Motivation

Most people want to change at least one thing in their life. But it can be challenging to find the motivation just to make a start. You need to understand what motivation means to you so you can find your own ways to get motivated.

 

What is Motivation?

 

Motivation is the drive to achieve your goals or needs. It is influenced by :

• How much you want the goal
• What you will gain
• Your personal expectations

Why is motivation important?

• Provides you with goals to work towards
• Helps you solve problems
• Helps you cope with challenges and opportunities

Ways to stay motivated

Here are some tips:

• Regularly review your goals and progress. 
• Continue to set new goals.
• Keep the momentum up
• Surround yourself with positive people
• Use exercise as one of your daily goals 

If you are struggling to get motivated, talk to someone you trust. Also take your family and friends as a support system since they will encourage you and help you keep motivated.

                                            

 What can we do now that we were not able to do year ago?

A year ago everything was different, whether in  the social life, working sector or even the educational sector. Corona virus pandemic had changed the world and changed the educational sector from traditional one to online one. Although the online learning has several disadvantages, we can't deny that it helped us a lot as teachers or as students.

 This year I've learned plenty things that I was not able to do them before. I've learned many technological skills, and I got to know several applications that are beneficial to my students in order to engage  them more in my class. Also as a student, learning online helped me a lot. Last year I was not able to watch the lessons whenever I want and repeat them many times if I didn't understand from the first time. Whereas, now I can do that. Moreover, I've learned how to manage my time and be more active and motivated. To end with, this year I'm able to teach and study at the same time due to the online learning.

 Challenges you face when learning / teaching online

Online learning has already been experiencing rapid growth during the last few years. It has introduced some challenges for teachers and students also.

                                          

Some challenges that students or teachers have faced are:

• Adaptability struggle

Switching to online learning makes the learning experience entirely different      for students and teachers. Their resistance to change doesn't allow them to          adapt online learning environment. Since students and teachers with a traditional  mind find it difficult to adapt and accept circumstances with an open mind.

• Technical issues

Many students are not provided with strong internet connection that online      courses require, and thus fail to catch up with their virtual classmates. Also,        some students don't even own computers to follow with their teachers.

• Lack of motivation

One of the challenges associated with eLearning is lack of motivation. Students'    motivation directly depends on how engaging their online courses are. If a course is boring, they will likely feel not motivated enough.

 What  students should be taught when working online to avoid problems?

Due to the pandemic that spread two years ago , the educational sector has switched online. This was a challenge for some teachers and students also. 

Some students face several problems while they are working online, so as teachers we should guide our students to the right  path and teach them how to avoid problems.

Here are some steps that can help students  avoid issues when working online:

    1) Manage their time 

                                  

   2) Stay organized

                                    

 

    3) Eliminate distractions 

                                   

    4) Stay motivated 

                                  

    5) Make connections with fellow students

                                   

                                   

By following these instructions students will find online teaching more applicable and more useful for them.

 

How to be a digital citizen?

Being a good digital citizen means that you have to protect your personal information, use good judgement and treat others respectfully. Practicing good digital citizenship makes the online world a better place for everyone whether you are posting on social media , sending an email or commenting on any online discussion. 

There are several ways that help you be a good digital citizen:

1) Treat others as you would like to be treated

2) Don't feed the trolls

3) Don't take materials that doesn't belong to you

4) Think carefully about what you post

5) Be careful with your personal info

6) Don't believe everything you read online

Here is a video that will explain more the points mentioned above.

                                 

 Tools that can be used in online assessment

Online assessment, also known as electronic assessment, is an evaluation of the students' knowledge, abilities, behaviors and characteristics. This test is conducted over the internet by using available web technologies.

Several tools can be used for evaluating students, here you can find some of them.

1. Google forms

Google forms is free online software that allows you to create surveys and quizzes. It's simple and quick to create and automatically grade quizzes. It is easy for students to answer questions, typing a fast text answer, or posting a short YouTube video.

                                               

2. Mentimeter

Mentimeter is an online tool which can add an interactive element to a lecture, presentation or recorded session. It's free to use and lets you create and host live quizzes either from templates or from scratch. It comes pre-loaded with education templates for the classroom like a listening skills assessments and icebreakers.

                                              

3. Kahoot 

Kahoot is a game-based assessment tool. Students love Kahoot's game-based approach to learning and assessment. Students can create their own Kahoots to share with classmates creating an interactive experience. Also students can plan the assessment games by themselves or as a team, and teachers can add multiple choice or true/false questions to the games.

                                                 

4. Socrative

Socrative is one of the top-rated assessment tools for teachers . It is an interactive digital tool that lets you quiz, grade, and assess on-the-fly. Teachers can choose from quick questions or full quizzes for deeper understanding. This tool lets you create activities and shuffle questions, with or without students names attached.

5. Google classroom

Google classroom is an online tool that allows teachers to set assignments , have work submitted by students , to mark and to return graded papers. Also used by teachers to check streamline summative and formative assessments to manage classes.

                                                   

 Integrating  Technology into Teaching

Technology integration requires the use of technology tools such as computers , mobile devices and social media in different areas in education in order to allow students more engaged and on-task. Although many assume that integrating technology into learning is not beneficial and distract students , some say that technology is being something that we can't live without and it is very important to integrate it even in our learning process. In my opinion technology must be integrated in the learning process.

Integrating technology into the classroom can serve as means for teachers to support and enhance the learning , creates an opportunity to communicate with students and encourage them to connect with the information in new way. Also, it increases students' motivation, collaboration and confidence.

Due to the pandemic that  have spread two years ago, we have experienced this way of teaching and we realized how much is beneficial to us as teachers and to students. 

Here are some types of technology integration: 

• Online learning and blended classrooms
• Project-based activities
• Use of social media 
• Game-based learning and assessment.