Lessons Learned:

Finally I can say my mid-term vacation has just started!  I finished my project which was a Wiki about ESL. I chose this field because I  am an ESL teacher.I’ll divide this post into lessons learned from doing the wiki and plans for the future.

Difficulties Faced:

1- Finding material to meet my needs

2- Finding Creative Commons pictures

3- Doing many things at the same time; reading books for the Wiki,  posting blog posts,  finalizing my proposal for my project of my masters, and of course my work.

4- The desire to create a good product

How did I get over the difficulties?

1- I tweeted my problems and my twitter network supported me, Jamie and Linda are wonderful classmates as they have supported me in my final project especially Linda.

2- I learned that to use pictures, I should have a permission to use them on my Wiki. Thus, I only used Creative Commons pictures.

3- I read books and articles to get the material

4- I followed many tweets to include in my Wiki

Future Plans:

This Wiki is just a start for me as a professional supporter for English teachers and learners. This is not the end. It might be the end of this term ECI831, but I think many of my colleagues will carry on what we learned in this class. We will “pay it forward”. My Wiki is my way to pay it forward to all those who did not have the chance to take such a course. I know this is a very laborious task, however, I am ready to do it because I have an aim and I really want to do this… as I said before I want English teachers to find most of what they need on my page. I would be proud to be this resourceful person who can help others when they are in need. I will carry on and do what I have to do because the things I know now should be spread to others.

Thanks to you all,

Thanks to all my colleagues and finally you Dr. Couros

Note:  I’ll still be your Egyptian distant student

One of the good sessions I had was that of my instructor Dr. Alec Couros of Open and Networked Learning. In that session, I felt the importance of open education.

Open education means: Education sans boundaries, limitless education where I can breathe, look and wander freely without trespassing others because there are no limits. I know this is hard, but this is education for me.

While I was doing my Wiki page, I was struck by the fact  that I have either to take permission from the sites I use their images or use Creative Commons images only. Of course I could not do the first one because that will take much time and will be repeated for every picture. The only solution is to go Creative Commons. The problem is Creative Commons pictures are not that diverse and they do not have all the themes.

I started to use Toondoo, it’s a nice website where I can draw my own images, but…..

Sorry for digression, the challenges that Dr. Couros  pointed out during his session were:

Learning in an open education environment obligates its users to learn the tools of certain medium which are now ; Internet applications. It also necessitates to have a computer with good specs. A contributer in an open education environment should be competent in using English because most education resources are in English. Thus, those who are not competent have no chance in  open education …. what a dilemma…

As for Networked learning, the optimum example for that is Youtube. This superb sharing video website taught me many things.  I always use YouTube to search for classroom material. It even taught me how to do a movie maker video for my final presentation.

Another great session was that of Dean Shareski. In that session I learned the term of digital identity. I literally cannot forget that session because I kept dreaming about my digital identity and that I should have a digital domain. Everything we put online is just public, no matter how much security we put around this information. There are no boundaries in terms of online environment. Anyone can reach anything in any place at any time.  Increasing number of emplyers search for their employees on social networks. It seems that social networks get the worst of us! We usually put pictures or comments for fun unknowing that this might be used against us someday…

This is a good video about digital identity

The session with Zoe Branigan-Pipe was one of the inspiring sessions. She  was trying various things to motivate her students ranging from based learning environment to constructivist approach. However, she and her students ended up bored.  She was so occupied with many attempts to engage her students. She used technology to engage them. She connected with other educators in many regions.

What she brings here is that she thinks out of the box and does not follow the “usual” way and this is great. We need more teachers to think how they can use technological tools to help keep their classes on their toes!

It’s a challenge to explain for parents some of the technological tools we use in our classroom and it’s not dangerous to use. It’s stressing sometimes to ask for parental permission to do a certain activity like using Facebook to set up a page about a topic. It’s not as easy as it seems to use 2.0 tools in classrooms.

It happened to me last Thursday especially when I teach phonology, students just got bored because it’s  full of rules. I really do not know how to get students into this excitement zone when I explain this because it ends up in the same choir practice! These are definitely one of my frustration moments because I cannot get students to be interested.

Teaching is a laborious task and teachers have to keep up with students and how to engage them.

When I think about that I find it very challenging to me to use technology in assignments or even in classroom. I tried to make students set a blog to correct their paragraphs online, but they did not. One of them did not have Internet at home so I could not ask that assignment from all students. The culture of online activities and using Internet to do assignments is not popular in Egypt. I want to apply what I took in this class, but I am hand cuffed.

