Understanding Learning Styles: A Herculean Task for Teachers

Dear Colleagues,
This week's topic is "Learning Styles" and I began to think about it the moment I began to read the references. The several types of learners on the basis of their Intelligence levels and interests based on the essay of Howard Gardner is stimulating to read. I was happy to see the categories and their explanations.
I am having the post-semester vacation now, so I could not apply this notion with my students and assess their "multiple intelligence". I can only visualize some of my students and their qualities on the basis of their past performances in curricular as well as extra-curricular activities.
Some may be active and some may be reflective, some may be extrovert and some may be introvert, some may be visual and some others may be aural or musical, like wise some may be sequential and some may be global. What I mean to say here that my advanced level learners are mostly passive, introvert and non-responsive, thinking but not taking decision type, etc.Individually, they may have personal hidden talents which I have not attempted to explore as a faculty of English in the university. In my department, I look at all my adult learners as equally capable and talented with the same level of comprehension and reception. But the response that they produce says something opposite and contradictory to my assumption.
Now the Edutopia's test will be done on each of them to assess their level of response and intelligence.
Once I use technology tools, it will be much easier for them to have self-assessment and reflection.
They may be motivated accordingly to pursue their talent and passion till they achieve success and satisfaction in their skills and abilities.
It may be easier for a teacher like me to understand their levels of intelligence, but they should simultaneously understand it along with their parents. For a teacher like me, it is a "Herculean task" definitely. I have very little contribution to make at this level when all are enrolled for master degree in English and all expect good score and grade which will help them to get a lucrative job and handsome amount of salary. All compete for the same, but a few are appointed in such posts. A lot remain jobless and unemployed, despite of degree and talent. Now technology may promote their self-motivation and learning to try other things in life and get quick success in them.I always tell my learners: "Try to be Masters of English, but Keep your Door Open for Other Things too." I know that they need job and salary in life, economic prosperity for their family and future, and they need to get them at the right time other wise they will lag behind others.
Many of the female students complete education and get married to remain within the four walls of the house without joining in any job/work.Of course, now the situation has changed a bit, bot not so optimistic.
It is very difficult to get the professionally skilled and competent English teachers in cities and towns to teach at the secondary schools and colleges, forget about the villages where there is absolutely no/little teaching taking place in India particularly. I like in the statement that says: "A Balance of the two is desirable"(Felder and Soloman) Here the term "two" stands for "activeness and being reflective", being sequential as well as global", "being musical as well as visual" and so on.
There is a proverb which says: "A jack of all trades, but master of none."
Now we require our learners to be cunning jacks rather than masters in the true sense. They may have frustrations at the end of the tunnel and we have to save them as teachers and well-wishers if we are concerned about the future situation seriously.
I became a bit extra-reflective on this issue and hope my colleagues may differ from me in many regards.
Let me see what they say.Thanks and best wishes.
Sincerely,
Mahesh     
   

Can Online Learning make One Self-dependent?

