Week 2: Web searching – ABCD objective – My class

Web searching

I spent a lot of time exploring a great number of search engines, many of which were new to me. I think I have become much more efficient and confident now in finding information on the net.

The readings provided were really useful, especially Deborah Healey’s, which gives several very useful advice on how to use search engines more effectively (http://www.uoregon.edu/~dhealey/techtips/june2009.html ). I have already shared some of the tips with my fellow teachers and I am planning to do the same with my students.

Ask.com and AllExperts were quite new to me but after spending some time analysing them I decided to use them on my lessons in the near future.
I am preparing some of my students now for their school leaving exam. One of the tasks in the writing part of the ESL exam is to write a newspaper article for a school magazine or an informal letter giving advice for a teenager. As part of the preparation I am planning to use the “Teen Relationships” site on Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/answers/category/3720882/teen-relationships?qsrc=3142) and High School Life on AllExperts (http://en.allexperts.com/q/High-School-Life-3739/indexExp_82797.htm ) when we have our next lesson in the IT room next week. 

ABCD objective

I strongly believe that to avoid getting lost first you have to decide where you want to go. Setting the right objectives is the first step which has to be followed by defining the way you want to reach the objective.

If you want to be successful in teaching, first you have to analyse your students’ needs, then set clear objectives and only after that decide on what teaching methods and materials to use. I am strongly against the non-purpose use of modern technology. Using the elements offered on the worldwide web can be successful only if you know why and what they are used for. I am the head of English teachers in my school and I have to visit my colleagues’ lessons. There are two key questions I usually ask after the visit: What was the aim? Has it been reached?

So to sum up, I think the reading materials and the connected task focused on a key element of the teaching process.

Describe a class

What I really enjoyed about this task was to see how different backgrounds we have.

I was shocked to hear that some of us have groups of 60-90 or even more people.

Our technological background differs as well but I am convinced that in this rapidly changing world the huge gap will soon disappear or at least significantly decrease. Even if you don’t have cutting-edge technology at school at the moment it is worth learning how to use the web because the time when using the Internet will be inevitable is near even in the poorly developed corners of the world.

Overall opinion

All in all there are two main things that I like about this course: improving my web skills and cooperating with teachers from all over the world.