Integrating the Internet into the Classroom
Facilitator: Michael Krauss, Lewis & Clark College

Spring 2008

Sasmoyo Hermawan, EFL Teacher, Sanata Dharma University, Jakarta, Indonesia Before joining this course, I was not fond of using the internet as my teaching resource/aid. I was too afraid of making any mistakes unless I really knew how to use it. The course, however, have given me a strength to integrate the internet into the classroom. I have got a lot of ideas of how using online resources and activities for teaching purpose. See Sas' Hotlist on Business English.

Fall 2007

Tamara Staton, German Teacher and Outdoor Program Director, Pacific Crest Community School, Portland, Oregon, USA I can't even believe what this class has taught me, and JUST THIS VERY SECOND I finished what I've been wanting to do for YEARS, seriously. I've wanted a site for my German classes for at least 4 years now. . . and just last year I started to yearn for an eco site of some sort. Because of your help, I was finally able to combine them into one. . . See Tamara's EcoFrau site.

Supapong Gansar, English Teacher, Udon Thani Rajabhat University, Udon Thani, Thailand. Once I attended a workshop on "Reading: More than Meet the Eye," the participants, divided into groups of 8-10, were engaged in a message-whispering game. One of the messages each of us had to deliver was: "You give me a fish and I eat for a day. You teach me how to fish and I eat for a life time." I think this message can apply to what I've learned from you. Thank you very much. You will always be one of my best teachers. Ever! See Supapong's Hotlist: Myths and Tales from Around the World

Spring 2007

Elena Lubnina, English Language Office Assistant, Moscow, Russia I am very happy I could participate in this course - my entire vision of on-line education was changed. . . The course is perfectly well organized, it is professional and lively. . . Michael lead us from simple to complicated assignments, gave a lot of opportunities for creative work, encouraged self-learning, and provided us with the materials and ideas for further professional development.

Julia Currey, Director, Teaching English for American Education Center, Beijing, China I feel my searching ability has been 100% improved and I appreciate your help and encouragement. I will be processing what I have learned for a long time after this class. I was so scared to take this online but am really glad, I did . . . This was the best class I have ever taken online or in the classroom.

Fall 2006

Vera Golodnaya, EFL Teacher, Nevinnomyssk Branch of the Institute of Management, Business and Law, Russia First of all I would like to thank Michael very much for the most wonderful course in my life. I have never spent so much time in front of the computer and some tasks were really tough, but it was worth it. My final thought is: Live and Learn. If you want to be a good teacher, be an active learner.

Yulia Cherkashina, EFL Teacher, Biysk Technological Institute, Russia Dear collegues, don't miss a chance to learn from this course! It is really worth taking. You will have experience of web based activities, how to create them and use them in class. You will get access to huge amount of the information useful for your teaching.

Spring 2006

Khalil Zakari - English Language Teacher Educator, Ministry of National Education, Morocco. Michael, I have learned a lot from your hands-on and friendly-animated workshop. I have been taught how to better use search engines, discussion boards, chats and listservs, and improved my email-exchanging skills. I have also learned how to design online activities, tasks, blogs, portfolios and Web pages. . . Thank you for your commitment and constructive feedback. Thank you for your friendship.

Hayat Messekher, English Language Teacher, Ecole Normale Superieure de Bouzareah, Algeria. Michael, You were so dependable, patient, and leading us to believe in ourselves despite our (or rather my) limited net expertise. You guided, monitored, tuned and orchestrated our computer and net skills. Your instructions were always clear and your pedagogical relationship was so friendly. It was a pleasure having you as a tutor. . .This course offered me many technical and teaching skills, but above all, it offered me new friendships that I wish to keep beyond this course.

Tracy Wilkinson, Math and Science Teacher, Highland Park Elementary School, Beaverton, Oregon I really enjoyed getting to know other people and hearing about their experiences teaching and learning. . . You were very respectful of our limited time, and focused on some key aspects of integrating the internet, yet you also supplied us with an amazing mass of information to explore when we have more time. Thank you again for such a wonderful learning experience.

Zhu Yan - Post Graduate Student, Applied Linguistics (CALL), Suzhou University, Suzhou, China The intensive instruction I received is bound to enrich my professional development and arouse many sparkling new ideas in my head as to CALL related academic research. This on-line experience will no doubt add to my confidence in the use of educational technology to facilitate teaching and learning.

Juan Carlos Dodero Giusto - Teacher Trainer, Ministry of Public Education, Turrialba, Costa Rica The sense of collaborating with peers all around the world is something I learned about and also impressed me greatly! My message to give to teachers who could take this course in the future is to give it a try: it is a really worthwhile experience! Thank you very much for your support and for being such a dynamic facilitator.

Erin Simonsen - English teacher, Lakeridge High School, Lake Oswego, Oregon I have finally had the time to create some projects for my courses. Although I came in with a vague idea of what I wanted to accomplish, this course provided me with some great new ideas that made my vague ideas great realities. I also found several new resources for use in my English and journalism classes--some sources that I can already tell will be indispensable. It was a great course!

Spring 2005

Natalya Oganesyants - English Department, North-Ossetian State Teacher Training Institute, Russia The online course is carefully structured and underpinned with thorough practical experience. It provides theoretical basics, a set of rewarding activities and guidelines for further professional development. . . Thanks for your tolerance, encouragment and open-mindedness to feedback.

Paul Stufkens - Language Center Coordinator, Escuela Agricola Panamericana (Zamorano University), Honduras I have enjoyed this workshop immensely, and have learned a lot about the Internet and how to use it more efficiently for the benefit of my students. I also now know how to better look for specific info on the web, thereby saving a lot of time.

Karen on left.

