Kick off 2020 with 15 EVO Courses for FREE!

Dear English teachers,

It is time to learn something new. 

Are you ready?

"For five weeks in January and February, TESOL experts and participants from around the world engage in collaborative online discussions or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. These sessions bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by land-based professional development conventions and allow a fuller development of ideas than is otherwise possible."

EVO sessions are FREE and available to anyone around the globe. You only need an access to the Internet.

Learn for FREE to kick off Year 2019: 16 Sessions for Teachers

It is EVO!

Electronic Village Online ...

"For five weeks in January and February, TESOL experts and participants from around the world engage in collaborative online discussions or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. 

These sessions bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by land-based professional development conventions and allow a fuller development of ideas than is otherwise possible.

Sessions are FREE and open to anyone around the globe. All you need is access to the Internet.

Change the way you TEACH with 14 EVO courses for FREE!

Dear English Teachers,

You can choose; to be anyone with nothing to remember or to be the one who always touches heart and attracts mind!

Which one!

If you select #2, learning is your password. 

Do you search for a chance to improve the way you teach? Do you want to learn at home? Do you love to discuss and share ideas with other colleagues from all over the world?

Kick off 2017 with 16 EVO Courses for FREE!

"A man can do no more than he can."

I totally disagree with this proverb. If I do not have something, it is me who truly feels how much I need it. I do not talk about feelings only, but knowledge and skills as well. As a teacher, I am not always good at teaching all areas of English language. When I recognize my disability or lack, I work hard to improve that and prove to myself that I can do it. 

That's why you should look inside yourself from time to time to talk to the self and listen to your inner voice.

Kick off 2015 with 13 EVO Courses for FREE!

Have you thought of updating your expertise and knowledge as an EFL or ESL teacher to start your new year 2015 differently? Are you looking for FREE opportunities to develop yourself professionally? Do you like to meet some new colleagues with different perspectives for teaching? Do you need some new web tools to spice up your classrooms and increase motivation to learn among your students? 

18 EVO Professional Development Sessions to Start 2014

Retrieved Jan. 2, 2014

This is my fourth Electronic Village Online (EVO) session that I participate in. As an EFL teacher, I always search for such opportunities for professional development. It doesn't only help me to know more recent trends in teaching English and update my expertise, but it also connects me to a lot of educators and teachers from all the corners of the globe. In this crazy digital age, the emphasis is shifted from “how” and “what” to learn towards the question of “where to learn.” "Where" is the buzz word of the 21st century. In other words, “the pipe is more important than the content within the pipe” (Siemens, 2004). This means that the network itself is the basis and core of the learning processes. Once learners connect to a network, they share and find new information, change what they think according to what they learned, and then connect to the network again to share their insights and experiences. In this way, learning is a knowledge creation process rather than just knowledge consumption (Kop and Hill, 2008). 

Different but not Less

Retrieved Feb. 10, 2013 from here

Task 3 in the Neuroscience in Education session caught all my attention this week (4th). This is the first time to hear about Temple Grandin. Googling this name, I found her an autistic scientist, professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, designer of livestock handling facilities, consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, inventor of the "squeeze machine," a system which tightly hugs people to relieve stress, bestselling author, speaker and more. Although she is an autistic person, she found her way to excel and innovate using her gifts and special visual thinking skills. The questions that come to my mind while reading about her are "Who is behind her success? Who pushed her to do all these things? What kind of motivation does she have; inner or something comes from outside?"

Anita's Story and Memory

The third week of Neuroscience in Education session was about attention and memory. We first watched two interesting videos showing how our attention works when we expose to many stimuli at the same time. 

Part 1

Part 2

Do you have Tonys in your Classes?

I started week 2 of the Neuroscience EVO 2013 session by watching the video of Tony. First, I would like to thank Mary Hillis for her narration to the story and Cleide Frazão for drawing these amazing images. This story is taken from a book by James E. Zull titled "The Art of Changing the Brain". Let's watch this video or read the excerpt below and then discuss what is behind Tony's problem.

Neuromyths ... True/False

Retrieved Jan 20, 2013 from here

Educational neuroscience (also called Mind Brain and Education; MBE) is an emerging scientific field that brings together researchers in cognitive neuroscience, developmental cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, educational technology, education theory and other related disciplines to explore the interactions between biological processes and education. A major goal of educational neuroscience is to bridge the gap between the two fields through a direct dialogue between researchers and educators, avoiding the "middlemen of the brain-based learning industry". These middlemen have a vested commercial interest in the selling of "neuromyths" and their supposed remedies (See more here). 

