Final Reflections
"Le Penseur" by Auguste Rodin
| Remember what your profile was 6 weeks ago? Remember what your goals were? |
Well, the time has come to reflect on this 6-week workshop, so the BaW 2008 team invite you to leave your thoughts, suggestions and comments about this collaborative journey. It's always nice to know what our participants think and your reflections will also help us improve Baw 2008. Thank you! :-)
VIP: Please write between the horizontal lines (created adding --- that you will see when you are in edit mode. (See the example below.) And do leave your name and a photo, because it's so much nicer to relate a name to a face.
Tell us:
- What you liked and didn't like
- What you learned
- What you would have liked to learn
- What your next steps will be
- If your goals were met
- Any other comment you would like to share with us
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Teresa
This is me, Snoopy, during one of the many endless hours at the computer during these 6 past weeks. There were times I felt very frustrated, because I couldn't get something going, but I always had this fabulous BaW 2008 community to rely on and lend a helping hand. That's called collaborative and constructive learning. Well, I won't ramble on, because I'd love to hear about you all first...
Ronaldo Lima Jr
Well, this was my second time taking BaW and I have to admit that it was better than the first time, so I belive the tendency is to get better and better. When I took BaW07, there were a lot of discussions that I couldn't follow (because I didn't know what people were talking about...) and there were maaaany tools I just had time to bookmark and explore later... Fortunately, I could explore many of them as 2007 went by, and also involved my students in this online universe exploration.
I had a lot of fun in BaW08: I met some really cool people, helped a little bit, and learned A LOT! Thank you all for this great opportunity!
Kindest regards from Brazil!
Maru
For me is also my second time taking BaW and I agree, it was indeed better than the first. I have a longer way to go than Ronaldo because I did not practice during 2007. This year I will set a project going to keep beeing a Bawer the whole 2008, I hope you can help me because it is an enourmous task for me.
This year I found the same unselfish, caring, giving and sharing community of Webheads. The Gate Keepers, the Guardian Angels, of the trip to Become a Webhead were in place. In every portal mentioned there was always someone to guide us, to help us with our stuggles and to encourage us to continue.
I also found very active participants, examples as well for me to follow.
I want to express here my deepest gratitude to all of you, participants, moderators and co-moderators. The opportunity to be here is invaluable. Thanks for being there.
Love: Maru
Mirian
This session has provided me with loads of information about how to integrate technology in a creative and meaningful way. This newly acquired knowledge would be used to the benefit of my students because I believe that they will profit from the use of new and different tools like blogs or wikis. In this way, I think that they will be motivated and engaged to continue their learning process.
I am also grateful to the Webhead community as a whole (moderators, co-moderators and participants alike) for letting me be part of this unique learning experience organized in a useful and accurate way.
Nergiz
What you liked and didn't like
I liked everything, except the fact that I couldn't participate in all life sessions (due to lack of time or technical issues)
What you learned
- I've learned about
… many useful tools.
… that things don't always work the way we want (technology)
… that all this is very time-consuming
What you would have liked to learn
Definitely not more within in this time. I'm happy with what I have learned and need to explore these things more now.
What your next steps will be
Checking out all the tools and links in more detail,
organising my links into categories,
finishing my assignments,
putting some of the tools to real use:
creating my first class wiki, blog and planning my first online course
starting a person blog for my experiment with the tools in order not to forget them and to practise
If your goals were met
Absolutely.
Any other comment you would like to share with us
These were six very intensive learning weeks for me. I am amazed at the amount of interaction and help between the participants. At the beginning, I felt overwhelmed but the comments of the co-ordinators, moderators and other participants helped me to relax.
I have already been very interested in ICT / CALL. Now, I know for sure that this what I want to incorporate more in my teaching. And maybe one day, I will do my MA in Call / Educational technology + TESOL.
Carlos Ferreira
Well, I don't know exactly where to start... My sincere thanks for having me in and handed out the possibility of learning, and I've learned a lot, of meeting new people, and I've met quite a bunch of extremely nice people, of allways being there for us ( and teachers in Portugal, nowadays, do need some support!) and of letting me learn so much... My teaching activity will never be the same again... Now, when I plan my lessons, my first thought is "Can I do it online?". That's your fault!
