Engaging Learners...the interactive way !!

Dear Friends

We are on the threshold of week-7 and this Webskills course has become really absorbing. Those of us who are teaching have started implementing the tech-related changes in their classes. And others like me, who are off-teaching at the moment are trying to refine their Projects. Following Robert’s advice I have narrowed my focus in the Project. Now I plan to deal mainly with structuring discussion and debate units using some resources like Idea Portal.

In our enthusiasm we sometimes strive to attempt far too much at one go and don’t realize that as a result we fail to achieve the desired effect. Robert’s suggestion has helped me appreciate the importance of focusing our projects around one or two key areas which in turn ensure effective results.

I must say the Webskills course has kept me engrossed. How to engage my students and how to make my classes interactive are questions which kept returning to me repeatedly ever since I was initiated into the Learner-Centered approach a few years ago. The reading materials, Nicenet and blog postings during this week have been replete with ideas which can greatly help me to involve my students in the language learning process more easily. I wish I were teaching at present so I could try these ideas to check their efficacy and relevance for my students. The materials and the theme of Engaging students are bound to inspire teachers to try out innovations to make their classes interactive and infinitely interesting.

Some of the readings that I found brimming with practical tips are ‘How to Give Interactive Lectures, Interactive Lecture Techniques, Servicing Learning, Interactive Lectures: Summaries of 36 Formats which I believe can easily be customized and applied to both small and large classes.

I’ve used PPT in my trainings several times and usually try to make my classes interactive but I’ve never made an interactive PPT. Making one was a real challenge. It took me a while but after some effort and hit and trial experiments I finally managed to create one and hope to use it in my future training sessions.

We also had to look for a partner for our Project and I was wondering whom to approach. I got a request from Nizara which I happily accepted. As she too belongs to India, I think the collaboration would be fruitful and mutually beneficial.

Shaila