What I have been doing:)

[Natalya Eydelman]

Dear All--

 

I'd like to share with what I have been busy with over the last week, which was actually promted by our sessions and discussions. Thanks to the activities in our group I've realised that what I really want to do and am interested in is teaching online. Well, I have had some experience in e-moderation for the British Council but what I started thinking about is teaching as a freelancer. So as a first step to doing this I made a google search and one of the first hits I received was http://www.wiziq.com. I was not familiar with it so I spend some time surfing it trying to understand what people are doing there and how. This was how I ended up attending a session offered by Priscilla from the USA (http://speakenglishexcellently.blogspot.com). 

 

As far as I can judge, the session was quite challenging because the students were not very responsive, so Priscilla tried to get them involved by offering them to play a Russian Roulette wordgame. Next the students had to fill in these words in the sentences Priscilla typed on the virtual board. It was lively. In the end the students were offered to draw something on the board as well for the others to guess. This was what she offered the students to do because again they were not very active. Possibly the reason for this was that it was their first experience in doing a lesson in an online environment. What I learned from attending this lesson is how Priscilla structured her lesson and what went into teaching it. 

 

Then just half an hour ago me met again in the virtual classroom where Priscilla offered a one-on-one class to me to show me what I can/should do to start offering my own online classes. We worked with the virtual board again and I learned how to use it to complete fill-in the gaps exercises with students, which is part of a speaking class where the students read a funny story and then use it to build up their vocabulary skills. These might sound as quite obvious and simple things but what was really valuable was that I had a hands-on experience in trying them out. In addition, I was given quite a few practical pieces of advice about what I need to do to start offering my lessons online. I am definitely going to start doing it shortly.:)

 

Another development that has come as a result of Multiliteracies is that I started a group on FB the idea of which is to share something interesting about different aspects of the English language and culture. It is open and I am inviting you to join the group if you find it interesting for yourself and/or help me with some ideas for this group. Actually, my end goal is to start using FB as one of the media for my writing class. If anybody is interested in having a multicultural exchange with my students who major in teaching English, translation or intercultural communication, I am willing to set it up with you. To access the group which I named Spotted on the Web (SOW) follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_167995033246664

 

Looking forward to your feedback!

 

Natalya

[Natalya Eydelman]

Dear All--

I'd like to invite you to join the group I created on FB I have menioned above. Since it was started 2 weeks ago it has seen some unexpected developments. For example, one day one of the friends of a friend joined me in a live discussion of an article I have posted a link to in the group. It was quite a lively discussion of the future of BE and AE. Then a student of my colleague who has been very active in the group joined our discussion of topics that can be offered for debate. And unsurprisingly we've come with some interesting ones together. We are also discussing how some of the materials we've shared so far can be used in the classroom. For example, The Economist published an article discussing who the most influential economists of the past were and who is considered such now. What we have come up with is suggesting the students to join this discussion but we think the students would not be brave enough to comment in The Economist directly but they might do it on FB. So I guess I have already seen some very positive things that can come out of using FB with students. In addition, I've taken part in the discussion of the FB in Education group where its potential for its applications as a teaching tool is discussed. Quite exciting!