Week 2- Proof of the pudding

1.I participated in the weekly discussion about web searching: After being fed with the amazing article “Choose the best search for your information need “ I laid my hands on different search engines, I analyzed them in terms of use in my own classes and shared their advantages and disadvantages in posts on Nicenet that included the web page (with URL), the search term, and my recommendation about the search engine.

I have learned that many, but not all search engines, allow me to use so-called Boolean operators to refine my search. I now know more than I ever knew about indexing, query refining and relevancy ranking.I know that :
-by putting double quotes around a set of words, I am telling the search engine to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change.
-attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that I do not want pages that contain this word to appear in my results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space.
-if I include * within a query, it tells the search engine to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches
-by attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), I am telling the search engine to match that word precisely as I typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.

Dr. Bernie Dodge, co-developer of the WebQuest concept, suggests using NETS as an acronym for remembering a way to improve your search results. The NETS acronym comes from his suggestion to: "start narrow, use exact phrases, trim the URL, and seek similar pages."
I have at this point another useful piece of information to share with my children .


2. Another difficult, at first , task seemed to be the ABCD model for behavioural objectives. But all things are difficult before they are easy. After reading about the ABCD model, I shared some behavioural objectives for a class on Nicenet platform.


Clearly defined learning objectives are useful for instructors,and students • By clearly stating the results we want the learners to accomplish, we can identify whether students have gained the appropriate skills and knowledge. Because objectives should be stated before learners begin their instructional materials, they provide students the means to organize their efforts toward accomplishing the desired behaviors.

Looking back on my lesson plans I have found out that I generally used goals instead of objectives in my classes despite the fact that I used to write them on the board at the beginning of each class . My old “objectives “ were broad , general intentions, sometimes intangible, abstract .

From now on I will remember the ABCD's of writing clear learning objectives every single time when I write down one. Action verbs will help me to align objectives to an observable behaviour and it will be effective in making them clearer for my students. Even better, though, is to think at higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. At the higher levels, I can get the students to analyze a particular cause critically or provide reasons why something occurred. I have to make them do some evaluation or some synthesis using higher-order thinking. The more I can move my learning objectives beyond the lowest levels of thinking, the more I will improve my courses .

3. I(Audience) analyzed the students in 6th F (Condition) and described them (Behavior) in one post on Nicenet (Degree).

The in depth description of 6th F made me think about them more carefully . I realized that I should use peer help and teaching so that better students can help weaker ones. It came to my mind that some might suffer from the fear of making mistakes and I should allow them to speak in a controlled way first or get them act out more dialogues or even give them the chance to be part of the English plays that we usually prepare as extra-curricular activities in order to help them improve their self-esteem and self-confidence.