Week 3

To be brief and concise,week 3 has also been beneficial and productive for me as well as for my students.The idea was to create a Delicious link in which I have posted my favourite sites. I have encouraged students to refer to these sites so as to enhance their language skills and  improve sefl-study work.Moreover, I read some articles about conducting listening activities.One of my tasks was to work on a listening website .I chose Randall's Cyber Listening Lab which is a great website loaded with listening activities that can be used in class .Actually,I carried out a task with fitted my marketing students Telemarketing .I liked this site and told my students to use it outside class.

The last task was in fact to read a project developed by Teacher Joanna Zubel, Poland. The teacher created an online Blackboard where the students can enrol for the course. At first, it started as a forum where students can express their opinions on the concept on studying online. This was done mainly outside school hours in order to encourage student autonomy. As a further step in the project, the teacher decided to add another component; she started exchanging emails with her students. In fact, exchanging emails was conditioned by the exclusive use of English. Added to creating an online on Blackboard, the teacher a class Wiki using google sites.

There are three qualities that I liked most in this project. First of all, the teacher missed no occasions to encourage student autonomy; a highly regarded soft skill in contemporary teaching context. Second, I found the exclusive use of English very rewarding. Under the pressure to perform, students start using English inaccurately at first, then with practice they would imporove. Third, there is a departure from the old teaching practices in which the teacher is the sole source of information. In the project in hand, the teacher retreated to manage and monitor things behind the picture.
This project would pave the way for what I am going to do by the end of the 10-week training sessions.
Looking forward to your replies.

Makram,Tunisia

week 2

Thoughts on week 2 webskills learning experience 

Week 2 in web skills learning has been very fruitful for me .Actually, I have learnt a lot on web searching and ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives.

To begin with, web searching is of paramount importance for teachers to design their lessons. The huge number of search engines is a double –edged weapon .Despite making the teacher’s task easier to find information and resources on the topic he or she wishes to tackle, I found it hard to select what I need due to the load of information.

I have also learned that web searching does not mean Google! I have actually discovered other search engines such as Bing and Ask thanks to the task assigned during week 2.

Secondly, week 2 has been beneficial in my teaching skills. The ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives has enabled to have a clear objective and to be selective especially in the choice of verbs. I discovered some new strategies on how to set objectives .This is not as easy as I thought before!

Finally, the class atmosphere is very friendly .Comments from classmates and their feedback helped me a lot inspire new teaching ideas.

I would like to thank all of you .Week 2 has been great! What about you?

PS: I have found a handy video on YouTube on The ABCD Model for Behavioral Objectives. I liked it so much; that’s why I would like to share it on my blog. Enjoy!

Week 1

Hello everybody,

It is a great to pleasure to exchange and share information ,experience and ideas on this blog .Personally , I am looking forward to getting your feedback which would be most welcome.As you may know, I am teaching Business and IT students at university.This makes me do my utmost to keep in touch with the currently updated technologies based on web skills.Please, feel free to make your comments.