Week 4: Planning a lesson and the project

By the looming of week 4, I felt that we are approaching our final project. Last week, we keep asking what are its features? How does it look like? This week carries the answer with many files drawing its frame. It was a stressful week for me as I tried to finish the tasks in 24 hours and I was the first to post in the discussion. Why? It is the International NileTESOL conference in Egypt started on Mon. and finished on Thurs. Although I was overloaded and exhausted, I tried to be accomplished. I explored the three articles related to integrating technology in teaching written language skills; reading and writing. They are rich and practical. The recommended sites were also a heavy meal. I kept reading what exactly is required. Only one site? I stated different objectives for a selected mini-lesson from Breaking English news. I discovered many excellent sites for not only integrating technology but also integrating the four skills. I intend to use these sites in implementing my final project.

The second task was the technology-enhanced lesson plan. It was demanding and I read the articles and tried to make some changes to the sample provided to include all the fantastic features I have learned from the articles. I found some aspects of similarities and differences between technology-enhanced and traditional lesson planning. Both lessons have learning objectives, but the technology-enhanced lesson specifies objectives for technology use. Using authentic material in the technology –enhanced lesson provides students with authentic information about the topic. In traditional lesson, this can be done by reading some articles about the topic. Reports in the traditional lesson will be written on papers which is time consuming and sometimes inaccurate. Whereas, in technology-enhanced lesson the use of word processor in writing and revising facilitates students' work and increases its efficiency. Moreover, the audience in technology-enhanced lesson is not always the teacher and the classmates as in the traditional lesson, but a live audience, a factor that will motivate students and create a purpose for writing.  Unlike assessment in traditional lesson plan, learning and language outcomes as well as technology use are assessed in technology-enhanced lesson. Creating technology-enhanced lesson plan was a rich experience for me.

Detecting the project problem, I think, is the first brick in building the project. I stated a number of problems which will complicate the process of choosing the X-large technique that will solve all these problems. The good news is that we can utilize more than one e-tool to solve the problem(s) by using technology. It is challenging to know that one of the problems is using technology itself. By knowing what I am trying to solve, who are the participants, and which learning context, I think the next step will be finding the appropriate technology-based strategy.

Regards,

Amira