Being a digital teacher in today's world is one of the required qualifications that a teacher should have. In other words, having a digital teacher identity is one of the most crucial requirements of today's world as education is more likely to be in a digital environment. Without having a digital teacher identity, a teacher cannot provide an effective learning process for their students since they will not be able to be competent in the digital world. Teachers who want to have competence in digital education should be competent in some important areas of teaching strategies, including online feedback, usage of digital tools, and some of the language instructions. During our course, I have experienced many valuable enlightenments in terms of blending language instruction, online feedback practice, online formative assessment, and innovative digital tools for four language skills that have contributed to my digital teacher identity substantially.
Firstly, blending language instruction is an important model to use in online education because it provides many good opportunities for both teachers and students. While discussing this topic, I have realized that how important to use this model in online education in order to make the teaching process more effective. I will give some examples to clarify how this topic contributed to my digital identity. Firstly, I have realized that I need to keep students engage after the lesson and multimodality is an important way to provide such an environment. I learned that I can use lots of tools for giving input such as YouTube, visuals, podcasts, gamification, and infographics while discussing this topic. Also, I have realized that it is easier for me to create opportunities for differentiation as there are many digital tools to use in this model. Shortly, as a future teacher, I can use blending learning as my teaching model in order to be a digital teacher. I can provide many effective digital platforms in order to make the learning process more engaging for the students.
Secondly, feedback is an essential part of language development in online education because it helps students to find their deficiencies and errors which creates an opportunity for them to correct themselves. Before discussing this issue, I did not know that there were so many effective digital tools for giving feedback to the students. However, while discussing and reading about online feedback practice, I realized that there are many things that I have learned that contributed to my digital teacher identity. Firstly, thanks to our class discussions, I understand giving comprehensible feedback is significant point for language teaching because it focuses on both negative and positive aspects. Secondly, I learned many efficient digital tools for giving feedback. To be more precise, in the chapter that I read, it recommended some digital platform for giving feedback, including Kaizena and Knovia. I searched Kaizena and I found it so effective. In Kaizena, teachers can give feedback to the written passage of a student as voice and text that increase the quality of the feedback. More importantly, I realized that there are many ways to give feedback, including video, audio, and written thanks to our discussions and chapters that I read. In our discussion, we highlighted that path is more important than the destination and we talked about how to focus on the path in the digital environment. So, while searching for these feedback platforms, I thought of other options for giving feedback in online education, such as Edmodo, Flipgrid, Google classroom, and Pixtoon as they focus on the process of the students. To exemplify its effect on my digital teacher identity, I used Pixtoon as my teaching material for one of my projects in the last term, I was able to see their comics and I gave positive feedback to each of them when my students created their comics in Pixtoon. As a response, they replied to me with emojis or they thanked me. It was an effective tool to give feedback to them; therefore, observing such effects helped me to improve my digital teacher identity. Briefly, I learned many effective feedback tools for giving feedback as audio, video, and written that can be used in an online environment that has a big influence on my digital teacher identity.
Thirdly, online formative assessment is a crucial part of online education as it plays a big role for teachers to understand the needs of the students. Before reading the chapter and discussion, I have a big question mark for how to do an effective formative assessment in an online environment that created a serious problem that affects my digital teacher identity. To be clear, I was thinking that formative assessment is hard to do in online environment because some students do not respond questions or open their cameras. However, the chapter and discussions helped me to fill my deficiency about how to do online formative assessment in virtual classes. To be more precise, I tried to find options for doing formative assessment while discussing this subject and mentioned projects and interactive games play an important role in formative assessment. Also, I mentioned that process is a key point for doing formative assessment; therefore, we touched upon some digital tools that can be used for observing the process of the students, including Edmodo, E-portfolios, and Padlet. With the help of these tools, I understand that I can reach the students who do not talk or open their cameras. In other words, I will be able to observe their learning process in online classes. Besides, I have realized that I can still do formative assessment without any digital tools in online classes. To be more precise, asking how questions and giving tasks to students are ways to understand if they clearly learn or not. Also, there should be responsive, engaged, motivated, productive, and interactive classrooms for formative assessment; therefore, as a digital teacher I should be able to create such environment for my students. In order to create this environment, many digital platforms or tasks can be used in online education. On the other hand, I have realized that the importance of self-reflection for formative assessment while I was reading the passage. As a future and digital teacher, I need to have wide knowledge about digital tools in order to create an environment for observing and understanding the needs of the students.
