Week 7 reflections - Using one computer in class

 

Dear colleagues, 

   As I mentioned also in Nicenet, I've started to use the computer in classroom just recently, after beginning this course. When sometimes we have wireless at school, I use the computer to show students authentic materials like video clips in English,also to show them the websites where they can practice listening and writing at home, when there isn't internet I show them some movies inserts (such as Coco Chanel) for the students of fashion design,and then discuss about them, by encouraging students to use English (even though they have difficulties).
 

The big plus is that I saw an increased interest for the English classes from their part. There are also some minuses such as: it is a bit hard to use the computer in class without a projector, and for some students it is hard to focus on the computer screen (if it's a large group) and the biggest disadvantage is that I can't use the computer for every divided group as now very often there is no power. So, till now the minuses are mainly technical. 

However, by reading the material about one computer options  in class I got many ideas about how to use one computer efficiently and what activities to prepare. 

One of the websites that I liked most and gave me ideas about how to  use one computer in class is http://www.susangaer.com/sgaer/onecomputer/wordprocessing.html. It offers many activities in word processing, and that's great in my case because usually there in no internet at school, and I can use the computer by performing this kind of off-line activities. 

But, while reading the an article in www.educationworld.com, " How to Thrive -- Not Just Survive -- in a One-Computer Classroom," written by Glori Chaika, I've been introduced to different strategies about one-computer classrooms but the one that seemed to me very interesting, especially for high school students is

 "stations".  More information about this strategy you can find in: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech092.shtml.

I found "stations" very interesting and useful because there is the possibility where students can rotate, meaning that all of them can work in the computer by having the chance to conduct research or complete assignments.

In my opinion, the most important thing is that, (even though I've started and been able to use only "small parts"  of my project steps), I've seen an increase of interest from students for the English classes. And that motivates me to work more in order to be able to use the technology effectively.