Sunday, November 18, 2012

Week7. Reflections


Morpheus: ‘I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one who must walk through it’

The Matrix (Film)
Authentic Reading by W.C.Cardoso

There are so many doors to open, but you should open them yourself. Autonomy is not about being left alone in the desert it is about standing on the crossroads and taking charge of the direction you take, it is the ability to take charge of your learning (Holec), the ability to walk through the door and be responsible for your choices. I consider it is wonderful that people have started to analyze and apply autonomy not only on geographical and political levels, but on educational as well. It is vitally important to be independent, to take decisions yourself, to be responsible for your life in general. Autonomy was the first question to discuss during the 7th week. To be informed about autonomy is it worth reading the articles What Is Learner Autonomy and How Can It Be Fostered? by Dimitrios Thanasoulas and Learner Autonomy: Bird-in-the-hand or Bird-in-the-bush? by Samuel Sheu.


The Wallwisher  is “simplicity and collaboration for motivation and effective teaching” (Titova). Being amazingly simple it can be used in a variety of one-computer activities, I would even call them projects, as using the wallwisher implies preparation and research. I liked this new tool as it fosters students’ autonomous learning.

Finally, several words about the final project. This week we had to choose our partners for peer-reading. At first I wanted to invite some definite colleagues to be my peers, as we all have different styles, perception, cultures that more or less influence our choice. However my final decision was to choose my peer-readers according to the field of interest. I thought that it would be good to be open for collaboration to everyone as all my colleagues are professionals and I would be honored to work with everyone. My peer-readers are Raj and Mary, my very active colleagues. Thus we shall have an international collaboration between India, Venezuela and Moldova.

Looking forward to hearing from you!
Ina


4 comments:

  1. Dear Ina

    You have selected a wonderful quotation which sums up everything.It is mostly a guided discovery by the learners.The role of teacher is to show them their way and monitor progress.

    Regards

    Raj

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    Replies
    1. Dear Raj,

      I consider this quotation is about people's autonomy, it is about making our own choices, taking responsibility for our life and building our own destiny.

      Ina

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  2. Hi, Ina.

    I love the quote you used! I remember that part of the movie as if I had seen it just yesterday!

    This was an interesting week. I am just so sad that Nicenet went down and we cannot follow up with some of the discussions!

    The Wallwisher is a neat technology. I am going to use it next month to make a going-away card for one of my faculty members! I am glad that Courtney always shows us some new and interesting technologies to use!

    I hope that you have fun with your peer-reading group. Since we are both doing things on plagarism, I would also be interested in learning more about your project. Perhaps you can share information here (and I can share on my blog as well)! Good luck!

    Evelyn

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Evelyn!

      Yes, the film is good and the quote is good for our topic of autonomous learning. I hope the outcomes of our autonomy will be more optimistic. Life is the srtuggle! Autonomy is the struggle with the self!

      I miss nicenet discussions. I was away for the weekend and I was really disappointed to see that I cannot join my colleagues in the discussions. Nicenet has united us all, I feel that it is not a simple website, it is a place, a home, where we can meet.

      The wallwisher is a great tool. It can be used as a simple collection of examples and develop into a real project. As for example, our Wallwisher, dedicated to autonomous learning. Everyone's contribution made it a collection of sources for a good article.

      I have introduced my students into the topic plagiarism. I shared the video, advised by Courtney, which you can find in Week6. Reflections. I saw that it impressed them as they unwillingly or not sometimes committed the mistakes mentioned in this video. I also told them that from now on I am going to use the online checker to avoid any ambiguities. I told my students that I don't blame them, but their ideas can also be used illigally. Every personality is unique. We should open our potential!

      I felt myself as if I was on a strike in front of the workers. They are clever. I think they understood me.

      Ina

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