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= = =Dear Student,= =I hope you are all well. Here is the sheet with the information on the free online courses. I hope you take this great opportunity. Best regards, Dr. Mervat=

= WELCOME to = =Fundamentals of Teaching and Learning Wiki =

** This course aims to empower participants **** to confidently use technology and to examine their practices using extensive readings and reflections on theories of learning, research on teaching, backward design, and technology integration. ** === The participants were a group of exceptionally motivated teachers from different experimental schools and private schools. They were teachers of English, Math, Science and Character Education with the majority as English teachers. ===

=== The highlight of the course was a project where participating teachers worked collaboratively using Wikispaces to develop a unit plan on a topic of their choice following backward design. In this project, they used their wiki as a platform for discussion, exchanging ideas, expressing disagreements, and resolving their differences. They did all of this as they were developing the three stages of backward design where they identified targeted standards, developed performance assessment tasks to assess their students understanding of concepts and acquisition of skills, they then organized learning experiences using WHERETO guides. For more information on Backward Design, you can refer to "Understanding by Design" by Wiggins and McTighe, published by Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (October 25, 1998). ===

. **When the course was finished, we all agreed that we will keep this Wiki so that we can go back to it to reflect, and hopefully have our colleagues visit and share our experience. You can click on any group name and see the team's project.On classroom materials page, you can also access some of the readings of the course, YouTube videos, as well as course PowerPoint presentations.At the bottom of the course materials page, you can click on my E-assignment link and it will take you to class wiki where teaches have posted their E-Portfolios and reflection papers on the project and on the last reading of the course,"Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" by Marc Prensky **.

** For a Prezi Course Overview Presentation, please visit [|Prezi Link] **[|.]

=The course was indeed a journey of learning. Here are some testimonials taken from teachers' reflections on their project experience. For complete reflection papers on the project, please visit My e-assignment Wiki. You will find them insightful, thought provoking and a delight to read.=

Enjoy your visit to our class Wiki = = =Instructor: Dr. Mervat El-Dib=


 * < "First we, as a result of this project, we became more able to work collaboratively as a team. I think we lacked that skill very much and it is time to give up our individuality and working in separated islands. Secondly, we became more able to tackle technology and carry out new techniques in our teaching. I became more aware of the meaning of backward design." Tamam El Roby ||

**"In the second stage of the design, we formed the performance tasks that will help us assess the students. Here the performance tasks were different from any usual tasks like (writing a paragraph about your summer holiday). That is what I really appreciate about that design. Our tasks here are authentic and related to the students' life and can be helpful for them in the future. Our performance tasks are related to the topic of the unit. We assigned three different jobs for the students, a tour guide, a director and a social worker." Hanan Ali** "The greatest joy was to meet the deadline with a decent product and the product does reflect your understanding of the whole concept. The idea that the project can be used and altered for different units and subjects made it worth the effort. The ability to maintain pace and quality of work at home with my kids and at work with my students and in my diploma assignment made me feel good about myself despite the pressure and the deadlines. It was quite a journey worth every effort and every thought. Thanks for the opportunity." Reham Hassan

Unit Planning Project Overview

Your Unit Plan should include __multimedia resources.__
===You are required to include at least __Two Forms of Media i __ n your final project. These can be any three from Text Documents, Web Based Document, Video Files (can be of discussions, interviews or clips)===

Here is the course project PowerPoint presentation.

[|Course Project.pptx]