OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING

 

In the second part of our course, we have covered Blending Language Instruction, Online Feedback Practice, Online Formative Assessment, Innovative Digital Tools for Four Language Skills (LSWR & Vocabulary) topics.

Q1. How did the course, weekly readings and discussions contribute to your digital teacher identity?

 

The articles we read and the discussions we made on a weekly basis throughout the year helped a lot in forming my digital teacher identity. Discussing the related topic with a different online training every week has broadened my perspective on this subject. In line with the questions we asked each other and the answers we gave each other during the discussion, I think I added a lot to myself in digital teaching. Being both an online education student and an online education teacher at the same time allowed me to see all the advantages and disadvantages for both parties. As I realized these advantages and disadvantages, I thought about how I could improve myself more. These discussions we held every week actually helped me get answers to all my questions. All the terms we learned, such as blending language instruction, online feedback practice, online formative assessment etc, broadened my perspective on digital teaching and also removed my prejudices towards online education. Before taking this course, I was biased towards online education because most of the time we could not get enough efficiency from our internships and we could not reach the students completely. Thanks to this course, I learned and developed many educational tools. For almost 2 years, all trainings continued online as much as possible, and this actually led us to contribute in many areas. In discussions, we talked about how the lessons should be in the internet and digital environments in formal education but it was not a situation where we could learn by doing and experiencing. I think one of the good things that the pandemic brought was that education could continue anywhere and anytime. Although I used to think that face-to-face training was much more beneficial, my perspective has changed a lot now. Although I now know that both types of education have their own advantages and disadvantages, I had a very negative attitude towards online education before. Now, I see and apply the useful aspects of both online education and blended learning instruction. In the articles we read and the discussions with our friends have been a great achievement for me in developing my digital teacher identity and getting used to this process.

 

 

Q2. How did you (if you did) connect these to your practicum experience? and/or How do you plan to connect these to your future teaching experiences?

 

First of all, I must say that thanks to the articles we read, my internship experiences improved every week during the semester. While there are numerous applications that can make pupils' information lasting, teachers just use textbooks in PDF structure. The present circumstance made me consider how I can make my future profession more effective. Thanks to the articles, I have shaped not only my future but also my present experiences. In my internships, I aimed not to use traditional teaching methods, but to be a real digital teacher identity. Even though I find it difficult to be fully integrated with technology at times, the new generation's familiarity with technology and their listening to the lessons with fun supports me on the way to becoming a digital teacher. Since I did not think that it was an effective way to teach with traditional methods from only one source to the new generation, which is intertwined with technology, I applied to various educational tools during my internships throughout the semester. These educational tools were applications such as Quizlet, Kahoot, Padlet, and all of the students had a lot of fun with these applications. Since the pandemic process we are in is very tiring for both students and teachers and we are tired of spending time at home, everyone has a general state of exhaustion, but thanks to technology, you can focus all the attention on you with one click and continue the lesson effectively. Thanks to this course, I plan to apply what I have learned not only in online classes, but also when schools are fully opened and classes start to continue face-to-face. Thanks to technology, we can easily encourage students to use both their visual and auditory intelligence. In this way, I think that the learned information has a stronger place in the memory. For this reason, I think it will be a great advantage and development for teachers and teacher candidates who will teach on online platforms to read and apply these productive articles in their classes.

 

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