Poster

 In schools nowadays, especially after the online learning process, we are facing communication and language skills. We can see that students are very shy and sometimes they are afraid of talking and sharing their ideas in class in front of their classmates and teacher.

To limit this problem and allow students to be highly engaged in order to achieve effective learning, I made this poster under the title "Bridge Action Plan". This poster involves the problem we are facing, what to achieve and how we will achieve including a prepared action plan and timeline.

Note: Click on the yellow statement to reach the poster link .

PollEverywhere

 PollEverywhere is one of the most useful tools that I use during online Lecturing

Here is a tutorial video of how to use it to do a word cloud 

Gamification and Education

 

Gamification shifted education from a boring process into a very enjoyable one. Students after integrating games into their classes seem to be very focused and engaged during lectures.

The webinar talks about different games that can be easily used and practiced by students.

 World cup game

This game is made using Powerpoint.

You divide your class into 2 teams. (all teams that participated in the world cup are available)

You click on a number, and get a question, you answer by choosing the correct answer

If the answer is correctà you see a ball entering the goalà 1 point

If not correct àyou hear a whistle  à no point

It makes class more enjoyable and fun, attracts student’s attention, make them engaged and crave learning.

This game in my opinion can be more useful if it is followed by rewards for the winning team.

Time to Climb- By Nearpod (40 participants maximum)

- You choose a theme and a character.

- You start the game, there is a timer 3 sec before each question.

- You have to answer the first question specific time then move to the another and so on.

It is very useful, teachers track their student’s answers on the screen and announce the winner at the end. The first 3 winners got fireworks on their screen

 

Escape Room – Genially

Genially is an amazing platform with activities and quizzes.

You can go to genially à gamification à escape room

It contains different kinds of games, flipcards, spin the wheel and many others.

There are games with specific content that are ready to use and you have the option to customize your own by choosing the template of the page and changing the questions to fit your lesson.

This is an amazing game. It is played by having limited time to find cues in order to escape the room. Once you escape you enter another room and so on until you are free

• In addition to these games there are many others that are very helpful and easy to use in classes which facilitates teachers and students' lives. 
• Example: Puzzles, Word guess, Quizlet,etc...

Tools That Can Be Used In Online Assessment

 During online learning, we figured out many online assessment tools to make learning beneficial. 

These tools are so helpful and easy to use by students that age from 10 years and above.

Some of the tools that I used during my classes: 

Exit Slip : it is used for formative and quick assessment, where students answer the questions and teachers receive them quickly.

PollEverywhere : This is the best application to be used for word clouds, brainstorming, choosing the correct answer and many others. It is very useful and students like it

Google forms : I used google forms for summative assessment, exams and quizzes at the end of each chapter. You can add to the google form all types of questions for example: multiple choice, short answer, choose the correct answer, tables.. and you can add videos, pictures, graphs and experiments . And the most important thing is that you can divide your sections on your own in a very organized way.

Padlet : I use Padlet during my lessons before moving from one idea to another to make sure they get it. I ask my students to write down what they have understood and I receive their answers so I can move forward by the explanation.

Online applications and websites that help in assessment can not be counted. You can't blame technology if you are not able to assess your students online. Educate yourself, there are plenty of options that you can use making your teaching journey fruitful and beneficial.

Online Learning Challenges

 Online teaching was the best option to proceed in the learning process during the Covid pandemic. Although it was fruitful, we can never forget the obstacles we faced especially in Lebanon where we did not even know about online learning nor practiced it before.

- Internet connection was and still the major problem faced by online teaching. It takes ages to open a meeting or turn on cameras and microphones due to the poor connection. Many students have lost exams and was obliged to take it twice because of internet cut while solving the problems. 

- Some students had no devices and were not able to buy due to the economical crisis that stroke during the pandemic. 

- Many teachers also had no backgrounds in the use of technology and learning applications such as zoom, google docs and others. 

Everything at the beginning seems to be hard but when you are consistent and dedicated to achieve your work you can learn and grow skills by practicing and applying. Lebanese teachers gained so many teaching skills during this period of time that allowed them to see progress in their jobs and help their students reach the learning objectives smoothly.

Integrating Technology into Teaching

 Teaching with no technology is considered old fashioned these days. Due to the fast development of technology and the way it is facilitating everyone's life, it should be included in teaching for the benefit of both teachers and students. It is much easier for teachers to prepare learning activities and lesson plans using technology. In addition, they can now save their work forever and get back to it whenever they need so they do not have to search for long, meaning that it helps save their work and time. Technology can be used to replace lab experiments and practical work through applications and websites that can be reached and used by everyone. On the other hand, as we all know, each of our students have their own devices and are able to use them in any thing relatable to education. Children are attracted and more likely to get engaged in classes and lessons explained via technology. Human beings in nature move forward through the easy path, and technology is here to facilitate our lives and make learning and teaching more fun so why not integrate it in education?

Reflection about EDUC561

 EDU561 is an interesting course where you learn many technological skills. These skills make teachers' lives much more easier and organized than before. Your work will be saved forever and you can go back to it whenever you want without consuming your time and this makes the course beneficial and useful in everyone's teaching journey.

The only thing I  wish it is different in this class is being on campus. I think it will be more effective if we were learning online on our own devices to practice everything on the way we like at home, gaining the same information.