In the first week of Neuroscience in Education EVO 2013 session, I was surprised by the number of neuromyths that we consider facts. What shocked me was that some of these neuromyths were taught to us as facts. Suddenly, all we know has become just a myth. Maybe they are myths according to the scientific researches conducted by some neuroscientists in some areas of the globe. However, there are a lot of things go on in our classrooms and those researchers don't know anything about them. What they think of as myths, we try them in some situations and contexts and find them of a great importance. This is the inner voice of me as a teacher. Most of us don't accept things easily. It takes a lot of time to change views and attitudes. As a researcher, this is a young field that needs more research. We have to deeply think about these new facts and try to correct our misconceptions instead of sticking to old practices. 

A list of brain facts was provided to us to decide if they are correct or incorrect. It was a trap, I guess, because they are all neuromyths that most of teachers believe in as it was shown in one of the researches conducted by Dekker et al. (2012).

Test Your Brain Knowledge by Carla Arena 

Reading these statements, you will find most of them are definitely neuromyths and your mind may not accept them at all. However, the statement that is related to the learning styles attracts my attention. Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic). I always hear this statement from my professors and read it in articles and researches. Why is it considered a myth? First, I rejected the whole idea and even sent a very angry contribution to our wiki as a response to my readings. My voice as a researcher appeared once again and encouraged me to read the research by Dekker et al. (2012) more deeply. I noticed that there are two statements addressed the learning styles; one of them is incorrect and the other is correct (See below):

• Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic). Incorrect
• Individual learners show preferences for the mode in which they receive information (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic). Correct

The first statement means that learners have their own learning styles (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic) and we as teachers have to find suitable ways to address these styles. Information should be provided to those who are visual through the use of visuals and through audio tools to those who are auditory and so forth. This is what we do believe in and try to vary our teaching styles to match these learning styles. 

The second statement means, as I understood, learners can receive information by any way; visual, auditory or  kinesthetic. There are no preferred learning styles in learners' brains. Learners' preference to one way and not to another is an outside process. Once information enters their brains, it passes through several processes to reach the stage of learning.

This was not the end of the story. Reading the Brain Basics summary, and watching the video of how neurons work in the human brain (See below), I recognized how complex our brain is and how amazing those neurons are when working together providing a great example of cooperation and collaboration to the humanity. A lot of things I discovered about my brain and the processes that happen when receiving and processing the information entered. If we make a connection between those facts and our practices in classrooms, we can create an optimal learning environment and atmosphere where students can learn better. 

Let' share some examples:

• The communication between neurons is strengthened or weakened by an individualʼs activities, such as stress ... etc. This is very apparent when I ask students to do an exercise and they feel stressed or nervous. They feel stuck and can't complete it successfully. I think that the more students feel secure or the clearer the aim of the exercise is, the better they learn because their neurons will find it easy to communicate and talk to each other.
• Continuously challenging the brain with physical and mental activity helps maintain its structure and function. I do practice this suggestion all the time with my students without recognizing it as a brain principle. I notice that students keep interacting, discussing and producing new ideas. The more they use their brain, the more they grow mentally. This means that we have to use it otherwise we can lose it.
• Watching the video above, I found that knowing how our brain works can inspire theorists to create theories that are based on the structure and function of this human brain. The Connectivism Theory that is developed by Siemens and Downes carries a kind of similarity. Connectedness and networking are two features that can help billions of neurons work together harmoniously.

I feel that I'm a little bit confused reading all these new things. I spent a lot of time and efforts to say and apply things that are merely myths. I think that it is time to read more to correct these false views according to a scientific base.

Resources Used:

1. Connectivism
2. Educational neuroscience
3. Neuromyths in education- Prevalence and predictors of misconceptions
4. Test Your Brain Knowledge

Starting a new chapter of my life with EVO 2013

Year 2012 was full of achievements, learning new things, gaining new skills, meeting new people and building new hopes and wishes that I will achieve in Year 2013. As usual, the Electronic Village Online (EVO) MOOC starts at the beginning of each year to equip ESL/EFL educators with new visions and perspectives to teaching. It provides 10 sessions for 5 weeks; including a variety of topics that each teacher needs to know to cope up with this so fast digital world. It is strongly recommended to sign up for no more than TWO sessions, however, teachers can go a head and participate in most of them if they can manage the whole process. By the end of this event, our skills of teaching, communication, creation and innovation will be improved and our relation to other people from all over the world will be extended. Really, I want to thank EVO for their great impact on those teachers who live far away from this updated corner of the globe. You give them the hope to learn, improve, develop and create their own world. 

