This week brought me closer to the end of the course. It gave me a feeling of accomplishment, because I finally managed to develop a webquest and wrote my final project report. I had a look at a couple of final projects: Svitlana’s and Mykola’s. I was really impressed by Mykola’s report, which is more like an academic research paper. The tools Mykola selected for his project (Facebook platform and ANVILL voiceboard and live chat) are very challenging, and I appreciate his effort very much. The idea of the use of Facebook for educational purposes attracts me very much. Voiceboard and livechat which provide synchronous communication between students and teachers are very powerful tools. At the same time, one needs to take into consideration possible language use or speaking anxiety of students, pressure of online communication, and possible inability to participate in online events at proposed time. Therefore, some asynchronous communication events could be a comprehensible solution.
Svitlana published her webquest on “Recent Developments and the Future of IT”. I found Svitlana’s approach and ideas very similar to mine. It may probably be accounted to similar settings, target group characteristics and needs. I decided to develop a webquest for two main reasons: first, it was something I haven’t used before; second, I had thought it time-consuming and not worth the effort, so I wanted to have a go and see. As I was working at it I got involved in the process and saw possible bottle necks for my students. The most complicated part was the content and the practical outcome. This is where I could still work. I hope it will get better with practice. I thought getting students involved in the assessment of their group members’ collaborative work skills and familiarizing them with the criteria for evaluation before the task would contribute much to building their communication skills. This may also encourage them to work better towards the end-result.
Svitlana’s project also included a Powerpoint presentation of students’ findings in recent IT developments and, in addition, an essay on the future of IT. She is very detailed about the degree to which her students should perform the writing task. I went through the webquest at http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=108943 and wrote a review.
This week’s readings were very useful for bringing together theory and practice of multiple intelligences. I received a clearer insight into learner styles interaction with technology tools used in the classroom. Thanks to Mykola and others there is a list of learner styles and corresponding technology use to cater their needs. I will study my students’ learner styles using the Learning Styles chart at http://www.chaminade.org/INSPIRE/learnstl.htm, and/or the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire at http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html and will try to develop tasks engaging most of them.
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