Week: 1- Reflections: Week of Trial and Error, Week of Sadness and Happiness, Week of the Entrance to the New World

Hi everybody!
I would like to share you all about how I spent this week. No doubt, I was very curious about the course, class, reading materials and the tasks that I had to do since the time I was selected for this course. I became very happy when I was sent an e-mail by Donna, our respected teacher. It was shortly before the course began, Danna sent me an e-mail for encouraging me to live with the computer and be familiar with the computer terminologies related to online education. The course was formally started on the 20th June. As you all have been sent, Donna sent me some tasks that I had to complete this week. She clearly sent me the instructions for doing each and every task. The main tasks for this week were: creating a Google account, creating a Nicenet account and joining in the nicenet class, creating an academic blog and commenting and preparing the ground rules and rubrics for the academic discussion.
For doing these tasks, I spent much time with my computer. I e-mailed my teacher Donna a number of times because I was not good at computer use and not familiar with these programs. I remembered the learning theorist Throndike and his learning theory trial and error. I followed the same theory for carrying out most of the tasks. Very interesting thing I want to share here with you is that I posted mistakenly to Last year group. Donna kindly informed me and I came to my own group. I spent more time for preparing an academic blog. I have already posted my experience of preparing a blog. So in general, I have perceived this week as the week of trial and error.
This week for me is the mixture of sadness and happiness. I became sad time and again when I failed to do the tasks I have been appointed. And I became happy when I would get little success on doing that task. There would not be complete sadness when I was doing the task because there would be some hope. And there wouldn’t be complete happiness because there would remain some confusion after the little success on each task. I realized both happiness and sadness are the relative concepts that everyone has to experience.
This week for me is the week of the entrance to the new world. Truly speaking, firstly, it is the entrance to the new world for me in that I have got a chance to enter the online course which is the new trend of world education and I had never got the opportunity like this. Secondly I have entered the platform where I can share the ideas, feelings and experience with the teachers and friends who have same profession, interests and desires. Thirdly and finally, this is the entrance for me to bring changes in my classroom performance. Teaching without computer and other modern technologies becomes passive and unfruitful. This is the conclusion I come up with at the end of this week.


Thank You
Kamal

Hi Everybody

Learning is a kind of passion. There is a thirst when there is a passion for something. And truly speaking, I have a thirst for learning. I have just entered into the blog for learning. This is a very special platform for us for sharing our ideas and quenching our thirst.Our teachers are supporting us enthusiastically and our responsibility is to heighten their enthusiasm showing our commitment in learning through webskills.
So far I know, teaching language using modern technology is a must for this twenty-first century. Our learners of any corner of the world listen to English through cell phones, television, computer and other digital tools. Think, what happens, if we do not use such modern technology in our class and teach only with chalk and board? So, we have to grab this opportunity and learn more and more about the use of digital tools in our class.

Reflection of the first week tasks: (6/25/2011)
Regarding the tasks that I had to complete this week, I got unforgettable experience. Really I was not so familiar with some of these tasks. Firstly, I created my own Google account. For that I totally followed the instructions that Donna had sent me. Then I created my nice net account.
I had already got the class key so used it and joined in a class. In the beginning I faced a number of problem but Later I got a success. I went through the messages that out teacher Donna and my e- friends wrote. Then had to create my academic blog. In the beginning I thought it was a simple task but when I started to do it I knew the reality. That time I realized how difficult to learn something. I tried for many times but I failed. I read the instructions that Donna sent us thoroughly and tried but I couldn't. This time I realized how difficult it was to bring the theoretical knowledge into practice. I wrote Donna when I faced the problems. She kindly helped me. I tried and tried and nearly I was hopeless. I again read the steps and the instructions I got from our teacher Donna. I listed out the steps into my copy and did as it was instructed. This time I got success. I knew this when Donna wrote me:

Hi Kamal,

This is a great blog. I love the photo of your hometown. It's beautiful.

Donna
I got excited seeing the very encouraging remarks from my respected teacher, Donna. I at once spoke, "Thank you Donna...". I shared it with my lovely wife. I am still in confusion whether my blog is visible to all my teachers and e-friends or not. If not please send me I am learning and it is my first phase in this field.
I have some more tasks for doing this week and the week is about over. I just went through the ground rules for discussion and rubrics. The stated rules are really nice and I agree with them. I have already sent the comment on it but still I am not sure whether I am doing systematically or not. I am going through the messages and post that friends and teachers have posted. Really I need your help. I think this may be the motto of our course Learning through webskills.
Thank You.