Last Reflection: Summary, Description, experiences, opiniones, suggestions and more....

I learnt a lot of things on this course specially in unit 2, 3 and 4.the reason it could be the type of activities,maybe some of them involved our personal experiences and personality, thats great.
I liked to work in pairs and my challenge was the last activity i guees, because I created an online class or something like that and it was amazing when I can interact with other web pages , not only with the blackboard.
the one of the implicit purpose of this course was to be creative and to explore our investigation spirit wasnt it?
i think, there is no limit to know something, if you like it... go and finding the ways of new opportunities to learn.

I want to take another online course for sure, my expectations were achieve, and sometimes i felt older when i tried to do anything with tecnology, after all i appreciate the effort of all my classmates and in particular the teacher, She made a good job by designing the course, thats really admirable. for my part, I have to study hard to get clear ideas and acummulate rich information to be helpful in the future.

in the other hand, when I did get the idea of some activity, i looked it out my partners opinions and that was my....impulse or inspiration? (if i can use that word) to continue to read and do everything.
Thank u!


I found a video on the web, about distance learning, the teacher said that there are three important aspects to be succes on online learning, he mentioned as characteristics of it. Discussion board, Academic chat, and assigments and what are the implication of each one.
copy this link and check the video!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5x4nu_7-strategies-for-success-with-dista_school

A reflective piece of writing Unit 3

It was a long Unit, but the mayority of the activities were interesnting, i like it when i learn something, in this case I learnt a lot.

When I focus on what am i going to write I like to be explecit (clear) and make sure to give alternatives.
some activities were longer than others, some atohers shoert but deep, and its good to know that a unit is a mixed of many assessments
not just lineal.
I liked the exercises with animals behaviors, in general i prefer the activities that implcates our opinions and proposals.

ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK

Here are some categories of criteria for assessment:
 number of contributions
 quality of contributions
 building on contributions of others
 summarising contributions

ACCORDING TO THIS CRITERIA, I DECIDED TO PUT THIS ORDER OF IMPORTANCE:

1.- QUALITY OF CONTRIBUTIONS: THE COMMENTS MUST BE AUTHENTIC AND SHOW A REFLECTIVE THINKING OF WHAT WE ALREADY LEARN.
2.- BUILDING ON CONTRIBUTIONS OF OTHERS: BECAUSE IT IS AN INTERACTIVE MODEL, CONTRIBUTIONS OF OTHERS ARE VERY IMPORTANT, TO EXCHANGE INFORMATION AND LEARN OF EACH OTHER.
3.- NUMBER OF CONTRIBUTIONS: POST ENOUGH COMMENTS ITS GOOD TO BE RESPONSABLE AND POAY ATTENTION OF THE ACTIVITIES.
4.- SUMMARISING CONTRIBUTIONS: THIS LAST POINT IS IMPORTAT TOO, AND IT SHOWS ABILITY TO UNDERSATNDING IN A SHORT EXPLANATION.

I ADDED ANOTHER CRITERIA TO ASSESS:
5.- REFLECTS ANOTHER REFERENCE IN COMMENTS, LIKE INVETIGATION, RESEARCH FROM INTERNET (PAGES, BLOGS, ORGANIZATIONS, BOOKS, AUTHORS ETC), STUDENTS HAVE TO READ A LOT AND FIND MORE INFORMATION BECAUSE THERE IS NO LIMIT ON THIS KIND OF EDUCATION, SO IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW MORE INFO. THAN ONE TEXT, AND ITS REQUIRE TO MAKE PROPOSAL AND COMMENT COME OTHER SOURCES THAT THEY FOUND.

FEEDBACK:

Personal development plan
 development needs: TO ENCOURAGE AND IMPULSE THE STUDENT´S INICIATIVE TO PARTICIPATE BY GIVING CLEAR EXPLANATION AND TO CREATE A GOOD ATMOSPHERE TO WORK.
 development objective: DEPENDS ON THE ACTIVITIES, SOME REQUIRES MORE THAN ONE REFLECTION, SHOW EXAMPLES OF COMMENTS, PROPOSE ONE FREE ACTIVITY PER UNIT BUT ALSO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF CONTROBUTIONS BETWEEN LEARNERS. cREATE A DISCUSSION AFTER EVERY UNIT.
 Strategy: USE FORMAL TEXTS AND SOME OTHER WITH CONTROVERSIAL ASPECTS TO REFLECTS ON CONTEMPORARY EXPERIENCES.
 Actions:
- BE KIND, BY GIVING A GENERAL CONSTRUCTIVE CRITIC AFTER EVERY UNIT, AND FOCUS ON THEIR ACTIVITY COMMENTS TO ENCORAGE THEIR LEARNING PROCESS, AND ALSO GIVING THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SELFCORRECTION, COMPARING WITH OTHER.

Exchanging Information!

Example objectives:

Ex 1 (a grammar problems conference) "In this conference we'll look at the present perfect and you'll share problems you have with the structure with others".
Pilar. "

Share the problems is the first step, and then you have to find some explanations to be clear on any grammar structure In this case dont get confusse with other porblems,you just focus on one first and little by little you can ask for clarification, also the observation is a clue to understand, because when you listen and look at others you can reflects on your own work. Write down all your doubts to create an order list of grammar points.


