Week 8:Learner Autonomy, One-computer classroom

Hi

This was a very emotional week for me. My colleague lost her 3rd son in a car accident on Wednesday. It was so sad.

Amidst the sadness, I manage to submit my draft project. It was actually interesting to submit my work for on-line peer evaluation. This project made me reflect on some of my successes since incorporating technology and some of the other theory we had learnt in this course.

This week I was reminded of learner-centered learning. What does it really mean? The learner takes charge of its learning as quoted by Holec in Thanasoulas. The only concern I have with learner autonomy is that the learner must be mature to realize its learning is dependent on itself and not on the teacher. The reality is that so many learners expect the teacher to perform whilst the learner sits back and watch. I was so taken aback, stunned when a learner told me another lecturer had sent him to me as his English lecturer to improve his English. I don't know when I became God to quickly fix fossilized errors. The irony was that this very same student didn't bother once to apply any of the things I had shared concerning his poor spelling.

For teachers to embrace learner autonomy they to should experience autonomy. Smith suggested to use the loophole in the system to create teacher autonomy. Sheu suggested some ways to incorporate learner autonomy by encouraging students to read other types of material, like newspapers, magazines, watching and listening to English programs. Learners can also make their own vocabulary cards or keep diaries. students must be encouraged to learn outside the box.

Furthermore we also looked at the one-computer classroom. We don't realize how privilege we are to have computer labs for our classes. We learnt how to use a very basic technological tool, like a laptop, to enhance the effectiveness of a lesson. We received numerous valuable resources/websites that we can use. I liked the one by Susan Gaer, her handout to various activities for Low Level Activities for Adult ESL. It is complete, relevant, varied and useful.

We had a visiting moderator, Jeff. who showed us some other tools. I even create a wordle. It was great fun. I will definitely use it in class.

Well, it was great to learn something new. The challenges of becoming better teachers should keep us motivated to try our best.

Regards
Jules