Students should have a call in their learning process. I always do this when I try any new activity with my students. I ask them for feedback. Did you like this activity? a simple question…

I was doing this idioms exercise the other day and I wanted students to guess the right meaning of the one they have in front of them. One of them said spontaneously that it would be easier if we have a situation. She was absolutely right. I was challenged at that moment because after the activity I wanted them to use these idioms in situations and they could not! So, using situations would have been easier for students to fully grasp the meaning of the idiom.

Lessons I have learned:

1- Lessons can be changed according to students needs

2- Teachers have to be open and accept some criticism

3-  It’s the creativity of teachers that attract students

4- Feedback from students is important to improve  teaching methods

5- Constant search and learning makes a wonderful teacher

Couple of days ago while I was thinking about my project, I thought I want this wiki to help teachers around the world because I am amazed by the amount of teachers who help others on Twitter. I now have this spirit of sharing ( I had this before of course . However, it’s now itching. I want to share what I have of information with everyone to learn. I think this is because Dr. Couros usage of sharing quotes:)

I have been thinking in what Dr. Couros did in the course, he got ones of the best educators  to contribute in our experience. The dedication and collaboration  they showed surprised me because they are people who believe in something. They believe in the power of education and we can change and improve.

Yes, we can do it! We are going to pay it forward to our students and colleagues. The course may be over, but our journey is not over.

We have learned how to use Twitter. I had an account on Twitter which I have never considered as a means of development, but here comes the day I am using Twitter and Tweetdeck.  I learned that Personal Learning Environments  are not what they called “personal”. It’s about sharing.  I find this class is an eye-opening experience because when I think about the tools I learned I find they where just in front of me and I did not use them such as delicious.

One of the most inspiring sessions we had is that of Sheryl Nussbaum. I adore the questions she posed in the session. She challenged us in integrating what we learn in our communities and asked very difficult questions many of them I have not thought of before.

The questions that I like and I can answer after this course are:

1- How does it mean to be a connected learner?

It’s a liberating experience to be connected to be working with others regardless of time, place, language, etc… It’s that language that gathers us all ( improvement). When I talk with my coworkers I feel the difference between what I have and what they have. I do not mean underestimating what they have, but everyday I grow with what I have. I just know more.  I am able to benefit students more in many aspects they want to learn about.

2- Definition of a community: it’s a place where I share and feel that my contributions are taken into consideration. It’s a place where I benefit from others’ expertise.

3-  What makes a healthy community?

A healthy community is  place where I move from a  consumer into a contributer. I see myself as a person who developed throughout this class. This is the first time to do a blog and I used to escape from that by writing papers, but having no option except doing that I had to explore it and just write…

I think that my posts developed throughout the whole class because I was getting feedback both fom my instructor and my classmates. I consider myself a contributer in my classes with my students because I am encoursging them to do what I am doing.

Preparing my final project is not an easy task because I chose to do a Wiki on English as  Second Language. I have always yearned to do that, but what I can say I did not have this idea of doing something on-line. I have always compiled  sheets of papers, word documents, note books about how to teach activities, games, material, some methodologies of teaching, etc… and forgot where I “misplaced” them. But, having this Wiki on-line is just amazing. I am already picturing that in my mind. I’ll try to have one of the best Wikis or the best resources in ESL. This page will continue to grow and I’ll invite my fellow teachers in the same school to join it. I do have great aspirations for it. As my experience grows, the Wiki will grow. I just want teachers to open this Wiki and find answers because it always happens to me that I have to search everywhere online for an answer and sometimes I just have to improvise. I  am not saying it will have all answers, but at least the basics so that teachers have something to refer to. I’ll add my email account so people can contact me if they have ideas or suggestions.  I may have a page where teachers can edit and add anything they may like.For me that Wiki is  a break through as a teacher and unless I took this course I would not have thought of that.

Designing an online page is just laborious. I did not thought that. It’s extremely difficult to to design a website. getting the information, feedback, visual aids, copy rights, etc… Oh my…

But, what  I am thinking of now, how can I make this page the most visited ESL page? I really want teachers to find what they want. I am an English teacher and I should be able to understand their needs.

I have links on my Wiki about:

• Methods of teaching
• Online resources
• ESL activities and ice-breakers
• Learning styles
• Teaching English videos

Are these enough? I think not. I am still working on the content. But, I want to make the page appealing to its users. It’s not only about content.