Registrations are open from Jan 7-13, 2013

The sessions begin on January 14th but are held asynchronously; that is, you can log in, begin reading, and join the email discussion of the materials. However, your moderators will provide some synchronous activities where you gather for a live meeting on your topic of study.  See your session's syllabus of weekly activities for details.

EVO 2013 Sessions:

1. Becoming a Webhead 2013
2. The Wonderful World of Teaching English Through Drama
3. Digital Storytelling for Young Learners
4. Designed for Business
   
5. Neuroscience in Education- Braining Up Your English Lessons
6. Multiliteracies for Social Networking and Collaborative Learning Environments  
7. MOODLE for Teachers 
8. Podcasting for the ESL-EFL Classroom
9. Mentoring
10. MachinEVO: Video Productions of Language Learning Conversations

My Choice this Year:

This year, I will try the Neuroscience in Education- Braining up your English lessons session moderated by Carla Arena, Cheryl Oakes, Denise De Felice, Nina Liyulkun, Jane Petring, Ana Maria Menezes, and Mary Hillis. The objectives of this session seem so attractive and valuable. I really want to know more about how my students' brains work and what potential the brain-based lessons, activities and tools can give me to enhance their language learning. Please, wait for my posts about this new experience in the coming days!

Stay Tuned!

M4T: Tutorials & WiZIQ Live Classes

One of the most beneficial strategies that our moderators have used during M4T workshop is Scaffolding. They were available all the time answering questions and solving problems. Video Tutorials are one tool through which they gave us a hand by voice and picture. As I said in a previous post, the expected teacher in the few years coming will be YOUTUBE Videos not a person. Now, I can learn to do anything with the help of some videos. I don't need to take face-to-face courses any more. That's why I thought to collect all the tutorials that were created by our moderators in this workshop. This will help others with the same interest.

How to Create an account and log into 

M4T EVO2012 Session

Email Notifications Can Be Stopped 

with One Click

 How to Add your Skype ID

 Resources, Activities and the Course 

Sandbox 

 

 

Moodle Buddy Groups on Profile

 

How to Contact your Moodle Buddy

 

Moodle Sandbox

 

During the 5 weeks of this session, there were other tools that our moderators used. One of them was WiZIQ. WiZIQ offers a rich set of intuitive tools for online teaching. You can teach courses live and online in their Virtual Classroom. You can also join their vast network of teachers and learners for free. Third, you have the chance to integrate the WiZIQ virtual classroom with your websites.

Here are the Live Classes of M4T EVO2012 Session:

• Week 1 Live Class: M4T EVO2012 Introduction
• Week 2 Live Class: Review of Week 1 & Sandbox
• Weeks 3 & 4 Live Class
• Week 5 Live Class

These are the M4T EVO 2012 Workshop's tutorials and live classes that helped me a lot to be on the right track during these 5 weeks. As I said before, Moodle has a variety of features that can suit all my students' learning styles and multiple intelligences. I think that it's time to integrate such wonderful tool in our EFL classrooms. I will try it and share the results with you here. 

I have a last word to you my dear moderators and colleagues. I just want to send a big THANK YOU to everyone of you for your support, help and collaboration. I never forget these happy moments. Really, it is my first real collaboration with a colleague. I liked all the experience in spite of the problems concerning the different time zones and my low internet connection. We can try it again and again. See you @ EVO 2013.

M4T: Weeks Keep Surprises

As the title says the coming weeks of M4T session keep surprises. We tried a lot of things and communicated with each other to create a lesson plan. I have to admit that I faced some difficulties dealing with Moodle and its features. However, Dr. Nellie Tutorials were so beneficial and easy to be followed. Also, my colleagues helped me to gain some confidence to keep up the good work and never give up. One of the most wonderful things that I experienced was to collaborate with my buddy to complete some tasks. It was not easy to work together because of the different time zones, however, we managed to do most of the work. Here is a summary of what I did through the rest 4 weeks: 

Week 2 Tasks:

• I explored the resources available on Moodle (e.g., labels, web links, file links, and web pages) and the activities (e.g., discussion forums, choices, assignments (upload), glossary, WizIQ live class, and wiki). Here is some of the work I have done:

• I communicated with my Moodle Buddy 49 Team and practiced the resources and activities together. Also, we started to create our lesson plan. We were 3 at the beginning, however, one of us couldn't complete because she was busy. So, I completed most of our  work with my colleague "Maria Lucia from Italy". Really, I was happy to do this collaboration. It was my first real contribution with other colleagues from outside my country. I'm sure that it will not be the last TRY. I expect more work and projects in the next few months.

