Technology Proposal CEP 815

7/28/2019 Technology Proposal CEP 815

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CEP 815

Technology and Leadership

Nevin Kamal

Technology Proposal

Using Google Sites at Sharjah University

Project description

I am proposing to bring a project to the Intensive English Program at the University of Sharjah

that will allow ESL students to excel in academic reading and writing. Throughout the project,

students will work in collaborative teams to produce different piece of writing for differentgenres. Students will use Google Sites to produce present their projects. Google Sites will work

as an e-portfolio that will showcase students progress and development throughout the course.

When each group will have developed its own Google Sites- e-portfolios, teams wouldcollaborate together and compile a class web site through Google Sites which will be considered

as an online Chronicle for the class. Student teams will use different free web tools and software

to produce their product. They could use PowerPoint, Prezi, Movie Maker, and podcasts, IPods,

personal mobiles, desk top computers, and laptops to share their work with other students. I wantto have students showcase their learning experiences in a creative way and be able to share this

with their classmates, faculty, parents and other students.

What makes this project different is that it has not been implemented at all the Intensive English

Program before. Though students are enrolled in several reading and writing classes, they did not

have the opportunity to share their writing with others or write for real audience and authentic

purposes. By asking students to work in teams, they will be responsible for their own learningand will share different experiences. These experiences are even extended when all the groups

have to develop the online chronicle. By asking all the teams to contribute to one site to create

the chronicle, they will take a further step forward to produce a coherent well organized site.They will then have to revisit their work many times and try to edit, eliminate any unrelated or

even redundant topics or even try to create new pieces of writing or other forms of presentations

by complying work from more than one group. Students will have the opportunity to view howdifferent other might present the same topic in a different and creative way. Creating an online

Chronicle through Google Sites will enable students to develop critical thinking skills that will

build their confidence as was as motivate them.

This project proposes using technology to engage students to explore and overcome their fears

when reading and writing in English. It also allows students to understand their learning journey

by creating e-portfolios and online chronicle for the class that would make their learning

experience a unique one. With video recording and word processing, student will be able tocollect and produce different artifacts, reflect on different reading and writing controversial

topics. The use of technology would personalize the portfolios of students (each groups) bearing

in mind the input of the group members. Using multimedia and e-portfolios allow students todevelop personal ownership, active engagement, and intrinsic motivation.


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Defining the current problem at the Intensive English Program at Sharjah University

My ESL students know how to read and write for academic purposes, but when it comes to showthis ability in real life situations, they usually tend to set back and do not demonstrate and applywhat they have learnt in class. Therefore, the challenge that I face along with many other

teachers to is bridge the gap between learning and applying what has been learnt effectively.

I find that teaching reading and writing to ESL students are the most difficult skills for teaches to

teach and students to learn. Teaching reading and writing is hard because students cannot simply

memorize facts to sit reading and writing exams. Teachers need to train students to master

different reading and writing strategies and gradually be able to develop a totally newpersonalized artifact. Students enrolled in Academic Reading and Writing 1 class are expected to

meet particular expectations for ESL students. Generally speaking, students are expected to be

able to: develop focused ideas for specific purposes develop multiple paragraphs for different genres be able to personalize students reading and writing experiences develop grammatically corrected different pieces of writing

Context

I am currently and ESL teacher at the Intensive English Program at the University of Sharjah.

Our enrollment is between 300 and 500 students. University of Sharjah is one of the large private

universities in the UAE. It has about 20 colleges and around 35,000 students. I teach English

university requirements: Academic reading and writing 1 and 2, English for specific purposesand Communicative English 1 and 2. I teach 20 hours per week and have to maintain 5 office

hours every week. Each class is 60 minutes. I meet my students three times a week. My students

are mainly ESL students especially from Arab ethnicity with other non-Arab students mainlyfrom Africa. In terms of this project report, I will focus on my academic reading and writing

class, bearing in mind that the strategies and transformation outlined could be applied to the

other classes.

Students enrolled in this course have graduated from either government or private schools. They

have been studying English form about 12 years. They have very good speaking skills since the

UAE is a cosmopolitan country and the main language of communication is English. Yet,students face difficulty when it comes to mastering English reading and writing. The main

reasons for problem are lack of necessary vocabulary words and lack of reading and writing

skills and strategies that would enable students to fully understand a particular text. Therefore,

the main aim of the project is to fully engage students in their course assignments by providingopportunities to personalize their learning experiences and maximize the exposure to English by

engaging them in controversial topics and stimulate discussions and critical thinking.


