My trajectory so far…
I began teaching English in Japan 11 years ago as an assistant language teacher (ALT). I received my certification as a full teacher 8 years ago, and I have been teaching English (at many different levels), global studies, critical thinking (Theory of Knowledge), and, most recently, Science in English for the Super Science High School program (a kind of advanced placement program for select schools).
In that time I have been helped to implement various IT projects at three different schools. When I first began exploring the use of IT in the classroom, it was a completely new endeavor for even the most progressive schools in Japan. 8 years ago, the idea of using something as simple as PowerPoint to facilitate language learning was a completely radical idea. I helped to pioneer the implementation of smart board technology in my past 3 schools, but even now there are only a very small percentage of teachers who utilize these tools in their lessons to any extent. As a result, I have had to scale back my ambitions for evolving and modernizing my curriculum.
Goals for the future…
While change may happen slowly at an institutional level, it is not difficult to make changes in the classroom. All of our students have iPads, so it has been easy to introduce new technologies to the students. Recently, I have been using Augmented Reality and student-created greenscreen video presentations in my lessons. I have also recently begun having students record a video blog for their writing projects (to assist with pronunciation and fluency training). However, I really want to explore the possibility of flipping my classroom completely and delivering my lessons in a blended delivery format, with my class time focusing on more hands-on, collaborative and student-driven work that I can supervise and manage.
Being able to flip my classroom would be a fantastic advantage for most “native” English instructors, as the standard curriculum in Japan usually only offers 1-2 hours per week for each class. Being able to utilize 100% of my classroom time for more constructivist, or student-driven education would give me the time necessary to make this happen. My lessons would be delivered in video/presentation format, with homework being part of a blog that allows students to submit their coursework by email (or within an LMS, if that is something I can convince the administration to allow).
Specific Goals for this Course
- Prior to coming to Japan, I ran my own web consulting firm (back in the early days of the Internet!). I have extensive experience with many older (and some fossilized) technologies for web publication. I would like to update those skills to 2017 standards.
- I want to be able to design, organize, structure and deliver content material, as part of a blended delivery format curriculum.
- I want to learn about some of the best tools for instructional communication with my students (I especially want to learn how to manage a video blog for student submissions).
- I want to learn the best practices for using these tools for instructional communication.
- I want to learn about the current selection of LMS platforms that are available, and learn which are best suited to my needs (as well as how to implement them).
- Finally, I want to create a tutorial for acknowledging authorship rights and copyright for the many different forms of media that might be used in an instructional setting.