Ex 2 (an opening message for a conference on teaching listening skills) "Hi, everyone. Welcome to this conference on teaching listening skills. What activities and techniques are there in the pre-listening phase of a lesson? How can we match the technique or activity to the kind of listening our learners will be doing? These are the questions you'll have an answer to in this conference. Join us!
Tony"

There are many questions about listening, It is important to know that students can get efectivness on listening skill. because, Listening comprehension is probably the most difficult task for students.
it is important to reamrk which problems can we find on listening skill:
-Translating creates a barrier between yourself and the person who is speaking. that is very common, we translate to our native language and then it could be a non effective communication or understanding.
According to Kenneth Beare,on The Challenge of Teaching Listening Skills.
http://esl.about.com/cs/teachinglistening/a/a_tlisten.htm
I like to use this analogy: Imagine you want to get in shape. You decide to begin jogging. The very first day you go out and jog seven miles. If you are lucky, you might even be able to jog the seven miles. However, chances are good that you will not soon go out jogging again. Fitness trainers have taught us that we must begin with little steps. Begin jogging short distances and walk some as well, over time you can build up the distance. Using this approach, you'll be much more likely to continue jogging and get fit. Students need to apply the same approach to listening skills.

inferring and guessing by watching a film it can be the most useful tool to encourage our students, identifying the main idea of the conversation , but also ACEEPT that as a humans we can not understand everything at the moment, even in our native language, we find diffulties when we listen to other people.
Now, as teachers we must put in practice our listening skills ( in our daily life), and take in consideration the variety of listening techniques according to the level of the Ss.
Ex 3 (an opening message for a conference on learning and practising vocabulary) "In this lesson, you'll find specific information on a website and you'll practise vocabulary about food and nutrition. Edith."
I´d already found a very illustrating material to present this topic.
http://www.eflnet.com/vocab/food_vocabulary.php

and i got an example of vocabulary from http://www.schoolvideos.com/tgs/H2040TG.pdf
Nutrition Vocabulary

Calcium : a mineral that helps to build
healthy bones and teeth
Carbohydrates : nutrients that provide the
body with a source of energy for work and play
Fat : a nutrient that provides energy and
carries some vitamins through the body
Fiber : a material that helps to move food
through the body
Iron :a mineral that helps keep the blood
healthy
Junk Food :food that is high in fat and sugar
and low in healthy nutrients
Nutrient : a food substance that is of value to
the human body
Protein : a nutrient that is needed for the
body to grow, stay healthy, and build and repair
muscle
Vitamin A : a nutrient found in dark green,
leafy vegetables, orange and yellow vegetables,
and some fruits, which is needed for healthy
hair, skin, and eyesight.
Vitamin C : a nutrient that helps the body
fight infection and stay healthy; it is found in
fruits, especially citrus fruits

Suggested activities:
- drawing of food pyramid, using magazines and pictures, students must be complete the pyramid with healthy food.
- Make a list of shopping, the students choose appropiatekind of food.
- discussion: talking about their favorite food and which they consider the best diet around the world, like french cousine, italian food, mexican food, fast food etc.

What would you say?

Types of behavior...

1.- The squirrel: Always catching up. completes two weeks in one session then disappears again for some time.

2.-The stag: Tendency to dominate discussion at certain times.

3.-The magpie: Steals ideas without acknowledging.

As a e-moderator responses:

1.- Well this charater sounds so familiar to me, but if there is an order into the course he or she has to be on time, even when he can covers many activities before sometime, it could be good but it is important to check how fast did he do the assessment and also, if he understand everything.

2.- This case depends on the personality, and we always find this kind of person in every group, the person wants to show control but the point on this is to be polite and never feel like authority into the workteam, to be respectful is the main position. the moderator must be mark a line or guide the comments to not promote a fight.

3.- wow! wait, this is a serious problem, because when we use words from other people without references or mention the author, we are not honest, so is very common when he/she pretend to show his or her opinion but is not authentic, a good tool for that is read a lot, but always mantain our point of view in an independent way and take influences but dont steal them.

La carta de Raul:

first of all, he doesnt cover the whole topic, he just mentioned it on the first line and thats it. It good to know that he has doubts about something, but it is important to suggest, comment, share knowledge and participate with feedback.
the is another way to understand some points, for example he can research others authors and send a concrete questions about that, What are the concepts or definitions that you dont understand?

The Changing model of teaching and learning

I´m totally agree with Azael, related on to be clear about Holistic definition in teaching.
Because, as a study of whole filosophy teaching, holistic means to analize every part of something but at the same time taking every part of the objetc and create a complete study of that, in this case, this topic :The Teaching Model.

It is so easy to read each point and explain them, however it implicates more than words to be pratice and make a real change in a model teaching throug practice.

well I can refer this topic with a Company (as a analogue) because the teaching´s parts are conecected between them, and it is an integrated process likewise, the principal part depends on another, like a pyramid, for that, it is important to mantain a balance with all elements: persons involved on it, mechanisms, types of learning and resources.

The teacher always is a facilitator, a guide of the learning process, not only that, surely is an active character full of knowledge to develop skills in him/her self.

The case of students is important to take in consideration, because, their personality implicates responsability with learning and take action about anything, also they must be respectfull and be concious that work team, is not easy, but they are part of society and of course they can realize that working in groups can be more efficiently in many ways.

When we are talking about Independent learning, we are referring to many ways to support that, everyone has the same importance which helps to get objectives more efectevly.

Reflections!

Es importante considerar que el papel intelectual del maestro que imparte educacion a distancia es impredecible, ya que su formacion con esta tecnologia lo lleva a tener aun mas responsabilidad del proceso de aprendizaje, pero tambien a tener mas libertad para trabajar.
en esta unidad aprendí mucho de lo que se debe hacer para planear y analizar los distintos aspectos que conlleva la educacion a distancia, ya que detras de todo un plan, carta descriptiva o curriulum hay una gran gama de investigaciones asocioadas a lo que es la educacion en esta modalidad, ademas de que implica una gran dispocision al analisis.