This week I felt very pressed for time. The project plan, interactive exercise design, website and blog… Everything needed thorough attention. However, making a website technically is not difficult for me, as using Dreamweaver I produced the official website for NATEK, the National Association of Teachers of English of Kazakhstan, and now administer its second version (see: http://natek.kz). What is complicated – it’s the content. I understand that I should have started with a scheme of what I wanted to see on the site. Then it would be easier to organize a tree picture of the site. For example, at NATEK website along with the static information, which is easily edited, there is a Forum for discussion and a Moodle platform for delivering a course/workshop/conference.
Again I experienced problems with the Blogger, so I created a new account at Livejournal. So, I think I can have my students start a blog at any available blogging website. I appreciate the features of Nicenet. However I noticed that it’s difficult to follow a thread there. When I want to reply to someone’s comment, it appears under the main message, not under the comment itself. But the platform is very easy to navigate and use for an online course discussion.
Google Docs is a helpful tool for sharing documents. I used it to insert Rubrics into the website and to make a course assessment survey. The survey I shared was developed for assessment of the course that rural teachers took as a part of their professional development. They were required to fill it online to practice their web skills.
Google Docs is a helpful tool for sharing documents. I used it to insert Rubrics into the website and to make a course assessment survey. The survey I shared was developed for assessment of the course that rural teachers took as a part of their professional development. They were required to fill it online to practice their web skills.
Social networks like Ning also offer a great variety of opportunities for organizing online seminars. They provide features like: chat, forum, blog, foto/movie uploading, events, etc. Unfortunately, Ning is not free, but there are others which are. Students often access them from their mobile phones, so they may be used for educational purposes as well. I suppose the unusual use of social networks will be exciting for my students.
This week there was an E-Teacher Scholars’ Conference at the university of Maryland, and I watched some of the presentations online. I learned that there was Perizat Abeldinova, a participant from Kazakhstan, with an interesting project on Incorporating the Interactive Web into Teaching English: A Workshop for English Teachers. It was implemented at her University, but I think I could invite her to deliver an online master class for Kazakhstani teachers.
Hi Tatyana,
ReplyDeleteYeah, making a website technically is not difficult at all, the thing we should care is that we make it for what purpose and what we and the target audience (mostly our students) can get from it. As you said, the quality of your website must be the content which need to be well-organized. You’re so good to use Dreamweaver to make an official website for NATEK. You’re on the go to best use technological tools for your teaching.
I agree that Google Docs is a helpful tool for sharing documents. I also created a survey for analyzing students’ reading interests in which students are required to give their answers online. It’s a part of my final project and hopefully I can meet students’ need in reading skill development.
Best,
Phuong-Mai