Week seven - Leaner autonomy and technology-enhanced lessons

Transforming our students into autonomous learners is a continuous process which requires perpetual efforts, both from the teachers and students’ side, accompanying these with the development of various skills that contribute to learners becoming self-critical and aware of their learning, thus giving them opportunities to improve themselves.

As Dimitrios Thanasoulas, author of “What is Learner Autonomy and How Can it Be Fostered?” states in his article (http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html) there are many attributes that characterize an autonomous learner and which have to be taken into account when fostering learner autonomy. Some of these attributes include the awareness of students towards their learning styles and strategies, being active while working on different tasks, being motivated, addressing learner’s specific needs, etc.

Technology can be used as an extremely appealing and attractive tool to provide students with limitless opportunity in becoming autonomous learners. Having started to implement the technological related change in my classroom, this week I had the chance to experience on of the most hectic, but rewarding days in school. In order to practice writing a paragraph, students used laptops writing on Microsoft Word Documents and using Edmodo to upload their files. In comparison to our typical writing lessons I noticed various differences, such as:

- The students were much more excited and motivated to work on the task, therefore, they used their time more efficiently and were very eager to work on the task;

- They were able to track their progress and autocorrect their spelling mistakes using ‘spelling and grammar’ option in Microsoft Word, thus becoming more aware of spelling rules and their writing habits;

- It was very useful for students that they had already planned the key information for their paragraph, through a graphic organizer and illustrations;

-     - Once a student was done working on their assignment they were willing to help others in writing and using the technological tools;

Even though the students need time to get acquainted with using technology for educational purposes, their motivation and interest are key factors that will drive their learning process.

Next time during our technological-enhanced lesson, the students will be working in groups and will create online invitation cards for their thematic party, which they have planned beforehand.

Feeling motivated!

Krenare