Chiphen Rigpel Project

Sanjiv's Web Skills Reflection: Chiphen Rigpel Project: This is fifth day of Chiphen Rigpel Project (CRP) I am attending at Gelephu LSS, Sarpang. The CRP is an Indian Government initiative t...

Chiphen Rigpel Project

This is fifth day of Chiphen Rigpel Project (CRP) I am attending at Gelephu LSS, Sarpang. The CRP is an Indian Government initiative to promote basic ICT literacy to Bhutanese in different agencies, especially to the teachers across country.  The project was launched in 2010 by the Prime Minister of India and Bhutan on the sideline of the SAARC summit in Bhutan.


The CRP has set up computer labs in 168 schools in Bhutan and is providing training to children in classes 7-12. It has also developed curriculum textbook from which teachers are trained in winter. Apart from training teachers and students in schools it has also built up 100 Playground Learning Stations across communities in Bhutan to provide ICT skills to underprivileged sections of the society. 

Here in Gelephu LSS center, Mr. Namgay a teacher from Lango MSS is resourcing 8 teachers of Kendrup HSS, Gelephu including me. Well, I was not the listed candidate of this course but having skipped the training earlier because of my studies outside I had to take the opportunity this winter. And somehow it has been rumored that the course certificate is must to produce in our professional carrier. Therefore, I am attending with keen. 

In this 10 days training time teachers are trained to integrate ICT skills in language learning and whole teaching and learning process. It not only saves time and resources at school but keep our teachers updated to 21^st century trend in educating learners. 

National Day of Bhutan

Today, Dec. 17 is a historic day in Bhutan. It was in Dec.17, 1907 the first Hereditary Monarchy was established, Sir, Ugyen Wangchuk was crowned as First King of Bhutan. We celebrate this day as National Day of Bhutan. All schools of a Dzongkhag (state) come together to celebrate and pay tribute to our monarchs and pray for peace and harmony of the country.

We had a celebration in a public ground in Paro, where the chief guest was the head of state (Dasho Dzongdha). There was march pass by the students from different schools and gathering waited for a live speech of our present King from the capital. His Majesty Jigme Ksher Namgyel Wangchuk addressed  the nation and talked about the current situation of the country. His majesty expressed great concern of people, government and the nation, His Majesty is truly "a People's King".

Starting from this year, Royal Civil Servant Commission (RCSE) initiated awarding medals to civil servants who have served the government more than 10 years and above. The medals are in bronze, silver and gold. This is a  true recognition of serving Tsa-Wa-Sum (a triple gem) and all civil servant are overwhelmed. Unfortunately I was not a part of it, I hope to receive the honor after two year only.

All schools across the country will close for winter vacation from tomorrow after having done the declaration of annual examination result. Students and teachers will enjoy the break until 10 Feb. 2014. But for the teachers it is a professional development time in Bhutan, there will be many workshops, seminars and training organised by different sectors and most of the teachers will be engaged. I will be moving to south-central Bhutan to attain Art orientation workshop conducted by Department of Curriculum and Research Division for few days and after that it will all be a break for me to rejoice, relax and come fresh next academic.

I wish all my Webskills friends, teachers & students of University of Oregon and Ms.Courtney a very warm New Year, also Happy Christmas.
All the best to everyone!  

Regards,
Sanjiv

Final Reflection!

This is not in anyways an end to our Webskills course offered through American English Institute at the University of Oregon, this is indeed an embankment to continue the new skills and knowledge hereafter. First of all, I would like to thank the Embassy for providing this opportunity for me who belongs to a distant and very developing country. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the University, particularly to our course instructor Ms.Courtney and all friend participants with whose all spirits the course was a success.

  

My words are very less to express what I have got during these 10 weeks learning, I feel blessed that I could participate in subject that I am interested at and I honestly affirm that my learning was a real acquisition of new knowledge and skills. During the course we were taken through discussions, tasks, reading, writing, reflecting, commenting, creating and lots more. What is a very distinct characteristic of this course is like I mentioned earlier that it is making learning a continuous process, we will now never stop to find, explore and learn but will never relinquish.

In this Webskills course, all topics and the tools we used were very appropriate and even thought provoking. Topics like learner Autonomy, One Computer Class, Project Based Learning (PBL), Oral/aural skill Building and Multiple Intelligence Theory were most successful in the course. Among many tools used during the course, I would like to implement all of these but with the progression of competency level in students. Blogs, WebQuest and Wiki are really meaningful. Besides that, setting ABCD objectives, technology enhanced lesson planning and creating rubrics was extra acquisition for me. And I did not see anything in the course that was not relevant instead I began to feel less.

Well, to talk about the internet and the tools, it is always less, there are so many information and tools available online, sometimes it becomes embracement of richness as said by Tom March. What is important is the selection and gradations of the tool at par our activity and lesson.  But somehow I did feel less in this course was about having some synchronous discussion at least once in two weeks or so or may we have some voice conferencing, tool like ANVILL might be also used. More or less, all was fare and great.

My sincere acknowledgment will always go to the people who were in background of completing this course and they cannot be ignored. They have directly or indirectly contributed either by their stimulating comments or by encouraging my morale.

I am particularly grateful to my  Instructor, Ms. Courtney for her enthusiasm to venture into the new areas of learning that have taught me to view simple teaching and learning in a new perspective. Using technology into classroom is really fantastic and fascinating. I also thank all my Webskills friends for their valuable feedback and support rendered.

To all my teacher friends and Principal of Drukgyel LS School, Paro for understanding and encouraging me to peruse in this course.  Thank you all for egging me towards the finish line of this project.

