A GENERAL SUMMARY OF OUR DISCUSSIONS
First of all, I want to mention about topics that we have already discussed about. In our first week we discussed about online teaching and learning. In our second week we have discussed about the importance of presence in online education. The topic of the third week was that online learner engagement. And our last topic was flipped classrooms.
In our first week the topic was very interesting and crucial for the time that we are in right now… With the help of technology, face to face learning is changing into online and distance learning. Along with this, because of the pandemic distance and online learning is becoming the most important part of our lives. On the other hand, distance education first used in 1728 in Boston and it was like mailed lessons. A professor tried it by giving advertisements on the newspaper about his course and found some students from that advertisement and started to send them weekly mails about the topic of that week. It was not interactive maybe but it was the first attempt into distance education. However today with the rapid development of the technology, we have special systems and programs and applications just for online education. This market is becoming the most popular one in the world. Today nearly %85 of education is online. Governments are developing their online education systems because of the pandemic. As a result of this the importance of the technology in education is becoming more popular than before.
In the article of our first discussion, it is mentioned that there are two types of learning. First one is synchronous learning and the other one is asynchronous learning. In synchronous learning all participants are present at the same time and they have all access to teacher and each other with chat box or with their microphones. However in asynchronous learning participants have flexible access to course materials. I think both of them have advantages and disadvantages but in my opinion asynchronous learning is better. Advantages of synchronous learning are that you can have immediate access to teacher and you can ask questions directly to the teacher about missing parts and tasks or lessons could be more clear. However there are of course some disadvantages of it like you can be busy at that time to attend the lesson or the school’s schedule may not fit you schedule. On the other hand, there are some advantages of asynchronous learning such as you are free and you can rewatch the parts when you don’t understand. Moreover, you can take notes easily but the disadvantage of asynchronous learning is you can’t access the teacher immediately.
I the article there is a topic related with video conferencing lessons. In my opinion it is beneficial for learners because it has interactive opportunities like you can say something at the same time when you don’t understand a topic or a part. Different applications have different opportunities. Along with this in the article it is mentioned about tele collaborative projects. They are raising students’ awareness in relation to the tools, so it could be a better way to teach a language via using these kinds of tele collaborative projects. Furthermore in the article there is this web 2.0 tools. I don’t think it is a good way to learn a language by just reading some blogs or wikies. There must be some visual tools I think. In the past since there were not tools like YouTube which you can watch videos, it could be maybe a good way to learn language by reading blogs or articles but today that way is not preferred I think. Because learning something by watching it is a better way in my opinion.
In our second week discussion, we had some scenarios. In the first scenario, if I was in her shoes, I would definitely feel the same way with her. Since online education is becoming the most important part of our lives and it is a very new experience, her feelings are totally agreeable. When you experience something which is very new and your first experience, it is completely true that feeling lonely, anxious and isolated if you are together with experienced ones. So I think she is right to feel so. However it look like this online education thing will be keep going, ıf I were in her shoes again, I would absolutely try to develop my technology skills which are helping me to participate to the online courses more.
In this chapter it is saying that the importance of presence in online education is separated into two senses which are being there and being together. Both instructors and learners should become aware of and understand the difference between face to face and online environment. In face to face environment it is very easy to feel others because we physically see them near us. However when it comes to online environment we need to do more to feel and understand each other. For example, nowadays we are busy with our internship experiences which are %100 online. Sometimes while I am teaching to the kids I feel like it doesn’t make sense to me, I mean I really don’t feel like a teacher sometimes in my internship. This is the side effects of online education. To overcome this problem we should be aware of the importance of the sense of presence. Actually not only us but also learners must be aware of the sense of presence. Because it can enhance the relationship between learners and instructors.
In the third discussion the most attractive part for me was that those three learning models. In the first one which is Inquiry based learning model, students are presented with relatively open, ill-structured, and authentic scenarios that they are asked to investigate, analyze and ‘resolve’. While analyzing and resolving the situation or the scenario, students come to a deeper understanding of discipline based concepts. Moreover this learning model includes problem based learning, project based learning, case based learning and discovery based learning. The second learning model is simulation based learning model. This model separated into three parts in it. First one is procedural simulations, second one is conceptual simulations and the last one is role play simulations. In conceptual simulations students are given some parameters and they are asked to change the parameters than solve the problems. Moreover in procedural simulations students are asked to complete the activities that require them to develop their knowledge. Procedural simulations can be used to support students understanding of relatively simple or very complex scenarios. Lastly in role play simulations students are asked to take a role in a based on authentic or fabricated scenarios which helps students to gain different perspectives on a given situation.
In our fourth discussion it was an attractive topic which is flipped classroom that it was my first time hearing. There are some principles of flipped classroom which are remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. The logic in this order is that lower thinking skills like remembering and understanding must be improved or they must be used in home in online education and higher thinking skills must be used in the lesson. However it is the exact opposite form of this when it comes to face to face education. Why we do like that in online education is that letting students work individual at home and collaborative in the classroom because in online education it is hard to make the lesson interactive just like in face to face education, so if we make students more interactive in the lesson it would be better both for them and for us as teachers.
To sum up, these are what I understand and I remember from the articles. With the developing technology we as future teachers have to adapt ourselves to this new system because this new system is inevitable. If we want to be successful teachers we must improve ourselves. All of the articles and videos up to now are awesome and beneficial for my improvement.
REFERENCES
The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning, Chapter 10 Distance Language Teaching with Technology by Cynthia White
Chapter 1, “The Role of Presence in the Online Environment”, in the book
Kennedy, G. (2020, May). What is student engagement in online learning … and how do I know when it is there?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hLOUlbAgs0
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