I feel pretty good about what I am doing here. Everyday is a new experience to learn and reflect on. Every task accomplished is an ignition device to carry on. Every comment received is something to ponder on. Every friend is a source of inspiration.
Week 3 has been a week of multiple tasks. From reading a lot of articles for discussion to the reading and commenting on the past webskills participants' project reports plus the making of My Delicious Page have made my week so full. For several months, I didn't use my pair of eyeglasses, but gosh! have to wear them back again now but this makes sense somehow!
It feels good to look back from where I've been. As I accounted what I've done since the first week of the webskills course, I couldn't help but thank God for having given me this opportunity and for bringing me this far, then I thought about our DepEd Division of Davao del Norte's institutional vision which hopes to see our division as one of the premier institutions of learning managed by competent and caring personnel whose learners are value-laden and equipped with academic and technological and life skills. From the time I participated in the crafting of our vision, I had been being honest to feel and think that we lag in developing our teachers and students' technological skills since for several years now, most teachers are still on the basic level in terms of technology utlization. The computerization program in our schools division has been there for about a decade yet it has not gained remarkable feat except to a very few teachers who dared and few students who explored. Being a school principal before and now an education program supervisor, I always have the yearning to see the department vision in a clearer view and .... and I guess, I can start making a difference through courses of actions in simple beginnings.
Week 3 has offered much. I was so delighted to learn and work on My Delicious Page. As I've said in one my posts at Nicenet, being forgetful goes along with my age thus, my Delicious can be a good buddy in collecting, classifying and organizing my online favorites. Reference materials have always been a problem in the extension university where I teach part-time and Googles was the only search engine I used to access, but now my information need can be best addressed with the engines I knew about from here.I greatly appreciate the links posted by the other participants which I also saved in my Delicious. Simply awesome!
The articles for aural/oral skills are good reference for activities that can be done in the classes of various levels while using the technology. At Nicenet, I discussed about The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills. The article provided me with insights about the advantages of using the technology (internet) in enhancing the speaking skills of my students who are non-native speakers of English as it likewise enumerated disadvantages which cautioned me to come up with measures should things don't happen the way I expect them to be. I also appreciate Mingya Zhou on his reply to me at Nicenet, that was not a just mere reply because it gave me an idea on how to improve the synchronous online discussion which I will again conduct with another set of classes this second semester.
If there is something that gave me clearer view of where I am heading, they are the project reports of the previous webskills course participants. Even if we differ in the type of learners and settings, as well as differ in the goals set, but in some aspect, there is a sort of parallelism of the context we try to drive out. The project report of Prem Bahadur Phyak of Tribhudan University, Kathmandu, Nepal is a source of inspiration and challenge specially for me and the teachers in schools where technology can be available. Prem's way of beating the odds is very commendable.
Just a day away, and Week 3 in webskills shall be over.... with a pocketful of learning gained from this course, I cannot stop looking back from where I've been and whisper to myself.... "I am lucky!"
Hi Rebecca!
ReplyDeleteWhile I was typing a reply to your post, my phone rang and I had to be away for a minute and my son who, who is just 18 months old, ruined it all! He shut down the system! :-)
Well, I marvel at the graphic account of the week that you presented! You say it all, not just the events, but also the feelings and spirit behind those events!
The thing I liked the most in your post is that you want to bring back your experience to your work place and want to improve things!
We all feel lucky to have learned so many things within such a short time!
Muhammad Rashid
Hello Muhammad,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments and for being the reason of my chuckles after having learned what your cute little angel did to your PC. I recalled my children when they were still very small kids and how they put me to a lot of challenging situations. Well, these situations make the kids more lovable.
You are right in saying that we are learning so much here and we all feel lucky to have been given this opportunity which can turn to possibilities of making a difference even in our simple ways.
My best regards to you and your family.
REBECCA