Week 10 #1: Levels of Technology Integration and End of Course?

Hello Everybody!

Welcome to Week 10, the last week of our exciting Web Skills Course. It is very difficult to believe and accept that this course is ending this week. But a proverb in my Mbesa mother tongue asks: "Did any sweet thing ever last in the mouth?" I feel like writing an official request o UO asking for an extension of the duration of the course!

In response to this week's requirements, I have to take a retrospective look on this great course, focusing on the following areas. So, let's go!

What Topics Were Most Successful for You During the Course?

To this question, my answer is a big ALL. I mean that all topics covered in course were appealing and enriching to me. There is no single topic that did not teach me new things, skills and concepts. Beginning from web searching tools and sides, passing through writing ABCD model of behavioral objectives, project-based learning (PBL), using Padlet, creating interactive PowerPoint Presentations (PPT, which I dare call Power to Point to Success), developing the final project plan, teacher online resources, creating WebQuests and rubrics, alternative assessment, learner autonomy, online social bookmarking through Delicious, learning styles/strategies and multiple intelligence theory to levels of technology integration into our curricula, I found every topic useful. I am now ready to turn my learners into real digital natives without losing sight of their language needs and character development in a world of diversity--diversity in all spheres of life.

What Were Most Useful to You?

The Search Engine List, Noodle Tools, Web Poster Wizard, PBL, Zunal.com, Quest Garden, Delicious, ABCD behavioral objectives, Padlet, Hot Potatoes, blogger.com, PPT, and Tiers of Technology Integration are some of the technology tools that I have developed a special soft spot for, but I must repeat here that I found every tool and topic in the course useful.

Which tools will you use in your classes?

Everything being equal, I will use all the above listed tools in my class as well as those not listed. I just pray that access to ICTs should be improved in the schools where I teach because some of these tools are hard to come by. For instance, purchasing a video projector for PPTs in ordinary Cameroonian schools is almost a far-fetched dream for now. Most rural schools do not have computer labs and most urban schools with these labs do not have access to the internet in most cases. My integration ICTS into language teaching (both French and English) will largely depending on the school environments where I teach. One thing is however VERY CERTAIN: from now onward, the way I use technology in teaching WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. I am targeting Tier 3 technology integration/Infusion and Transform, from the Tiers and levels models we studied this week respectively.

Which, if any, do you think were not relevant to what you do or will do?

Honestly speaking NONE of the tools explored and applied in this course was IRRELEVANT to me. As I said earlier, ALL of them were USEFUL/RELEVANT to me in ways that a blog post like this one cannot effectively communicate.

What other tools might we have covered or would you suggest that we could have looked at?

My suggestion here is that it would be good to include aspects like Skype Teaching in the course content subsequently. Skype Language Teaching is one of the newest and most viral teaching approaches/techniques emerging in the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) these days. The organizers of this course will DO WELL if they integrate this novel approach into this great course.

And What have You?
Now that I have finished responding to the blogging tasks/demands for this week from Dr Donna Shaw (a name I my keyboard and lips have already stored in their long term memory!), I will turn to personal choices. I believe that the Nicenet tasks for last week (week 9) were somehow requiring us to RECALL the salient issues acquired so far in the course. In that forum, I interacted with many people through my posts  where they commented and by commenting on their posts as well. Some of the comments I made on posts there are included below. You may share the various feelings that I expressed in them. Here we go!

1. In response to a discussion topic generated by Donna about the importance of alternative assessment (something close to my heart too!), I wrote:

         Hello Donna and Maja!


       And the regrettable thing for me is that my country, like that of Maja, still focuses on 
       standardized/traditional/classical testing/assessment and our educational system is largely 
      examination-driven. I have a dream like Martin Luther King Jr. that one day Cameroonian 
       students and students all over the world will be tested/assessed in ways as varied as are human 
       races and individuals on earth.

• If wishes were horses, I will ride them to study in a great educational hub like UO and come back to Cameroon with a big title like Doctor or Professor that can increase the weight and volume of my suggestions and proposals towards salvaging this situation!
  
  I really like this discussion topic. We should stop focusing on errors and look out for what our learners can really do with knowledge. After all, to err is human.
  
