I can imagine a panel of reviewers finding ways to chop here and there as that is their job.
But this is my space so NO Chopping Allowed here...unless you are Nellie or the learners in her class:
Still here and finding Nellie..
Validating the Online Teaching-Learning Process
Nellie's February 18 and February 25, 2011 sessions are telling of how she consciously engages her students in relevant discussions and information exchange about what it means to teach and learn online through these questions: “What's the difference between learning online and learning ina face to face classroom?”. She spends a big chunk of these sessions to facilitate and drive the discussion towards understanding active participation, collaborative and social learning while affirming the participants' perspectives about language learning, A learner expresses how he does not like the idea of being corrected for his language, and to this Nellie goes:
“...I like what you say about being corrected. Yes, English teachers and teachers in general, uhm....like to correct students and this could have a bad effect on many students. You're right, being corrected too much can take away your confidence. So we don't really need to correct students. I don't believe in correcting students even if some want it. I think the best thing for learning is actually to model.....and we all make mistakes and this is online interaction, interacting with people. We are all learners and we are all teachers because we are all sharing information. So let's talk about active learning because one of the differences between ah...face to face classrooms and the uhm...online class is the fact that you get active learning....”
Interestingly, it is also through these sessions that learners willingly exchange their ideas about online learning and language learning per se. Through the chatbox and audio interactions, the learners surface a variety of direct links, online tools and resources to learn English and these are You Tube, Google Docs, Facebook, MSN, LiveMocha, ICQ, BlipTV, BBC and Second Life, to include sharing about countries where a few of these are blocked.
In these sessions, Nellie manages to emphasize a valuable point by bringing in Richard Green, a New York City English teacher and his class of language learners real time. It was a good way to show to everyone the limitless possibilities of learning English 24/7 using a live synchronous platform such as WizIQ to engage in “Speak English Now”, have a F2F class join in during the live session and then later on continue learning English using an asynchronous “LEO4U” or “Learn English Online For You”. Nellie wraps up the healthy online exchange through these statements:
“This was a great class...The class is you. You make the classes what they are. I'm just here to give you a chance but you are doing everything and as Cata said people teach people. It's not one person—it's not teacher teaching. It's everyone teaching everybody. And that's what's wonderful because we are from all over the world and we're teaching, we're connecting. And I think that's what's the internet is bringing to us. And I think it's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you everyone.”
From my view, these explicit communicative efforts are what can be labelled as metacognitive acts or ways for a teacher to make learners know and reflect about the how's and why's of one's learning in an online environment. In the case of Nellie's classes, this was done in 2 substantive sessions and later on, at every chance she gets to emphasize the buzz words in online learning environments, and these are: active participation, interactive, learning collaboratively, learning via the Internet 24/7. Such acts may also be attempts to build a semblance of online class identity or sense of community among language learners which Nellie at one time labelled as “It's a global class.“ ... "Because online, there is no hierarchy. Everyone can be a teacher and everyone can be a learner.”
But this is my space so NO Chopping Allowed here...unless you are Nellie or the learners in her class:
Still here and finding Nellie..
Validating the Online Teaching-Learning Process
Nellie's February 18 and February 25, 2011 sessions are telling of how she consciously engages her students in relevant discussions and information exchange about what it means to teach and learn online through these questions: “What's the difference between learning online and learning ina face to face classroom?”. She spends a big chunk of these sessions to facilitate and drive the discussion towards understanding active participation, collaborative and social learning while affirming the participants' perspectives about language learning, A learner expresses how he does not like the idea of being corrected for his language, and to this Nellie goes:
“...I like what you say about being corrected. Yes, English teachers and teachers in general, uhm....like to correct students and this could have a bad effect on many students. You're right, being corrected too much can take away your confidence. So we don't really need to correct students. I don't believe in correcting students even if some want it. I think the best thing for learning is actually to model.....and we all make mistakes and this is online interaction, interacting with people. We are all learners and we are all teachers because we are all sharing information. So let's talk about active learning because one of the differences between ah...face to face classrooms and the uhm...online class is the fact that you get active learning....”
Interestingly, it is also through these sessions that learners willingly exchange their ideas about online learning and language learning per se. Through the chatbox and audio interactions, the learners surface a variety of direct links, online tools and resources to learn English and these are You Tube, Google Docs, Facebook, MSN, LiveMocha, ICQ, BlipTV, BBC and Second Life, to include sharing about countries where a few of these are blocked.
In these sessions, Nellie manages to emphasize a valuable point by bringing in Richard Green, a New York City English teacher and his class of language learners real time. It was a good way to show to everyone the limitless possibilities of learning English 24/7 using a live synchronous platform such as WizIQ to engage in “Speak English Now”, have a F2F class join in during the live session and then later on continue learning English using an asynchronous “LEO4U” or “Learn English Online For You”. Nellie wraps up the healthy online exchange through these statements:
“This was a great class...The class is you. You make the classes what they are. I'm just here to give you a chance but you are doing everything and as Cata said people teach people. It's not one person—it's not teacher teaching. It's everyone teaching everybody. And that's what's wonderful because we are from all over the world and we're teaching, we're connecting. And I think that's what's the internet is bringing to us. And I think it's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you everyone.”
From my view, these explicit communicative efforts are what can be labelled as metacognitive acts or ways for a teacher to make learners know and reflect about the how's and why's of one's learning in an online environment. In the case of Nellie's classes, this was done in 2 substantive sessions and later on, at every chance she gets to emphasize the buzz words in online learning environments, and these are: active participation, interactive, learning collaboratively, learning via the Internet 24/7. Such acts may also be attempts to build a semblance of online class identity or sense of community among language learners which Nellie at one time labelled as “It's a global class.“ ... "Because online, there is no hierarchy. Everyone can be a teacher and everyone can be a learner.”
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