Daniel's Week 2 Reflection

Week 2 Reflection:

Dear Donna, and classmates:

            Here follows my reflection for this week, please read it and, I really appreciate your comments on my thoughts.

            As the week opened, and  as I read the instructions from my mail, a sense of fear started to shroud me; I really felt a chill down to my backbone. My instructor, Donna, had nicely presented all the things we are expected to accomplish some of which by Wednesday 11:59 and some up to Sunday 11:59 Oregon time. Yet, I have to admit that the tasks and assignments as I read them made me panic for a bit of a time then. Anyways, later I started with vigor and interest to accomplish all the tasks laid ahead of me.

            The first of the tasks was looking for reading sources for week 2 from our course web site. After accessing that site, I understood our week 2 will emphasize on learning objectives. As I have attended to several workshops and given a workshop myself to middle school teachers on how to write clearly attainable objectives, it was easy for me to grasp the whole idea. Bloomfield had clearly explained the three domains of learning: the cognitive, psycho motor and affective domains. And learning in general is the manifestation of an outcome in terms of these three integrated domains. The cognitive domain, for instance, goes in levels starting from the basic understanding level to the higher levels of synthesizing. And each learning objective varies in terms of the specific outcome it requires from the learners. Another good thing I have come to learn from this course is the way an objective gets to be written through the ABCD for. As an Instructor I always state my specific objectives for the lessons I teach. Although the ABCD are apparent in the objectives I state, but I do not specify each in the way we are doing for this course.

            Example:

By the end of the lesson: students (A) are expected to define (B) the steps to effective   writing when asked (C) in simple and grammatically correct sentences (D).

In short, the ABCD method helps a teacher never to miss out a very important component of the objective. The psycho motor domain is also very essential as it deals with the fine and gross motor skills of the learners. Yet, what I can’t see is how this domain can be practical when dealing with technology enhanced learning. May be some of you my classmates can comment on this. The affective domain, very essential but difficult to assess, is the best strategy one can use to attain with attitudes and emotions of the learners. I would also suggest using either Likeret type or Semantic differential type questionnaires the right tools to assess the degree to which a learner feels or has an attitude of a certain learned outcome. I sometimes use these types of questionnaires. For instance, in my city Asmara, there are a number of secondary schools whose Math teachers always complain with lack of interest amongst their  students towards that subject. And my believe is that teachers must work on the affective domains of such learners before proceeding to the other domains. Often, I advise Math teachers to include in their objectives the real life relevance and application of a certain concept that they intend to teach, that at least will instill some level of motivation on the learner        s and help them level up their interest and efforts into the learning.

The second of the tasks involved searching the given web site: http://www.noodletools.com and express one’s impression on it due by Wednesday 11:59 Oregon time. My knowledge of the web was rather limited before. This is due to the fact that I used to access the internet only from Google, yahoo, face book and planet papers.com. However, accessing http://www.noodletools.com has opened up whole new options for me. Now I can search for a particular piece of information from a number of sites. It would also help me choose the site that best provides the information. In general, I had a really constructive time searching through the websites, and some of the sites have actually become my lifetime partners. I was also privileged to read all my class mates posts and some websites they have indicated I found them to be really instrumental at enhancing learning. For example, dogpile, esl.com and choice history.com can be noted here. The good thing that I am growing fond of about this e-learning is that it opens up an access to read each other’s posts on one topic and learn from each other a great deal. I am very lucky that I have a very supportive learning community, and I have expressed that in my response to one of my class mate’s post.

The third task involved a description and one ABCD objective. This part actually marked the beginning of our project for this course. And this is because it lays the foundational ground to the upcoming tasks. It, of course, is understood teaching must begin with an objective, and if we have to enhance learning through technology it is undeniably true we should start with clearly defined and attainable objectives. This part actually got me to think deeply until I come up with a view that on how involving a certain technology into my class would subsequently ease things out. I teach English in one institute called Institute of Religious Studies (IRS) here in Asmara. I teach my students the course Advanced English composition (ENG.232). The course intends to upgrade the ability of the students in their speaking integrated writing skills. There are 30 students in the class and all of them are EFL learners. They are trying to learn to the best of their abilities, but at times are observed to be challenged specially during presentations on their reports.

The fourth task was literally getting started with the course project. It goes with the background of the learners. I think this is where we most of the teachers fail at delivering the lesson to the learners. We fail to analyze their backgrounds; instead, we start from an ideal student perspective. The ensuing would be a discrepancy in the learners’ outcome. Some of them would become high achievers, some modest, and some low achievers. However, I believe there is a possibility that every student can learn on equal footing. And I think the main intention of analyzing one’s students’ background is to achieve such equal learning in class.

To sum up, It really has been a very constructive time for me this week. It helped me see that one must not necessarily have all the technological gadgets and resource to be able to enhance learning through technology, one can simply start with what s/he already has and inspire students into learning to the desired level.

Best Regards!!!

Daniel