CULTIVATING KNOWLEDGE

In this post, you will read answers based on the questions about a couple of topics (Blending Language Instruction, Online Feedback Practice, Online Formative Assessment, Innovative Digital Tools for Four Language Skills )

Q1.  How did the course, weekly readings and discussions contribute to your digital teacher identity?

First of all, without talking about how this course contributed to my digital teacher identity, I would like to talk about what “digital teacher identity” encompasses and means to me. Being a digital teacher is not new in my student life. There were lessons we took as part of the transition to digital education both when I was a high school student and in previous years. That is why I cannot say that everything is new to me when I talk about this course. But in recent years, with the influence of Covid-19, digital education and being a digital teacher have gained a whole new meaning in our lives. Combined with this situation, the content of the course became completely interesting. Because we did not just predict/imagine that digital learning would be in our lives “sometime in the future”, we lived and needed it in real-time. It was inevitable for us, ELT students, to create a digital teacher identity for ourselves for four years, thanks to the progressive vision of our teachers, whom we trained during these four years, about digitalization and use of technology, as well as the use of technology that foreign language education needs.

Speaking specifically for this course, we had the opportunity to discuss a lot of things on many topics. For the lesson, it was a new experience for me to do this fully actively so that we can monitor ourselves rather than passively. Although it was very difficult at first because I was not used to it, as time passed and I got used to seeing myself on the screen, I can say that this situation has a lot of benefits for me. It is possible to see that even before we start talking about the content of the course, it makes a lot of contributions even from the way it is taught. Since screen recording is not taken in both internships and private lessons, we have no choice but to receive feedback from other people. however, making videos regularly every week and being able to express and discuss a subject significantly increases one’s awareness of oneself, movements and facial expressions, and speech. This was the most important for me among other information. Because all the subjects we covered in the lesson were to some extent easily learned from the internet and books. But this weekly video-discussion experience was the most important for me.

As for the contribution of the course content, I can count many points. Being informed about the details, from giving online feedback to how to apply formative assessment, was enough to fill the bottom of my digital teacher identity and take me one step further. As I discover and learn the details, I feel more “knowledgeable and confident” than before.

This course played a big role in the development of my digital teacher identity with being aware of students’ needs and learning, being able to support them in distance lessons, making the lesson more interactive by using different digital tools and using different activities,

In addition to that, it was a pretty good and eye-opening experience to learn about different training methods, some of which I learned and still don’t know all. Because as you learn and gain knowledge, you can look more realistically and critically towards the environment and the situation you are in. And this critical view directs the person to development when the time comes.

To summarize, this course, the way it was taught, and its content provided me with both personal development and, in connection with this, an improvement in my digital teacher identity and a stronger stance as a teacher in the digital age. In digital education, I need to take a broader view of the personal situations of students and be more understanding, create space for them, how I can assess different skills and how I can give feedback to them as a result of these assessments, how I should guide them to realize their learning and many other things that contribute to my understanding of digital education. It enabled me to enrich my teaching even more by adding it to its content.

Q2.  How did you (if you did) connect these to your practicum experience? and/or how do you plan to connect these to your future teaching experiences?

All the courses I took in the last year of my university education were interconnected. If I had made a mind map, you could see that there is something that connects them all. Before this course and other courses, it was a question mark for me to be able to communicate with and assess students during or outside the classroom. Of course, I still do not feel good enough about this. There is always a higher step to climb. But at least I feel more comfortable knowing about the subject.

I did not have the opportunity to apply most of what I learned because I was expected to do certain things with limits in the internship course and the students did not attend the classes even enough that I could give them feedback in some way. Therefore, no matter how much I tried different tools, if I expected definite participation from them when appropriate, it did not happen. They were able to make the screen a barrier, which was supposed to be a means of communication between the students and the teacher, so I could not reach them. And there were many things that I wanted to show them but could not because I could not reach them. As I mentioned before, I was very inadequate in terms of feedback because they did not give me a response that could give feedback. Except for small feedbacks when appropriate, there were no feedback opportunities that would enable the development of the students. This situation was quite disappointing for me, who considers feedback and monitoring as one of the most important factors in a person’s development. For example, when I wanted to assess the writing, no one produced anything about it, and I had to continue before I could assess it.

When it comes to how I will use all this information in my future teaching life, as I mentioned before, I want to make things that I did not practice/experience during my internship a part of my teaching life. Because interaction with the student, giving feedback, providing a stress-free space for them to express themselves, and supporting and helping their development and progress in their learning are some of my greatest and most valuable norms as a teacher both in face-to-face education and digitally. Including dozens of small details like these in my teaching style and understanding by constantly improving and searching for the better makes me a more productive and job-loving individual a teacher, it also plays a constructive role in my relations with my students because I can communicate in a healthy way and reduces my stress because I can do my job as it is I believe. In the digital world, we can fall behind very quickly and become rusty. This digitality – especially having a teacher identity in digital – brings with it the necessity of constantly discovering new methods. Therefore, even if the situation of continuous improvement and progress is somewhat difficult, this can be achieved when your moral values ​​as a teacher are always to transfer the best to the students. I aim to present all this and more to students in the best and most efficient way in the digital environment for their education.