7 Reasons Why Educators Should Blog

I have recently participated in one of the Seeta monthly webchats. You can listen to the chat here:




When they asked me to suggest a topic for the chat, it didn't take me long to suggest blogging for reflection. As you might know, I have been blogging for five years now. Preparing for the webchat gave me some time to reflect on why I blog. I have to say that I failed to come up with a rational answer to this question.

I blog because I like blogging.

I know, this doesn't lead anywhere. Especially since, in the chat, quite a few teachers expressed their concerns related to blogging. A few have tried this activity, only to stop after a while, disappointed. Nobody left comments in their blogs and they seemed to be talking to themselves. Blogging was time-consuming and left them with less time for classroom preparation. Teachers are too busy already. Why should they add blogging to their list of duties?

Although for me blogging is a passion, I have decided to try and look at some rational reasons why blogging for reflection might be something educators should do. I will also try to address the concerns that were expressed during the chat.

1. Blogging helps you reflect on what you do in class. 

This one is rather obvious, since I am advocating blogging for reflection. Steve Wheeler says that teachers naturally think back on what has happened in their classroom, and often wonder what they could have done better. Blogging can help with this process, enabling teachers to keep an ongoing personal record of their actions, decisions, though processes, successes and failures, and issues they have to deal with. Wheeler also observes that “Blogging can crystalise your thinking.”

Yet, blogging shouldn't be the same as sharing your teaching journal with the world. If you are one of those teachers who reflect on their practices through a journal, then you are probably not ready to share those thoughts with the world. Nor should you. A journal has to be the place where you can be completely honest with yourself, without worrying about what others might think. It is also not the right place to worry about punctuation, spelling and style. Just keep writing and keep your thoughts private. However, every now and then, there will be a journal entry that will make you stop and reflect. If you sit down and work hard on it until it is presentable, you can share it with the world and make other teachers benefit from your experience.

The teachers in the chat were worried about revealing too much about themselves in their blog and sharing something that wasn't appropriate. Now, remember the golden rule - you should never share anything you wouldn't want your mom, your boss or your child to see. Amy Dominello quotes blogger Renee Moore who says teachers should be careful about what they say on their blogs. She also quotes Anthony Cody: “Make sure your boss is aware of your blogging.”

2. Writing helps you generate ideas

Richard E. Ferdig says: "Drawing on Vygotsky's educational theory (1978), educators highlight the "knowledge construction" processes of the learner and suggest that "meaning making" develops through the social process of language use over time. As such, knowledge construction is discursive, relational and conversational in nature." What I have discovered since I started blogging is that just thinking about what I might post and freewriting for a while will give me an idea for a lesson plan. These ideas might come from anywhere - I might take a walk in the park or see an image on Flickr and words will start forming in my head. What starts as a blog post idea will end up as a set of activities that I can try on Monday.

One of the biggest concerns of the teachers I talked to was that they might have nothing new or original to say, that they might end up regurgitating something others have said. And why not? By all means, read other blogs and join the conversation. But don't regurgitate. Instead, you can summarise, question, expand and share. That's what I am trying to do in this post. The conversation among bloggers has been on for a very long time. A new voice is more than welcome. Sometimes people who know how to ask questions are invaluable because they make us think and re-evaluate our opinions. Which brings me to my next point.

3. Care to share

There are hundreds of busy teachers out there. They are troubled by the same self-doubts as you. Some of them are rookies, others might be suffering from teacher burnout. Reading your post might help them get through the working week. And if you share lesson ideas, you are genuinely helping.  So, if you have nothing to say, say it anyway. Maybe it is new to me, or I just might be glad that you are doing or seeing things the same way I do. Teaching is a lonely job and you are never quite sure you are getting it right, are you? But, if you start blogging, you will never be lonely again because you will interact with other bloggers. Which brings me to my next point and that is

4. The virtual staffroom

Gabrielle Deschamps says: "In a really weird way, I no longer feel like my staffroom is limited to the four walls around me at school. My horizons have widened, and now I feel like the music teacher in Iceland I spoke with yesterday is just over there by the window.” You will connect with the teachers who share your interests, be it project work or CALL or material development. I suppose the main difference between blogging and sharing in a forum is that you will interact with these people through their work, rather than share on a common, pre-assigned topic. Blogging gives you more freedom than forums and bulletin boards. As Sam Patterson says: "I blog for myself, but with a clear sense of my audience, I hope. So I try to 'be useful' ...". Which brings me to