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In terms of technology infrastructure, my classroom has one computer with a project,

whiteboard, bulletin board notice. The university has two computer labs with 20 PCs in each lab

and one computer in each lab for the teacher connected to a projector. The university hasinstalled a variety of software programs on the computers such as Blackboard, Audacity,

Microsoft Office, Movie Maker, Real Player, and GIMP. All the computers are connected to the

Internet and thus students can access Google Sites and search engine when needed. I haveLanSchool software on the teachers computer, which allows me to display students computerscreens and work to the entire class. The computer lab is square in shape with a cart to the left

that holds the projector, cassette player, DVD, and VCR player. The computer is placed on the

teachers table and connected to the cart. There are also three digital cameras that are alwayswith the lab technician and could be used with the teachers permission. The computer labs could

be used once scheduled in advance. All students are requested at the beginning of the semester

to create Gmail accounts and all accounts have access to Googledocs software. My dream for

this project is to use free and available technologies effectively and efficiently to achieve betterteaching and learning outcomes.

The reason for choosing a free software program is that I am aware of the finances of the EnglishLanguage Center. I am also aware that the upper management and administrators are not willing

to pay money for any new technologies or software programs. Bearing this in mind, and trying to

move from instrumental to missional thinking, I thought of using the available technology and

tailor it to meet my students needs. After all, technology is not the aim but how we can make theutmost use of the available technology to meet our teaching and learning goals and needs.

Content

"A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work demonstrating the student's achievementor growth as characterized by a strong vision of content. Helen Barrett

Why do I want my student to produce e-portfolios and e-chronicle using Google Sites? Portfoliosare important for ESL students because they exhibit students efforts, progress and achievements

in different areas of learning. I have two main reasons for developing this project for my

intermediate ESL students. The first one is to give my students several opportunities to developtheir communicative skills and be able to answer questions such as What do I know? and

What can I do well? I want apply these two questions to my academic reading and writing

class and I want my student to identify a purpose for their learning. Therefore, technology could

be used in creative and purposeful way to address the above mentioned questions. Furthermore, Iwant my students to take responsibility for their own learning by reflecting taking a step further,

taking risks, trying new technologies, and selecting their own learning strategies. I want my

students to gradually bridge the gap from where they are now to where they need and should be.

I hope that with this project, my student will be able to take steps further and become morereflective lifelong learners.

The use of portfolios for assessment and presentation has become an integral part at highereducation. Personal portfolios have become a graduation requirement at many colleges at the


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University of Sharjah, UAE. I have chosen to use free electronic portfolio as a class project for

my students because portfolios have become valuable tools that facilitate student learning and its

assessment. E-portfolios can be used to include a collection of multimedia documents thatstudent compose. E-portfolios are effective when students are guided by clearly instructions. At

the same time, students need to structure and develop their portfolios around particular learning

goals. Furthermore, students need to represent themselves through personalized projects relatedto their course assignments.

For this project, I would like my students to master the following skills:

develop interview questions conduct interviews prepare articles that address different writing genres shoot still pictures and video edit and upload still pictures and videos reading different text effectively

Desired transformation

The transformation I would like to see in my class is one where I have the role of a facilitator and

guide, whereas I would like to see my student construct their own stories of learning and

creatively present the assigned content and tasks in a creative way. By asking student to developtheir own e-portfolios and collaborate to develop an online chronicle, they will demonstrate their

understanding of the content and transfer their knowledge into creative multimedia for

presentation to a varied audience of peers, teachers, upper administration, and parents.

I will present a model from my own website using Google Sites to students. Giving students a

model will help them understand the project requirements. Students have to read different

controversial topics and reflect on them. They need to talk and write about these topics fromtheir own perspectives. They also need to interview other students and share their ideas with us.

Students need to askquestions such as what do I know? and How am I going to communicate

my understanding to my audience?

The ultimate goal of the project is self-knowledge. Students need to be independent learners and

reflect their on their own learning and progress. Hopefully, if well designed and carried out, this

project would result in increased meta-cognition and communication skills. It will reinforce theimportance of setting clear and specific goals and create way to be able achieve them.

The major transformation that I want for my students is to understand that producing an e-

portfolio or an e-chronicle is a form of writing that goes will all related reading and writing skillsfor academic purposes. Students need to be aware that developing perspective and self-

knowledge are essential forms of deeper understanding. Engaging students in different reading

and writing topics will help them develop deeper understanding of their course content. Not only


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this, as a teacher, I need to bear in mind that self-knowledge will help them develop better

understanding of the world.

