jueves, 1 de marzo de 2012

Using the Web – Week 2

Module 3 - Evaluating and Selecting Websites 

  • What does it mean to say a website is educationally useful?
          The World Wide Web’s content, information, data, resources and services available are greatly vast that cover almost every aspect of life we can think of. In this sense, and educationally speaking, the internet is largely useful. However, a website is educationally useful when its content is of interest (instructive and informative) to teachers, students or anyone involve in education. 

  • How has the evaluation criteria made you question websites you have used in the past?
          My criteria for evaluating websites I have used in the past were “common sense and trial and error”; and the results were mixed. Now, the evaluation criteria have made me question websites in a systematical/methodical way. It made me realize of the importance of website evaluation. I know that excellent resources for teaching reside alongside the most doubtful, but how can distinguish one from another. Well, it is necessary to evaluate them for accuracy, acceptance, authority, coverage, relevance, audience, educational focus, usability and, ultimately, synthesize them in order to make it educationally suitable. 

Module 4 – Integrating the Web

  • What areas of my syllabus would benefit from integrating the Web?
          Maybe I am precipitating myself here, but I believe that all areas of my syllabus will definitively benefit from integrating the web in it. The web is greatly vast and useful, and we (teachers of EFL) can find a lot of content, resources and services that can fit or be used in all the areas of our EFL syllabus. But Pedagogy must lead the well-evaluated-and-integrated-by-the-teacher technology.  

  • After using some of the websites in this unit, how did the lesson benefit from the website being used?
          Beforehand, the website for this unit was selected using the evaluation criteria; it was taken into account the accuracy, acceptance, authority, coverage, relevance, audience, educational focus, and its usability. The page itself was just right for the class; it has an appropriate content and language level for the audience. If everything well according to plan, the class benefited greatly from the website used as it gave the learners the opportunity to enhance their learning in a more interactive, engaging and interesting way.

  • What websites do my learners use? Could they be exploited?
          I am not sure what websites they use to learn English or on a daily basis. Though Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, and other popular websites would be the most convenient answer to this question.  I guess that it would be proper to carry out a survey/poll to find out what websites they use the most, evaluate them and think of ways to integrate and exploit them in my teaching.



1 comentario:

Miguel Mendoza dijo...

Super great post...I do believe technology has got application in all subjects areas...We have to learn how to do that and always keep in mind pedagogical objectives (not using technology for the sake of it). Diigo is a powerful tool to bookmark websites while browsing the web or from things your PLN share to use later in a web-based lesson.