The only way to keep teaching interesting for me is to continually change and innovate the materials and methods that I use in my classroom. My hope is that this course, Creative Teaching Techniques and Utilization of Media, will allow me to find new ways to offer lessons that are engaging and accessible to my students. In my eyes, I see smartphones as a means to engage with students in a medium that is comfortable to them. I want to offer my materials from my classes to them through these devices but also have lessons that incorporate their phones in a manner that is unique and original. I encounter many students who have a fear of learning English but if I offer them alternative or parallel avenues using English perhaps that will be a bridge to improve their confidence and eventually communicative competence.
I'm always wishing for more time with students to work on skills and then to spend time honing them but there is never enough time. I see technology as a means of continuing the learning outside of the classroom and as a result, allowing more time for meaningful face-to-face interaction inside the class. A few years ago I stumbled upon the work of Salmon Khan and was completely amazed by the work he has done and his concept for an alternative means of learning (check out his TED Talk here: Salman Khan - TED Talk). Since then, I have been pondering how to apply a similar concept to the way I teach my students so that the time spent in class can be better-spent. Perhaps this course is the first step.
Nehhh, Nay!
ReplyDeleteI can relate with multiple points you've made here. In particular, the point of keeping the learning going outside the classroom. It makes for a huge challenge getting students to retain anything with the limited amount of teacher-to-student contact time we are allotted in our jobs. I think with the virtual world floating around in everyone's mobile devices, there are opportunities to not lose our students completely after they have left the class. Fun interactive activities(none of which I have made yet) could be expanded to reach the students outside the confines of the four walls of the class. I would suggesting talking to Kit Lovelace about using mobile phones in the class. He demonstrated some good lesson ideas to myself and others in our last course this past spring. Cheers man!