5. Your own space on the web

I see my blog as a home. I can close the door behind me and let my hair down. I can be who I am. Maybe no one is reading this right now, but that is OK. Because, by the time I am done with this post, I will be the one who understands better my own reasons for blogging. And if no one leaves a comment, that's fine too. Don't do it for others, do it to please yourself. Write about what interests you. Ask questions, then come back a week later and answer them. Come back a year later and give different answers. Whatever you do, don't take yourself or your blog too seriously. Blogging should be fun.

6. Your e-portfolio
 

Blogging will help you keep track of what you are doing online and in the classroom. This is, again, something I feel you should be doing for yourself rather than for others (your boss, your future employer, etc.). All your thoughts and discussions, all your links and ideas, all your digital artifacts will remain there for you to reread and reflect upon. Blogging about conferences and online workshops you attend will challenge you to try out the new approaches you have heard about. George Couros shares the example of a teacher called Kendra, who "shared what she was learning not only with her students and parents, but with the entire world." He adds: "She didn’t even wait until she returned before she started implementing the practice and starting asking questions of her students, while sharing her own learning." You can read Kendra's post here.

7. Because you can

I am not going to lie to you - blogging takes time. Yet, if you treat it as a hobby rather than a chore, you will feel free to post as often (or as rarely) as you wish. Says Ray Salazar: "“There are bloggers who post something every day (some post a few times a day). But I’ve learned that posting once a month is good—considering our workload.  Setting aside 20-30 minutes a week to draft some ideas will help craft meaningful posts.“

And it is easy to set up your own blog. Blogging platforms are very user-friendly and require no prior technical skills. Follow this tutorial by Sue Waters.

I am sure I could go on and find more reasons why blogging is good for you. However, I am going to stop here. Seven is such a nice number and, besides, no amount of reading why you should blog will convince you unless you try it yourself. And don't give up too soon. Because, as Dean Shareski says: "The only people allowed to criticize or challenge this idea are people who have blogged for at least one year and written at least 50 posts. The rest of you can ask questions but you can't dismiss it."

I challenge you - if you still have second thoughts about blogging, write a blog post in which you will list 7 reasons why you feel blogging is not right for you. Post the link in the comments area and I'll be happy to respond.

So, what are you waiting for? Join the conversation.



Works cited:


1. Wheeler, Steve. “Seven Reasons Teachers Should Blog.” Learning with e's. 11 June 2013 < http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2011/07/seven-reasons-teachers-should-blog.html>

2. Dominello, Amy. “How and Why Teachers Should Start Blogging.” Ideas that Work, Social Media in Education. SmartBlog on Education. 11 June 2013 < http://smartblogs.com/education/2011/08/01/how-and-why-teachers-should-start-blogging/>

3. Ferdig, Richard E. “Content Delivery in the Blogosphere.” The Journal Online. 11 June 2013 < http://defiant.corban.edu/jjohnson/pages/Teaching/BloggingBlogosphere.pdf>

4. Deschamps, Gabrielle. “`10 Reasons Why Teachers Should Blog and Tweet.” Music Teach.n.Tech. 11 June 2013 < http://musicteachntech.com/2011/05/19/10-reasons-why-teachers-should-blog-and-tweet/>

5. Patterson, Sam. “`Why Teachers Should Blog.” My Paperless Classroom. 11 June 2013 < http://www.mypaperlessclassroom.org/2013/04/why-teachers-should-blog.html>

6. Couros, George. “`... and this is why teachers should have blogs.” The Principal of Change. 11 June 2013 < http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/2350l>

7. Orris, Kendra. “Where Was I?!” Miss Orris' Blog. 11 June 2013 < http://www.psdblogs.ca/korris/2011/09/24/where-was-i/>

8. Salazar, Ray. “Top 10 Reasons Teachers Should Blog” The White Rhino: A Chicago Latino English Teacher. 11 June 2013 < http://www.chicagonow.com/white-rhino/2013/05/top-10-reasons-teachers-should-blog/>

