Hello everyone,
First of all, I’d like to thank muvenation for giving me the chance to take part in the course. ICT for me as a teacher of English is of paramount importance, I am so conscious of its utility and how easier it makes learning and teaching as well. However, my competency in the field is humble and that’s why I am looking forward to improve it.
A. I am your friend. I don’t work in education. You are talking to me about the idea that we all learn from each other, in all kinds of contexts, and that this can often be richer than more formal classroom based learning. I am sceptical0. Tell me about an informal learning experience you have had online in which collaboration was involved, show me a concrete example to help me to see what you mean.
Learning doesn’t only take place in classrooms. It doesn’t really need to have a board, chalk, books, copybooks… in a stuffy room to learn. Then, the whole life is a school and learning is a long life process. When I first knew about learning in the virtual world, I quickly discovered that much learning could be done easier in a freer and more relaxing atmosphere. More than this, technology has broken all the boundaries and made the whole universe a small but rich place where all people from all over the world can get in touch with each other and exchange knowledge and experience.
The first time I knew about it was in an ICT conference that our association, “Moroccan Association of Teachers of English” – MATE- www.mate.org.ma , organized about two years ago. I discovered that it is an exciting virtual environment where learning and teaching can take place. All the papers presented in the conference turned about ICT, but three of them were about the teaching and learning English using information and communication technology. That’s how I discovered virtual platform like moodle, yahoogroups and blogs. I was fascinated by what high technology can do. One of the proceedings of the conference was the creation of a yahoogroup called “ICT4ELT“ where much cooperation between teachers and learning have been taking place since then. ICT4ELT is where I managed to improve my competency in the domain and to get many other new things. The latest thing I learned there is PBwiki. This happened last August when one of my colleagues sent invitations to join the platform. That is how I knew about it and thanks to him and to the yahoogroup I managed to know what it is about and what it is good for.
B.We all explore new technologies, some grab our attention more than others, some seem revolutionary, others simply bore us. Tell us about that new tool, or set of tools, you have just discovered that really excites you, talk about the potential it has to change your work. What do you want to do with it?
Technology products vary and they can’t cater for all the interests. What is interesting for us might be boring for someone else because simply the domains of interest vary as well. A product could be described as revolutionary or outstanding because it serves to facilitate our job and to give better results. Using yahoogroups with my students is an instance. I make use of the platform to create a non formal atmosphere where they can learn through doing some exercises, listening to songs, reading authentic texts, giving presentations and provoking discussions in the forum. I have realized that they learn much better from each other. However, it doesn’t need to be a teacher to use the virtual world for teaching and learning. I know that it can work with any domain you might be working in as it might work even with your family life. Just give it a try and you’ll see how wonderful it is to discuss professional issues with your colleagues and how this can help to solve many problems; or you can just use it for fun to share information, pictures… with your friends and relatives. That's why I see that it is of great utility to everyone.
C. Do you see yourself as a pioneer? Do you think you are more innovative than others in your organisation? Do you think your organisation is lagging behind? Tell us how you feel about this?
My competency in ICT is humble. I haven’t taken any formal course, but I have always been trying to improve myself. There are things I got from colleagues, professional conferences, study days, virtual platforms or by my own curiosity through the internet exploration, reading and trial. Being conscious of the practicality and the benefits of these tools in Language teaching, I always try to make use of them in my teaching.
I do see myself as one of the very few innovative teachers in my school at least in integrating ICT and new ways of teaching. On the one hand, I know that many of them are aware of the importance of high-tech, but they are not keen on adopting it in their classrooms perhaps because of the large number of students we have in the classrooms, the scarcity of these tools or the lack of competency or interest. So, the use of technology at schools is still low in the region where I work compared to many other countries. The schools here are not all equipped in the same way. In better situations there are equipped classrooms with computers and internet connection. In cooperation with UNESCO, a programme called GENIE has been also lauched to equip all the schools with multimedia classrooms. There is a serious work to make ICT reachable in all schools and and to make teachers able to use it more and more in their classrooms appropriately. On the other hand, I see that the students are much attracted by high technology, but the access to it at our school is still low. However, most of them have computers at home and can surf the web regularly. Therefore, if the little baby refuses to take medicine, we can give it to him by mixing it in a cup of milk or yogurt. And if the students are reluctant to study in the classroom, we can teach them in places they like more; in forums, blogs and so on.
