning space which can be applied and modified for many educational purposes. It can be a place where the students and me share information and related content to the lesson by posting a reading article or video (just like we did in Week7). To practice writing skill, the teacher may use it to encourage written activities such as getting students to write short notes to introduce themselves, write short stories, and even get students write some short reflections. To apply Padlet, it depends on the lesson objectives and the teacher just learn to apply it accordingly and creatively. Blogging and Nicenet are also two interesting tools to hear students' voice and offer more choices for online participation and interaction.

- What other tools might we have covered or would you suggest that we could have looked at?

Since social networking is a trend now, you could have looked at how to make use out of it for classroom benefits. I may suggest Edmodo, a social networking site for educational purposes to be considered. It is user-friendly and provides a convenient way for teachers to manage online class participation and students to be exposed to online learning experience. Moreover, Edmodo offers a learning community space where teachers from all over the world can share and exchange useful teaching resources, ideas and suggestions together to move forward the teaching and learning achievement.

- Which, if any, do you think were not relevant to what you do or will do?

To be honest, I have found all what I have learned throughout the course very useful for me and my EFL students. All of what I have learned and done through the course were relevant to what I do and will do. Now, I have already obtained some skills and knowledge concerning technology integration and it is my job to keep practicing and improving myself to make use of what I have had to benefit my class and share it with other colleagues as to make EFL classrooms more productive and fruitful.

Now, I would like to express my gratitude to E-teacher Scholarship Program staff, University of Oregon, for a great determination to make learning accessible and possible for all. I would also like to expand my deepest gratitude to the course instructors, Robert Elliott and Russell Moon for their kindness, hard work and patience. Last but not least, I thank all classmates who have made valuable discussion and shared comments and suggestions throughout 10 weeks of the course.

Teaching is a rewarding job. Wish all teachers be happy with their job:)

Ta, Thailand