9. Waters, Sue. “Kick Start Activity 1: Setting up Your Blog - Create Blog and Customize Look” Edublogs Teachers Challenge. 11 June 2013 < http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/2011/01/10/kick-start-activity-1-setting-up-your-blog/>

10. Shareski, Dean. “How to Make Better Teachers” Huff Post Education. 11 June 2013 < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-shareski/how-to-make-better-teache_b_783392.html>

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My First Ever Live Events

Photo Credit: lumaxart via Compfight cc

I am writing this very short blog post to invite you to my first ever webinar. This year I am participating in the Virtual Round Table Conference, which is taking place this weekend. Conference programme is here. As you can see, there are loads of great presentations, so join any time you can. And even if you miss something, the sessions will be recorded and archived, so that you can listen later.

My presentation is on Sunday and I am sharing the 11.00 am GMT slot with Janet Bianchini, Merve Oflaz and Marisa Constantinides. This will be a short version of the presentation I gave in Slovenia. I am excited, but also a bit nervous.

Then, on May 31st, I will be participating in a SEETA Webchat. The topic will be something that is very dear to my heart - self-reflection through blogging.

See you there.

20th IATEFL Slovenia Conference 2013

It's been a while since I came back from Slovenia, but if you have visited this blog before, you will know that sometimes I write about events long after they have happened. In this particular case I have a great story to tell and I feel that, like all stories, it deserves to be told from the beginning.

The story begins on the day I received the letter from ELTA Serbia telling me that I was elected to be one of their two official representatives at the annual IATEFL conference in Slovenia. That also meant that I was going to present at a conference for the first time. You might be surprised by this, knowing that I blog about TEFL, but before Slovenia I always managed to come up with different excuses for not presenting. Now was the right time for me to face my fears.

Two months later I was on my way. I arrived in Ljubljana a day before the conference, so I had a chance to go sightseeing. Ljubljana is beautiful. In the following Animoto, I tried to capture the spirit of the city:

The next day I met a group of Serbian teachers who were also going to the conference and we boarded the van that was going to take us to Topolšica. As I was getting onto the van, I saw Shelly Terell's smiling face and she gave me a hug.

I am so glad that I have managed to meet Shelly face to face. She is every bit as wonderful as I thought she would be. A great thing about being a blogger is that you end up having a large PLN and that, from time to time, you actually get to meet the people in it.

Another person I met face to face was Saša Sirk. Saša has been in my PLN from the very beginning. I met her in my first BaW, where she was one of the moderators.

And don't you dare tell me that my online friends are not my real friends, because they are.

The only session we had on Thursday was Shelly's Motivating our Learners to Write with Webtools. She shared a bunch of free online resources with us, together with great ready-made lesson plans. Her presentation is here.

Friday started with Having Fun with English, a plenary by Vanessa Reis Esteves. She greeted us at the door, thus modelling what she was going to teach us later (get students into the English mode by greeting them at the door, build relationships on the way out, set the tone for the next lesson, always provide some positive feedback). She talked about the similarities between children and teenagers (impatient, distracted, demanding), as well as the differences (children are eager and energetic, teenagers are demotivated and apathetic). Finally, she shared some fun activities that can be used with both age groups.

Bojana Nikic Vujic had a workshop on Critical Thinking in EFL Curriculum. Step by step, she led us through the creation of a lesson plan which included critical thinking skills according to Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. The process included the creation of a first draft of the lesson plan and its revision after the introduction of the Taxonomy. We learnt how to include critical thinking activities into the textbooks we were using.

My presentation was next and, yes, I survived. There were some technical issues, which reminds me: If you are new to presenting, take your own laptop with you whenever possible. And don't use fancy fonts you downloaded from the internet, as they might turn into something else on somebody else's computer. And don't apologise for the technical difficulties you are experiencing. And don't walk in front of the slides while you are presenting.







Having said that, I think (hope) that everything went well. Quite a lot of people turned up, which was a pleasant surprise. It was almost the same as teaching a class, in fact. Now, here are my slides:



 


And, if you would like to hear me giving this presentation again, I will be doing it at the Virtual Round Table in May.

