Saying goodbye to another full term

Hi there!

Well, this is my last post for this term, time flew fast. In this post, I will evaluate the course "Current Issues in Education" and our assignments.

I want to start with its strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly this course developed our vision of technology-integrated teaching by teaching new techniques and introducing new digital tools. However, I regret to say that it has a couple of weaknesses, as well. One of the disappointing aspects is that it doesn't actually focus on current issues in education (tbh, rather than addressing current issues in education, the course itself became my "current issue" with its challenging activities that aren’t always practical—just kidding! 😊). Although the techniques and the tools that we learned are inspiring,  I don't think they can be easily applied in a typical classroom setting due to a lack of resources. Another important weakness of this course is the feedback process. While we do receive feedback from our peers, and the teacher provides helpful insights when asked, I feel that it’s not enough. I wish we could receive more detailed, written, or oral feedback directly from the teacher on our finalized assignments and lesson plans.

Well, let's talk about assignments. My favorite one was flipped classroom assignment task. I really enjoyed creating an educational video and quiz game with my groupmates. I think this is the only technique I could see myself using occasionally—particularly for vocabulary teaching—when I become a teacher. When it comes to my least favorite, it is corpora (no surprise).  I honestly don’t think either students or teachers would enjoy using corpora in a classroom setting. It feels too complicated.

Overall, I think this course is beneficial and enjoyable but I think it still needs some improvements especiallly in addressing the feedback issue and refining the techniques taught. I would like to say a couple of things to the students who will take this course next semester: be prepared for assignments in the final week, choose your teammates carefully (they’re everything!), and if you’re really unsure where to design your materials, use Canva—it’ll save you!

Lastly, I want to express my gratitude to our teacher, Mustafa Polat, for all his efforts, my teammates for their excellent collaboration, and you, my readers, for your support. Goodbye, and take care!