Week 2 Illumination

Week 2 seemed like a roller coaster ride in the beginning as I had to review and assess all these wonderful search engines in Noodletools. Believe me, it was an overwhelming task of getting used to the variety, as Google or Yahoo was ‘the chosen one’ before. However, this experience was an eye opener too! Some coursemates have already mentioned in their Nicenet discussion board that either people are not aware of the options that exist or sometimes too lazy to leave their comfort zone. In my case it has been both! Finally I looked into the other options to leave my little pool and embrace myself to dive into the ocean.

Reading materials like “Web searching tech tip-June 2009” taught me the ideas of using different signs to specify my search that I didn’t know before. I had ideas about Bloom’s Taxonomy but the links provided a little brush up. I knew about course objective and learning objective but I learnt the ABCD model of writing clear objective statements by reading "How to Write Clear Objectives." This is very precise and provides a clear link between ‘expectation, teaching and grading’ which appealed to me as the most pertinent issue regarding teaching-learning situation in Bangladesh. In classes at all levels most of the time there exists a gap in what we expect from the learners (usually very high expectation) – the content and method of teaching (very diverse) – the assessment (not focused). 

I wrote my ABCD objective statement for a written assignment planned for a particular course (Classics in Translation I) I’m teaching now. I have to admit that I provided topics, instructions and guidelines to the students for assignments before. This time I linked audience – behavior – condition – degree, paused and asked myself ‘what?’, ‘how?’, ‘how much?’ as I prepared the objective statement.  

I also chose the same class to describe as the first step of my project task. I provided details about the course goal, student needs, student population, classroom setting and available facilities. I have to collect more data to make this initial assessment stronger. I haven’t thought of any particular plan to bring about a technology-assisted change but I’m confident that what we (teacher and students) will do in this class will transform us as learners.

I learnt these in the process:

1. How to use of different search engines and this is a continuous task of learning how to search more efficiently (as I had to stumble with the precise entry)

2. How to make specific tasks for a class ABCD objective-oriented and make the students aware of the teaching-learning situation

3. Providing details about my class made me assess the classroom situation, student population and facilities; and made me aware how these are related to the course goal and student needs.

I’ll obviously disseminate the techniques of searching and the list of useful search engines to the students. As they are tertiary level students, they will be able to decide on their own which sites will be useful for them. But the idea of making them search for something particular will enforce them to get out of the regular habit of googling and become aware of other search engines. For example, after giving them the written assignment on dialog writing that I mentioned in the Nicenet discussion on ABCD objective, I might ask them to choose a search engine which will help them recapitulate the techniques of dialog writing. Moreover, the more precise way of writing ‘learning objective statement’ will always help me to stay focused and sharing this with students will make them more responsible learners.

Week 2 finally ends with lot of energy inside me to see move on from one step to another along with my coursemates with the able guide Courtney. Cheers to all!