Commencement Week

One of the thoughts that have been haunting my mind last week is the negative feeling caused by the pressure of time that makes you long for the end of a process regardless of the consequences. I am sure that many of us have had this feeling but were wise enough not to yield to it. Now that we are in the end in just a matter of hours, I realize how mistaken I was to have longed for the conclusion of such a successful and rewarding learning experience that somehow reminded me of the good old university times but with one major obvious difference which is that I have been comfortably attending the seminars from the comfort of home. It is also hard to believe that 10 weeks have been enough to change upside down the way I was regarding my role as a language teacher. I am not a digital native but I do not consider myself as a digital immigrant either since I have witnessed most of the development in the information and communication technology from the early PC (personal computer) to the advent of the Web 2.0 and how they have revolutionized educational systems in many countries. I have personally tried some of the web tools such as weblogs, wikis, online grade-books … (you name it) but I have never succeeded in adopting any of them practically mainly because the educational system itself was not that encouraging. I mean that my school was not really equipped with enough computers or internet connection neither for office use nor for the classes. On top of that, some administrators and colleagues were very critical about the use of such technology as it meant unnecessary additional workload for them in addition to the cost. All this meant that I was the odd one out in this entire situation. Therefore, the comfort of a traditional classroom situation, reminiscent of the way I myself learned, seemed to be the norm to abide by. In spite of this unfortunate situation, I kept on reading articles and reports, watching videos and attending conferences whenever possible about ICT integration in education and how students in developed countries are reaping the benefits of such investments in education. Then came this opportunity of an online E-teacher course which has opened up a new horizon for someone who has been trying to swim against the tide. Week after week, consistently and methodically, we, the participants in this and myself, were (re)trained to become the new old teachers of the 21^st century that our students are silently demanding. Thanks to this course, slowly and gradually I have managed to successfully implement some of the tech-tools with some of my students. I am delightfully witnessing these days in company of my amazing partners Alex and Zeljko how much these students are totally engaged in their learning, how much autonomy they are experiencing, how much collaboration and leadership they are using in order to achieve their educational goals. Now that the course is over, that the walls of my classroom are torn down and that my metamorphosis is complete, I rediscover a new teacher inside me with so much spare time ahead after this last week, ready to celebrate the commencement of a new period in which I am set to declare a war on the traditional systems of teaching and learning starting from my school environment reaching the educational policy-makers in the top of the educational system in my country. May God help me in this venture.

It’s hard to for me to conclude this last post without referring to all my course mates from all over the world who have been a great source of inspiration to me through their constructive comments, their insightful discussions, encouraging suggestions and recommendations throughout the entire course period.  Special thanks to Alex Duarte and her students from Portugal, Zeljko  Andrijanic and his students from Serbia who have all been awesome partners all these 10 weeks. Finally, no one of us would have achieved so much success without the expert guidance and the extraordinary devotion and attention of our dear instructor Donna Shaw. Thank you, Donna.