MY FINAL REFLECTION

        We were busy with many things this term. Tasks are one of these. Thanks to call course, we learnt many tools which will help to us in teaching English. We got so many accounts that I started to forget my usernames. We were unlucky in terms of taking the course this term. If it wasn’t before the exam, we could focus on what we learnt. 

        I looked at my first reflection. I said that there were many tools I didn’t know , but now I have knowledge about them. I gained an advantage learning them. Our teacher helped us to do our tasks.Thus, our job got easier, so I thank him.

         We are in technology age, and learning technological developments became an obligation. If we want, we can be qualified teachers. It is based on us. Technology will go on developing, so we should go on developing ourselves.

         

Website and Second Life

         This lesson was last one we attended. The teacher said that he changed our final project. We were going to prepare a final project using Prezi. Instead of that, the teacher asked us to prepare our project with website, so he talked about website in the lesson. As in every tool we learnt, we got an account for the website. After that, we started to examine it. We had tried to prepare a website at computer course 3 years ago. It was a boring job, but this was different. That we select things we’ll put to website was sufficient. 

         Also, the teacher talked about Second Life. It is a 3D game. The teacher was going to show the game to us, but he didn’t because it was forbidden. Really, I wondered it. The teacher mentioned about ‘digital immigrants’ and ‘ digital natives’. Digital immigrants are people who learn technological developments after. Digital immigrants are ones who learn technological developments at early ages. Digital immigrants are lucky because they can learn everything easily.

         

Podcast ………

         I wasn’ t in the class this week, so I tried to learn what kind of tool it is from my classmates. I learnt that it requires sound register. The teacher gave a task related to this tool. I couldn’t do this task immediately because I haven’t sufficient knowledge about the tool. It was necessary that I got an account for the ‘audioboo’. And then, I told an event related to my failure . 

        As other tools, this tool is a useful one, as well. We can benefit from this kind of tools in the language classrooms. It can be used by teachers who take into consideration to their students’ multiple intelligences.

Digital Storytelling and Story Jumper…….

          The teacher asked us whether we used Moviemaker before. We used this tool at Teyls course before. We had little difficulty while preparing the video because we didn’t know how to prepare it exactly. In this week, the teacher had us watch  a video, and he told how we would use digital stories in the language classrooms.

          Another tool we learnt was Story Jumper. I wasn’t aware of such a tool’ s existence.Really, it is a perfect tool. We can organize a story book in way we liked in Story Jumper. Especially, this tool is suitable for young learners. Thanks to that, both teaching and learning English become easy and enjoyable.

          

Preziii ……

         The teacher mentioned media literacy and prezi. The teacher showed a picture to explain it. It was very effective in terms of explaining the term. Some events could be demonstrated in different aspects. We should do search the issue from different sources. According to researches, we should assess the issue.

        The other topic which was mentioned was ‘prezi’. It looks like ‘powerpoint’. It is very nice in terms of visuality. I wish we could learn it before. We would use it in our presentations. The teacher said that we will do prezi presentation as a final project, so it was asked us to pay attention to the topic.

        We tried to discover the prezi. We wrote somethings in it. The teacher showed us a prezi sample which is used in teaching practice. Really. it is useful for our teaching practice.

FIFTH WEEK …..

      I wasn’ t in class in this week, so I learnt the topic of the week from my friends. 12 symbols related to internet  was the topic. Most of them were unusual to me. I know few symbols such as youtube, skype, Ted Talks, gmail etc.

     People  who connect to internet permanently are familiar with these symbols.I think there is a useful side of them related to improving language. They present real language environment, so that they are used is advisable.

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FOURTH LESSON ….

            In this lesson, the teacher talked about professional development. It was explained why we need professional development. It is necessary to follow the recent developments in fields. Teachers should follow the seminars, in-service trainings, conferences, etc.

            The teacher also explained why online PD is preferred. The reasons of that:

       – the flexibility of learning time

       – not having to travel

       – the cost of learning material

       – learning is interactive.

        Also, Online Communities of Practice was mentioned, too. Yahoo group is one of examples for these groups. People in these groups share their opinions about any common issue.

THIRD LESSON…

        

           This lesson was related to ‘wiki’. The teacher asked us  if wikipedia program is reliable or not. I thought that the program was reliable, but I learnt it wasn’ t, because there was changeable information on it. Also, we had internet problem during the lesson again.

          After learning wiki, we got information about ‘pbworks’. It was said that this program was online sharing program. Chatting is possible on it, and information on that page can be updated. Users of it can make change on written pages. We learnt this program can be used for organizations, so it supplies easiness.

         This program is good one in terms of facilitating communication between people. Thanks to that, people can find opportunity to share their comments on a common issue. We can use it in our classrooms when we become teacher. It is an advantage for people who want to contact with their students or fellows permanently. 

Second Lesson…

      In the second lesson, it was asked whether we have any problem with our blogs. Actually, there wasn’t remarkable problem. During the lesson, many friends and I couldn’t enter the internet, so we couldn’t follow things told related to lesson, but after the half of lesson, we could be connected to it.

          It was necessary that I get ‘gmail’ adress. I tried to get it. Also, we got information about ‘ google reader’. We were asked to subscribe to friends on our blogs, and I subscribed to some friends.

         Also, we learnt that we can see how many visitors entered our blogs. There were advertisements on some blog pages because of theme chosen. How we can eliminate it was taught, too.

Jonas Eliasson talks about road congestion. He says when solving complex social problems, people will figure out what to do. He says traffic figures are most surprising and useful one to know. That figure shows public support. He advises that you should’t try to tell people how to adapt and you hould nudge them.