Are You an Autonomous Learner?
I learn many more new things this week. Some tasks that I’ve
finished are quite difficult but they’re worth for me. I believe where
there is a definite hardship there is an ease. It felt difficult at the
beginning, but the more I tried to keep going, the more I felt the ease to get
it done. A hard work will produce satisfactory results. That's also what I
believe. This week there are several tasks given by my wonderful instructor.
Reading some articles about autonomous learning and one-class computer is my first task. Next I discussed the topic with the instructor
and colleagues in nicenet. I chose to read and discuss articles on autonomous
learning and. I am really happy to discuss it with them. They convey the ideas
that really inspired me to continue learning to be the best teacher for my
students. Then I proceed with some other tasks.
AUTONOMOUS LEARNING
I’ve got and learned a lot of new things this time. Now I realize that the
importance of autonomy in student learning. The learner takes responsibility
for his/her learning, sets goals, chooses language learning strategies,
monitors progress, and evaluates his/her successful acquisition. In the
article that I read by Andrew GP Nowlan, Motivation and Learner Autonomy:
Activities to Encourage Independent Study, he uses reflective journal as a
method to improve writing skills and to provide an effective sense to focus on
the area of the students' speaking. The other method that he uses is using
technology and the internet. Instant messaging, discussion boards, interactive
blogs, and online forums might be more useful in autonomous learning as well as
social networks and other technological tools. There are a lot of available
methods, techniques and technology and has been used in teaching students to
become autonomous learning. It depends on us, as teachers, in selecting such right
tools.
Many activities that we can use and develop for fostering autonomous learning
such as activities provided by Galina Kavaliauskiene in her article, Two Autonomous
Learning Activities for fostering. In the article she describes two activities than
can encourage learners' development towards autonomy by motivating and
involving students, producing classroom materials and using them in class. I
see that the two activities can give students the opportunity to speak out and
argue their points. It also has the element of self-study and self-assessment.
PADLET
One technology tool that I learned is Padlet, a simple and useful tool that
allow teachers or students to build a "wall" for sharing. It's an
online bulletin board. It can function as a "bell-ringer" or
"ticket-out-the-door" activity, as well as a homework assignment. My
instructor provides padlet page for me and other colleagues to fill it with
articles, video, audio, or other materials related to the topics we discussed
about either autonomous learning or one-computer classroom and mobile devices.
It is an amazing moment to share knowledge to others. We, as teachers, can use
this as an online posterboard, and it is perfect for a group project. It’s a simple
tool to share and increase knowledge about learning and technology.
This week is really a wonderful adventure. I am also asked to choose a partner to help and share with a project for next assignment. My partner for this assignment is Juan Pachecho, a kind and amazing man. He is from Colombia. He is a great and inspired teacher and he has an impressive blog, too. I am really happy getting him in my project. His idea is very thoughtful and insightful. Thanks to him to be my partner in next assignment.
Husni