At present, my ESL intermediate student focus more producing grammatically correct essays

with little thought to the coherence of ideas and the audience. My ESL students usually rely on

others an expert/ a teacher to edit their work and make it sound and look better. Students needto understand and be aware of the expectations for publishing their work in the form of e-portfolios and an e-chronicle. Therefore, my role as a teacher is to prepare and equip students

with appropriate skills to be able to achieve their expected roles and academic levels.

As a teacher I need to design a project with a particular and definite end product in mind.

Students will need to demonstrate their understanding and transfer their knowledge into creative

pieces of writing that take into consideration different writing genres assigned in their course

book. Not only this, students need to develop different multimedia presentations that go alongtheir writings and target different audience (peers, teachers, administrators, parents, and others.)

In order to fully engage students in their work, students need to be able to explain, talk about,and reflect on their project in writing and verbally. This could be achieved by writing posts using

Blackboard (CMS) or by talking to the teachers and other students. Students will need to develop

their understanding by presenting their ideas using different multimedia representations (pod

casts, videos, and photos). They need to integrate this in their e-portfolios (Google Sites) andeventually share their ideas when they develop the class e-chronicle (also using Google Sites).

As part of their learning experiences, students need to consider the audience views and make

sure they communicate their ideas and rational in effective ways. To be able to do thiseffectively, students need to be emotionally engaged with the topics. Finally, students will share

their learning experiences and ideas when they have to participate and construct their class

chronicle (online).

Technology

There are several technologies I plan to incorporate in this proposal. I will use the following

technology components to create appropriate learning experience for my students. Blackboard (CMS) Microsoft Office Google Sites (serves as e-portfolio and online class chronicle) Audacity software Jing/Animoto for (still pictures) Moviemaker (to edit videos and interviews students create) Digital cameras Laptops Internet Access (readily available at the university) Computer labs (available at the university- especially for those who do not own laptops) Various newspaper links Various online tutorials Prezi or PowerPoint (presentation software)


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Flash Drives (used to save their work)Students will be familiar with some technologies and unfamiliar with others. The teachers roleis to familiarize students with the new technologies and help them integrate the new ones in their

projects. Class time will be used effectively to introduce different technologies needed, answer

questions, and related different technologies to the course content. Not only this, some of thetechnologies introduced will be done in class to provide hands-on experience to differentstudents. Students are welcomed to indicate any trouble shooting points through Blackboard-

other students are welcomed to answer such trouble shooting issues along with the teacher.

The integration of technology in this project would be best explained by using three main

concepts: exploring, creating, and sharing. To illustrate, the explore stage of the project would

mean that students need to familiarize themselves with different technologies needed to do

different assignments. After exploring, student will then have to select and create the artifactsthey have chosen. To do this, they need to plan, organize and reflect on different writing and

reading assignments. At this stage, they might be required to write a response to a particular

reading topic, conduct and interview, or even document a topic through producing a short videoor a sill picture or a clip to illustrate a particular topic. Finally, the last stage is sharing students

work through the use of e-portfolios and the class online chronicle. This stage is important

because students need to address their topics to real audience that extend beyond their teachers

and class peers. For this project, I am using free web hosting resource for my students GoogleSites. I am aware that Google Sites is not the best free hosting, yet it is easy to use at this stage.

Pedagogy

In terms of pedagogy, I have decided to integrate multiple learning theories- a cognitive and

constructivist learning approaches, Vygotskys Zone or Proximal development, and BrunersScaffolding approaches have been applied. Students need to move from one correct solution

towards an approach that integrated different solutions and views. I truly believe that integrating

a combination of different teaching approaches will provide my students with variousopportunities to gain better understanding of the concepts I want them to acquire.

Teaching ESL students academic reading and writing fall into the domain of cognitive learningapproaches. Academic reading and writing concepts are built on previous ideas, so the focus

would be on students prior knowledge and scaffolding. Furthermore, the constructivist approach

seems to be very relevant. The kind of assignments to be given would arouse students intrinsic

motivation and allow them create meaning to their own learning. Another theory that would beemployed is the Zone of Proximal Development by Vygotsky that emphasized the importance of

problem-solving with assistance and help by teachers and students. This concept allows teachers

to prepare students to take the challenge and take a further step and acquire the expected skills

needed to master a particular language component. The aim of employing and using differentteaching approaches is to help ESL students master different academic reading topics and writing

genres and be able to reflect on these topics in appropriate ways that would serve the course

content.


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I have to bear in mind students skills and language proficiency levels, and thus, I would design

tasks and assignments that would address different levels and skills bearing in mind that such

tasks have to be relevant to the course content and the primary aim of the project and that itproducing and online portfolio for each group and a class chronicle for the whole class to

showcase their work and projects. I expect different students to achieve various levels of

perceiving knowledge from the assigned tasks since there would be different developmentallevels that accommodate students needs.

