BIG Smile and a thumb up!

Yeah! The moment has finally come to post my last reflection on Building Teacher Skills through the Interactive Web course. This time I am reflecting not on only one week but on 10 whole weeks, the duration of this course. I will try to be brief and I will try harder not to miss anything.

It is difficult to specify which topics were most successful or most useful to me, or which tools will I use in my classes and which were not relevant to what I do / will do. Therefore, I will approach from a different angle to sum it up: In the last 10 weeks I was exposed to a large variety of technology tools to help enhance my teaching experience as well as some concept and issues dealing with technology in the classroom. Each week, I learned about the advantages and disadvantages of few tools and how I can use them best in my teaching. Therefore, there is no ‘bad’ tool or ‘good’ one in general. It all depend on the learners needs, learning style and intelligence. It also depends on the availability of the tool and the students’ access to it.

Throughout the course, I never felt bored or recycling certain material or vegetating some knowledge. Each topic brought a sense of new learning and an element of surprise, mainly for the rich discussions and contributions of my classmates from around the world.

I learned about some new tools and about other or better ways to use certain familiar tools. All in all, I feel more skilled in choosing the right tool for a certain learning objective and more confident in my knowledge of its advantages and efficiency.  Therefore, each single tool will find its role and place in my coming classes.

One subject I was hoping this course would cover is m-learning, or Mobile Learning Tools and Application. Jeff did hint on the subject in his brief appearance and provided one or two useful links. I guess this course is not designed to cover such topic in more details. Another topic I also wished the course could have focus on, is the use of iPad and its applications. iPad (and iPhone) is becoming very popular among university students in Lebanon and I was wondering if once can tap into this more efficiently to encourage student-centered learning and independent learning for EFL/ESL using iPad and iPhone (with 3G connectivity).  I think I will look for a course dedicated to this topic.

Finally, allow me to thank you all, my classmates and friends, for making this course even more interesting and richer with your comments, feedback and support. And a big thank you to the University of Oregon, American English Institute team, mainly Jodi Weber and Sherie Henderson for their everyday support. Your exceptional knowledge and facilitation skills blossomed into a successful course across the different cultures. Who said that we can’t live a ONE BORDERLESS WORLD?!

Hope to see you all soon, until then, keep visiting my blog and leave 'a hand shake'.

Good luck,

Hassan, Lebanon