Reflection of Week 8

Dear all lovely and friendly friends all over the world,

It's amazing, interesting, and important this week. Really many online tools as teacher resources we can develop to facilitate our students' learning activities and our own teaching process in the classroom. The followings are what I did in the Week 8.

1. Class Site

This is my class site I created for my translation students. I named it Translation Class Site. You can visit it at https://sites.google.com/site/translationclasssite/. This site is designed specially for Translation studies class. I provided some slots on this site: Home, Lesson Materials, Lesson Plan, Assignments, Exercises, and Teacher's Profile. The contents I made are very simple because they are only samples. Later I will manage this site as complete as possible. 

2. Handout

Other work I did in this Week 8 is a Handout of Translation Studies. This handout is  a very simple handout that discusses the Procedures, Strategies, and Methods of Translation. I composed it based on the article taken from http://www.accurapid.com/journal/41culture.htm. This handout was also attached on the class site Translation Class Site that can be visited at https://sites.google.com/site/translationclasssite/lesson-materials. This handout is very important for my students to study some theoretical bases of translation. It is a product that can be used for their learning autonomy. Really we can compose at least one handout per semester for our lesson material development activity. We can take some related materials from the internet and make a compilation.

2. Another Online Teacher Resource

https://it.uoregon.edu/itconnections/anvill

In relation to other online teacher resources, I read some articles about ANVILL. This is a new virtual language lab I know. ANVILL stands for A Natural Virtual Language Lab, and like other course management systems such as Blackboard—a popular course management system used by UO and many universities nation-wide—ANVILL allows teachers to create and organize their courses and receive assignments back from their students. But ANVILL, a project created by UO’s Yamada Language Center, has been designed apecifically for language instructors and their students. Yamada, the Language Center Director, says that ANVILL is focused on speech and the production of oral language. On the other hand ANVILL designer Jeff Magoto says that ANVILL is easier for teachers to get in and get oral lessons back from students than in other systems (https://it.uoregon.edu/itconnections/anvill).This "lab",however, like so many aspects of modern web based software is eminently portable: any teacher or student with web access (in class, at home, or in the office) can use ANVILL to listen to the news, watch video clips, or submit voice or video based assignments (http://babel-old.uoregon.edu/anvill/11-anvillOverview.pdf). Unfortunately, I could not use this program directly because my classes are written document-based course not audio-video-based course. I hope next time there will be a lab program that can facilitate my classes focusing on the translation theory and practice. Thanks for your attention.

Best regards,
Rudi Hartono

Reflection of Week 7

Woow .... three interesting topics this week. We know the Learner Autonomy concept and models, One-Computer Class activity, and Mobile Devices for Students' Learning Tools and Media.

1) Learner Autonomy

http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/

In my mind, learner autonomy is a learner's way of study that refers to self-study, independent learning or own study that a learner conducts to focus and concentrate on his or her analysis of something. This is accordance with some experts of learner autonomy that said various definitions of 'autonomy', such as 'independence' (Sheerin, 1991, 'language awareness' (Lier, 1996; James & Garret, 1991), and 'self-direction' (Candy, 1991).
This way of study is usually done by adult learners ('andragogy' according to Knowles, 1980) when they want to develop their understandings by reading books more, doing experiments deeply, self-evaluating on someone's works, so finally they will give their opinions and comments or put their criticism on one paper. This activity can build learner's responsibility on their own study, effective contemplation on the study, self-study awareness (http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html). The learner autonomy activity is very good to do as the alternative study for learners, because sometimes the learners need to study alone, beside they usually study in their groups to discuss their problems and find out the solution. 
Learning autonomously is a natural way of learning. A student sometimes does his or her homework, answering some questions alone by reading a book to find out the answers, does an analysis and experiment in a laboratory. This way is almost done by many students around the world. In relation to this activity, we can encourage our students to do their learning autonomy by facilitating them with technology, for examples, asking them to browse some article through internet, answer the questions provided in the tutor blog, and search some other online references (e-books, etc.) individually. Many activities of learner autonomy that learners can do with technology.

Sometimes, we can encourage our students to do learning autonomy by reading books in the school library (silent reading) and making a written summary after that individually, doing their homework alone, and do their self-laboratory project in their own natural environment, such doing experiment in the garden (for biology students), doing conversational practice with foreigners in the tourism objects (for EFL students).

