mylife

Nilly,
My comments on your site are there Nilly aboout 4 from the bottom! They are not very long as I coould not find many anything wrong. Just one note was you could create a link to the site

http://dictionary.reference.com/. It is an online dictionary that is great as if it does not know the word it does an interenet search of other site for the word. I loved the colours on your site they were not too bright and this makes it eassy on my old eyes. Loved the topic and found the HP activites a challenge. This topic is great for long term students and short tour students alike. Can I use it with my class?

Well it is true that a second or even a third set of eyes is always useful. It seems that we never can see the mistakes that we make ourselves; we are just too close to the project. I had a few errors in my HP activities, such as one question having no correct answers (opps), and a second having a spelling mistake, located by fellow workers before I posted the Web Page. I should have also learned how to spell Moreton Bay before trying to establish that I was some kind of expert on the history of the region (Oh No!). Well it happens to the best of us.

The students from my language class who I tested it on seemed uninterested in this topic. I have always struggled to find things that they are interested and a happy medium between the doing nothing that they enjoy and the challenging projects that foster belief in their abilities and independence that I love is not possible. Perhaps I need to choose something that they enjoy like movies or sleeping (?!?) Perhaps my next attempt will involve links to music lyrics or popular movie stars official homepages so they can write a biography of their life or learn about their interests. Again however as I have not had a chance to try out the WebQuest on them they are perhaps not interested in the topic yet.

In order to interest my students I would have to make them read some of the information as one of those who reflected on my web page noted she did feel more interested in Brisbane after doing the activities, though both commented that they were a little bit of a challenge. These games I should have pointed out are designed to be done after learning about Brisbane as a kind of follow up galvanization of what they have learned and the English skills that they need. However all this aside given they were able to choose which area of history they researched I should have not made the crosswords in particular so challenging.

I could have also added pictures to the match and puzzles however I had considered this but many of Brisbane’s historic pictures are copy-written and there are not too many of the buildings left due the fire that ravaged Brisbane early last century. Still more colour perhaps may have made it more appealing to the students, as would have any pictures that I could have found. I also could have linked the history text to the puzzles that required it for completion. This would have meant that students would not have to keep clicking back and forth to figure out the things they did not know. This saves time and allows students to recheck facts that they are unsure of.

However one thing is certain, linking computers and the Internet to English lessons makes things more interesting for the students and the teachers as it challenges and motivates us to try harder. It also makes them more interested in a topic as one of the people who commented on my page noted, she is now more interested in Brisbane’s history then she was before. This extra interest in turn produces more competent language creators who are more focused on the task that they are involved in. It also helps to foster in learners that sometimes elusive trait of autonomous language learning.

Thanks to Jeff and Yvonne for their gret comments. I am currently reflecting and hope to post my full reflection in a few days. I have checked out a couple of the websites and I have to say that we all did a terrific job. Especially given that some of us did not have lots of skills or at least confidence in our skills when we started.

I have looked at Jeff's, Nilly's, and Mahsa'a and commented and checked out Julie's. If anyone does not end up with 2 comments let me know here and I am more than happy to help you out by commenting.

Congratulations to all of us.

Here is my completed webpage. Please follow the link and prepare to be amazed by the wonder that is . . . .. . .


Kylie's Web Page

Please comment!!

OK I have commented on one web page. Mahsa's page is amazing? I recommend everyone look at it. I will be trying to have my page posted by tomorrow but I jnust found some mistakes in my quiz so I have to fix it. Good Luck everybody.

Thanks for all of your comments. Re anyone who wants to use a blog but students do not seem interested, I just set it up. Told them to write something then said I was going to put it on our blog. They can not freely write on it as I let two girls on to type something and not so favourbale things ended up being written. That had to be edited so now they email it and I edit it slightly. If they do not want it published I do not force them. They also get the choice of having no name on the post. THis way they know which is theirs but others do not necessarly know.

Now apparently tow or three of the girls have told famiily about the site and most want to see their stuff published.

This is the blog that I set up for my students.

http://www.englishisreallyfun.blogspot.com/

Well after much confusion with Dreamweaver and other such programs I tried Geocities again and found that at least starting is eas.

Here is the begining of my

webpage

Kylie's webpage

Well I read this article as I flew up to Townsville for my cousin's birthday party. It is interesting as it outlines the ways that technology can be used to foster autonomy in the classroom. Though I do admit that I would have been one of the very confused students that were mentioned in the study as I feel that autonomy is something that is generally not fostered in most learning environments. Whether it is somply that there is too much to get through each week, or that students seem to be unable to do it. I have tried leaving the responsibility for learning in my students hands but some of them are unable to accept that it is there responsibily. Two or three of them blaming me for there inability to complete the assigned tasks saying I never told them they had to do it. This is despite the fact that I told them every week for threee weeks but by the fourth week I had given up and by the fifth week I knew they did not care so I found it hard to.

I feel that discovery learning has its place but it is really important to show students what it is you expect them to do. You can not just hand them a piece of papaer and expect them to be able to produce the kind of work that you want them to. You must model or explain. Even if it takes more time than you might have available as this part is the one that will keep the students confidence up both in themselves and in you.

One of the students in the article commented something along the fact that she could have learnt at home by herself instead of doing the course and I think this is an indication that perhaps the person in charge of the course did not make themselves available enough to the students. Or perhaps did not explain or model what they wanted the students to do enough. On the opposing hand perhaps that student just needed a little more assistance to be weaned off the teacher feeding cycle that much of the education system places all of us in. In particular anyone who was at school around the time I was.