Week 3 Tasks:

• I uploaded the word document that I created for my team lesson plan on the Moodle M4T2012EVO workshop in week 2 to Google Docs. 
• I shared the link of the document with my Buddy 49 Maria Lucia Ercole as a public file until we finished editing and then closed it so no one can change the information.
• I accessed the class Word Google Docs called Team Lesson Plans and filled in the information including the link to our Google Docs lesson plan.
• I researched and discussed the meaning of authentic learning with my colleagues. I liked an article by Clif Mims. He talked about Authentic Learning in a very practical way. 

• Clif Mims thinks that in order to make student learning relevant to real life experiences, learning environments must be authentic. If learning is authentic, then students should be engaged in genuine learning problems that foster the opportunity for them to make direct connections between the new material that is being learned and their prior knowledge. These kinds of experiences will increase student motivation. He goes on pointing out that there has long been a discrepancy between the traditional process of learning in schools and the process of learning in the real-world. As a result, students have been unable to see any real-life connection with what they learn in school. Authentic learning offers the opportunity for teachers to bring the outside world into the classroom. In doing so, students can begin creating those connections. This will empower them to transfer their knowledge and skill learned at school into their everyday lives outside of school, thus making the value of learning much more important to them. For me, this means that authentic learning is to bring real life into classrooms, to make use of what students learned to solve real problems, to create links and connections between what they learn and what they face in their everyday lives ..... in short to engage students to learn for life. 
• I practiced Moodle activities and resources to develop our collaborative lesson plan in the team section of the sandbox. Here is an example of my work:

 

• I added resources to the glossary. This is a great feature on Moodle. I think that it is beneficial to create a place where you can find all the key words defined and discussed. We can go there to clear our understanding and collaborate with other colleagues to collect definitions and resources.  Here is my resource that is about Authentic Learning: Authentic learning is a pedagogical approach that allows students to explore, discuss, and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships in contexts that involve real-world problems...... To read more, please click this wonderful article by Clif Mims.

• I reflected in the wiki for the class on what I did in week 3 and how I feel at the end of the week. This is another great feature that we can find on Moodle. Reflecting on things helps me to know how far I achieved my goals and what I need to do in order to go a head in my work. Here is my reflection in week 3:

Week 4 Tasks:

• I collaborated with my Buddy 49 "Maria Lucia Ercole" to create a Google Docs PowerPoint presentation for our team lesson. Maria made the first draft and I completed it adding and deleting some slides. Here is the final presentation: 

• I created a WizIQ live class on Moodle for the team in our sandbox section. I uploaded the PowerPoint presentation and launched it on the time determined with Maria. We discussed our lesson using slides. Unfortunately, my voice was so low. I think that the reason behind this problem was my bad internet connection. However, we used the chatbox to direct our speech.
• I recorded the WizIQ live class and shared the recording on the following Google Docs Document.

Week 5 Tasks:

• I finalized my team PowerPoint presentation using Google Docs and shared the link with the rest of the participants in our  Google Docs Collaborative Presentations.
• I created a video capturing my voice and screenshots of our lesson plan. I used  Knovio. Knovio™ is an innovative tool for turning PowerPoint® slides into rich video presentations with just a web browser and webcam. With Knovio, you can take static PowerPoint slides to a new level with video and audio presentations that can be accessed anytime on-demand and shared with others through email and social media. Here is our Moodle Buddy 49 video presentation:

• I created my own individual PowerPoint presentation and added my voice to the slides reflecting on the process of the workshop. Here is my video presentation.

This is the end of the M4T workshop. However, I consider it the beginning for using such amazing tool with my students. As I said before, what makes Moodle unique is that you can use many things at the same place. You can upload materials, insert activities and resources, discuss in the forums, launch WiZIQ live classes, reflect using blogs or wikis .... and more. I'm sure that students will like it as it suits most of their learning styles.