I like the most of it: I loved the audio tools (voicethread,chinswing, splashcast) I loved the net exchange and discovery, I liked the cooperation and support. I can't say I dislike anything: I just miss my sleeping hours as I wanted to learn it all... There is not much more for me learn now, I still need to digest part of this intensive learning process... My next steps will be towards mastering more effectively most of the tools I got contact with (my list of favourites increased drastically!)and effective usage in class. As far as my goals are concerned, it went further than I could ever expect...
If I hadn't learned so much and went through so many sites, blogs, materials and so on, I wouldn't feel as enthusiastic about this course as I have felt... I intend to explore some of them a bit more and get some more sleep, too (mainly some of week five) as I haven't fully understood some of their potential, yet... But I haven't had the time so far!
Finally, I'd like to leave a suggestion - If it is Bawers - community of English teachers , couldn't it be Bawers - Community of English teachers with a french teachers section ... It sounds good... I'll stay in touch and definitely will be back next year, if you'll have me and even if you don't create the section....
Thank you very much, wonderful people ... You did great things to my professional frustrated ego...
Sally La Luzerne-Oi
First of all, I would like to thank Dafne, Teresa, Kat, Sasa, Fernanda, Dennis, Jose Antonio, Monica, Nelba, Sharon, Ibrahim, Christina, and Ramona for moderating this session. Thank you for giving of your time and talent to provide a professional development opportunity for so many of us.
I am encouraged to read Ronaldo's and Maru's entries because that means there is still hope for me! This is my first time to take this session, and the learning curve has been steep. (I'm still not able to get my photo up here!) In addition, about half way through the session my computer got a virus which left me very frustated.
I did read the readings and attend or watch at a later date the online sessions. I also made some small steps--text chatting and putting up a blog. More importantly, my interest has been piqued. Slowly but surely I plan to continue working on the assignments and hope I can contact you if I get stuck. Thank you again.
Natasa Bozic Grojic
This has been my very first time here. When I remember that questionnaire six weeks ago, it makes me laugh. I didn't know what a web tool was! I have been interested in CALL/ICT for some time, but I didn't know anything about it before this workshop.
I have learned so much in the course of these six weeks. Yes, it was overwhelming and I lost a lot of sleep. I think I have covered about 20% of what went on here. I missed a lot of live events and I often didn't understand what people were talking about at the forum. But I have enjoyed every minute of it.
I would like to thank the moderators and everybody else who has helped me along. I have met many great people here. The strange thing is that I am an individualist and I am not much into groups and group spirit. I don't want to sound pathetic, but I feel that this is the place where I belong.
José Antônio
This was my second time at BaW and it just keeps getting better. I enjoyed every moment of it. Yes, like Carlos said, there were sleepless nights, not because I was stressed out and couldn´t get myself to sleep, but because I just couldn´t stop chatting, reading interesting e-mails, learning how to using different tools, listening/watching interesting sessions again. This experience for me is just like a party. One you go to and you just lose track of time and do not want to go home. For me, learning is playing andd the distinction between work and play is becoming less and less visible. I would loke to thank all the participants, coordinators and moderators who made this session so interesting and fun.
Hugs from JA.
Silvia Colombo
It has been my first time at BaW and no doubt, a real eye-opener for me! I feel that I’ve learnt a lot:
*I’ve explored different online tools such as blogs, wikis and podcasts and I’ve browsed many of my colleagues’. Wow!! They look amazing with so many applications!! But I haven’t created a new blog. I’ve only revamped an old one I have at Multiply where I’ve managed to upload photos, a video and online exercises. I’ve experimented with Script-O! and created a couple of exercises but I could only attach one to my class page.
I agree with Nergis when she says that things don’t always work the way we want.
What I really enjoyed was trying out some voice tools such as Voice Thread and ChinSwing with which I’ve created some activities. I’m sure my students will profit a lot by using these friendly tools which help enhance our online teaching/learning.
*I’ve collaborated with my friend Mary Dimonaco in a wiki she has created and I’m planning to keep on working hard at it during the year.
*I’ve chatted with one of the moderators and several participants through Yahoo Messenger and Skype.
*I’ve had a very enriching synchronous experience (text chat) with Laurel Schmocle and her students (University of Monterrey) about the use of technology in my teaching practice. Thank you Laurel for this opportunity and for the photo!!!
*I’ve read a lot of interesting articles and participated in the BaW forum.
*I’ve attended some of the live sessions but I haven’t participated much. I could have done better!
