Starting an online English class intervention to enhance off-classroom works

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Barbara Fedock on July 29, 2009 at 9:53am

Reynald,

1st: I would ask the following questions:

Online teachers:
a) Does my school or community have teachers who can teach online English classes? b) Do you have teachers who are trained in online facilitation or teaching? c) Do you have teachers who have a background and certification in English who are willing to be trained to teach online? TEACHING ONLINE IS AN ART AND A TEACHING SCIENCE. TRAINING IS VERY NECESSARY.

If you do not have qualified teachers:
a) To help your administrators and teachers become familiar with online classrooms, enroll a group of your students in established online schools. Examine and analyze the model as students take the classes. Take note of how teachers teach, the expectations, the instructional modes, and how your students work online. My school, for example, is a high quality, low cost online school for elementary to high school students. The school offers Rosetta Stone classes in languages, English as a second language, English classes at all levels, math, science, social studies, 150 career classes, and courses designed for an international diploma. Teachers are highly qualified, and the staff members are expert online teachers. i will continue in another message. Barbara Fedock

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Barbara Fedock on July 29, 2009 at 10:06am

Reynald,

The established online school would also be a model for types of formative and summative assessments that benefit online students. Feedback is very important in online courses. Teachers must be trained in netiquette and in giving feedback. There are also many Web support systems, such as Wimba and Pronto that can be used in the classroom. As students take the online classes, look at the effective use of Wimba to increase student learning.

If you have teachers who are dedicated, qualified to teach English, and have experience in or want to become online teachers:
I would still recommend enrolling your students in a well established online school that is focused on 21st Century, global learning skills. This is so important. Avoid schools that are like babysitters and very static. Make sure that each course focuses on real world application, 21st Century critical thinking skills and problem solving, Web 2.0 technology, discussion forums, Wimba, excellent feedback, and team projects. Make sure that students do not learn in isolation. Barbara Fedock

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Barbara Fedock on July 29, 2009 at 10:18am

Reynald,

If you have qualified English and other content teachers, online teaching training, and excellent facilitators:

If you have a qualified staff or if you have a qualified staff who is engaged in intensive online teacher training, you might want to consider setting up Moodle as an online delivery system for your online classes. If you have a trained technology staff, your staff could probably set up the system for you. You must, however, also train your teachers to use Moodle as the delivery mode.

When I create online classes, I focus on the following: real world application skills, 21st Century skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills, student interaction, opportunities for student feedback and sharing of ideas, opportunities for teacher feedback and interaction, clarity, instructional methods, learning outcomes, and quality of instruction.


When I teach an online class, I look for the same thing. I hope that this is helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions. Several years ago when I set up my virtual model, I followed the suggestions that I presented to you to help me evaluate the online learning process for my students, and it worked. I used the data to better my school and to increase student learning. Barbara Fedock

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Permalink Reply by Reynald M. Cacho on July 30, 2009 at 4:41am

Hi there Dr. Barbara,

I am very satisfied with your feedback. What an insight! Your model of an online English class is a tough challenge to emulate. Perhaps, we have to address the first concerns (Online teachers:
a) Does my school or community have teachers who can teach online English classes? b) Do you have teachers who are trained in online facilitation or teaching? c) Do you have teachers who have a background and certification in English who are willing to be trained to teach online? TEACHING ONLINE IS AN ART AND A TEACHING SCIENCE. TRAINING IS VERY NECESSARY.) through trainings and that will be our first priority.

Since we are part of a public school system in the Philippines, financing the installation and hosting of an online course management system that you have mentioned will have to go through tough scrutiny. Nevertheless, as you have seen in my site, I'm already using MOODLE but its limited to our computer laboratory not to the web yet my free google website does the rest. I have grasped its features (MOODLE) and applied to my students; the result was very favorable as a pilot model. As I noted to the site, the online class that we will be having will be an INTERVENTION or SUPPLEMENT to off-class room activities and as ICT integration, not to totally stick on ONLINE. Our pace may be a little slow because of resource constraints. At any rate, your recommendations did not fall into blind eyes and deaf ears. I'M VERY GRATEFUL FOR THEM. Your are really a GURU in this field.

