Week 8: Hard Work and Challenging Experience

             ANVILL

             The most exciting event of the week was the webinar with Mr. Magoto. This was the first time I was taking part in a webinar at all, not to mention its international participants. Though it started rather late, at midnight (Kazakhstany time) I was not going to miss this wonderful opportunity to hear my ‘webmates’ and instructors, and to know more about ANVILL, and to practice it. I did not see much of my ‘webmates’, but saw Jodi and Sherie instead. And I saw small pics of Ludmila and Salam, but Hassan’s pic was too small for me to see him.  Still the experience was a pleasure. And I ‘met’ a girl from Kazakhstan, also Yuliya. Unfortunately, she left far too quick after the webinar, and I had no chance to ask about her e-mail.

ANVILL was a great fun, especially the chatting part, which was funny due to the fact that I had to do several things simultaneously, and I did not want to miss both. It turned out I have already forgotten what a thrill it is to feel and act a student! And the synchronous way of communication feels much better, that’s great that Oregon university provided us with this wonderful opportunity!!!

              I liked all the tools ANVILL can offer (webinar opportunity most of all so far), because it has the main thing the education in our country badly needs, and what one learns a foreign language for  – that is communication. There was a slide in Jeff’s presentation about the things that do not work very well so far. Among those there was mentioned Livechat, because it is used less often than other ANVILL tools, but I liked this Livechat a lot, because I have small groups, not more than 12 people, and usually divide them still into smaller groups to fulfill some tasks. But then, I think, I will try to find the ways of using all ANVILL facilities, though it might be rather difficult in my situation due to poor equipment both at the university and at students’ homes.  But, as Ludmila (?) said last week, where there is a will, there is a way!

           Discussion

           The discussion thread with Jeff Magoto was also a great part of the week, as he was very clear and supportive, and being asked a question, he would explain thoroughly. I was grateful to Jeff, because before the webinar started, I already knew what ANVILL was and could log in and try something, and then ask questions again.

           Task

           All the tools I got the links to this week were new to me, I will try all of them after the project is over. For the week task I chose Potatoes. I think it is very teacher-friendly and time consuming.

            Project Draft

           I know this from my teaching practice that some people dislike when someone but teacher reads through their works and, which is more, makes comments. Personally, I treat such opportunities as lucky chances. I am much grateful to both Hind and Nur for their time and effort with peering my project draft. It is good that someone can look through a project with a fresh eye and gives his/her comments so that I could improve my work. After reading other projects I could see my own draft in a new light as well. So many ideas, and so little time left, taking into consideration that the practical side of my project takes much of my time.