There are many assignments I haven’t been able to complete, especially from Weeks 4 and 5 but I would like to catch up on them at my own pace.
I believe my next steps will be to internalize what I have learnt and to start putting into practice, little by little, with my FCE students, some of the new tools I have explored: a class blog and some voice applications. In this way I will be paving the way for blended learning. I remember Teresa’s words: “Start small and build on your students’ experience”
Sometimes I’ve felt a bit overwhelmed by so much input and information, but then I could overcome those feelings due to the warm support of all the coordinators, moderators and participants. Thank you all for being so generous and caring. You’ve all made my six-week online journey throughout BaW a truly memorable experience.
I hope we can keep in contact and collaborate with each other.
Cheers,
Silvia from Argentina.
Lorena (from Argentina)
I should also use the picture of Snoopy as Teresa used... that was me this week trying to link something to my new brand (and only) wiki.|I don't want to forget about anything so I will follow the questions suggested. Here I go:
- What you would have liked to learn: I would have liked to be present in the tour for SL. I downloaded the program and tried to use it but my PC keeps on crashing.
I also would have liked to learn about Moodle (because people mention it and I don't really know what it is). Fortunately, I have the whole year to see what it is and if I need something, I know you will be here to help me.
- If your goals were met: My goals were exceeded. I didn't think I could learn so much by doing an online course (this was my first time, and it won't be the last for sure).
Hope to find you all tomorrow at our party.
P.S. I wanted to send food from Argentina like chipas, mate, empanadas, humitas, milanesas and dulce de leche, but I don't know if I can use pictures from the web without interfering in the copyright... I will send something, though. See you
Mbarek Akaddar
What amazed me more in this session is the level of sharing , the willingness to help and to ask for help .I liked the level of interaction among the participants .I liked the live sessions ,the readings ,the links and the tools.The main thing I didn't like is my helplessness to catch up with the normal speed of the session .I missed some live sessions because I didn't notice their reminders at the right time.
I learned how to use tappedin , wiziq .I discovered some online exercise generators ,some new tools such as voicethread .I also found the readings very interesting especially the pedagogical implementation of these tools and platforms .I would have like to attend live classroom sessions of using these tools in teaching.
The forthcoming step for me is to go all over it again at my own pace .I will read the articles again and make a glossary of all the new links and tools presented in this session.Afterwards I will try to make use of some of them with my students.
I think that the session was beyond my expectations .It was very rich and interesting.
I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart the moderators of this session for their commitment , their help and guidance , and all the wonderful participants I'm lucky to meet for their
high concern , devotion and help .
Adolfo Arrieta
I liked all the sessions I attended. I think all of them were very interesting.I also had the opportunity to learn to use different web2.0 tools which are usefull to spice the teaching and learning process. I think that we need time to master all the resources that you shared with us, but the I'm going to continue mastering the ones which are more relevant for my classes such as the blos, wikis, voice threads, world bridges and tapped in.
Natalia Malkina
I liked everything about the session: the planning, the pacing, the atmosphere in the group where everyone is helpful and understanding
I learned about many useful web tools and how they could be used in the classroom. I learned there is much more tp learn about. Learning is a never ending process.
I am quite happy with the things I have learned and I wouldn’t like to have any changes.
My next steps would be
- to organize the links I have booked marked
- to finish the Hotpot exercises that I started to develop
- to look at the tools in more details especially the ones I liked ( Hotpotato, Voicethread, Flypaper and many others) and find relevant for my purposes
- to plan and outline possible collaborative projects with some of the participants from the group who work in teacher education.
- to try and build blended learning environment for the course I am developing at the moment “Integrating Technology into the Language Classroom”.To do this more effectively I need to explore the issue of blended learning in more detail. The course starts in September.
I would also like to finish the assignments I haven’t done and go through the tasks the tools and the readings again.
I am satisfied with my personal results at the moment . I just couldn’t do any better because of my job resposibilities, the teaching load and the fact that I am new to Web2 and web3 tools.
I am happy I have taken this session and the six weeks have gone fast. I could never think I could learn so much in the period of 6 weeks. My professional life will never be the same.
Ekaterina Mikhailova
Thank you all for a wonderful session! I learned a lot about web tools! I haven't done much, have been rather passive but I'm planning to continue exploring the tools and doing the tasks I haven't done. My expectations about the session were exceeded.
I'm happy I have taken the course and I'm coming again next year! :))
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