The problems I am facing are:

• Organizing information and visuals
• Organizing my pages in an attractive way
• copy right issues
• Searching for content

I intend to get feedback from my fellow Twitter teachers and My coworkers. Some of them  have already given me some pieces of advice. So, let’s hope it turns out good…

Facebook VS google

This is a real interesting article about the troubles between Facebook and Google. As Gmail allows it’s users to find friends based on their contacts, but Facebook does not do the same for Gmail. It even allows this service to other email platforms like Yahoo.

This is a quote from the article:

“In response, Google denied Facebook the ability to pull in information from Google Contacts. Facebook successfully investigated a workaround. Google responded by posting a large missive for those trying to use Facebook’s workaround to import Google information.

“”You have been directed to this page from a site that doesn’t allow you to re-export your data to other services, essentially locking up your contact data about your friends,”" read a message on Google’s Gmail page.

“”We think this is an important thing for you to know before you import your data there. Although we strongly disagree with this data protectionism, the choice is yours. Because, after all, you should have control over your data.”"

So, what is  happening? Why are the two gigantic electronic websites having difficulties with co-existence? Is that  because Facebook realizes  that it’s this click of  a half billion users that will crown Google over any other search engines. But, it’s already the king over search engines. Technology can be frightening it is like drug industry. Sometimes the people who control that industry just do not  care about making people’s lives easier than what it is. Many things are hidden in technology world. Until  now we do not know how we get our search results. I mean why do we get them in this order?

It’s scary when we think we can be monitored if we google some taboos; political stuff.

At this time of  a month (usually at the end of it) I do not have money… So,  at many times I borrow some from my family. However, I have this habit of leaving some money in my purses. Last Friday, when I opened one of my purses, I found good sum of money around 300 Egyptian pounds. For me that was really great because now I can repay my mother, and have money for the rest of the month…Finding that amount of money in such time made me realize that storing certain things does not mean leaving them, but keeping them for the time of need.

This can be applied on technology. During a presentation in the Global Education Conference, I knew several sites and I am going to explore them in this post and keeping their importance in a safe place of my mind to use them later.

1-Toondoo

This is a very effective tool to create cartoons and comics using a simple way. You can use it in many different lessons for teaching English, math, geography, etc.. What is great about this site is that it has many characters and many cultural places. Students will be surprised to find pictures about their lesson and active dialogue between characters. You can create your own stories drived  from experience, culture, etc…

2-  Voice Thread

It seems like a very good tool for sharing feedback, but of course it is not free! It enables teachers to share online documents, videos, images and leave comments by different means; voice comments by using  microphone, telephone,  or written comments.

3- Wordle

This is a very good website for creating fun “word clouds” whether from texts you paste on the website or write.

Teachers can use it for games, for example rearranging sentences or words

4-Blabberize

This is a good website, if you like to have fun while teaching children. You can use this website  to put voice overs on any picture. You can bring any picture and put voice over either by recording your voice or uploading any voice over from your computer.

5- Tagxedoo

This site for creating “word clouds” I do not know how this might be used in  a class, but I thought it ‘s fun and can add something to lessons. However, when I tried to create a tag cloud, a pop up window  appeared asking me to install a plug in. I am so tried of all these plug ins on my P.C.

6- Vimeo

A nice tool to share video. The sign up options are good. Despite having premium subscription, they offer a good deal for free users.

7- Jing

This is a very nice tool to create videos of what you see on your computer screen. You can also use  highlights, arrows, text inside the image you crop from your computer. Premium users can  upload videos from their webcam into Jing.

8-Picasagoogle

This is a website for sharing and organizing photos. It’s the same as flicker. It looks neat, but flicker will be more popular. It’s google powered site for google fans!

One of the resources I am reading for my final project is ” how to teach English”. It’s an amazing book by J Harmer. While I was reading, I thought of different teacher roles in face-to face settings. The book elaborates different teacher roles depending on the activity students do.

Teacher’s roles:

1- Controller: This happens when teachers assume their positions at the front of the class explaining concepts, dictating things etc…

2- Prompters: when teachers encourage students to do more, give them feedback, etc…

3- Assessors: when they tell students how well they did or give grades

4-Resource: when students ask teachers about ambiguous information, consult them, etc…

5- Tutor: when teachers act as advisers on what to do next

I thought of all these different roles assumed by “good” teachers in face-to-face environments and thought, does that happen in online learning? Can a teacher in virtual settings provide all these roles?

