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