Ok, let's move on.

Willy Cardoso's workshop Open Space: Becoming the Best Teacher You Can Be was for me one of the highlights of the conference. You can read more about Open Space Principles here. Willy gave us little post-it notes and we wrote onto them a topic connected to teacher development that we wanted to discuss. Then we voted and three topics were selected. I am happy to say that mine was one of the three ("I want to keep improving as a teacher"). Three groups were formed based on the topics, but we were free to roam about the room and change groups. Finally, a summary was created for each group, as you can see in Willy's post (I linked to it above). It is easy to see how Open Space Principles can be used in the classroom and adapted to various levels and age groups.

Shelly's plenary Wings and Webs was about the social networks that educators create in order to share resources and collaborate. Shelly looked at reasons why teachers connect and she also shared places where someone who doesn't have a PLN could go to in order to start connecting. Her talk was something that resonated with me deeply. I have been a part of the large international family of educators since 2008 and I have a hard time remembering what my life was like before that.

Jean McCollister and her border collie Bamm Bamm taught us about Animal-assisted Language Teaching. Dogs are used in therapy, as well as in teaching. In a language classroom, a dog is a strong motivator and the presence of a dog also has cognitive benefits. It provides mental stimulation and improves concentration and attention. This is true, since I have to admit that I remember everything from this workshop vividly. My attention was on the dog all the time and I remember everything he did.

Here's more about what Jean and Bamm Bamm do. It's in Slovene, but I am sure you will be able to understand the gist.

Our first plenary on Saturday was Peter Dyer's Getting Them to Speak. It was very interactive and lively, full of practical and fun activities. For one hour, we improvised, we passed around imaginary gifts, we invented stories and we lived in the fantasy world. These activities are easy to prepare and materials light (in fact, there was no PowerPoint).

The next workshop I attended was Danny Singh's The Power of Laughter Exercises in Learning. To find out more about the application of laughter yoga in language teaching, visit Danny's website. All  I can say is that I have enjoyed this workshop tremendously and that I felt more alert after it. I can see how these exercises can lower inhibitions and boost learning.

Willy Cardoso's plenary A Philosophy of Teacher Development  was another treat. He defined teacher development as trying to decrease the gap between what you believe you should do and what you can do in your teaching situation. Teachers should ask themselves to what extent they can influence, shape and create their own knowledge. Classroom observation helps here (recording yourself, asking a colleague to sit in your class, co-teaching with a colleague, or even giving your learners an observation task). Rather than wait for someone to give them the knowledge, the teachers should legitimise what they already know and share it bottom-up. They should create portfolios, start blogging or give a workshop at a conference.

Marija Lukač spoke about Your Next Step on the Professional Development Ladder. Presenting to fellow colleagues is a way for teachers to grow and develop. Nobody is going to promote you into a conference presenter, you need to make that step yourself.

The last presentation I visited on Saturday was Shelly's Teaching with YouTube. Once again, she shared an abundance of links, resources, lesson plans, ideas...

So far I haven't talked much about evening entertainment, which was great. And the beer was more than great. I grabbed this image off Shelly's Facebook timeline, hope she won't mind:

Yes, it's a beer barrel. In fact, there were three, each one with a different kind of beer.

And let's not forget that Topolšica is a spa. That meant that, when we got tired after sitting in workshops all day, we could always grab an hour to swim in the pool or relax in the sauna park. And we even had a discount on massages.

And kudos to the organising committee. They really went out of their way to make us all comfortable and everything was perfectly organised. Thank you, guys.

And, of course, big thanks to ELTA Serbia for sending me there in the first place.

Conferences are not only about presentations and workshops. They are about networking and meeting new people. And going to an international conference means meeting a lot of great new people. For me this was even more valuable than the presentations themselves. In fact I am looking forward to seeing some of those people again in Belgrade on 11th ELTA Conference in May.

Technorati Tags: TEFL, IATEFL. ELTA, conference

What Makes Us Human - #EDCMOOC Final Feedback

I was doing fine, writing about my MOOCs and EVO workshops, then I suddenly stopped. In the meantime I got very busy. I attended a conference and I am planning to blog about it soon (though my idea of "soon" is quite flexible, especially when it comes to this blog).

