Week 10

And this is it!

This is the end of our adventuresome learning experience of 10 weeks… Relieved but sad, conflicting feelings after this journey, these hard working weeks in which we have created empathy and bonds, and after which I am pretty sure I’ll never hear from some of you again…hope I’m wrong!

From ABCD objectives, to more effective web searching, skill-building websites, bookmarking, technology-enhanced lesson plans, PBL, webquests, rubrics, student-centred classes, interactive PPts, learner autonomy, one-computer classroom, mobile learning, teacher online resources, peer reviewing, MI and LS… well in ten weeks, that’s a lot and tough! I learned a lot every single week by reading and by investing my time and effort in all tasks to make them useful, purposeful and relevant for myself, my students and you.

I can’t really say what topics were most successful, useful, or relevant once I tried them all in classes and will keep on using them in different classes with different age groups and different levels of proficiency. All are equally successful, useful and relevant if used sensibly and it’s up to us teachers to do that part.

This last week I have equally accomplished the required tasks and readings. When asked about what other tools might the course have covered or I would like to suggest, I find it difficult to answer as what is new and interesting today, will very soon be outdated and overcome. This is particularly true in what concerns new technologies, gadgets and tools. I would say that it also depends on our interest and time to find out what is out there and how we can apply to teaching / our classes. After reading https://www.calico.org/html/article_683.pdf I came across this very recent article http://www.teslej.org/wordpress/issues/volume17/ej68/ej68a1/    

that I would strongly advise you to read and which has a suggestive question for a start “Is CALL obsolete?”. It does shed some light on this fast paced (and unstoppable) evolution process which was unpredictable in 2008 when the former article was published.

As I’ve stated before, this elearning course has been the most enriching and comprehensive I have ever been enrolled in. It has surprised me by its scope (honestly speaking I wasn’t really sure what to expect), fulfilled me professionally and has filled my days for the last couple of weeks because… it has been perfect! It has been a wonderful learning experience, under Donna’s supervision and guidance, to get to know and share so much with hardworking and committed learners / teachers as the participants in this course have proved to be and I do hope we can establish more international projects in the future.

Working with Karim and Zeljko virtually has been a most rewarding experience. Dedicated, focussed, really professional and inspiring as teachers, and real gentlemen – not else was expected but still worth my words of praise - I couldn’t have had better teammates! Hope this project and/or other projects take(s) us further and who knows? May be we can meet, one day, in person. Just like students say “That would be cool!” In the meantime, a poem, not dedicated to any lover as it was Yeats’s case, but dedicated to ourselves as committed teachers / learners as well as to our students: we all have our dreams and therefore tread softly!

“Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

W.B. Yeats, The Wind Among the Reeds 1899

Hope I have been treading softly on my students' dreams. I am thankful to them: I teach for them and learn with them every single day;

Thank you all for sharing and commenting; 

Thank you, Donna, for your constant support and encouragement.

Alex