Reflections: Week 7- Student Autonomy and 1 Computer Classroom

Despite personal problems at home (father's epilepsy and brain ceasure), and Nicenet down, Week 7 was another great learning experience. It dealt with two topics:

1. Student Autonomy
2. One Computer classroom.

We had to read the whole material and comment on either one of the topics but our course instructor Courtney modified the plan that we had to combine the two for writing our observations. It was a very good plan. Most of us were able work the combination of the two.

How do I normally use Computers in the Classroom?

Before doing this course I used computer in the classroom for normally two things.

1. Conducting a class using the Power Point.

2. Screening a film. 

Rarely when I used to get very creative, I used to create an activity that would include:

Listening Comprehension:

In this activity I would take up a song or a dialogue or a scene from a good movie and ask the students to answer questions based on that; Or I would also ask them to transcribe the lyrics of the song played. 

Assessment during a group discussion or an Interview and giving feedback:

Since I type faster than I write with the help of a pen and paper, when I conducted a group discussion or a one on one interview/ assessment to gauge the level of learning. I used to type the mistakes and errors made in pronunciation, grammar and fluency against the name of every student. I also mailed it to the students.

Recording the voice of the students:

Sometimes when students cannot understand the production of a particular sound, I used the laptop as a recording device. I use it to tell the students, how the word actually sounds and how do they pronounce it. Thanks to Courtney, now I know of a software which is very effective--Vocaroo. 

Jasmina and I during our course of discussion agreed on some of the following points:

1. Miming: is a very good tool for learner autonomy. The learners can mime their favourite actors or cartoon characters in order to learn a new language. They would lose self-consciousness or hitch while doing so. 
2. Using songs: The students can make use of songs for improving their listening comprehension. They would listen to a song in English, try to guess the lyrics and then see the lyrics for a while. They would continue doing so until they got all of it right. 
3. Reading a story: The students write the summary of a story that is read in the class and go home and ponder over it. 

How can I now use Computers in the Classroom?

1. Allowing them free access to all my presentations: This point has been suggested by Jasmina and I agree with it fully. I can also do the same with my students.

2. Allotting workspaces for all courses: In the computer, that could be kept in the class, I could make separate folders for each semester and put the necessary material in that. The credit for this learning also goes to Jasmina.

3. As an Information and Communication station: The computer in the class can be loaded with encyclopaedia or other language learning software which the students can use in spare time.

4. As a Presentation Tool: Besides using it for Power Point Presentation, I can also use it to display my notes or a quiz that I develop or a couple of video clips to drive a point home.

5. As a Publishing Tool: Thanks to Donna Ashmus for giving this idea that a computer can be used for taking out monthly class magazine, newsletter, anthologies, class-room journal, Ongoing story centre and web publishing.

6. As Learning centre and Simulation Centre: Donna gave this idea that drills etc. can be conducted with the help of a specific software. Specialized software can also be used to create simulation, form teams of students.

I am glad that this course has widened the horizon to me for using a single computer in a classroom.

Reading Assignments

1. Dimitrios Thanasoulas's Article

One of the first articles that I read was "What is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered?" By Dimitrios Thanasoulas. He quotes Benson and Voller who define autonomy in five ways:

1. There are situations in which learners study entirely on their own.
2. Self directed learning in which learners learn and apply a set of skills.
3. Inborn capacity which is suppressed by institutional education.
4. Exercise of learners' responsibility for their own learning
5. For the right of learners to determine the direction of their own learning. 

He also makes a point that learning is simply not a matter of memorization but a constructive process which involves seeking or sometimes constructing meaning. He also believes that the teacher lending a helping hand to students every now and then is a weakness or the sign of an ill-prepared teacher. From these statements, it implies that the author wants the students to be totally self-reliant. However, I have my own reservations. Student autonomy can never be a substitute for the teacher. The author also mentions some cognitive strategies like repetition, resourcing, translation, note taking, deduction, contextualization, transfer, inferencing and question for clarification. Dimitrios also mentions some metacognitive strategies like directed attention, selective attention, self reinforcement and self evaluation. 

According to him self-reports, diaries and evaluation sheets can be used to promote learner autonomy. 

2. Samuel Sheu's Article: Learner Autonomy: Bird in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-Bush?

This is a very interesting article and touched the heart of most of us including Mahesh and me. We discussed the situation in India where the parents and the government decides the future of the students. We came to the conclusion that the autonomy of the learners depends to a great extent on the autonomy provided to the teachers. The situation here in India where the syllabi are now made by the bureaucrats in the government and the schedule is so tight that there is no room for innovation is quite similar to what Sheu mentions in his article. I really liked the statement of the author where he writes, "an examination-dominated system has made every learner of English gasp for breath". Reading the posts of my colleagues made me aware that the situation is more or less in most of the parts of the world and we as teacher need to take steps to promote learner autonomy. 

3. ESL Activities for the One Computer Classroom (S.Gaer): Word-Processing Ideas:

4. Internet ideas:      

5. Donna Ashmus's article:7 Categories of Classroom Computer Use:   I have already used the information of this article in writing how will I now use computer in the classroom. 

                      THE PROJECT

I have chosen Nino to be my partner for the project. 

During the implementation of the technological change in the classroom, I did a lot of things like teaching with the help of web, power point, audio-visual devices, challenging the students to write their own draft on the computer in the computer lab while I observed them. 

To see the effect of this change, I conducted a test in which the students had to use the "Interactive Power Point" that was created by me as a part of the course. They had to use the Power Point Presentation and then write a paragraph on their understanding of the poem. This was also a part of their internal assessment. So this was made formal to bring some seriousness in the task. 

The power point presentation that I used was mailed to the students. They were made to sit in the computer lab for 40 minutes and use the interactive power point. 

Then they were given the task to write a paragraph on the same. 

The assessment would be carried out at two levels.

1. Peer assessment.

2. Assessment by the teacher. 

In order to ensure that the assessment is not subjective or biased, I created a rubric for the students. 

The Rubric that I created to enable the students for Peer Assessment. 

Analysis of A Work of Art : Rubric for Evaluation of an answer on Appreciation of a Poem

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Theme of the poem	Makes a complete and detailed description of the theme of the poem and all the important points are dealt with.	Makes a detailed description of the themes of the poem and some of the important points are dealt with.	Makes a detailed description of some of the themes of the poem and one or two important points are dealt with	Descriptions are neither detailed nor complete.
Expression	Excellent, showing personal as well as objective and metaphorical understanding of the poem.	Good expression showing personal or objective understanding of the poem.	Fair expression showing some understanding of the poem.	Neither personal nor objective understanding of the poem is seen.
Figures of Speech	All the major figures of speech like metaphor, simile, synecdoche, metonymy, personification, hyperbole, transferred epithet etc. are identified.	Most of the major figures of speech are identified.	Only some of the figures of speech are identified.	One or less figures of speech are identified.
Comprehension	The write up shows an excellent comprehension of the poem.	The write up shows a good comprehension of the poem.	The write up shows a fair comprehension of the poem.	The write up shows a very poor comprehension of the poem.
Language	Excellent, with no grammatical or spelling mistakes.	Good with one or two grammatical or spelling mistakes.	Fair with 3-5 grammatical or spelling mistakes.	Poor with more than 5 grammatical or spelling mistakes.

After the students have awarded points for each category, they need to add them up and divide them by 2. The number that they get will be the marks that they award to their classmate.

Then I appointed two examiners for each student and made sure that they were mutually exclusive so that there was no conflict of interest. 

On Tuesday at 3:00 PM, they will have the assessment in the lab. 

Looking forward to a whole new week.