Last time I was here, I promised to write about what makes us human, which was the topic of Weeks 3 and 4 of EDCMOOC (E-learning and Digital Cultures on Coursera). In the meantime, the course has finished, but I would still like to do as I promised. There are several reasons for this:

1. A promise is a promise
2. This is an E-portfolio and I have created some EDCMOOC artifacts that I would like to share here
3. It was a great course and it deserves positive feedback
4. It is time we stopped seeing online courses as something linear, something that has a beginning and an end. As Vance Stevens has said in a comment on this blog "these courses never, or should never, end ".

Back to #EDCMOOC. Weeks 3 and 4 were about what makes us human. This text by Neil Badmington is the editor's introduction to a collection of essays on posthumanism. What it did for me is made me want to read the whole book. If we are not defined by humanism, what are we defined by then? Could it be transhumanism? This text by Nick Bostrom really got me thinking and it was the main inspiration for my final project.



My favourite video in Week 3 was this one. And this clip we watched in Week 4 almost made me cry and again influenced my final project.



In Week 3 we were asked to create an image that would somehow show our understanding of the course. There was a competition and the winners were decided automatically using Flickr "interestingness" ranking through Flickriver. Flickriver calculates an image's "interestingness" based on the number of comments and "favourites" it receives. I shared four images (those are the images I have been using in this post), but the one that got most votes is this one:



By the way, that's my son in our holiday house in the country. And what made me put "Both Worlds" onto the picture is my reaction to this text.

You can look at images created by other participants in the course here.

What final feedback can I offer? The course was yet another example of how the rigid Coursera format could be bent to enable a more connective experience. No "talking heads" here, no lectures in the traditional sense. Watching the videos was like going to the cinema and enjoying good movies (which just happened to be much shorter than ordinary movies). We wrote no essays. Instead, we created artifacts.

Speaking of artifacts, I would like to sign off with my final project. But, before I do, if you want to see more final projects, here's where you can do that. And here's one of the three final projects that I reviewed. This Scoop.it by Geri Ellner left a very strong impression on me, not only because it contains five digital stories, but also because I had never before seen Scoop.it used as a digital storytelling tool.

Finally, my project. Before you watch, ask yourselves what it would be like if you could upload your memory onto a computer? Would that memory be you, or someone else? And if you were to go away one day (as we all must, eventually), what would happen to your memory?

Technorati Tags: #edcmooc, writingmatrix

On Metaphors, the Future and the Way We Are Wired (#EDCMOOC, #ETMOOC)

Photo Credit: craig1black via Compfight cc

I am now two weeks late with my weekly reflections. The week I will be writing about here is Week 4 in EVO sessions and in #ETMOOC and Week 2 in #EDCMOOC. I managed to follow the weekly activities in my workshops and be more or less on time, but the weekly blog posts are something completely different. It takes a lot of work to put together everything that went on in all these learning spaces and turn it into something meaningful.

I am glad that this week there'll be digital stories to help me along.

In Neuroscience we learnt about the way we are wired. And, you know what? We are all wired differently. Let me put it like this:

See this story on Storybird


Dr Medina explains schema in a fun way:

Meanwhile, in #ETMOOC it was the first digital storytelling week and I created several 6-words stories on Twitter.

First there was the horror story series:

His last words: "Let's split up."
Last seen running into the woods.
She ran upstairs. Front door creaked.

Then there was this standalone melodrama:

"See you", he said. He lied.

And here is my first ever animated gif:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us


For the animated gif I used this simple tutorial provided by #ETMOOC.

It was a fascinating week in #EDCMOOC, as we discussed future-focused visions of technology and education, both the utopian and the dystopian ones. We looked at metaphors as lenses through which these visions are seen. Metaphors are deterministic. This is the point where #EDCMOOC has a lot to do with Multiliteracies. Here Vance Stevens writes about why looking at computers as tools determines the way we use them and why the tool metaphor shouldn't be enough. Here's more on computer metaphors from the #EDCMOOC reading list. And here's a blog post I wrote about computer metaphors when I attended Multiliteracies two years ago. In this post I compared the computer to a geenie from a magic lamp, a magic wand and a communication tool. The second and the third are tools, but what about the geenie? Is the geenie a person? I think I will have to go back to this in my next post where I will look at this week's #EDCMOOC topic - redefining the human.

