Tools of the Trade

"What specific technologies and/or ideas (if any) that you learned in this course are you going to use or using currently for your own teaching purposes?"

Before answering this question I would like to thank the AUA for having this kind of course in the MATEFL curriculum. This course is absolutely essential and one of the most beneficial courses among many others that MATEFL students should take. The goals and  objectives were extremely relevant to the teaching profession and drastically changed my perspectives on the role of teaching. The course provided a depth of useful information on latest technological tools that can be implemented in education. 

Everything that I learnt is definitely going to be useful at some point not only in work related situations but also in life generally speaking. More specifically, I would like to mention that blogging was one of the technological tools that has a great value for XXI century learners and somewhat doable in Armenian context. Why blogging? Because it provides students an excellent opportunity to reflect on their work and share their thoughts, ideas and feelings in an open forum. Some of the instructional benefits of blogging is the feedback from peers and teachers, which is more informal and less stressful. It gives confidence and sense of security to  more shy, hesitant students enhancing their interactive skills and encouraging participation in a more comfortable learning environment. " The Blog is a vehicle to ensure that everyone is heard and is a valued member of the learning community" (Deubel, 2007  ). 

In addition to this it will make my students be more creative, resourceful, curious about learning and discovering more things that  are out there in the Net, last but not least will develop collaborative skills. As my research is on this topic and I have read many articles about it, I have a better idea on how this will work in my class, that is why my choice of blogging as a technological tool seems to be reasonable at this point. In addition to the benefits mentioned above, blogs are also  user friendly, at  a zero cost, no need to install anything. 

However,  this is not the end, I am going to go back and make more research on things we have covered in class and try out all the sources, links in order to get more comfortable implementing those tools in my class.

The overall course outcome aligned with what I envisioned learning about technological tools in education, and it was very beneficial. Thank you Dr. Madyarov for the outstanding work , patience and support you have given me throughout this semester.