Week 9: Learning styles and Technology Tools; Final Project; Course Evaluation

Learning styles and Technology Tools

I don’t usually cite other people’s words but following sentences could have been written by me.  I can’t agree more.

 “Everyone has a mix of learning styles. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are your styles fixed. You can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles that you already use well.”  http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/ .

Among the optional resources I found a link to a quiz http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-assessment which asks 24 questions and gives you some insights into your learning preferences. This is what I received. 

It clearly shows that I am a mix of learning styles as everybody is. Of course, there are dominant elements. I am quite interpersonal, which is not bad for a teacher. :-)

The most interesting thing for me this week has been ANVILL. What a useful tool! I have watched several videos and I am looking forward to starting using it. ANVILL stands for A National Virtual Language Lab. I am planning to create media-rich lessons using this speech-based toolbox. The most attractive feature of ANVILL for me is that „Spoken language tasks can be integrated into any type of exercise, providing discussion and practice opportunities.” (https://anvill.uoregon.edu/anvill7/ )

After long thinking I have created my Nicenet class for those students of mine who are so called “private students”. They are members of my groups, their names are in the class registers but I hardly ever meet them as they are outstanding athletes who do not have to come to school every day. They go to training camps, travel a lot, take part in competitions, some of them even live abroad and come home only for exams. The requirements for them are the same so I’d like to help them with their studies as much as I can.  By this time we kept contact via e-mails. Now I created the Nicenet site for them and sent the students invitations.

Final Project

After reading my peer review partner’s, Minjung’s comments I made some modifications and additions. The final version of my project has been uploaded to the course site. 

I’d like to seize the opportunity to thank Minjung for her help,  kindness and advice.

By the way, I finished my own WebQuest and shared it on Zunal.com. Link to my WebQuest: Teen Issues - Letter of Advice

Course Evaluation

I’ve been very pleased with the course. I have learnt much more than “webskills”. Having classmates from all over the world has broadened my horizons.  We have never met in person but I think we have become really close to each other.

I’m extremely grateful to the course instructors for helping me through this course.

There is one thing I have forgotten to write down in the evaluation. When I applied, it was said that “Participants should expect to spend on average 8-10 hours per week in course work.” Instead of „week” they should have written “day”. In the last 9 weeks I spent half of each night in front of my computer, not to mention whole weekends. I am not complaining. What I’d like to express is that a lot of time is needed for this course but it is worth it.