A Manifesto for Networked Objects with its notion of "blogjects" will amuse you. But just at first. Are the "blogging objects" and the "networked objects" really our future? Or, are they already our present? Are they really "more dangerous than the Terminator"? Or will they save the planet for us? Yesterday, I read in my son's weekly science magazine about a project which aims to save the rainforests by equipping the trees with mobiles. Once somebody tries to cut it down, the tree "calls for help". It is this type of thing Bleecker is looking forward to.

Now for something dystopic. The following film (7:50) was the highlight of my week:

Sight from Sight Systems on Vimeo.

I believe this movie can be used in TEFL to discuss, among other things, the gaming addiction. Not to mention the future and relationships.

Another point where #EDCMOOC crosses paths with Multiliteracies is the idea of edupunk. Here's what I found in the Multiliteracies wiki archives about edupunk:

EduPunk and Learning Management Systems - Conflict or Chance? from Martin Ebner

Am I an edupunk? Two years ago I wasn't sure, now I am. I am sure that I am one, that is. Why else do you think I am addicted to MOOCs? And what do you think I am doing here blogging about my online learning experiences?

If you think you might be one too, you should listen to this (one hour long, but worth it):

And if you are the sort of person who likes to take notes, Audrey Watters has already done it for you here.

Well, that's all folks. Next week, we will be looking at what makes us human.

I would like to finish with a great image I found in the #EDCMOOC Flickr pool which, I believe, says it all.


cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Angela Towndrow: http://flickr.com/photos/90243669@N05/8461301620/

Tags: #evomlit, #mmooc13, , #2013evo, #brainelt, #edcmooc, #etmooc

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Tales of the Unexpected: On Networks, Utopias and Memory (#EDCMOOC, #ETMOOC(

Last week was a very interesting week in my workshops and MOOCs. Very interesting and full of unexpected twists and turns.

I have personally provided a new twist for you, dear reader, by joining #ETMOOC.

You might be wondering exactly how many MOOCs I am attending now. Sorry, but I won't tell you. Or, rather, can't. I am not sure. A few. More than two, less than twenty. So, there's still room for more MOOCs.

Let me just say that I now feel like a full-time student.

If you are an ETMOOCer and are here for the first time, here's something about me:




Meanwhile, elsewhere (and in no particular order):

Last week in Neuroscience we studied memory. I found this clip useful:




The way Dr Antonio Damasio describes memory reminds me of an orchestra playing in a concert. First there is a single clarinet. Then, the string instruments join in. After them, more and more instruments join until finally the whole orchestra is participating. It follows that, as teachers, we need to add more and more "instruments" when we are reviewing, so that the students can hear the same "melody" several times in different ways.

In Multiliteracies we did networking, which made me reread this two-year old post of mine on the same topic. Nothing has changed much, except that now I am moving in even wider circles that before. Two years ago my network consisted mostly of EFL teachers, but now there are other educators, poets, poetry lovers, various other people who like to sign up for MOOCs... The ties are looser as I get to know more and more people, but I still believe that real friendships can form between people who have only met online. Don't you?

Meanwhile in Mentoring we read this very intriguing text about what really happens when our learners leave our protected classroom environments and enter the real world of L1 speakers. What roles do they play? And do those roles give them enough opportunity to practice speaking? And if they don't, then how are they ever going to sound anything like a L1 speaker. It is a Catch 22 situation.

Meanwhile in EDC Mooc on Coursera... Honestly, I am beginning to lose myself in these MOOC names. EDC stands for E-learning and digital cultures. Anyway, in EDC MOOC we looked to the past digital cultures. Rather, we looked at ways in which this past is viewed - as a utopia, or as a dystopia. Our homework, among other thing includes creating images that somehow describe the topic.

I am a utopian, but I still created this image as my homework:





 I love EDC. Our instructors are very creative and they have collected for us a most amazing curriculum consisting of YouTube clips, among other things. Here's one clip that could be called utopian, I suppose:




Notice that the red bags are only the medium. What matters are the real people that the red bags have connected.