This week's topic namely "Online Learning" is an interesting one so far as the technology use is concerned for self-learning. The modern learners are equipped with so many electronic gadgets which they are fascinated to use on regular basis or daily. Why should the language teachers remain away from all these aids and tools?This is one side of the picture, but the other side is the awareness of its merits and demerits before making the use of it as a habit.
The teachers have to read many reference books on a subject to deliver lectures and explain the points related to the topic. The learners can always depend on the teachers for explanation and queries.Now due to the advent of technology and online materials, the learners do not feel like reading books-either texts or reference books-unless badly needed. The online resources and tools should be used as supplementary materials, not as substitutes of teachers or books written by scholars and authors, after a long research on the subject.
The modern readers, when given a library assignment or task, feel it as an easy task to complete without lot of effort or hard work. They simply click on the mouse and find everything on the screen of their computers provided they have access to internet and long time to spend and sit before the monitor. The question is not raised how far the online materials are authentic and useful for the specific learners. Who is the authority to say so?Everything is available online to everyone.Who are the stake-holders-ALL?Who does bother to acknowledge the source/resource nowadays?
In this context, I just want to make a plea to my fellow teachers.Let us acknowledge the contribution of the great scholars in the field of knowledge and philosophy. Let us go back to the library personally and search and research sources. Let us check and go through the necessary relevant documents available in the libraries, before deciding about the authenticity of the materials available merely on the web/online.
Our learners should be allowed to use the online resources in a limited manner just to find out the rare articles or books/review essays, interviews, that they may not find locally. They should think independently, work in an innovative manner and creatively. Then only, they can become "autonomous and self-dependent" personalities in future.
I do not discard the use of technology at all nor disapprove the availability of online tools in the market. I, at the same time, wish that there should be reading of books in the library, an independent thinking and then creating something as an original end product, not merely a copy of something else, something that is machine-produced and duplicate of the original or the first copy.
In my post in the Nicenet discussion, I have stated something very positive about the merits of the online resources. I personally began to use computer and internet-based emails when my younger brothers went abroad, just to have a regular contact with them in the fastest and cheapest possible way. However, soon it became a hobby in me to use computer regularly and check mails too. As an extension of this habit, I applied for a scholarship to visit Canada and was selected for two internal summer seminars in three different Canadian universities. I would not have got this opportunity, if I would have remained ignorant of the computer and internet. I was awarded the present E-Teacher scholarship by the US Embassy in India and selected as a participant of this online course on "Building Web skills" only due to my regular practice of being online at least for an hour just to keep myself abreast of the world around me as an elite individual.
The learners should be exposed to all these advantages and disadvantages before they are provided with the online tools for use.
I am now using computer and internet for my personal research and teaching reference. I am using Yahoo/Rediff/Google for emails, Facebook for personal/social networking, wikipedia, ipl, google, youtube, etc. for reference tools and materials. Now I knew about the Nicenet, Delicious, Anvill, 4teachers, CLEAR, etc. as a course participant. A lot of web-based tools are available to modern teachers for creating classes, work-sheets, puzzles, games, flash cards and exercises. Easily the teachers can use all these freely available online templates and design their classroom lessons for future reference.  
Yes, I know that if we do not give them the tools, they would get them from the local shops and use anyhow. So a "BIG YES" for online tools in enhancing learning and making our learners autonomous. The result is positive and encouraging, but the disadvantages are to be recognized too. We are gradually becoming "VIRTUAL" individuals/Images spending long hours before computers and remaining online, and finding less time for our nears and dears. We believe in "online social networking" whereas our local societies are collapsing periodically. We remain disconnected as living human beings in the surrounding, devoid of human emotions and feelings. We send e-greeting cards and other e-documents to share with others who are in touch with us virtually, but do not remember them who contributed a lot for our development. This is the new way of life and we have to accept it simultaneously. Should I blame the computer and the Internet for taking away all these personal emotions from me, because it demands a lot of time and partnership?
All my colleagues have to reflect on this issue and give comments to this post.
Best wishes and regards.
Sincerely,
Virtual Mahesh    
   

Learner Autonomy: A Bird-in-the-Bush

The seventh week has to deal with an important topic namely "learner autonomy". I went through the suggested reading list recommended by Courtney. I agree with Samuel who states in his article that Learner Autonomy is like "a bird-in-the-bush", not a bird-in-the-hand. In my initial post in the Nicenet site, I have considered it as an "illusive reality". I also gave my arguments in favor of my point. I have looked at the Indian situation in my post. Now I elaborate on the issue below:
The learners want to be "autonomous" always, but they do not become so in the social and cultural settings prevailing around them.The society is controlled by a power-structure and someone becomes the authority in all matters including education. When one is the ruler, the others have to be the ruled. If the teacher is the authority to control the teaching context, the content and the method without taking the learners into confidence, then we can not expect to have learner autonomy. The learners are the true stake-holders, but they have very little to say in the making of the syllabus, in the selection of content, in the method of teaching/learning and in the procedure of evaluation. The teachers do not have the autonomy in all matters, barring a few who are at the helms of affairs. The system is like the Big Brother's authoritarianism, which is controlled by the Inner Party as we find in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four. A few powerful beings decide for the mass and all have to abide by theses rules in a prescriptive manner.Where is the true liberty/ freedom to have self-directed learning and self-assessment as advocated by all modern thinkers?
Autonomy is not a product, but a process. It is not a static condition, but "a dynamic process amenable to educational interventions"(Candy 1991). Ideologically, we all believe in it, but we do not practice it in reality.
The syllabus is prepared well in advance, the content is also selected and prescribed, the teacher behaves under certain constraints-time-constraint, content-related and institutional-related constraints. The learners are not properly motivated to take self-directed decisions in terms of planning, monitoring, implementing and evaluating. The teacher-centered class room can not be the learner-centered class room so easily.
The teacher has to finish his syllabus during the stipulated time, evaluate the performance of learners and give them degrees which promotes them to the next stage. While he is busy in finishing these institutional requirements on paper, he stops thinking in an innovative way  for the autonomy of his learners. The learner-centric class room is a proposition, not a reality even today due to various factors. Hence, the learner autonomy is not likely to happen as a matter of fact. I also agree that the teacher's role is very important in a changing scenario.His teaching practices are flexible; he can decide his content/lessons and activities in the class room. But this time-bound exercise in a limited way under the supervision of teachers does not make learners "autonomous" in a true sense. They have to be trained from early childhood days by parents initially and then by teachers as adults to be autonomous-think and act independently about their learning and bright future.
All come to educational institutions to get proper education and acquire knowledge, but all are not properly trained or motivated to be autonomous thinkers or doers. All can not be promoted with equal grades and all can not be guaranteed with white-collar jobs and lucrative salary after completion of education. Many have to be entrepreneurs generating their own salary from business and also recruitment for others in their farms.
When young persons start acting towards that goal in a big way, we can say that we have made our learners "autonomous" practically.
Hope my post would invite many comments from my colleagues.
Sincerely,
Mahesh Dey     