YOUR LIKING OF VISITING OUR SCHOOL IS A GREAT IDEA. HOPE IF YOU HAVE TIME TO PASS BY ASIA , WHY DON'T YOU DROP BY TO LOPEZ, QUEZON, PHILIPPINES. I WOULD BE HAPPY TO ACCOMMODATE YOU AND SHARE YOU OUR BEST ONLINE AND OFFLINE CLASSROOM PRACTICES.

A million thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Barbara Fedock on August 7, 2009 at 7:30pm

Reynald,

How are you? I have thinking of you and wondered how things are going. What is happening in your school? Do your students want American email penpals?

Barbara

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Permalink Reply by Reynald M. Cacho on August 14, 2009 at 5:04am

Just recuperating from H1N1, it did take a great toll for me to work all things I've missed doing. My online supplemental or enhancement class goes on. Moreover, I opened a graded discussion for my students as enrichment writing activity on phrases. http://sites.google.com/site/reynaldsworld/Home/discussion-group . Aside from the loads of language information my students get from the site, I always make sure that the site will be interactive for them to get involved with. After a regular class in English, students' learning continue at their convenience at home, in an internet cafe, and elsewhere. I still have to ask them about the American email penpals. If they are interest, how would you react? Regards Dr. Fedock

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Barbara Fedock on August 14, 2009 at 9:10pm

Reynald,

I am so sorry that you had the H1N1 flu. Was it really, really bad?

If you are interested in establishing penpals, please let me know. Schools in my area and our online school has not yet started. Students begin at the end of August.

If you are interested, please let me know the ages and grade levels of your students. When school opens and teachers have time to prepare their students for being penpals, I will match your students to other students who want penpals.

We can allow students to email each other for social reasons or we can ask students to respond to specific topics. What do you think?

I viewed your graded discussion site. I would love to meet your students.

Please stay well and keep in touch.


Barbara

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Permalink Reply by Reynald M. Cacho on August 15, 2009 at 6:23am

It was not really that bad. I am not even sure whether its H1n1, a regular flu because it's undocumented.

Your penpal stuff is fine with me. Let's work it out for cultural understanding and language enrichment.

Regards,

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Permalink Reply by Dennis Bayeng on September 4, 2009 at 7:31am

Hi Reynald,

I am one of your classmates in EDL 221. Right now I live in Taytay, Rizal and I work in Eastwood, Libis, Q.C. For me, the Internet is an amazing and indeed a very potent resource to enhance the teaching-learning process, inside and outside of the classroom. As of now I do not have first hand experience about this, but I intend to put things in to practice come next year when I return to classroom teaching. What I have in mind is something like a blended learning. Classroom teaching enhanced by online lessons and activities. Next year, I intend to apply all that I have learned during the four years that I did online tutoring. You see, Reynald, I have been tutoring English one-on-one to Koreans using the phone since 2006. And I did classroom teaching last SY 2004-2005.

Let me share with you my bookmarks.


http://delicious.com/dennisbayeng/esl_website
http://delicious.com/dennisbayeng/esl%2Fefl

Hope you find something useful.

Dennis

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Permalink Reply by Dennis Bayeng on September 4, 2009 at 7:51am

Hi Reynald,

I also would like to share with you two mini-blogs that unfortunately I have failed to update at present. Anyway, I am sure you will find something useful in them. Have a good weekend!

http://dbayeng.tumblr.com/
http://denn1sb.tumblr.com/

Dennis

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Permalink Reply by Dennis Bayeng on September 4, 2009 at 7:56am

Hey Reynald,

On second thoughts, I wanna share voxopop.com. Have you heard of this website before. I have this idea that you can use this website in enhancing your English classroom teaching. Why don't you check it out!

Dennis

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Permalink Reply by Dennis Bayeng on September 4, 2009 at 8:11am

Hi again,

One of my favorite online resource with regards to teaching English is this site which has a lot of websites in it for beginners, intermediate and adults.

http://www.oup.com/elt/students/?cc=global


Dennis

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