As this was Week 1 in EDC, the professors provided this amazing Google doc. And in this post Jeremy Knocks, who is one of our professors, asks a very important question - should MOOCs focus on the process or on the content?

This wouldn't be a tale of the unexpected if it didn't come with a twist. You see, one of my MOOCs died a sudden and unexpected death. You can read more about this here.

I am in no position to judge. Let me just say that I did enjoy the course while it lasted. I loved the readings and I had no problem signing up for groups (in fact, I succeeded in doing so twice). I wouldn't even mention this if it hadn't given rise to a most amazing new MOOC - consisting of the "refugees" from the course. There are two Facebook groups (one for EFL teachers only) and the beginning of a course on Canvas. It is early days and I have no idea how this course will turn out. However, there are people in the group who know a lot about instructional design, so we'll see.

If you are still here, congratulations. This was a monster of a post. Next time, however, I promise something completely different. Next time there'll be digital stories...

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Week 2 - Declare, Where?

Photo Credit: madelinetosh via Compfight cc

I made a lot of rash promises in my last post. I said I was going to follow my 5 EVO sessions, plus the SEETA course, plus the OLDS MOOC. I said that, in this blog, I was going to give weekly digests of my learning progress. People even took me seriously. In the meantime I signed up for two more MOOCs on Coursera, which promise to be very interactive (EDC MOOC and Fundamentals of Online Education). At work, the week was hectic. And I have a presentation for a conference to write.

Still, I am here as promised. A little late, but I have definitely survived Week 2 in all my online environments. My level of participation was not the same everywhere at all times and I suppose I can say that in some of my groups I was sampling and browsing rather than studying seriously. And whether I do all my weekly tasks or not will depend on the amount of workload. OLDS MOOC, for example, is a fascinating course, but the workload is a bit too much for me at the moment. So, for this course I have a new plan - I will do what I can and curate the rest somewhere for further reference. I still might decide to share snippets from this course in my blog, but this definitely won't be enough to give you an idea about the scope of the MOOC. The same probably goes for my new Coursera MOOCs.

So, let's start with Neuroscience. This week we looked at the link between the emotional brain and motivation. I find the following video fascinating:



What it is saying, in a nutshell, is that the way we raise our children or teach our young students can influence how smart they are in ways much more direct than we thought it possible. Is it surprising, then, that adult students need so long to start believing that they can learn? People who come to my classroom have usually spent 12 (yes, twelve) years of their life sitting in English language classrooms, failing to learn the language. It takes quite a while to convince them that they are not going to fail again.

Several years ago I created this PowerPoint on learning and motivation:

Motivation from Natasa Grojic

Sorry for all the bullets and death-by-PowerPoint stuff. This was before my online days. One thing that I am especially interested in (and I believe this shows in the PowerPoint) is the supportive power of groups on an individual's learning.

It is good, then, that this week in Mentoring we read this text on scaffolding. I find the questions provided in the text very helpful, something that every teacher can use in his/her class.

And in OLDS MOOC we focused a lot on personas and scenarios. Thinking about who your learners are going to be even before you meet them is a useful starting point. Here's a PowerPoint explaining scenarios and here's the template we used. An important part of scenarios are personas. And the template for a persona card is here. One last snippet from last week in OLDS MOOC would be these cards. And here's a short video on how to use them.

Let's finish with Multiliteracies. This course is the glue that binds everything together, it is the reason why I am able to cope with multiple sessions. Multiliteracies has given me something essential - the method. You remember how at school your teachers told you that the most important thing to learn is how to learn? By learning about MOOCs through an environment similar to a MOOC, I have learnt that all this is not about curriculum and homework, but about me. And it is OK to forget where you are supposed to be and what you are supposed to do. It is OK to choose not to do something if you don't find it relevant at the moment. It is also OK to modify assignments and do them your way.

Last week in Multiliteracies was the week when we were supposed to declare, i.e. to state our own learning goals.

My goals this year are as follows:

1. to reflect on the course topics
2. to reflect on my past and present experience in various MOOCs
3. to reflect on my 2011 Multiliteracies posts

Reflect, where?

Well, here, of course. Where else?

I would like to finish this with a short Animoto video I created for my MachinEVO class:

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