lunes, 20 de febrero de 2012

FINAL REFLECTION ON THE COURSE

Throughout this course that started by the end of November and which already finishes today, I must say that it has fully lived up to my expectations. As I told you at the beginning, my first aim of taking part in this online was to reflesh my knowledge of ICTs  and at the same time if I could learn something new even better.
I am a  secondary school teacher who was feeling a bit frustrated, since in my school , it is four years now since we started with the new technologies like wikis and blogs, but they were intended for the best students, that is, the ones in the multilingual groups,or as we called  them "eleanitzako taldeak" in Basque. Due to the fact that I started in that secondary school four years ago, I didn´t have the opportunity of choosing  the so called  multilingual students, and as a result  I couldn´t put the ICTs  into practise  with them. This year however, we have been provided with interactive  whiteboards and portable computers and  I think that from now on  all students will have a better access to the new technologies.
I have  enjoyed  all the activities we have done in this this course, but I especially the wiki, maybe because I was familiar with it  and in my working place  other colleagues and  I have created subjects using it ( citizenship and English club).  I have done all the activities, but to be honest  with the activity of the treasure hunt  I  didn´t meet the deadline, and then  I did it too simple, so that´s why  I´ve decided to improve it .
As for the blog, I really enjoy making blogs, but more  for myself  than for my students.
I was really happy when I managed to  create the questionnaire on the elsvideo , it took me a long time to realize how it worked, but I never gave up. That´s something that I often tell my students: Be determined and don´t give up. 
As for the activities that I  found least useful,  I should say that  at the beginning of this course we  were requested to give articles and give our opinion, sometimes I found it  a bit  difficult to judge other people´s writings.  Nevertheless, in the long run I  appreciated it , as it made me write long texts  in English, something that I hadn´t done for a long time.
Maybe, I can  sound too  proud  but  to tell you the truth  I   haven´t  faced any technical  difficulties when using these computer  tools. Thanks to the fact that  in my working place we had already attended courses about  ICTs,  I was in fact a false beginner when I started this online course.  Otherwise I don´t think I would have been able to understand  and  do all the tasks .
To be realistic, I have not  interacted  much with my peers. Maybe, because it was the first time I did an online course, and  I  found  it  a bit  awkward to  exchange information or judge other people that I didn´t know at all.  That´s why  I am not found of  social networking sites, I daresay  I am a bit old-fashioned in that respect or  I could also say I have been a bit self-centred.  When I  started my blog, I  saw my peers  designs, and I liked them, but I  wanted to be  original, although sometimes it is difficult , when it comes to blogs.  Anyway, I think all the participants  should  copy the other  peers´ blog sites,  because they can be  really helpful in our teaching  practise.
This  school year  I don´t want  to  put all my ICT knowledge aside and forget about  this,  even though I had the "worst" groups , at least, this final term ,once a  week   we must start doing a project  using a wiki. And in that way  I  will  help students develop their digital competence and make them love this subject.

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