2) One-Computer Classroom
 

http://www.vforteachers.com/About_NetSupport.htm

Basically the one-computer classroom can be held in every school, especially in the school that has a very limited number of computers. However, nowadays every students almost has a personal computer (laptop, notebook, etc.) in their hand, so it may be not necessary for school to set a one-computer classroom. It is the same situation as in my classes of translation. Almost all of my students have their own laptop or notebook, only one or two of them do not have it, so I do not need to set my classroom with one-computer. However, if we want to try to give one for other students who do not have a computer, we can set or build one-computer room that can be used by the students by turns. We must provide the computer with some lesson materials, information, or test items that the students should keep. Practically one-computer classroom has some advantages to take, for examples, for keeping electronically the teacher's administrative applications (lesson materials, lesson plans, teaching media, handouts, test items, etc), students' applications (products or writing, Video, CD-ROM, internet, etc), online discussion between teachers and students, teacher's monitoring on students' activity, access information, and academic publication (http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic84.htm)


3) Mobile Devices as Learning Tools and Media

http://theeducatorsroom.com/

Modern technology era leads students to be smarter that their previous generation. Nowadays almost every student has a smart mobile phone, computer tablet, and other form of mobile devices. This make teachers easy to deliver their teaching duties. One of them is asking their students to study one lesson material or homework through their smart phone or computer tablet. 

There is a positive interconnection between one-computer classroom and learner autonomy. This case can be an example: One day a teacher asked students to do an online homework. However there were five students who did not have personal computers. This was a problem for them to do their online homework. The teacher initiated to ask the school management to set one computer in one room for the students who did not have computers. The school management provide the computer in the room as the station. Finally by turns each student was able to browse online homework and did it successfully. That's all what I can explain about three main important topics this week. 

Reflection of Week 6

One of My Translation Classes

Wow..., It was a big job I did in this week. I did teaching and observing large classes, applying some technological tools for them, and making PowerPoint slides. What I did can be a away of anticipating my problems of teaching translation classes. It is very difficult to teach a translation class because it is different from teaching four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, or writing. It is teaching Applied Linguistics. However, all efforts I did may give solutions to my students. The followings are what I delivered in my own classrooms as efforts to create the teaching and learning process in the large classes better:

1) Preparing, designing and delivering teaching 
    by using PowerPoint Slides
I have two large classes of translation. They are the fifth semester students of English Department. As a way to anticipate the problem of teaching at large classes in relation to the lesson material demand, I managed my classes by providing some PowerPoint slides. I used them for teaching some theories of translation. 

2) Making tutor blog 
By making a tutor blog I could instruct and assign my students some materials and tasks to learn and to do. Through this blog I could teach the students more materials and give them assignments by posting all on it. One of my blogs or a personal web I have is http://duniaterjemah.com/. I uploaded a file on the assignments slot http://duniaterjemah.com/?page_id=8079, then I asked students to download it and do the assignment by posting it on their own blog.

3) Creating learners blog
Beside providing the tutor blog, I instructed my students to create their own blog. Now each of them has a learner blog. See some of them can be seen on http://e-teachingweb.blogspot.com/p/the.html at the learners blog slot. Through their blogs, the students can post their work and I can see their work and they also can see their works one another. Through their blog I can assess their translation product.

http://mazinubersahabat.blogspot.com

4) Using search engines
The next effort was I asked them to do Web searching by visiting some search engines of translation, such as http://www.freetranslation.com/, http://www.bing.com/translator, and http://translation-assistant.com/ for their translation practice. Through this way they could be familiar with some URLs of translation studies, such as theories and practices of translation. With this I hope my students can be literate and familiar on translation search engines.

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtrs20/current caption

5) Searching Online Journals
For enhancing and enriching their knowledge capacity of translation studies, I asked my students to search some online journals of translation studies, such as http://translationjournal.net/journal/, http://www.sil.org/resources/publications/jot, http://www.trans-int.org/index.php/transint, and http://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/2012/v57/n3/index.html. Through these online journals they can read more information about current issues of translation studies and theories.

http://translation.fusp.it/

6) Providing some offline and online e-books.
Beside four efforts above, I provided then some offline e-books of translation studies in the form of files. I shared those e-books to my students to have and read. On the other hand I also asked them to see and look up some online e-books on which they can read and take some information of translation theories. Some of them are http://books.google.com, http://scholar.google.com/, http://en.langueclub.com/, and http://www.scribd.com/.

7) Introducing some Webskills Products
The last was introducing the Webskills online products. Through this Webskills program, I got more information about Web tools are very important for my students. I introduced to them https://delicious.com/erhamadina, https://sites.google.com/site/seanswebskillswikifall2013/suggested-links/rwg-links that provide them some references to read.

That's all what I did to anticipate and solve my own problems of teaching translation in my large classes. Thanks.
 