It is necessary to provide samples and models of the tasks that I would engage my students in

through Blackboard. Along with providing student with samples of producing pictures, videos,audio recordings, students will be trained to acquire relevant interviewing skills needed to

complete their tasks. They can practice on each other before assigning them real tasks where they

have to interview other students and other teachers. This will help students, especially visual

learners; develop deeper understanding of the concepts to be mastered. Students will haveexamples of poor and good illustrations of the kind of end products they should produce. This

aim of providing such samples is to know and work towards particular expectations.

Electronic portfolios are great tools for students to document their growth and build a connection

between theory and practice in a friendly and collaborative non-threatening environment. They

some teachers oppose using e-portfolios in class because of their limitations; allowing students to

use e-portfolios enable them to take full advantage of web 2.0 capabilities by adding multimediaand interactivity, which are very popular among learners.

The TPACK

TPACK is a way of thinking about the knowledge teachers need to understand to integrate

technology effectively into their classrooms.

Teachers who exhibit best practices with technology are "creative, flexible, and adapt ways inwhich they navigate the constraints, affordances, and interactions within TPACK framework.

(Mishra & Koehler, 2008)


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According to Mishra & Koehler (2008), effective integration of technology is an attentive approach inwhich teachers understand how to relate concepts of technology, show creative pedagogical practice,

facilitate technology use in ways to teach content and skills with a student centered approach. TPACK is

the meaningful and successful integration of technology, pedagogy, and content. It would bealmost impossible to create this project without technology. Teachers and students need to be

aware that inquiry, communication, construction, and expression are all parts of developing agood e-portfolio and an online chronicle that have the quality of a journalistic product.Therefore, my role as a teacher is to develop opportunities for students to explore the content of

online newspapers or chronicles and how articles, photos, interviews, and videos are constructed

to relay particular concepts or ideas.

At this stage, ESL intermediate learners will have many questions. My role as a teacher

therefore, will be to guide and direct their questions and inquires through the use of online

management system (Blackboard) to find resources to answer these questions. This use of

Blackboard will be very effective in my opinion as I will meet student three times a week, yet,they can direct their questions any time during the week. I will include recourses to links,

documents, model videos, screen-cast tutorials to topics and other technologies that could be

needed and used to develop their e-portfolios or the chronicle. Their online lessons will consistof different links to different learning tutorials they might need such as (digital cameras,

audacity, creating videos, moviemaker, and GIMP).

This project will allow student to express their ideas in different and effective ways. Through

audacity and podcasts, student will be able to tell their stories in a more personal way bearing in

mind the rational and the purpose of the topic they have chosen. Recording a digital story relatedto their course book and assignment will allow them to develop more personalized connection to

a particular topic and engage more audience. Posting and editing pictures will help students to

communicate their ideas in a more effective, precise and concise way.

Evaluation

How do I plan to measure the impact of technology integration? I plan to incorporate different

evaluation tools and compare students performance to ESL writing standards and ICT standards.

To evaluate the impact of technology integration on student learning, formative and summative

assessment tools will be used. Pre/post tests will be used as parts of the course. These tests willmeasure student understanding of the content. I my opinion, students who have been engaged in

the tasks assigned will exhibit a clearer insight and understanding of different writing genres and

well as the different components of writing such as editing, photography, video-graphy, and

publishing. Students will be given an assessment rubric for each reading/writing task/genre toevaluate their critical thinking, their ability to provide a clear understanding of their work, how

they worked collaboratively, their ability to use e-portfolios and their ability to produce different

multimedia to demonstrate their project.

Furthermore, classroom observation, surveys and sample of student writings will act as

additional assessment tools. In my opinion, the most significant assessment tool could be thepublishing of the English Language Center Chronicle. Students who have gained understanding

and learned from this course will be able to write articles with better content, style, grammar, and


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punctuation. Photographs used will exhibit their photography skills and how students want to

promote their topics. The ESL chronicle will improve as students develop their writing skills.

Using the discussion forum on Blackboard will allow me to see students progress and to know

when and how I should interfere and problem solve. The discussion board serves as a great tool

for collaboration between students and the teacher and among the students themselves. Theforums will be used to monitor students progress and development throughout the course.

During the course, students will need to document their organizational skills through and submit

their plans for each assignment on Blackboard. This could include any multimedia format theychoose that goes along with their assignment.

