Week 9: Weekly Reflection

Dear Sir/Madam,

Through the ninth week of the training, the following main activities have retained my attention: (I) The week 8 brought us the guest (but let me call him an expert) called Jeff Magoto who introduced ANVILL. We were invited to join Jeff’s webinar on Tuesday at 8:00 am (Pacific Time), but I have to apologize because I missed the discussion. I was invigilating examinations for the second sittings. Anyway I hope to revisit resources for the week 8 to get more insights with regard to the practice of ANVILL.

(II) I have read resources for week 9. These mainly focused on learning styles and technology.

Thanks to articles I have read and others readings from the discussion thread, I have discovered that teachers should know their students’ learning styles and adopt technology accordingly. In fact, I will always remember that “students preferentially take in and process information in different ways” (see: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html).

In addition, I have learnt that depending on students’ styles, http://pages.towson.edu/wizer/501/MILP1.HTM provides materials that may be used: video player, television, video tape, computers for students to work on, internet access, digital camera, video camera, scanner, …and I hope to gather most of these materials so that while incorporating technology in my class activities, I match students’ learning styles.

I am glad to learn about the different learning styles our students have, and I am also informed on how I can facilitate and feed most learning styles while teaching my students. Practically, technology can render a great support to meet learners’ different learning styles.

Finally, the following piece of advice has been more inspirational for me, and I would like to share it with people who visit my blog: “Always vary activities in lessons: the more ways you teach a concept, the more students will comprehend”. (Reference: http://pages.towson.edu/wizer/501/sld005.htm).

(III) I have refined, finalized and submitted my plan report. In fact, I first wrote a draft and shared it with my classmate, Pablo Garcia from Argentina, to whom I indebt many thanks for his constructive feedback. He truly has given me expertise in order to submit a reviewed version of my plan. Actually, this is about solving assessment issue using http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ on one hand; and https://www.schoology.com/home with https://moodle.org/ on the other hand.

To finish up this weekly reflection, allow me to mention that on August 16^th, 2013, I completed a short survey about my experience. I have shown how the course was in general, class activities and resources, what I liked best and what suggestions I can put. All in all, congratulations to the University of Oregon and the instructors on having provided me with fruitful online training!!!

All the best,

Sosthene