Karen Hirschmugl - Elementary Teacher, Gresham Public Schools, Gresham, Oregon I appreciate the format and structure of this class. Even though it is on-line I felt that Michael was always there if he was needed. . . I have learned many ways to integrate the Internet into the classroom. The games, quizes, etc. that I have created, I will be able to use right away. I highly recommend this class to all teachers!!

Fall 2004

Elena Danilova - EFL Instructor, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia I am really impressed that the course is well balanced in theory and practice! The tasks are all very motivating and inspiring examples of good work make me spend hours glued to the screen reading, surfing, creating and enjoying all the activities!

Ahmed Atlagh - EFL Teacher and ICT Trainer, Ait Melloul, Morocco This is the best course I have ever benefited from. It is well organized, graded, and encourages the participant to go step by step to carry out the tasks. The most useful [part] of this course is that it fosters the participant's ICT skills, gives them confidence that what they know will be helpful in improving the use of ICT and integrating it in the curriculum.

Rosemary Arca - English Teacher - Foothill Community College, Los Altos Hills, California I was impressed at the wealth of resources and the well-designed assignments which were challenging but do-able. I'm also very appreciative that we can re-visit the website and the links because I wasn't able to completely "process" everything in it at this time. . . It was a very rich course and very rewarding.

Summer 2004

Olga Tsyrendorzhieva - EFL Instructor, Irkutsk State Pedagogical University, Irkutsk, Russia Fascinating, exciting, challenging, productive, … Every single thing was useful undoubtedly, but the created activities (filamentality, scenarios, quia) is the proof of the high productivity of the course! Thank You, Dr. Krauss! Your course is a great contribution to the professional knowledge of teachers and a great leap forward for us!

Kanthi Hartwig - EFL Instructor, Vocational Training Council, Hong Kong 'Informative' 'hands on' is how I would describe this course. . . This course introduced a world of resources that are already out there, waiting to be made use of. This was a really great course, a wonderful eye opener for someone like me who has been suffering from 'IT phobia.' Michael, thank you for making me realise, that using IT is 'no big deal'.

Zoya Proshina - EFL Instructor, Far Eastern National University, Vladivostok, Russia Wow! I've done it! I have always considered myself a computer-unfriendly person for, though I've been using it now (mostly for word-processing), I always had problems when I wanted to do something bigger than that. . . This course is superb and I am very thankful for being admitted to it. Summing up, it is a GREAT and very USEFUL course. I am very thankful to you for your sharing experience with us, teachers all over the world, for your being patient and so considerate!

Anastasia Klanshchakova - EFL Instructor, Baikalsky National University of Economics and Law, Irkutsk, Russia I'm very much impressed with the course. It was very rich and valuable for me, considering, before taking it I barely knew how to type a key-word in a search window. . . Now, at the end of the course, I feel like I could restart again, cause I didn't have enough time to try every activity and complete every task, and I'd love to. It's been captivating and absorbing, enriching and empowering me as a teacher and a personality too. Thank you very much!

Joyce Choueri - EFL Instructor, Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates It's been a wonderful course, very informative, very hands-on--I think we lucked out with a great instructor who has been there every step of the way. . . I've learned a lot, specifically more on search engines and directories, i.e., how to refine my searching even further, more on databases like Blue Web 'n, theory, practice and activity types for internet-based classes, how to create a treasure hunt, a scenario, and finally, a class page. . .

Betsy Petrick - ESL Teacher, Clark College, Vancouver, Washington This course was terrific. I loved being a student again. Even though I still had all my usual daily distractions, the addition of one more, very focused, bit of work felt great. I'm pleased to come away with a class website and Filamentality project ready to use. . . I thank you for all the encouragement and support you offered along the way. I will definitely try another online course in the future.

Delphine Bush - Computer Teacher, Grades 3-8, Archbishop Howard Catholic School and St. John the Apostle Catholic School, Portland, Oregon. Michael I have been out "selling" your course to other teachers. My biggest regret is that you aren't doing a second phase of this class. . . I will continue to explore the areas that I haven't had time for in this brief three weeks. Please consider an advanced course in the future and keep me posted.

Bridget Gersten - Regional English Language Officer, Moscow, Russia The course was useful, challenging, and chock full of feedback. I gained a sense of accomplishment by creating materials that are relevant to my professional life and creative to make. . . Thanks for your mentoring, good cheer, and expertise! This course was all it has been written up to be: a great success.

Sasha Bondarenko - EFL Teacher - American Corner, Saratov, Russia It is the first time I've taken the online course, and I am delighted by this fact. It introduced me to the practical skills needed for the Internet successful usage, and the pedagogical principles. Thanks to you, Michael (You instructed us so professionally that it was very easy to complete the tasks).

Richard Morasci - EFL Teacher - Foothills College, outside of San Francisco, CA The course layout was so user-friendly that as a novice I could maneuver my way through the syllabus with little trouble. . . I have to commend Michael as the virtual teacher who became a real presence in the virtual classroom. Whenever I had a question or was confused, Michael was there to the rescue. . . What this experience has shown me is that on-line classes can be just as effective if not more so compared to classroom courses.

Natalya Maximova - EFL Teacher/Trainer - Khabarovsk State Pedagogical University, Khabarovsk, Russia The first distance education course in my life is over and I have to reflect on what kind of an experience it was. It was great!. . . I learnt a lot about creative Internet activities that will add variety and interest to my work both as an EFL instructor and an EFL teacher trainer. . . My great desire is to share the knowledge and skills I got with as many people as possible. I have started doing it already. In fact there isn't a single day without mentioning the potential of the Internet for learning.

Gabriel Skop - English Language Fellow (Teacher/Trainer) - Saratov, Russia The course was relevant, challenging, stimulating, well organized. . . Thanks for a wonderful experience. I've learned more about how to use the Internet in the last four weeks than in the last four years.

Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 5/13/08