TESOL: Principles and Practices of Online Teaching Certificate Program

PP 104: "Teaching Vocabulary and Grammar Online" 
(May 3-30, 2004)

Participants' page

Home

Analysis of Sites with Online Exercises

Online Exercise Creators:
Dis/Advantages

Links of Interest

Lesson Plans

Discussion Threads

Feedback / K-W-K Chart

Participants' Final Reflections

Carolyn

 This course provided us with information about many sites which can be used in teaching grammar and vocabulary and with materials on theory and pedagogy.  It provided my first "chat" with other students, my first experience with Yahoo Messenger, my first experience working with a small group online (constructing the charts), and an opportunity to incorporate online exercises in a lesson plan.  For all of this, thank you, Dafne and Teresa!

Hana

 Dafne and Teresa,

As with many people, I tend to find something and continue to  use it. We often don'e have time  in our busy lives to look for new tools and experiment with them. This class gave me the opportunity and forced me to look at site I had never tried. Also, the time you both took to respond and give feedback is much appreciated. Finally, for me, to hear from teachers from all over the world and in various situations led come out of the cocoon I tend to get into. Thanks to EVERYONE who participated in this course.

Hana

Amanda
I really enjoyed getting to know all of the people on the course.  I certainly was opened to sites I would not have found otherwise.  I liked reviewing the work of other students.  I liked using the new chat sites, but I guess I would have preferred to have chatted less and discussed a bit more (I am a bit of nerd that way!).  :)

I also liked that so many new varieties of teaching online were presented.  I liked that even when I messed up, I still felt comfortable sharing and getting feedback from everyone.  There was certainly a very nice community feeling in this course. 

Thanks to everyone for their comments and advice... hope to see you "online" - Amanda
Chia-Yin Pan Even though I was behind in some assignments, I still feel that I enjoy the class a lot! It was great to know everybody in the cyberspace, read people's posts/thoughts and chat with some of my cyberclassmates online!

Here is one suggestion  I come up with so far:

It is very nice and helpful that we have many good links in the content area. They made me think a lot about the topic! I wonder if it is possible to have a resource section in this Desire2Learn interface (like a tab or something). In this area, instructors could collect a list of books and journal articles that is realted to teaching vocabulary and grammar online. I am very interested in the topic and would like to read more in books and journal article (both practical and theorical aspects of teaching online)

I will write more when I got some more part of the class done! : )

Alla

 I enjoyed learning with D2L very much. Being a novice in using the Internet in my teaching practice I can say that the information I could get during the course was invaluable to me – now I know where to start from! I liked the course structure, the pace of doing tasks, the selection of links. Participating in chats (especially in the one organized for our small group) was really effective.
Also I very much appreciate your prompt and detailed responses to our (learners') tasks, and your comments giving general advice on how to use the possibilities of the Internet more efficiently.
Thank you very much, Dafne and Teresa!

Mark S.

 Dafne and Teresa...Thanks for facilitating the course. I liked working with everyone, and exploring the vocab and grammar sites. I'll definitely make use of some of them in the future. I would have liked a few more articles or sites to visit on how to teach vocab and grammar online, but my cup is running over right now anyway. Thanks also for your constant, quick and helpful replies to mine...Mark

Mary Jane
This course helped me get a good idea of just how much material is out there online for ESL/EFL teaching and learning. I had no idea of the scope and sophistication, and it is exciting to know there is much more yet to discover. It was also great getting to know everyone in the course, and I liked the interaction.
Dafne and Teresa, your quick, informative, and supportive responses were both helpful and inspiring. I still can't imagine how one becomes efficient with "all this". The course activities were useful and there was a good variety. Also, the links will be especially useful to have as we move on because I really found the amount of new information overwhelming at times. But having the website will help us to be able to review the material. Thanks for setting that up!
I also appreciated your flexibility with assignments; I don't know what to say about being in the disappearing group--it was the luck of the draw, I guess. I would have liked a little more structured approach to addressing the hows of teaching vocabulary and grammar online. But on the other hand, I find I learned something about learning online which is that it can be more fluid and spontaneous, and chatty as a way to build the community, and that in fact a great deal of learning takes place within an informal approach. It has been a positive learning experience for me, and I appreciate your guidance and that of my "classmates".
MaryJane

Keiko

 Dear Dafne and Teresa,
Thank you for all of your work for us and facilitating the course.  I really enjoyed getting to know all the people on the course and their ideas about online.  As I live in Japan, I rarely have chances to interact with other ESL or EFL teachers in the United Stated.  This course gave me a valuable opportunity to know what is happening in the U.S. these days.  I also appreciate your helpful advice to all of us.   I am glad to hear about the homepage, so I would visit the page soon. 

Kathryn

Well, I just came back from a trip to Japan, and I've gotten about 8 hours of sleep in 4 days, so I hope I will be making sense here! :-)

I really learned a lot in this course. I knew about some tools already, like Yahoo Messenger, but I learned about so many others that I think will be very useful to me in the future. I liked the articles you posted in the "Links" section. Now I know a lot more about concordancing and I hope to use it in the future. All the exercise creators we've learned about certainly give us all many more options for creating fun and useful activities for students.

The collaboration was one of the best parts of the course. We all learned from each other and helped each other a lot. I also enjoyed the chats since it gave us the chance to get to know each other better. Thanks a bunch for introducing us to Tapped In and Webheads in Action! I hope to start "decorating" my new virtual office soon. :-)

Thanks Dafne and Teresa! 

Karen

 Dafne and Teresa! Thank you! This course has been great. I have learned soooooo very much, have gathered great resources, communicated with interesting, helpful people and have gained more confidence in this whole new world. Your patience and great enthusiasm (knowledge too! :) has made this an enjoyable course. It was very organized and easy to follow. Thanks again. I hope to be a webhead in the future. Karen

Staci

The best part was being a student...
I'd have to say the best part of this class for me was being an online student.  This is the first online class I've taken so it gave me a real feel of how our students will feel in an online class.  I learned a lot about how students can meet, discuss, complete projects...I also learned what it means to be a teacher of an online class, based on all the work that you did for us, Teresa and Dafne.  Although I'm still a bit overwhlemed with all the information I received, I definitely have a better perspective on what online teaching/learning is all about.  Thank you!

Mark A.

Thanks so much, Dafne and Teresa, for all your hard work.  I was really impressed that you modeled for us what it means to be good on-line teachers.  Your understanding of life's upsets with some, your rapid responses, your positive outlook and upbeat remarks made this a most enjoyable experience.  You were both so patient with us - a very admirable trait when you lead people in uncharted waters.
One of the things I really appreciated was the exposure to so many new things and ideas, and the multitude of resources available.  That broadened my horizons considerably - and has already led to changes in an online course I'm coordinating.
I found D2L a little awkward at first, and I know there are better things available out there.  But I also know that TESOL is doing everything it can to keep costs down to keep these courses affordable - so I'm sure that had something to do with the choice of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.  When I was on the Professional Development Committee and we were first asking around to find a school to host our courses, I was shocked at how much money some wanted to allow us to use things like this.  So although I'm sure TESOL will appreciate the feedback on D2L, I will say D2L does work, and I'd rather manage with this as opposed to potentially much higher costs.
So my $.02 on a lovely day in Kansas - thanks again for everything.  
- Mark A.

Dafne Gonzalez
May, 2004