Week 7: One Computer Classroom - Wallwisher to Enhance Learner Autonomy

‘We believe that everyone can learn, become a better thinker and independent learner. We are committed to meeting or even exceeding our students’ expectations’

Let me start this week’s reflections with this ETP mission statement. At ETP, we are indeed convinced that teaching amounts to developing students’ critical thinking and to make of them independent learners. It is therefore obvious that what we learned this week in terms of learner autonomy is of a high importance to me. Moreover, discovering wallwisher really helps find a brand new way of motivating the students and thereby to involve them in the learning process. The use of Wallwisher has demonstrated how effective one computer can be if used properly.

I have to say that the students’ experience with Glogster was not really a successful one; in fact, none of my A1 students managed to create one Glogster account because it was impossible to access the site and even if we had spent a whole period of ninety minutes in the computer lab, they were not successful; as a result, they were a little disappointed at the beginning of the week. When I introduced them to wallwisher, they were again a little skeptical but when they saw the result, they were so excited that they volunteered to investigate into a new topic every week.
 To avoid new disappointments, I opened one wall I entitled A1ETPWALL (http://wallwisher.com/wall/hx5c4slmjx) and I had them search the net for interesting items about ‘Child Labor’. They brought their findings on a USB key or sent them to me by mail and last Friday, I brought a computer to class and posted their files on the wall. You should have seen their expressions when they were asked to come to the desk to talk about their contribution and put their names on their files. As one of my classmates said on Nicenet: 'It is during moments like this that we realize how rewarding it is to be a teacher'. That was exactly how I felt at the moment and I was all the more happy when those who did not contribute yet promised to do so for the coming topic which will be about ‘Domestic Violence’.

They also appreciated very much the fact of working in groups to synthesize what they learned about Child Labor in Madagascar, the causes, the effects, what is being done to solve it, which organizations are involved in the fight and what remains to be done. Each group of four was then asked to write a paragraph about their conclusions and to post that on the wall on Monday. From the discussions I heard, I can say that on the whole, they have benefitted from much more input about the topic from each other than from me alone. I just had to take care of the accuracy of the language they were using.

The other great event of the week is also the fact of having paired up with Kinnari so as to work on the project; I'm looking forward to her feed back. I myself have been impressed by the Webquest she has designed. Week 8 definitely promises to be another enriching one. Let's hope that Nicenet will be back!!!!!!