  Nsah Mala
  Cameroon

2. I wrote the following comment on Ali Sher Ghanghr's post on learning strategies, styles and multiple intelligence: 

• Hello ALi!
  
  You sum up a lot about the use of blogs, nicenet and podcasts-great technology tools for publishing (and even peer-review), discussing and sharing handouts (plus other forms of assignments).
  
  Honesty, Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences really transforms teachers into learners and call for a self-evaluation in order to pinpoint our own learning strategies and then know how to help learners learn.
  
  From your post, I have also gathered that PowerPoint is almost the king of technology tools for teaching. Though I have not yet used this tool, I understand how central it is to teaching and learning in today's world. Used with other tools, it has the "Power to Point to Success" (my personal coinage!).
  
  Nsah Mala
  Cameroon

You can realize the source of my personal name to PPT as Power to Point o Success. I first used this expression in the above comment. Should I say, copyright held by Kenneth Toah Nsah (Nsah Mala) for coining the above expression? Hahaha!

While commenting on another discussion topic generated by Dr Donna Shaw on PBL and WebQuests, I said: 

• Hello Donna and Everybody!
  
  PBL is like running a state or nation. Consequently, students' choices and voices must be sought for and respected the way we seek for and respect those electoral voices of the citizens with whom we build our states/nations. Thus, learner autonomy, alternative assessment and PBL entail the actual democratization education.
  
  This is another enriching discussion topic and I really like and appreciate it.
  
  Nsah Mala
  Cameroon

You would notice that I personally liken learner autonomy (seeking and respecting learners' choices and voices) to political democracy. I hope this remind us of the democratization of education! 

If you take a second look in the colors of the three comments above, you will notice that I wanted to use something like GREEN, RED, YELLOW which are the national colors of Cameroon. Our flag is GREEN, RED, YELLOW, with a GOLDEN YELLOW STAR on the RED strip. I love my country so much, in spite of corruption and other ills in it!

In the Bible, Jesus started with prayer and ended with prayer. I am not Jesus ooh! However, in a similar manner I stared by blog posts in this course with photos and I am ending with photos.

Take these ones!

Before you wave back a GOODBYE as the one you see in the last photo above, do not forget to hook up with me and other course participants on our Facebook Group at  University of Oregon Summer 2015 Web Skills Course. 

October 5th will soon be around and I wish all of us a HAPPY International Day of the Teacher for 2015 in advance. BONNE  Fête des Enseignants 2015 en avant! (Remember that Cameroon is bilingual in English and French and that I am a teacher of these two languages.

Thanks for your kind attention.

It was a wonderful pleasure being with all of you in this class! I will miss all of you.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Nsah Mala

Cameroon

Week 9 # 1: Learning Strategies, Styles and Multiple Intelligence

Hello Everybody!

I welcome you all to the post of our eight week in this wonderful and rich course.

This week I read articles about learning strategies, learning styles and the theory of multiple intelligence. A good teacher must understand that different learners learn in different ways and possess different types of intelligence. Thus a good teacher should be able to blend various teaching approaches to meet the learners' demands. This will then lead to balanced teaching and balanced learning. Identifying, overtly teaching, and encouraging learners to consciously apply various learning styles in class is key to success. The balance that such teaching and learning embody is captured as follows:

Everybody is active sometimes and reflective sometimes. Your preference for one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild. A balance of the two is desirable. If you always act before reflecting you can jump into things prematurely and get into trouble, while if you spend too much time reflecting you may never get anything done.