Lastly, innovative tools for language skills have a considerable influence on my digital teacher identity. As digital teachers, we should use digital platforms or tools to support the learning process of the students because it creates an environment for students to engage during their language learning process. The chapters and discussion helped me to learn new digital tools and how to use them in online education. I have learned many dynamic and valuable tips about vocabulary, reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. First of all, in the perspective of vocabulary, our discussion started with the ways of learning vocabulary; therefore, we touched upon pictures, videos, gamification, and competitions. After talking about the ways, we tried to find digital platforms to use in online education, such as Quizlet and Kahoot. Besides, we mentioned our past experience with learning vocabulary; that is, there was a missing point in teaching vocabulary which is function. Thanks to this discussion, I have realized that teachers are able to show functions and forms of the vocabulary in a contextualized way thanks to digital platforms. The most important thing that I learned from discussions and chapters that contributed to my digital teacher identity is that the digital platforms create a way for students to produce something that makes the vocabulary learning process more effective and permanent; therefore, vocabulary teaching platforms, such as Visuwords, Miro, and Blooket should be continuously used by the teachers for the efficient learning process. Also, I learned that explicit teaching is a must in vocabulary teaching; therefore, I searched for the other options for vocabulary teaching; which are, Lextutor, Quill, and Younglish. Additionally, the production of a word is an important part of vocabulary teaching; therefore, teachers should use E-dictionaries for exposing them to different kinds of accents of the language in order to provide an effective learning process to them. Before the discussion, I did not think to use them as teaching material in the course; however, they are effective tools to use in online education. When looking back to the contributions of discussion and chapters to my digital teacher identity, I feel that I have learned many digital platforms and the important points of vocabulary teaching in online education. Secondly, in the perspective of reading, we mentioned active participation and learner interaction is important for online education in terms of reading skill; therefore, we touched upon how important Storybird is for creating interaction among the students. Also, creating reading discussions in online classes are another option for improving reading skill. Thanks to this discussion, I have ideas of how to improve the reading skills of the students in online classes that were a big contribution to my digital teacher identity. Besides, I learned different kinds of reading tools for online education, such as Raz-kids, e-books, and scholastic. The content of these tools creates a way to engage students while improving their reading skills. More importantly, there was a sentence in the book called handbook of technology and second language teaching and learning; that is, “one important challenge today for educators is then to find creative and effective ways to lead distracted readers back to productive language learning.” The sentence showed me that as a future teacher, I should constantly learn and follow the changing technologies in order to be a qualified digital teacher. Another skill that I want to touch upon is writing. Thanks to discussions and chapters, there were considerable ideas that I have learned that have a great impact on my digital teacher identity. Firstly, we mentioned blogs, social media, digital tools, and social platforms in our discussion for writing development. The discussion gave me numerous ideas for writing skills in an online environment. To be more precise, the book stated that “High school students, while drafting persuasive essays, may be tasked with writing Facebook or Twitter posts.”; this sentence shaped our discussion and we discussed that asking students to write to blogs and share it on social media with showing them self-correction tools, like Grammarly will help them not only improving their writing skills but also create opportunities for social networking. On the other hand, I learned different kinds of writing platforms, including pen flip, ether pod, and quip for writing development. Apart from them, I have realized that I can use digital platforms for pre-writing in online classes, such as canvas and Piktochart. Also, brainstorming tools can be used as a pre-writing activity. The ideas from the discussions helped me to develop my digital teacher identity. For listening skills, we mentioned that the important factor for improving listening comprehension is active listening; therefore, we talked about how to make our students active listeners. At the end of the discussion, we mentioned podcasts, Voki, and ISLcollective for making them, active listeners. The tools that we mentioned gave me lots of useful ideas for listening comprehension so I contributed to my digital teacher identity effectively. Lastly, speaking skills can be improved by using task-based instruction as it gives chance to students to produce language. While reading the chapter, I have realized that it is easy to use task-based activities in an online environment because there are many ways and tools that can be used in this process, including Flipgrid, Second Life, and Online Sims. The tools can create an environment for students to speak with each other or other people. The ideas that I get from discussions and chapters make me more qualified in using technology as I know more digital tools and how to use them. Shortly, the most important contribution to my digital teacher identity is to learn how to create an environment for the students to be autonomous in their learning process thanks to digital tools and how to use these tools as material in an online environment to provide an effective learning process for them.