Best regards,
Rudi Hartono

The Reflection of Week 5

Ohhh... it's very exhausted, but don't give up! This week is more challenging because many difficult works to do. But I have tried to finish all happily. There are three very important lessons this week.

http://www.mentormob.com

1) Project-based Learning (PBL)

Project Based Learning (PBL) basically is a method of teaching that allows students to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts and standards at the heart of a project (http://www.bie.org/about/what_is_pbl/). This is a good way for teachers to train students to implement a theory in a real life. Through this method, students do practicing to what they learn theoretically in the classroom. Teachers and parents can do collaboration to monitor and lead their students/children doing their project, even solve their problems, beside they do their group works. This method, for example, was used by Susan Gaer when she taught her students Folktales. Through PBL she did not only teaching reading and writing Folktales but also she asked her students did a project. The project she designed changed a traditional teaching method to Project-based instruction. Through this PBL, her students were more active and creative in doing their project work. They made puppets for retelling the folktales orally, prepared costumes for performing role playing or mini drama that performed the Folktales on the stage. This is an alternative assessment that is more practical and directly observable (http://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=385.html).
PBL can motivate students more in their study. The facts show that teaching one subject, for example teaching writing, theoretically makes students bored because it does not stimulate them to move their hands. The student will only listen to the teacher's explanation about a theory of writing. On the contrary, if the teacher applies PBL in teaching writing, for example, directly the students will move their hands to pick up their pens and paper, think the topic, draw an outline, start to write individually or in groups. This is one example of a PBL activity that is different from a traditional method. PBL here can change students from station to motion because it gives them motivation.

http://1brainsandwich.blogspot.com

2) Rubrics and Alternative Assessment

Basically a rubric is an easily applicable form of authentic assessment. A rubric simply lists a set of criteria, which defines and describes the important components of the work being planned or evaluated (http://us.iearn.org/professional_development/multimedia/assess/rubric.html). The role of rubrics within PBL is providing a measure of quality of performance on the basis of established criteria (http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/alternative.htm). With the rubric, teachers can measure the students' performance, capability, and mastery of one subject and students can refer to what level or score they are going to achieve because it can be a scale for students to measure their own achievement. See my rubric sample on https://sites.google.com/site/seanswebskillswikifall2013/rubrics.

http://webquest.org/index-2007a.html

3) Project WebQuests

PBL can be corporated with technology by using WebQuest. The facility of WebQuest that is available more and easy to take and to use can help students to do their projects given by the teacher. Suppose when the students are given a writing project by the teaching, they can acquire some knowledge of writing theories that can lead them how to write well. They can use resources on the World Wide Web for writing subject because WebQuest itself is an inquiry-oriented activity. WebQuests pull together the most effective instructional practices into one integrated student activity (http://zunal.com/zunal-help/help-about-whatiswebquest.php). However, sometimes PBL can be implemented if schools or classrooms do not have complete facilities that can support all activities in PBL. I have tried to create Project-based learning and WebQuests though it is not good yet, but I have been successful in applying this web application. See it on http://questgarden.com/164/08/7/131110091317/

The Reflection of Week 4

Wow..., Week 4 is harder than the previous week, isn't it? But I like it. I feel something growing up in my life week by week. All add my knowledge, improve my habits, and increase my creativity and activity. I knew the ground rules for discussion and had friends in Week 1, got new lesson the ABCD Model and Web Searching of many very valuable search engines in Week 2, had a new site that is very delicious because of having menus of bookmarks on Delicious Pages (See mine on https://delicious.com/erhamadina) and Oral/Aural Skill experiences from many experienced people in the world of teaching in Week 3. What happened in Week 4? Let me recount.

http://quirkygirlsread.wordpress.com/

1) Reading/Writing Skill Building

Through this task I got some extremely useful lessons because I knew how to organize my classes by using online references to enrich their knowledge on one topic of discussions or lectures, such as reading online journals, e-books, and other websites. Beside that I knew how to communicate with the students through blogs and send some materials to them via emails, like Liao did in using e-mail to improve her EFL learners' reading and writing, like Mikulecky did in using Internet-based children's literature to teach EFL, like Liang did in using three extensive reading activities for ESL/EFL Students using E-books in her class, and like Krajka did in using the Internet in ESL writing instruction. Through this section I am really happy because I have new Web Pages on Reading, Writing, Vocabulary, and Grammar Links (RWG Links Webskills Fall 2013). It is as interesting and important as the Delicious Pages.

2) Technology-enhanced Lesson Plans

http://www.nwlincs.org/comptech/TechRes.htm

This is a new brilliant idea of enhancing lesson plans with technology. It is a good step to escape from the traditional ways of constructing and designing the lesson plans. I really agree with this breakthrough. Involving and integrating online technologies to teaching plan is a very creative and innovative tunnel to fulfill our demands in the modern teaching era. Really this program provides us some training to be a professional teacher that use technology for our teaching and learning process in or out of the classroom. Now I know how create a technology-enhanced lesson plan. See the lesson plan I created on 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-IlYgoe1g38MVVpbGJIUnBWSE0/edit?usp=drive_web.

What I did from Week 1 to Week 4 improved my habit of teaching better, increased my creativity and activity more. Thanks.