From Chalk-and-Talk to Interactive PPT: Changes and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,
Hope all must be in good spirit.
It is really unbelievable that we have completed 6 weeks in the course on Web-skills.
Courtney is opening her lessons one by one and putting us into new areas of teaching.
This week's topics have allowed us a little time to breathe and reflect on our project.
I was a bit exhausted in my examination assignments. Made myself free and I thus began to dream about my blog-post. Here is my new post:
I have used the flashback technique to narrate my experience as an English teacher. I went back to my post-MA days, when I was too young to handle a large class of 150 students-really notorious and unruly studying commerce and having little interest in English language.
I completed my MA with English literature, as a fresh university graduate with a lot of dreams in eyes to achieve higher goals and taste SUCCESS in all possible ways.I got the first job in a degree college in my home-district of Odisha, the eastern state of India on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. I joined as the eleventh and the most-junior colleague in the English department of the college.
I was asked by my Head of the department to teach English language to the commerce graduates.
I entered into the classroom and found 150 students sitting before me in the gallery sitting with blank eyes and no texts. They looked at me with excitement but I could see a feeling of mischief in their eyes too.
It was a mixed feeling and I began to deliver lecture with the two basic aids: chalk and a huge black-board on the wall. The method of teaching is popularly called "chalk-and-talk" method, or more commonly, the lecture method.I was absolutely made assured soon that my lecture is going out of the students' mind.I was feeling helpless and searching for new ways how to deal with them and my core subject in order to make myself a successful teacher and popular too among my young undergraduates.
Now after two decades, I use laptop, projector, white-board and marker-pen for imparting lessons.
The number of students remains the same in India, but the multimedia has been a blessing in disguise to all teachers.
The twenty-first century teachers have learnt how to make use of the modern gadgets inside the classroom.
The freely available/downloadable materials on the WWW and the back-up facilities in the class make the learning of modern students interesting as well as enlightening.
The word "Infotainment" as a blend of two words-Information and Entertainment-has become the KEY to Success for all teachers including the English language ones also. Now I do a little search on the Net and prepare some power-point presentations before entering into the class. The students expect some audio-visual presentations from us and I try to fulfill their desire. The class-room becomes an interactive one in order to prove itself as a language class-room, unlike the traditional class-room of my teachers who used to lecture a lot and we were left as passive listeners and note-takers without any chance to ask or respond in the class room. The teachers were respected as learned professors, not to be asked anything by us. What a change and what a new scenario after a gap of twenty years!
Hence I have become a university professor teaching post-graduates as a teacher-trainer using multimedia, not merely chalk and mouth/self-voice only.
Hope all my colleagues would give their comments on this post of mine, though a bit autobiographical.
However, the topic is relevant and forces us to ponder over and find out the solutions along with an awareness of challenges.
Best wishes to all, because in India we have now a festive season, namely Happy Deepawali, when we light the lamps and burn fire-crackers to drive away darkness, evil forces and bring success as well as happiness.          
Sincerely,
Mahesh    

Technology Based Tools as Alternative Assessment

This week has been an enriching one for me despite my busy schedule as center superintendent for university examinations.
I first looked at the resources and sites for a bird's eye-view of the topics to be covered.
There are three main topics, namely Project Based Learning(PBL), WebQuest, and Rubric/Alternative Assessment.
I went through the following web-based documents:

1. CAL: Digests: Practical Ideas On Alternative Assessment For ESL Students
2. Project-Based Learning | Edutopia
3. Alternative Assessment
4. ATESL - Project-based ESL Education: Promoting Language and Content Learning

Then I thought of following the instructions regarding how to create the webquest and rubric.
I registered myself in the following sites:
1. www.rubistar.4teachers.org
2. www. zunal.com
I planned my lesson and webquest in the websites for public use and reference.

I have learnt many new things this week and realized how technology can help a language teacher in modern times.
The language teacher can design lessons; he can inquire, investigate and research resources available on the Net; and he can also find tools for alternative assessment by making a rubric online.
Such an enriching experience: "less teaching and more learning" really with a variety of resources available online.
I have not explored all the prescribed sites and documents for this week due to my local official assignments.
Hope I will make a detailed survey of all soon after my official works are over.
Then only I can make myself a digital language teacher for the sake my learners and future students of the present generation.
Thanks Courtney for all these new elements as a part of this course.
Hope some of my colleagues would give their valuable comments for my improvement as a teacher of ESL.
Sincerely,
Mahesh