my cup of tea
October 18, 2008 by songmirae
After a month of feeling alone and rather slow at dealing with the technology, I finally got a chance to receive a feedback from SueWaters which made me like a person. I guess we all need some sort of acknowledgement or support.
Speaking of support, the articles by Toyoda and Jones on learner autonomy was my cup of tea. It spoke about the fact that technology does enhance learners’ autonomy but it is relative to the computer literacy of a person as well as the role of teachers. Some of the cases that were being discussed sounded like me. I am a newbie; computers are user-friendly but there are still certain things that can be taught and led. Aside from that, the major problem is the TIME that these projects entails. It has been a common belief that technology saves time; I can’t agree from the producing side but maybe from just the receiving end, it may be.
WebQuest is interesting and am searching to see how I may incorporate it in helping my students to improve their language skills. The social-constructivist perspective is pretty much what I also believe is the way to learn and acquire knowledge. For now, have to go search and check which will take another thousands of hours.
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Always happy to provide feedback and encouragement especially for new bloggers. I still remember what it was like when I started out so try to pass on the supporting and mentoring people gave me to others.
Totally agree with the statement “technology does enhance learners’ autonomy but it is relative to the computer literacy of a person as well as the role of teachers.” What I see if people who are really good with technology has the skills for self directed learning provided they have the time. While those with less skills struggle because of the challenges caused by the technology which is why you need to use good scaffolding and suitable facilitation skills.
Technology unfortunately doesn’t save time. I love the presentation I attended by Alan Levine last year — he said “anyone who tells you that technology saves time is lying. The only one that may save you time is RSS (using Google Reader) but ultimately that may not save you time because you find more to read.
Hi,
I know you’re stressed, and I totally understand the feeling. I’ll try to make sure there are more hands-on sessions from now on. However, despite everything it seems to me you are doing a very good job, and also attracting some readers, a very crucial point with blogging! So congratulations; it looks like your pains aren’t going to waste! Hang in there!
Susan @>—;-
Hi,
Firstly thanks for blogging your steps in e-learning. I am a teacher who frequently helps other teachers with technology. Reading your blog has helped me to better understand some of the frustrations and concerns that they have.
Secondly, I think you will find that you will like some tools better than others for example I don’t regularly use Wiki’s but use Google reader and Twitter. Its just about trying them out and finding which ones will be useful to you. That takes time unfortunately!
Good luck with the rest of your adventure. I look forward to reading your progress.
Hey there,
Thanks for sharing your steps into eLearning with us – it can be completely overwhelming at first…but, like Cath said, you end up finding a few tools that suit you and those will be the ones you use more often than not.
Technology can take a long time to set it up “just right”, I think I’ve learned to be a bit more relaxed about that recently – nothing I create will ever be a “finished product” 100% but I’m ok with that and no longer loose sleep over it.
With Webquest – there’s a tool a friend showed me last week that may interest you. You put the websites in the order you want people to see them and create a web “trail” for them to explore, it’s at – http://www.trailfire.com/
I can’t wait to see how your next steps into tech go – I’ll be here reading!
To Sue,
Time is relative. The beginning story is more time-consuming but the literacy or competency one acquires helps to regain the time, especially when it becomes second-nature. The technique is mechanical but the response which is ‘literal’ may need more thought. Will let you know about google reader later.
To Cath,
Thanks for the sympathy and advice about picking and choosing. The enormous tools that are available is one of the reasons that a newbie gets overwhelmed.
I will keep you posted.
To Mobbsey,
Thanks for the sympathy and lead to trailfire. Am going to check it out within the next couple of days.
I feel much better with all the support I’ve gotten.