Finally, the ESL chronicle will be an online product. Student will share their progress with other

students and teachers by presenting their experience at the University of Sharjah studentexhibition at the end of the semester. It is necessary to point out that the evaluation here is not for

the students only, but for my effectiveness as a teacher to communicate and implement the

course objectives.

Developing information literacy and technology skills in students

Information literacy is an ongoing part of any learning experience. In my context, students need

to be able to read and process written information from their textbooks and other related sources(online or printed material). Students also need to know how to apply the rules they have learnt

in a meaningful way. The addition of technology would demand teachers/students to take a

further step in information and technology skills. Student registered in my class have finished

ESL writing 1 and 2. These students are expected to be proficient and skilled in the basic writingcomponents of the previous courses. Yet, there will always be some students who will set back

and will need to develop their writing skills and thus will need time for this remediation.

My proposal to have student read, analyze, and synthesize different reading and writing texts will

ensure that they use the necessary technology skills to accomplish the required assignments. The

technologies that have been listed earlier include using digital cameras, internet, MicrosoftOffice, Google Sites, Prezi, Movie Maker, and Blackboard, online search engines. From my

previous experience, students usually come to class prepared for many of these skills, yet; still

some skills may need to be taught. This could be done in class, through tutorials posted on

Blackboard, or any other way.

Meeting different needs of my students

It is sometimes hard to predict the diverse needs of a particular group, but from my past

experience, I should be able to make technology available to students by being flexible and open

to different suggestions- after all our students are digital natives.


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ESL students have diverse needs and thus it is necessary for me to meet such needs in different

ways. Students who are visual and hand-on learners benefit from being referred to Teachertube

and YouTube. They could also be referred to other online sources and documentary

movies that take about different controversial issues related to their course syllabus.

Auditory learners could be also referred to many podcasts along with the video links togain more understanding of the topics to be discussed in class and that need to beincluded in their chronicle.

Not only this, for shy and unmotivated students, the teacher will be always available topush them and clarify this in more details.

Roles within the groups could be assigned based on the level of comfort with each topicand these roles could change for each topic to be included in the chronicle.

Social and ethical uses of technology

Students will be introduced to the University of Sharjah Policy regarding technology, copyright,and plagiarism during the first few session. Students will be constantly reminded with the topic

of intellectual property. I will introduceCyber bee, a program that deals with copyright and fair

use including lesson plans for grades K-12.

Understanding the idea of intellectual property and copying other peoples work is an important

component of this project because ESL learners tend to copy others work due to language

barriers. I will always emphasize to students the importance of creating their own original work.

Using technology to engage in professional development and leadership

My plan for professional development will need to grow. I need to familiarize myself with many

web 2.0 applications relevant to my teaching and understand the pedagogy related to many of

this applications. Knowing my context and the financial limitations that our university face, Ineed to be much more aware of different free software that would enhance ESL learning and

teaching and at the same time be up to date with other paid software that are in the market, if the

university decides to invest in one of these technologies one day.

Furthermore, engaging my reading and writing class in producing online chronicle will offer a

positive image of the class work we are doing and exemplifies both my students learning and

my classroom management and leadership.

In addition, my main focus for the time being is to finish my MAET program at MSU. I also

need to participate in many other technology training sessions for professional development

offered by my university. Needless to say, it is essential to work closely with peers as part of myprofessional development plan.

Furthermore, part of my professional development is sharing what I know with my colleagues atthe Intensive English Program. I will present some of the applications that I have learnt during
http://www.cyberbee.com/copyrt.htmlhttp://www.cyberbee.com/copyrt.htmlhttp://www.cyberbee.com/copyrt.htmlhttp://www.cyberbee.com/copyrt.html


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my masters program with my colleagues such as Google applications- docs, forms and

presentations, Blackboard LMS, and other technologies such as Prezi, Wikis, blogs and

Animoto. At last, I plan to develop a portion of the Intensive English Program web page- onedevoted to the Chronicle as a forum for students publications.

Engaging ESL learners in meaning reading and writing tasks offers them with valuableopportunities to be responsible for their own learning, become independent, and be able to takethe initiative. It also gives me the opportunity to share my experience with other teachers.

Hopefully, the example of my project may encourage other teachers to employ this technology in

their classes.

I am aware of some of the obstacles that I might face in class. First of all, it could be a little

frustrating for students to use Blackboard along with face to face in class interaction. This would

be their first course and they have not experienced a similar thing before. Students might divertduring the lab session and be engaged in other activities. I believe as teachers we need to be open

to this and realize that we have to deal with such matters as they arise. We need not spend much

time on that as long as the work required is done. In my opinion, with careful planning andexecution, this project will offer students a good and different learning experience.

Technology Proposal CEP 815

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