Source: LEARNING STYLES AND STRATEGIES is active sometimes and reflective 

In this way, we will teach our learners to become strategic learners. Learners who know what to study, how, when and where to study it. Following are the benefits that strategic learners enjoy:

What happens to students when they become strategic?– The following outcomes can be expected:–
• Students trust their minds.–
• Students know there’s more than one right way to do things.–
• They acknowledge their mistakes and try to rectify them.–
• They evaluate their products and behavior.–
• Memories are enhanced.–
• Learning increases.–
• Self-esteem increases.–
 • Students feel a sense of power.–
• Students become more responsible.–
• Work completion and accuracy improve.–
• Students develop and use a personal study process.–
• They know how to “try.”–
 • On-task time increases; students are more “engaged.”–
Source: American English: Learning Strategies

You may want to know the various forms of intelligence that teachers and learners collaboratively strive to achieve in their classes. Then, take this:

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences 
1. Verbal-linguistic intelligence (well-developed verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds, meanings and rhythms of words)
 2. Logical-mathematical intelligence (ability to think conceptually and abstractly, and capacity to discern logical and numerical patterns)
 3. Spatial-visual intelligence (capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly)
 4. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (ability to control one’s body movements and to handle objects skillfully)
5. Musical intelligences (ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber)
6. Interpersonal intelligence (capacity to detect and respond appropriately to the moods, motivations and desires of others)
 7. Intrapersonal (capacity to be self-aware and in tune with inner feelings, values, beliefs and thinking processes)
 8. Naturalist intelligence (ability to recognize and categorize plants, animals and other objects in nature)
9. Existential intelligence (sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence such as, What is the meaning of life? Why do we die? How did we get here? (Source: Thirteen ed online, 2004)
Soucrce: Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

As a language teacher, verbal-linguistic intelligence is of prime importance to me and my learners, but all learners must to grow into journalists, writers and interpreters (common careers for those with this form of intelligence). We also need accountants and managers (logical-mathematical intelligence), painters and architects (spatial-visual intelligence), physical education teachers and coaches (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence), musicians and DJs (musical intelligence), human resource officers and politicians (Interpersonal intelligence), as well as philosophers and environmentalists (intrapersonal, naturalist and existential intelligences). Society needs all of them the way our bodies need all their members. This necessitates balanced teaching and learning.

The above reflection has been born our of this week's readings and Nicenet discussion task.

Another exciting thing I did this week is that I made finishing touches on my final report draft and submitted it. I am highly indebted to all  course participants who made valuable suggestions to improve the quality of my report, though I shoulder the total responsibility for any errors still found in it.  I also completed the online survey/evaluation for this course and must confess that it was well conceived!

Look at the following photos of mine, please.

Don't I look like a DJ in them? Hahahahahaha! Hahahahaha! I think I do look like one. You can call me here DJ Nsah Mala. Hahahaha! Just laugh and relax from the stress of working on our final reports.

Enjoy the rest of this week. Best of love from Yaounde, Cameroon.

Nsah Mala
Cameroon

Week 8 #1: Exploring Teacher Resources and Peer-reviewing Project or Plan Draft Reports

Hello everybody!

In two weeks' time, this course will be over. How time flies!

This week, I explored many teacher resources both on- and offline. Among the resources I explored, those that caught my attention in a special way were Google Drive, Google Sites, Hot Potatoes  and Web Poster Wizard.

I have had some prior experience with Google Drive, but  could not use it effectively until this week. I will use it in my classes for conducting surveys/online questionnaires. With Google sites now, I can create web pages for my classes and even for personal use--as a writer. On such sites, I can conduct online teaching, posting tasks and receiving students' assignments, etc. Hot Potatoes is a site where I can create exercises for practice and evaluation to be used both online and offline. These exercises can be MCQs, Matching Exercises,  Gap-filling Exercises, etc.

I used Web Poster Wizard to create a worksheet for practice/assessment of conditionals in English. It is a site where one can quickly create worksheets to be used by both teachers and students. Thus, it fosters interaction and even learner autonomy. My worksheet can be found at Practice Conditionals in English by Kenneth Toah Nsah.

Another challenging but enriching aspect of this week has been the task on sharing our plan or plan draft reports for peer-review. I exchanged my draft plan report with Abeer Ali and he did a great job on it; he corrected some few errors on it and made useful recommendations aimed at improving it. I did same for him. He even suggested that I modify my report into a publishable research paper. What a great suggestion! It is worth noting that we exchanged our documents both on the wiki page for sharing reports and via email cc'ing Donna. This way, we were sure that our exchanges are very, very traceable. Now, I am going to focus on improving the report in order to turn in the final copy at the appointed time. I am also working on two research papers for an upcoming international academic conference on the theme "Re-imagining Marginality in the Global Context" slated for the end of this month at a private university in Ndop, North West Region, Cameroon.It is therefore a very hectic week for me!

