DAY 2- Saturday 7th August
Struggling Learners and Engaging Activities
The second day of the Conference on line was about different aspect and issues related to the word of teaching. Teaching implies reflecting on our daily activities and also on the well-being of our learners. I had to watch the recordings later and I am going to write about the ideas and my reflections on what I saw- some speakers were really engaging and I wish I could work with them!
In this way I feel that I am part of a community of active learners and teachers who are working on developing self-esteem and on facilitating the students in their struggle to achieve goals in education.
I did watch all the recordings online and I must confess that I should have spent more time on them. I am a lover of online learning but...... it is difficult to be concentrated when you are watching so many in just a few hours!
Here is the collection of the video and the main screenshots which I took while watching online...............
- Dr. Anitha Devi V- Multimodal Language Learning Activities Recording
Nellie's presentation on Youtube : ".....3D images and virtual worlds, augmented reality has transformed the multimodal experiences of yesteryear combinations like text: subtitles, karaoke and video, songs, images, graphics, music, comics, cartoons, games. The influence of immersive environments is inevitable in this web of networked-techno-driven pedagogic worlds......"
- Dr. Aabha Sharma- Innovative Pedagogies to achieve Course Outcomes Recording
- Rob Howard - Hybrid Educating Becoming Tomorrow's teacher Today Recording
The new teacher is the Facilitator: this requires a lot of work and skills!
- Dr. Ramesh Sharma- Pandemic Diaries : Ripples in education Recording
- Dr. Deepika Kohli- Innovative Pedagogical Strategies for Slow Learners Recording
- Mushtakhusen S. M. - Using six Thinking Hats to make management students industry ready Recording
- Hanaa Khamis - Teaching Conversation remotely Recording
My Reflections
It seems that education has changed since the Covid and I do agree that we will continue our professional development by facilitating our learners and by supporting them. Human beings are central and the role of teachers is can be the key to success. Teachers are using modern technologies, webapps and have changed their way of teaching: they teach online and in presence , the blended learning model will be the future. Struggling learners will be helped and teachers will care for them.
The second day of the MMVC21 was inspiring and I have appreciated some presentations because they have focussed on the challenges.....
I will provide the main replies based on what we have been asked to do.
Did you connect with the others ?
I did not connect with speakers but I tried to write my comments on the presentations while I was watching some recordings.
What questions came up to your mind as you watched the event?
I really appreciated the presentation by Hanaa Khamis and thought that what she described was a great online course about conversation but probably when dealing with younger learners the framework of the course should be different - university students may find some difficulties but they are more interested than the teenagers . In my school we had conversation classes and the teacher was guided into the online topics but with over 24 students she really had to change some modalities of work.
Did the content relate to you as a teacher and also as an individual?
Yes, most of the content was about the difficulties of the learners and how technology can be supportive. Dr. Ramesh Sharma was great as he focussed on the difficulties of both learners and teachers....... while Dr. Ebba Ossiannilsson presented the future of education and how everything is changing. However, while I was listening I thought about the great differences among teachers living in rich countries and in the developing world. Europe is a continent that cares for its citizens but this is not happening everywhere.
What were some of the thoughts that went through your mind as your watched the presentation?
I really loved the presentation by Dr. Aabha Sharma- Innovative Pedagogies to achieve Course Outcomes and I thought that I need to find more information about the use of apps and in particular of the use of some apps you can install on your smartphones. We are still learning but we are developing and modern technology can make a difference to get our learners more engaged. This implies that educators are working and learning most of the time to cover new lesson plans and to achieve the students' goals.
How did you feel as you watched the event?
I felt relaxed but also a bit tired and I had to stop yesterday since I wanted to reflect and to write down some notes for my post. Over 5 recordings of the Conference online are sometimes hard work.
What challenges might you encounter in implementing some of the ideas?
We do need to work on our CPD and to rely on the teachers' groups that can support us. I will follow Dr. Ebba and Rob Howard since they have been working in the field of education for a long time and I will try to watch Rob's Youtube Channel.
What steps can you take to resolve the challenges?
I will share some ideas and tips which I have just learnt about with other educators . It is important to be focussed but also to reflect. This is something which is missing in my school and I will start reading more about resilience and Mindfullness since education after the pandemic changed the learning environment and we are not the same. In this way I think that there will be many challanges.
What would you like to do in the future as a result of what you heard, read, saw?
I have just bought an ebook about Mindfullness and I will learn more about new apps.
I have downloaded a document from the web that I am going to read and it is about the issue of education in Europe. We were not ready in 2020 and now we have to care because of the learning loss
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/a3527a20-c4dd-11eb-a925-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
SOME QUESTIONS...............
I have also to think about the learning difficulties related to some countries and I have some questions that might be asked to Doctor Ebba: will OPEN SOURCES and MOOCs help and support educators in the developing countries ? I feel that the " The world is OPEN" but ...... some countries are developing faster and the gap seems to be bigger. I am trying to be optimistic......
As for the world of Business , yes I agree that English will be important in the next ten years but ..... I feel that people should learn other languages as you learn more about the people who are going to work with.... In Europe we would like to promote the learning of more than one foreign language ...... since learning a foreing language opens your mind..... so we would like our learners to study Spanish, to study French and I would also add........... Chinese........
References and what I am going to read about
Pedagogy Wheel
And here is my next journey : Learning about Mindfullness and also how have some mindfullness activities in my lessons................. this is also thanks to Doctor Nellie who introduced it in a conference