I think all these roles can be assumed by teachers online except the controller because online learning is a control-free zone. Students are driven to study because they have priorities in their lives and want to fulfill them, other than that teachers act as facilitators to students in virtual environments. Students have much control and power over their learning pace. Students in online learning take the controller role instead of their teachers. But, do online teachers assume more roles than face-to-face settings?  Do they assume fewer roles due to the virtual nature?

I am really taken by the difference and the advantages of online learning versus face-to-face settings as two of my colleagues were excited when they knew that I am doing my degree online. They took the decision to do their degrees online taking me as a role model! Online learning is not that much of a popular thing in Egypt especially due to the importance of credibility. Many universities in Egypt do not approve degrees taken online or from foreign universities that’s why we have to go through a long process to have an equivalent degree to that of Egyptian universities. Now, many Egyptian students are going for online learning, it’s less costly than actually traveling. For me, my online degree is much cheaper than the actual travel to Canada.

I usually teach face-to-face, though I tried virtual teaching. I find face-to-face teaching more enjoyable and tiring because you can see students’ expression and when you are putting them into bed!

I am starting my final project and it will be a Wiki to assist ESL teachers. To do that I have to read many reources about ESL teaching. I will compile the activities I use in my classroom and my colleagues activities in an activity page. I intend to share this on Twitter after I put some activities and content on it. I had this idea to do a website for ESL teachers, but I did not take the first step to do it. This Wiki will be my resort to keep record of activities I try and use in my classroom because sometimes one just forgets activities and how to lead discussion in a certain topic.

So here we start my final project…

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I had today an amzing gathering in the American Embassy in Cairo, despite the tiring security measures (hew)… It was about social media and entrepreneurship. I came to talk about my experince using social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc..especially after  ECI831 and how I see social media in spreading the word. I met wonderful people; co-founders of TEDxCairo. It’s Cairo own TED. They were interested in TED and they thought that Egypt has many thinkers, developers, creative people in many aspects. So, they just started it out.They started the first event through creating a Facebook page. The word spread through a social medium. Their event was  a blast that the hall was full…

They had many Egyptian speakers inspiring others about their experinces and that there is nothing called impossible.Till now I watched two TEDx Cairo talks. It’s really inspiring to know that we have “these” people in our lives who actually care.

I had the opportunity to meet a dedicated woman who is a social entrepreneur. She helps poor families, prisoners’ families, disadvantaged people etc… to sell their hand-crafted products. It was so moving to see all those voluntary people who do that for others. They just want to make other people’s lives better.

To warp up my experince today, I knew that we have TEDx Cairo and they are a wonderful voluntary team who are trying to touch others’ lives.

I met a woman who is trying to make other people’s lives a better by going to rural places in Egypt to discover those disadvantaged families and sell their products to guarantee a good standard of  living to those families.  Her business website is charisma arts

Yesterday  November 2nd 2010 we had an amazing session with Dean Shareski who introduced the concept of digital identity. He brought to my attention this concept which I was not aware of at all. He asked us to google our names and I actually did that several times and found Facebook page, Fulbright alumna, and other social network accounts. But I did not think of the concept of digital identity.His talk is still echoing in my head. Today when I woke up I was still thinking about that. I seriously think about having my virtual domain which displays what I want people to know about me. Potential employers may google my name and I want them to find useful information that helps them to hire me eventually!

According to Wikipedia, digital identity “refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people’s experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things. Digital identity also has another common usage as the digital representation of a set of claims made by one digital subject about itself or another digital subject”. So….

Is having a digital identity a desirable addition to our lives?

Do we have to have a digital identity in the first place?

Does it endanger our individuality and privacy?

 

To answer those questions, I have not thought before of having a digital identity. I am just one of  billions who are using Internet. Why would I care to create an identity for me? The answer is yes, I should care to create an appropriate one for me.  We are using Internet to search and find out about places, so why not people. Why not to find out  about who we are hanging out with, family members  etc…

The question is, Does it invade privacy? We are using Internet and our names must have been mentioned somewhere. It’s impossible to prevent that. Many people are dragged to  BE online. So, why not have what I want to display, what favors me… I think in such digital age privacy is already invaded as long as we have Facebook accounts. This invasion can be to a certain extent, it depends on what people show about their lives. However, it is inevitable to have digital identity as long as we use Internet. Now, it’s our turn to decide what should be put on to draw our image.

Couple of videos about Facebook privacy and goodbye old privacy in facebook age …..