Week 4 has been a very interesting week and I am finally getting the hang of it. I have found a very interesting article at http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/.. recent lesson. Title: British actress attacks English slang. In this article the actress Emma Thompson comments on the slang that her peers and the youth are using in their everyday communication. I found this article very interesting because there are a lot of similarities with the South African youth. I think that this topic can be very helpfull in developing a suitable lesson plan.
I feel, I may have stumbled onto a topic that I might want to persue. Oral traditions and story telling are very deeply rooted in the African traditions. This could be used in such a way that it will enhance and help my educators in confronting their fears in computer usage. It is something they are familiar with and help them to overcome their fears in learning to use computers for everyday uses.
I found the University of Tennessee's lesson plans quite useful, but encountered problems downloading the Word or PDF format, perhaps I will try again later today. Greetings from sunny South Africa, perhaps we will have some rain today.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Week Three
The third week of our webskills course, like the weeks before has been very interesting. I can't believe how many new things I have learn't. I have actually never been so much on the net just surfing the different prescribed sites. I have used some of the newly found sites for my personal studies as well and found relevant articles in http://www.iseek.com/. Believe it or not, but since I have discovered other sites I haven't used Google for a whole week., Wow!. The Gong-article I found very helpful in CALL, but.... To access many of the programmes, she suggested, you really need a decent computer and unfortunately many of our teachers and schools function on outdated computers and hand-me-downs, they are very slow and are unable to access programmes that she suggested. In South Africa we have a bandwidth problem and access to these sites are a nightmare. They are so slow and once you are in, then connection is lost. One of my fellow class mates mentioned her students using songs to practice their English. This could be very tricky, because I have listened to some of the music my 14 year old son listens to, and I can't understand a word. It has happened to me numerous times, where you sing a song, only to find out later, what you have been singing was totally wrong. I attended a 2-day ICT schoolnet training programme and came accross http://www.wordle.net/, I think it's a very interesting site to use to enhance your Powerpoint presentations. I have loaded some more bookmarks on my delicious site, one in particular is http://www.teacher.co.za/ , This is the site of a education newspaper. I found a very disturbing article on the state of education in South Africa (July 2010) "A case of mistaken identity".Please read it if you have the time. I agree with Lindsay Millar, where she states that listening skills have been neglected, when it came to language teaching. The three step approach was quite useful, and I are sure I will use it in the future.
Good night, looking forward to week four.
Good night, looking forward to week four.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Reflection:Week Two
Wow! It's been a hectic week. I managed to juggle work, studies at varsity, a camp and web skills. I have also come to believe that my new motto in life is "this too shall pass". I've had two days leave this year and I think it's begining to catch up. At least I can say that I've learnt a few new things this week.
Our assignment on the ABCD method, I found quite interesting. I have never encountered it in the past. I must say, what I have done was to re-write some of my work's objectives in the ABCD method and found it very user friendly. What I have realised is that we have the core ingredients (objectives) but not always in the right order. The ABCD method makes it much easier. Many times, especially at my work I realise that people write objectives, using government jargon and acronyms, that actually mean nothing. I found writing affective objectives much harder to write because they are not easily measurable. The writer of the article I read, referred to Bloom's Taxonomy. Although various taxonomies attempt to explain the affective domain, I prefer to use Krathwohl's taxonomy (1973,1998), because it closely resembles Bloom's (1956) well-known taxonomy of the cognitive domain, but focuses on the affective domain.
And, yes, I have searched the web, this week like never before. I have always been satisfied with Google, but now that my eyes have opened, I've come to realise that I have been suffering with "Google-itis". What I have learnt, is that the more you refine your search the better the results. It's a paradigm shift, since I have discovered other search engines, I still find myself sometimes going to Google (we become conditioned very easily, thank you Pavlov) it's an automatic reaction. I think, it's a case of finding the best search engine for your specific need. Some work for some people and others don't. I found the following search engines helpful, some, more than others;
http://www.twurdy.com, http://www.infomine.ucr.edu, http://www.education.iseek.com & "sweet search"
For study purposes at the University of Pretoria, I use http://www.sabinet.co.za or http://www.ebscohost.com
You are welcome to visit my work and study websites, if you please.
University of Pretoria: http://www.up.ac.za
Department of Education: http://www.thutong.doe.gov.za & http://www.education.gov.za
My second week of webskills has come to an end and I am looking forward to next week.
Our assignment on the ABCD method, I found quite interesting. I have never encountered it in the past. I must say, what I have done was to re-write some of my work's objectives in the ABCD method and found it very user friendly. What I have realised is that we have the core ingredients (objectives) but not always in the right order. The ABCD method makes it much easier. Many times, especially at my work I realise that people write objectives, using government jargon and acronyms, that actually mean nothing. I found writing affective objectives much harder to write because they are not easily measurable. The writer of the article I read, referred to Bloom's Taxonomy. Although various taxonomies attempt to explain the affective domain, I prefer to use Krathwohl's taxonomy (1973,1998), because it closely resembles Bloom's (1956) well-known taxonomy of the cognitive domain, but focuses on the affective domain.
And, yes, I have searched the web, this week like never before. I have always been satisfied with Google, but now that my eyes have opened, I've come to realise that I have been suffering with "Google-itis". What I have learnt, is that the more you refine your search the better the results. It's a paradigm shift, since I have discovered other search engines, I still find myself sometimes going to Google (we become conditioned very easily, thank you Pavlov) it's an automatic reaction. I think, it's a case of finding the best search engine for your specific need. Some work for some people and others don't. I found the following search engines helpful, some, more than others;
http://www.twurdy.com, http://www.infomine.ucr.edu, http://www.education.iseek.com & "sweet search"
For study purposes at the University of Pretoria, I use http://www.sabinet.co.za or http://www.ebscohost.com
You are welcome to visit my work and study websites, if you please.
University of Pretoria: http://www.up.ac.za
Department of Education: http://www.thutong.doe.gov.za & http://www.education.gov.za
My second week of webskills has come to an end and I am looking forward to next week.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
I have created my own blog
I have created my first blog. I thought that it would be much harder to do. Fear of the unknown? must be. I still have to download a photo and make it all fancy. I feel quite empowered for creating my own blog but on the other hand, I'm not crazy about idea that my information and ideas are floating around in cyberspace. I'm not very trusting of the world wide web, do any of you feel the same? let me know.
I have had the longest week. Had to submit an assignment on Saturday and attend class the whole day. I sincerely hope my second week of webskills2010 will be better.
Greetings from sunny South Africa
I have had the longest week. Had to submit an assignment on Saturday and attend class the whole day. I sincerely hope my second week of webskills2010 will be better.
Greetings from sunny South Africa
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