An interim report on my graduation thesis
Along with my fellow seniors, I presented an interim report on my graduation thesis on Wednesday. I felt nervous about making my presentation in front of teachers and students because I am not accustomed to public speaking in English. My topic is “A Study of Creating Internet Materials for Weak EFL Junior High School Students”. Using a piece of free software called “Hot Potatoes” to create them, I made a few vocabulary, spelling and grammar exercises and showed them with a a computer and a projector.
I practiced reading my script several times but I still made some mistakes. As you’d expected, I made some pronunciation mistakes, but I also made unusual mistakes: I left part of my script where I was sitting and didn’t notice until I was in the midst of the presentation. I was so embarrassed. Another mistake was how to use the computer in the presentation. I didn’t plan it so I was confused. I think that I should have moved around and pointed to the whiteboard onto which I projected the exercises.
After the presentation, I couldn’t answer the professor’s questions correctly. I had some predictions of the questions but teachers’ questions took me by surprise.
Though I could not make my presentation well, I think that it was a valuable meeting. I could find my fault about my use of English, my thesis and my attitude towards the presentation. I know that we must not hesitate to use English because we are students of English. Most importantly, though: the presentations given by my fellow students gave me more motivation to finish writing my paper.
The main problem of your presentation was probably what you did with the projector — since you only had fifteen minitus to get through the presentation and the discussion, you shouldn’t have bothered to demonstrate more than one exercise.
How did you learn about Hot Potatoes? Was the software recommended to you? Have you evaluated it against other software and found that Hot Potatotoes was the most suitable for your needs?
I’m asking because I’m convinced that Moodle is a much more powerful piece of software that, among a whole lot of other things, also allows you to create quizzes and tests. Plus: it’s open source, which means you’re never going to owe licensing fees. With Hot Potatoes, depending on the school you work for, you might be in breach of their licensing terms.
Also, just because I’m curious: in your presentation you said you’re no computer expert — how do you make those exercises available to your students? Does your school provide the server space and host the exercises?
Posted 4 years, 1 month agoI think I spent too much time spend on my presentation and it’s better not to show some exercizes but I want everyone to see my original exercise. I’m sure that I had to share my time properly.
Arao sensei recommended me to use Hot Potatoes. She selected this software because it is easier to use than other software she found. I’m no computer expert and when I made a first Hot Potate exersise, it’s a hastle to understand the system and how to use. Now I have no problem to make JMix and JMatch exercises. I’ve never finished making other exercises yet so maybe I have to learn Hot Potato more but once I make a exercise, the work gets easier. I heard many schools provide the server space for teachers now though not all schools do.
I found Moodle has a lot of useful tools teachers made. I will tell Arao sensei about Moodle and think about adding it in my thesis. I want to create some quizzes or tests.
Posted 4 years agoJudging from what you posted here, it seems to me that you did very very very well and that you had a invaluable experience. Making a presentation puts a lot of stress on us becasue many of us don’t have chances to do it, but in the long run, it will give you confidence. i think that wheather your presentation was successful or not doesn’t matter so much.
Posted 4 years agoonce you become a teacher, you’ll face many problem other than teaching. So now is the time you devote youself to the study Of English. You also make the best of your school life.
These days the requirement for the seniors is getting higher and higher. but i think it’s very good.
Hi Charming.
Yuki — I may have missed it when you mentioned it during the presentation — are you saying that you haven’t shown those exercises to any students yet? I’m curious to know how you’re going to distribute them — you can’t just let every student use your personal computer, so you’ll have to make those things available on a web server or distribute them on flash memory, or what’s the plan?
I don’t think you should try Moodle yet for this paper. It takes some expertise to download and install the thing, and once you have it running on a Web server, it might take quite some effort to understand how it all works.
I’ve got a Moodle running on a site of mine, but it’s hardly a current version, and I wouldn’t be able to offer any support. If you’re still interested in this sort of thing after your graduation paper, I might upgrade the install and help you play a bit.
Posted 4 years agoIt is sound bad, but i think everyone have some bad exprerences during the presentation. The most important thing is that you must know form it what should you do next.
Posted 4 years agoyou wrote someting about your graduation thesis. I think you have did a lot of work on it, don’t be disappointed. I know you could success.
By the way, i’m interested in your graduation thesis. Can you tell me something about your thesis, as me a student or a audience of your. looking forward your words.
Hi, Charming. Did you recover from a cold? Thank you for your comment. You are right. If I start a job, I will not have time to study English. That is what you always say. I want to study English at my own pace.
Ruedi — Yeah, I haven’t shown those exercises to any students yet. So I have to update on a web server. Now I don’t know the benefit of Hot Potatoes exactly because I haven’t let students use the exercises. But after I finish making all kinds of exersises, I will upload. After I get comments or response from some students, I will write the result on my thesis if it’s good or bad. I haven’t decided whether I’ll use Hot Potatoes after my graduation.
Guoping — I found what I should do next after the presentation. So it’s a very good experience for me. My thesis is about the benefit of the Internet use in class. For weak learners, I make some exersises with free software. The level of exersises depends on students’ level. My supervisor recommended this theme about the Internet. It’s difficult but interesting.
Posted 4 years agovery interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Posted 2 years agoIdetrorce
Off topic – Help with PM?
Posted 3 months, 1 week agolost password
Boss Resurfacing
Boss Resurfacing