However, I have kept on teaching my nephews typing on my laptop. They are really enjoying the experience!

Have this photo taken when I was writing this post, though it is blurred.

Hope all of you are doing great as usual.

Best of love,

Nsah Mala
Cameroon

Week 7 #1: Rendering Learners Autonomous and Coping with the One-Computer Classroom

Hello Everybody!

The seventh week of our course is rushing to an end. However, fantastic and new technologies and techniques are still pouring in.

I have learned how to make my learners autonomous; our students need some sense of independence and inter-independence while learning. That is why their voices and choices have to matter and teachers have to shift from the centers of attraction to facilitators and companions. Thus, this week calls for more democratization in education or better still what I dare call the decentralization of education, with more responsibilities shifting to the learners who form the core of all pedagogy.

Padlet has been my new catch for this week. Or should I say I have been one of Padlet's new catches this week? This tool had charmed me with its great features, privacy-security and simplicity--you just double click at the wall of the site and find yourself adding things to it. It is a great tool for posting home works, undertaking collaborative work/research, and even for promoting further learner autonomy. Our task for this tool helped me to come across a nice article by one of Cameroon's emerging scholars and writers in the name of Harry Kucha Kucha who recently completed a PhD in Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, UK. He co-authored the article with Richard Smith in which they distinguish pedagogy of and for autonomy; the article is titled Pedagogy of autonomy for difficult circumstances: from practice to principles. It draws its raw material form Kucha's personal experiences as a teacher of English in Cameroon--experiences similar to mine. According to the two authors, " „pedagogy for autonomy‟ describes approaches to classroom-based learning where the goal of promoting learner autonomy is explicitly in the mind of the teacher, whereas in a pedagogy of autonomy students‟ existing autonomy is engaged but developing this capacity is not an explicit goal."

They conclude that Kucha's stories fall within pedagogy of autonomy as he was rendering his learners autonomous without any conscious knowledge of pedagogy for autonomy.

This week I continued writing my project plan, developing it into something concrete with focus on aspects like the final product, expected response and resources. In respect of the course task demanding us to find a project partner, I have found Abeer Ali, from Iraq, as my project partner. Both of us are working on plans because we don't have students this term. Hopefully, I will finish developing the plan next week and send it to my partner for peer-review as required...

Do you like photos again? Then take these ones with me in my native traditional wear known as Bamenda grass fields/NorthWest Regalia. This is the unique cultural identity of Cameroon, particularly Bamenda grass fields/North West Region where I hail from. Remember to watch the short video on it below.

There are three short videos here too talking about this attire and how I have been faring with my nephews on typing in a laptop. Besides laptop typing, my lovely nephews have also been narrating some folktales to me and I am recording them. Another nephew of mine amused me today when I asked him more than thrice to tell a tale to no avail but immediately he noticed I was going to film him with my laptop he quickly started narrating.

You can then imagine the excitement and motivation that technology creates in children/learners.

Enjoy your week.

Nsah Mala
Cameroon

Week 6 #1: Managing and Engaging Large Classes through Interaction, Implementing Technology Tool

Hello everybody!

I welcome everybody to week 6 of this exciting course. The time curve of our course reached equilibrium last last and has begun gradually falling towards zero-point this week. Therefore, the course is winding to an end and yet excitement is still full and new technologies to spice up our pedagogic work are still flowing in and are highly welcomed.

This week, for example, we have read and practiced techniques and tips aimed at engaging students in large classes and making such classes interactive. Besides traditional tips such as variety, pace, collaboration, speaking style, interest, individualization, etc., the interactive web also offer so many possibilities for rendering our large (and small) classes interactive. Such web-based tools include the interactive PowerPoint Presentation (PPT), Blackboard Online Assessment, and Respondus. PowerPoint, in my opinion, seems to be the king of this interactive technological tools because (as I have suggested on one of our Nicenet discussions) it enhances interaction for both the instructor and learners, leaving none of them idle and screen-bound. Though I have never used PPT before in my lessons, I created an interactive PPT for my students based on tag questions, and made it interactive by adding activities in it such as think-pair-share, quick thinks and minute paper.  

