REFLECTIONS ON LESSON LEARNT AND FUTURE PRACTICE

Water photo created by wirestock - www.freepik.com


What are the most important things that you have learnt through your engagement in the ONL course? Why?

If asked whether or not to join the course my answer would definitely be that it is worth spending the time on. There are numerous benefits. First of all, it is a great opportunity to meet open and skillful people from all over the world. Thanks to the meetings we had a chance to share information about the latest teaching trends and methods. Secondly, I have learnt about cross-cultural openness and ideas how to collaborate synchronously and asynchronously. The third point is connected with the practical knowledge about using numerous tools and methods to implement into our daily teaching practice. Above all, the course gives time to reflect on routines and breaking them. In result changing teaching into more effective and inspiring practice.

How will your learning influence your practice?

 Development of blended learning will be my priority. I have learned about many tools and methods to be adopted and I wish to use them skillfully. I don’t have much time in class so remote teaching and learning can be the answer for me and my students. At the same time, it will be something that may change routine. I believe in intuitive teaching and adaptation to particular groups. There is a variety of characters, backgrounds and motivations. Ignoring them is a big mistake. Being organic not mechanic (as we defined that during our meetings) is definitely another aspect I have learnt during the course. Now I will concentrate more on collaborative work, sharing and openness.

 What are your thoughts about using technology to enhance learning/teaching in your own context?

In my opinion technology is not a key concern. We have to train our skills and develop abilities. Not knowing tools is a kind of disability in 21st century teaching practice. However, I believe that the biggest values are ideas of collaboration and openness. Thanks to technology it is possible to implement peer to peer learning.

What are you going to do as a result of your involvement in ONL? Why?

Definitely I will reconsider my methods of teaching. Being intuitive, adapting to the group, curriculum or tasks is the only possibility to be effective. Being strict and only one method-oriented leads to boredom, lack of motivation and in result lack of effectiveness. I am sure I will study more teaching models and adopt useful aspects of them. I am thinking about throwing my students into the field of international collaboration, at least part time. I hope it can give the broader perspective.

What suggestions do you have (activities and/or in general) for development of eLearning in your own teaching or context? 

Suggestions to my institution colleagues will be to concentrate on methods and look for devices and tools to make them work. So far, we often were doing the other way round. I will present and advise to try to use a Learning Design model to develop our online courses, and to test some of the new tools I learned from my team. The structure in ONL has allowed for active interactions and the resources are well-organized and well-designed for on-going self-paced learning. I think we have to pay more attention to structuring and organizing what we present to our students.

To conclude: I found the process very refreshing and developing. There are still a lot of questions to be responded in my teaching process. This course answered quite a few of them.

The last but not the least point: I would like to thank the facilitators of our group Alastair and David. They were patient, inspiring and wise in supporting us.  Regards and appreciation to other members of our group: Sara, Fiona, Wei, Helene, Irshaad. Thank you so much! The course wouldn’t be the same without you.



Hand photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com

Komentarze

  1. Unknown12 grudnia 2021 10:32

    Thanks for your comments! It was really interesting to find out that at the end there are other people who share the same ideas and reflections. I totally agree with you that the main goal of an instructor should not be about learning how to effectively use a digital tool but it should be about being flexible and embrace new ways of learning and teaching. I also think is a fantastic idea to bring your students into the field of international collaboration , an option to do so can be the virtual exchanges project!

    OdpowiedzUsuń
  2. Alastair Creelman12 grudnia 2021 23:56

    I'm glad you found the course valuable and hope you can inspire your colleagues (maybe some will want to try the next ONL course). For your students the opportunity to participate in a virtual exchange project can be very valuable. I can recommend joining the UniCollaboration network http://www.unicollaboration.org and here you can find lots of resources and activities. If you want to know more about virtual exchange please contact a good colleague of mine, Gosia Kurek at Jan Dlugosz University (http://www.old.ujd.edu.pl/p1188,Kurek). She's a very inspiring expert in the field.
    Now you have successfully completed the course. Congratulations!

    OdpowiedzUsuń
  3. cp13 grudnia 2021 01:37

    Thank you for your insightful comments. I agree a lot with the foundation of your conclusions - teaching is a craft and we need to be open to all methods and tools to reach the particular students we have in front of us, be in on campus or on Zoom. The intuition/gut feeling of a teacher can actually be the experience and knowledge that is unconsciously manifested and only seen as a feeling... Thank you for being a valuable part of my ONL experience! /Sara

    OdpowiedzUsuń

Prześlij komentarz

Popularne posty z tego bloga

COLLABORATION IN INTERNATIONAL TEAMS

Obraz
Designed by rawpixel.com / Freepik Many universities gather students from different corners of the world. However, geographically diverse and sometimes dispersed teams face many challenges.  Cultural differences which can create social distance pose one of the biggest problems. They can result in lack of emotional connection, that leads to misunderstandings and mistrust. For a few years I have been teaching international teams: those connected only by the internet and those which meet in the classroom. I have noticed that when team members come from different backgrounds or nations communication can decline, misunderstandings appear and cooperation weakens. My students are united by a common goal - developing their knowledge of business English. However, because more and more companies today rely on international workforce to succeed in the work market and at the same time draw benefits of international diversity, my students have to be prepared to operate internationally. And it is
Czytaj więcej

Nice to meet you!

Obraz
  Nice to meet you! I am Ela, a teacher of Business and Legal English at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. In this post I enclose a photo of my hometown and the main building of my university. This is my first attempt at creating a blog. I have to admit that it was a challenging task. But here I am, with my small success. I have been teaching for a long time. The last three semesters I spent in front of the computer, like many of us, teaching remotely via a screen. Online teaching was quite a challenge for me but with time I was improving, learning new tools and skills. I believe that an online network course like this, may be exactly the challenge I need to turn routine into something creative and adopt all the skills in reality of classroom teaching. I hope my students will enjoy the fact that our face-to-face classes will be extended and developed in virtual reality.
Czytaj więcej

POWER OF NON-COGNITIVE ABILITIES

Obraz
  Banner vector created by macrovector - www.freepik.com Teachers are usually committed professionals whose challenge is to plan learning process so that it makes the biggest possible difference to students’ learning and progress. There are numerous issues that have to be taken into consideration, like structure of the course, goals to achieve, scientific content, assessment or the planned workload. However, success in the world of employment is strongly connected with so called soft skills , by which we understand social and emotional abilities. Unfortunately, they are often forgotten in syllabuses and curriculums. In fact, the sooner they are presented and trained, the more profitable it will be for our students. Soft skills will help to open mind, become ready to adapt to new environments and overcome obstacles. One of the first people dealing with soft skills was Dale Carnegie in 1930’s in his book How to win friends and influence people? (Carnegie,1936). It was a self-help book
Czytaj więcej