Last but not the least, I love and thank my family for their unrelenting support. It was through their love and affection I could stay late night working besides my own teaching and other chores to reach the destination.

Thank You All and Miss You All,

Happy New Year!

Sanjiv Kr. Alay

Bhutan 

Week 9 Reflection

Learning new skills and reflecting what we have learned makes one feel so good. Now it is almost time we shut down this habit we have crept into. We are almost at verge of completing our webskills course after having explored many teaching skills using interactive websites or technology. Our discussion this week was on how technology can help or address different able learners.

Being aware of Gardner’s 8 Multiple Intelligence, we were prompt to think what particular technology can be more useful and ease to cater to different able learners. Having known that technology can do better in promoting learner styles since it can provide learners with variety of aids and sensitize their memory to stimulate to new approaches that traditional classroom can merely do. Using audio, visual, video and graphics are some prominent examples that technology can offer at hand. Well, interactive quiz, games and online activities also instigates variety of learning experiences besides providing learning at children’s pace and place.

Nevertheless, technology offers choice to cater to different learning styles, it is equally important to consider what kind of learning style a teacher possesses. I agreed when our instructor Courtney said that teachers’ trait does influence his or her approach to teaching. Therefore, it is very important to conduct survey for both teacher and students to find out what intelligence is at risk or at promise. Having known our styles we will be able to focus or should be able change our approaches to teaching and bring variety in lesson which will be beneficial to different able learners. We also know that intelligence does not remain fixed, it also tend to change as we practice doing new things and adapt to new environment.

Beside the discussion, this week was the submission of our final project. Well, I can’t say that I did best in my project but certainly would say I tried my best to bring my project a result of this course. Having done this project is just like having received certificate after the course. I am glad that I could now use many technological aspects in my classroom and being able to incorporate the acquired skills in my project made me feel full of learning.

This is really a new experience for me, I loved learning from this course.

Thank you,

With Regards…

10-2=8 ! Week 8 Reflection

I posted first draft of my project after much toil over the week.  And it was really like a draft when I looked at it again after getting sober. Many things to change and add again but in conscious now, I will have to turn into a new leaf.

It was because of the draft project submission, we did not have much to do this week, only a task that was creating a course site. And I got full satisfaction doing this task, I am proud that I created a Wiki site on Google which in fact was one of my awaited task- it just happened like I needed someone to tell me! Otherwise I knew within myself that I needed this. Creating Wiki site was a really firsthand experience, only then I realized this will be more useful than just having in mind to have one. I am going to use this for my project as a means to blend technology with my normal classes and have planned lot many for my Wiki.

Beside the task, we also had a guest on our discussion, it was Mr. Jeff Magoto, Director of the language center at UO. He is also an expert on Webskills and as well an experience in teaching ESL/EFL students across the globe. His recent development is a creation of ANVILL, a virtual language lab. This ANVILL as a tool can be great to use in language learning, especially on speaking skills. It has text, voice and video recording that can be shared among users. This will be very useful for distant or hybrid learner course to communicate or develop aural/oral skills. Jeff has much to share, his knowledge is just unimaginable for me right now. I know no better resource like a Jeff can we ever have in our course. Thanks to him so much, besides my less contribution but honestly I did not miss a single thread of discussion, I was a good reader this week.

Thank you Courtney, Jeff and all my Dear friends.

Regards,

Sanjiv

Week 7 Reflection

Week 7 comprises Learner Autonomy, One Computer Classroom, Mobile Assisted Language Learning and posting on Padlet.  Oh! and partner sign-up for final project peer review.

First of all, reading articles and participating in the discussion on learner autonomy, I came to understand that learner autonomy is the ability of learner to take charge of his/her own learning, it is also making learner independent and responsible of his action in order to acquire knowledge and skills. I also learned that teacher needs to foster and help children attain a stage where learner becomes autonomous. It takes a huge and heavy responsibility over a course of time for a good teacher to promote learner autonomy considering various factors. It was in everybody’s point or discussion that task like PBL will build learner autonomy.

Using one computer and mobile devices in classroom also looked much into providing better assistance and facilitation in language learning. And gathering as much information from the reading and from the discussion I realized that using one computer in a classroom is more better than having many because teacher can keep the lesson focused and manage the class more effectively. One computer also has equal strength to provide and promote independent learning and learner autonomous.  Likewise, mobile do have handy advantage over its portability to make learning easy and fast. The rich collection of apps for smartphones are so much suitable and appropriate for classroom language learning but one very important issue is on how teacher and parents grades ,selects and assess the uses of such devices which can sometime become problematic.

I also enjoyed designing tasks using one computer and mobile or using Padlet. Having done two activities, more ideas were emerging, I never realized that one computer would have so much to do in a class. From today I will make a resolution that I will never complain having just a computer in a class, I would rather explore more possibilities to utilize in my class for my students.  Regarding the Padlet, when Courtney introduced us and I was going through the description and at the back of my mind I was thinking about a tool called Wallwisher. Ops! It’s same, I did not know that Walwisher has become a Padlet (I am outdated). Felt nice to paste sticky notes like in Padlet. Many more uses can be explored on Padlet to use in schools and in classroom.

Lastly, I felt like in Election, giving away portfolio about our Project Topic to find peer partner to review our project. However, with my appeal on topic, I could woe someone (Thanks to Diana) to be my partner and I to her for reviewing our works.

I know everyone will be busy outlaying the project, I haven’t started yet. Have a school gathering/party tonight and hope my Sunday, tomorrow will be a start to scratch some points for my project.

Wish everyone good luck and enjoy the weekends.

Best!