One other important aspect of the course this week has been Project Task #5 which required us to either start implementing our project tool (for those teaching this term) or continue refining and adding more details to our project plans (for those not teaching this term).  Personally, I fall under the second category of persons above because I am not teaching this term and thus embarking on a final plan. Since we were not expected to post to our Nicenet Project Task #5 entry, I have decided to blog about what I did in that line here. First, I developed the background information for my chosen class in details, saying who are the learners, what is the setting of their learning environment, what are their needs, what are the course goals for them and additional information about them. Second, I worked out a detailed bibliography for my plan consisting more than 15 entries including blog posts, articles and book chapters. There are blog posts and articles, for instance, on the use of blogging and emailing in ESL/EFL teaching and learning, and some introducing and explaining action research. In this same vein, I have decided to define some key terms in my plan and do a review of related literature to my plan and this is ongoing presently. 

While google-searching articles that define an email, I also tumbled on two that detail how to create and manage email groups and email lists on Yahoo Mail and Gmail entitled "Gmail: Create Groups and Mailing List"  and "Creating an Email on Yahoo Groups".  I really liked these articles because they answered questions I was contemplating asking in our course class before it draws to a close. Third and finally, I visited our main course website and downloaded the plan template and plan assessment/review rubrics to refer to as I work on finalizing my plan.

You know what it means to promise people something? They say a promise is a debt. Now, I always remember that I owe my blog visitors/commentators a debt of at least a photo. See me in a pensive mode, wondering what kind of photo to include this week.

And suddenly, it dawned on me that I could take a snapshot of my brother’s kids who came to spend one week out of their holiday with me. And this also gave them the opportunity to touch a laptop; I dare tell you that they come from my native village Mbesa, hundreds of kilometers away from Yaounde and that computers (particularly laptops) are so rare there. Children study computer science and yet do not touch computers!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s photos. Hahahahaha! Pardon my laughter, it is one of my natural gifts. I laugh a lot, and I have been fighting hard to restrain it in our classes.

Guess what? I introduced them to typing on the laptop and we began by typing their names. I first typed everybody’s name and then gave them each a chance to type theirs While I was directing the movements of their hands. It was more than just fun; it shows how excited kids can be in the rural villages if we introduce Technologies in teaching them, making sure that the use of the technologies is practical. And if wishes were horses, I will ride home and provide laptops, internet connection and video projectors in all schools in Cameroon, especially in rural settings, so that teaching and learning through the interactive web will be utilized to the fullest! I have saved their typed names under the file name The Yemehs Learn Typing so that we can keep practicing typing skills whenever time permits within the period of their stay in my house…

Thanks for visiting and commenting.

Best of love,

Nsah Mala

Cameroon

Week 5 #1: WebQuesting and Designing Alternative Assessment Rubrics to Enhance PBL

Hello everyone!


This is week 5 of our course, exactly have the duration of the course. Time really flies!

I have read about Project-based Learning (PBL), alternative assessment, rubrics, checklists and WebQuests.

PBL is an offshoot of inquiry learning and, for me, WebQuests constitute the web-based versions of PBL. With this approach of teaching/learning, standardized traditional tests like MCQs, fill the gaps, answer true or false etc. cannot effectively measure performance because PBL activities go beyond the simple, routine memorization of formulas and rules. This is where alternative assessment via checklists and rubrics sets in. Content, assiduity, respect of deadlines/timelines, interactivity, to name but these, are some of the components of PBL for assessment. In this regard, I have learned that well conceived learning projects and evaluation rubrics formulated by teachers in synergy with learners bring about learner autonomy and  lead to better outcomes/end products. The motivation aspect of this cannot be overemphasized. After all, who does not know that our present-day learners are largely (becoming) digital natives and are so enthusiastic and motivated to learn on their own and thanks to digital technologies?

Just take a look at the following photographs of my Cinquieme (the second grade in Francophone secondary schools in Cameroon) students at Les Armandins High Yaounde. I took the photos with my laptop around April this year...