To me, a teacher cannot learn specific knowledge without trying to experience it; therefore, I tried to put the things that I have learned from chapters and discussions into practice in my teaching practicum. I used some digital tools in my lessons, such as Kahoot, Quizzes, and Nearpod. To exemplify, in one of my lessons I used Nearpod for a speaking activity. To be more precise, there was a question like ‘How do you describe life?’ as a start. I asked my students to click on the link to Nearpod and asked them to write their description on Nearpod. When they write their opinions, their answers showed up on the screen and created an environment for them to discuss the answers. Thanks to this digital platform, students interact with each other; therefore, every one of them engaged in this process. Another example is using Kahoot for vocabulary activity. It was asked for me to show the usage of go and play while talking about the sports. Instead of teaching directly, I used Kahoot in order to teach explicitly. Another example is Stormboard that was a great tool for speaking and writing activities. The students talked about the sports that they can and cannot do and then write it on the Stormboard with their names. After they talked about themselves, their friends talked about them by looking at the table that they created. The last example from my teaching practicum is using Quizzes, I used them for vocabulary activity. They compete with each other in order to find the correct answer. While gaining experience in practicum, I create new ideas for my future online classes. Firstly, blending language instruction can be used for the students who can take responsibility, such as high school or university. It can be used as making students both engaged and autonomous during their learning process. In this way, I will be able to create an environment for them to create their own metacognitive strategies while interacting and collaborating with their classmates. Secondly, I learned the ways of giving feedback during our course in online education and I find giving audio and video feedback more comprehensible and effective in online classes; therefore, digital platforms, like Flipgrid can be an efficient tool for giving feedback. In my previous years, I found a chance to use Flipgrid but I did not use it as a way to give feedback but during our course, I have realized that it will be a great tool for giving feedback as audio or video in online education. Thirdly, online formative assessment can be done by asking how questions to students, polling, blogs, chatbox, and some digital tools, such as Padlet and Edmodo. As these materials and platforms require active participation and interaction, it will be easy for me to do formative assessment in the online class. Lastly, I will use many digital platforms, such as Visuwords, Scholastic, ISLcollective, podcasts, Voki, etc. for the skill development of the students. Also, games based on competition will attract the attention of the students, especially online education. Kahoot, quizzes, and Quizlet can be used for this purpose. Another point is that I like the idea of blending and flipped learning as they try to make the students active outside of the course, as well. So, I think the platforms that make the students active outside of the classroom in the future. Platforms like Voscreen, Storybird, Quizlet can be used by the students outside of the classroom. Also, Second life can be a great example for increasing interaction, collaboration, and language skills of the students outside of the classroom. In our previous year, we made a machinima with some of our friends, the process of creating machinima was fun, engaging, and motivating; therefore, I will use it in my future classes. Also, I believe that it is more convenient for online classes because peer feedback can be done easily by using chat or other digital platforms that increase active participation. As a teacher, I need to expose them to such platforms in order to show them how engaging and fun these platforms can be. In this way, they will be able to use them outside of the classroom because they will think of them as a game, not a learning tool. In my future online classes, creating blogs will be the first thing that I want from my students because I will be able to give comprehensible feedback, observe them do formative assessment, creating an environment for task-based instructions. It will be a must for me because this will help me to create an environment for them to be autonomous in their language learning process with engaged processing.
Reference:
Chapelle, C. A., & Sauro, S. (2017). The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning (pp.45–117). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118914069
Miller, A. (2020, April 8). Formative Assessment in Distance Learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/formative-assessment-distance-learning
British Council. (n.d.). Digital Tools for Giving Feedback. Teaching English. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/amin-neghavati/digital-tools-giving-feedback
No comments:
Post a Comment