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Professional Seminar Master of Teaching Program |
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STUDENT FEEDBACK |
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Professional Seminar Master of Teaching Program |
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STUDENT FEEDBACK |
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| What I liked most about the teleconferencing
was that we could ask questions and get answers right away. I wish
that I had prepared more questions but I also would have felt shy about
asking some of them. There really needs to be a dialogue for real understanding
to take place and I think if we did the teleconferencing again everyone
would relax a bit and we could learn more about each other.
Thanks for the great experience Michele!
I have finally taken the time to write about how
much I enjoyed the conference with the Australian students. I felt
their group had a great presentation. Although they mentioned being
nervous, it did not appear this way. All the items were great and I particularly
enjoyed looking at the emu egg. It was also helpful to find out the
uses of eucalyptus oil and lanolin. I think I can speak for our group in
saying that it was a worthwhile, fun (and a good learning) experience.
Hope we can do it again!
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I thought the videoconference on Monday was
fantastic! I thought it was a terrific way to learn about Australian culture
- I had no idea that an emu nest has 12-14 eggs or that the male emu sits
on the eggs until they hatch! I thought that making the decongestant was
a great activity. As well, asking you to bring the bread was good way to
share the contents of the Australian culture box with our entire class.
I especially enjoyed learning what the song Waltzing Matilda was about
and hearing them sing it. I liked hearing the Australian accents and asking
the questions like what time is it? are you wearing uniforms? do you have
a Chinese restaurant in Ararat? that weren't planned.
I have shared my thoughts about the video conference with my friends who are in the MT Program, but not in our prosem group. As well, I told my partner teachers about it on Tuesday. If possible, it is something I would love to incorporate into my own teaching. I have only ever used teleconferencing for business purposes and I have learned from this experience that it is a terrific tool for teaching and learning. Thank you for taking the time to organize the videoconference.
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| I have to say, I was very excited about this activity.
I am a technology buff and am always happy to discover new and interesting
ways for technology to enhance our lives and jobs. It was a real
learning experience for me. I had suspected that the quality of the
transmission might be bad, but all in all it was quite good. The
only problem appeared to have been lighting, but there are limitations
with technology sometimes which are difficult to get around. I would
be very interested in knowing the costs of this endeavour and the logistics
behind it. Was it done through the Internet, or through a phone line?
Could it have been done more cheaply through the Internet? I have
used NetMeeting to talk to friends in the US before - could a similar method
have been used to keep costs to a minimum?
As for the conference itself, I thought it went very well. My only wish was that our group had provided something for them to actually put their hands on at that moment, rather than the CDRom and the Bear Song tape. I would have liked to have had their reaction right away. I can only hope that they got a kick out of the Canadian stereotypes that we sent them. Perhaps we'll get more feedback on that when we email in the future. Having been to Australia myself before, I knew about some
of the things that they were telling us about, but I also learned a great
deal - and I love to learn about other cultures. It was especially
interesting to see how the Aussies presented THEMSELVES, rather than how
the world sees them. I was
I was disappointed by the attendance of our class. This was a unique opportunity and I think the people who were absent really missed out on something special. Thanks for arranging this for us. I found it most rewarding... well, except for the Vegemite!!!! :) |
Dear Jo & Students,
G'day! This is Gregor with a few random thoughts.....
Please explain a few bits of Australian "lingo" for me: Are all candies/sweets called "lollies?" When you "stuff" something, does that mean that you don't do it well? ("Mess up? Screw up?") Your comments are all very much appreciated. What surprised me was how many of you said that they were very nervous before speaking to us. That's not something that occurred to us at all - you didn't seem to be nervous on camera. Regarding grizzly bears, we were going to use a friend's cabin this weekend that is located in Canmore, Alberta. This is a small community located about one hour's drive West of Calgary. (It was the official site of the Nordic/Cross-Country Skiing events during the 1988 Winter Olympics.) BUT.....we decided to cancel because of the large number of grizzly bears and black bears that are currently feeding in the area. The bears are fattening themselves up for their winter hibernation and are eating food in huge amounts - anything that they can get their paws on is fair game. Consequently, the town residents have been warned to only travel in their vehicles or in large groups, because the bears are VERY agressive right now. Soon enough, winter will come and the bears will find a place to hibernate and the problem will literally be "put to bed!" It really was too bad about the Herald Sun not getting into the box. But your end did a fine job of using the current day's paper and addressing what was in the paper that day. By the way, our main local paper is called the Calgary Herald. We also have a tabloid "rag" called the Calgary Sun. Similar to it's more famous London, England namesake, it features both a Sunshine Girl and a Sunshine Boy of the Day. Never too hard on the eyes, but unlike London, the pictures of the girls are NOT topless. (Sorry, lads!) To the "footie" guy: I play in a band called "Magpie," so I enjoyed the Magpies team logo on the miniature football that you sent. Australian rules football shows up regularly on our all-sports cable TV stations here. (For real - I'm not pulling your leg!) It certainly looks like a wild game! Did you get a chance to have a listen to the CD's? We're interested in knowing what you think of them. We're discussing what to do next with our mates from Down Under. Whatever it will be, I'm sure it's going to be fun. |
| I did really enjoy the video conferencing with the grade 11s. It was a really interesting experience as such technology is usually only portrayed in movies and it does not seem like many people are able to use such communication methods in real life. However, being a complainer by nature, it would have been nicer if the lighting was better to create a clearer projection, and if the sound was a bit sharper too. I had the feeling that accent was not the only aspect that caused a few misunderstandings on both sides. In those respects I still feel that writing, or better yet, meeting in real life are still more effective methods of communication. But this experience was very valuable as a means to explore technology, though perhaps not the most effective way to explore culture. The inclusion of culture boxes to this event was not only an excellent idea, but a good way of connecting the method of communication to the exploration of culture and of getting to know one another better. The artifacts gave each group an excuse to talk as well as something to talk about. I think that without the culture boxes, or some similar idea, I have a feeling that there would have been a lot of sitting around and staring at each other. I'm not sure what to suggest as a next step in this communication. We have made introductions via e-mail, seen each other through the video conference, and shared pieces of our own culture. These are all rather basic communications, so perhaps we should look at more individualized methods. Pairing students up for collaborative projects might reveal more about differences and similarities that exist between our cultures and even age groups. | |
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Updated - October 2000
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