Did you notice that the students were scrambling and crowding in front of the camera? Did you notice that they are so excited to be photographed in class? They have never scrambled or crowded like this in front of their textbook when I move round the class showing them things therein. This shows that they are motivated, enthusiastic and excited about new technologies. In spite of poverty that limits their access to these gadgets, they are all eager to become full digital natives/citizens.

Now, just suppose I sit down with them, introduce them to WebQuests, draft assessment rubrics with them and send them to do the following WebQuest on Present Simple Tense at Zunal.com. You can then imagine the amount of motivation this will generate among the students and the fun and ease with which they will master and practice the present simple tense far away from their (largely scarce) textbooks. Such is what this week has taught me. What did you learn on you part, dear blog visitor?


In addition, this week also gave me the opportunity to do the forth tasks en route to my final project plan for the course. We were asked to describe ONE technological tool that we will use to resolve the ONE issue or problem we identified in our class last week. For me, my students' reading and writing skills are poor and I have described how I will using blogging to remedy this situation.

I also created some assessment rubrics for evaluating a narrative essay on Rubistar. The experience was fantastic, quick, smooth and enriching. Similarly, I created a WebQuest entitled Trip to America at Zunal.com and this earned me five extra credits. The process was fun but also demanding and time-consuming. However, I will never quit because winners never quit and quitters never win.


Tinatin and others, I hope you are happy I brought back photos to this blog. I now know that you enjoy them. Perhaps, you are good visual learners (or I should say teachers?).

Thanks for visiting and  commenting. Be blessed.

Best of love,
Nsah Mala
Cameroon

Week 4 #1: Reading, Writing, Vocabulary; Lesson Planning and Problem/Issue Identification Week

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the fourth week of our exciting Web Skills Course. 

One of the greatest discoveries I made this week was that I came across two articles that completely revolutionized my beliefs and the stance of the Cameroon government regarding the use of phones by learners in primary and secondary schools in our country. The first of these articles is "Use of Cell Phones at School--25 Tips for Teachers and Students (at http://www.useoftechnology.com/cell-phones-school/). The numerous ways in which cellphones can enhance teaching/learning on this page have compelled me to start reflecting on possibilities of convincing the state of Cameroon to wave off the ban prohibiting primary and secondary school students from bring cellphones to schools. For now, Cameroonians keep stressing the bad sides of these gadgets in schools, but Meg Ormiston, author of the second article titled "How to Use Cell Phones as Learning Tools" (at http://www.teachhub.com/how-use-cell-phones-learning-tools) rightly argues that: 

      We didn't ban pens in our schools because students can pass notes during class. The pencils                have also survived even though you could poke someone in the eye. And the amount of paper             that is generated in most schools is almost criminal.
Besides the reading articles for this week, I also explored nice pedagogic websites like Children's Story Books (at http://www.magickeys.com/books/) and Reading On the Go (at http://americanenglish.state.gov/ebooks). I also found very useful material about English-French bilingual teaching like translations of basic conversation words at http://iteslj.org/v/fr/cm-conversation_basics.html. My students speak French as first official language. Thus, this will help them so much in improving their English, especially vocabulary.

Story Bird and Advance English Lessons are other great websites that I discovered and explored and hope you will all find them amazing.

As a researcher, I found some good journals where I can publish my papers without paying any publishing fees and I quickly bookmarked them on my Delicious page. I also bookmarked all new good sites that I discovered and exploited this week. In all, I added more than 10 new links to my Delicious page. You can check them at My Delicious Page.

Any challenge of the week? Yes, there was one; I struggled to narrow down my task problem or issue. Thank God Donna was there and prompted me to the right track as usual. Her comment on my Nicenet task problem/issue helped me to formulate my class problem in one sentence. It now reads like this: 

      Thus, the problem with my students is that their reading and writing skills are poor and I intend to       use blogging (perhaps accompanied by social media) as a technological tool to improve this                 situation. 

Did you miss my photo on this blog this week?

Thanks for commenting. The best is yet to come.

Nsah Mala

Cameroon