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This is the first challenging and wonderful journey I've had
in my life. I was first recommended by the Dean of college where I work now to join
the online course of University of Oregon where I get the webskills course. I
followed the instructions given by him. I was thrilled to get an email saying
that I have been accepted to attend a course for 10 weeks held by University ofOregon. One thing that makes me really happy is an email from one of the
instructors of this course named Donna Shaw. She said that I could start to take a
course and do some tasks for the first week. I have gained many things in this
first week. It begins by visiting the course website and then by filling ‘The
needs assessment survey’. The most interesting thing is to join a class
discussion on nicenet.org, a non-profit organization of Internet professionals who give
their time to provide services to the education community. I can also meet (not face to
face) all my friends in this course from different countries around the world.
The topics given in the first week is really fun. Self introduction of each
student, discussing the ground rules and guidelines and rubrics which was very
effective in its use to regulate the flow of discussion to be more efficient and
effective, and ultimately creating a blog that is a reflection for the users. Thanks
to my instructor, Donna Shaw, who has introduced me to other things where it could
improve my teaching skills, and also thanks to all friends for sharing ideas,
thoughts and culture. I agree with Angel, one of my friend in this course, in his first blog post that said ‘this
is a challenging and tough week’. It really makes me to run fast.
There are some amazing things here that I find and learn
when I create a blog. As it says in an article provided by the instructor 'Blogging for
ELT' that this is one of the easiest ways to publish student writing on the WWW
. I totally agree because I’ve applied that idea on my students. It provides a real
audience for their writing, extra reading practice and also it can be an online
journal for them and especially for me. It is very interesting reading for
English teachers who want to increase their teaching skills through a blog. (I really
recommend it). I used to use an email in providing students' assignments, but
it sometimes made me confused because it didn’t seem work. Most of the students rarely
open their email. With this idea of blog I can use a blog to convey an idea or
task for my students. They can go directly to the blog, read the instructions
and download assignments there as well as the website provided by the online
course that I follow. Although I still have a little knowledge in this regard,
I must continue to try and learn. It never hurts to always learn the positive
things. I believe it.
Thanks to you all. Thank you for this new experience.
Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
