Last Thursday, I asked you to read Chapter 1 of our textbook for next week.
This is an outline of the chapter based on what is most relevant for our class:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xgsGJr743Y83YP4RHMdYlNRnQ0jXBJGvqsGYeq2Ru-0/edit?usp=sharing
Please make sure you understand the concepts covered in the outline, and make sure you are familiar with the vocabulary as well.
This week's discussion will be related to Chapter 1.
DISCUSSION TOPIC:
The information in this textbook can be applied in any properly equipped EFL classroom worldwide, but it is written more for a US audience. The first chapter introduces both benefits and challenges related to the implementation Web 2.0 technology in the English classroom. Pick one of these benefits or challenges, and explain why OR why not it is relevant to English education in Chile.
For me the use of WEB 2.0 is particularly relevant to English education in Chile and also for the rest of the world. The tools that are provided in the web are tremendously wide and offer different alternatives for teachers to communicate in a diverse way with their students. As it is mentioned in the chapter, there are several benefits for students using web sites, but for me as a personal experience I think that one of the most interesting benefits for them is having the opportunity to interact and share ideas with others in another context. Many students are shy and insecure of showing what they have learned and they may feel awkward speaking in public or with their classmates. In the previous cases, the different available online resources offer an alternative to students, helping them to develop their language skills but most important , they develop their communicate skills. It is well know that usually in schools teachers tend to focus on the acquisition of grammar but many times they are not able to teach the communicative skills that are as important as grammar. I mention that because I think that through online resources such as YouTube or interactive websites, students are able to speak to others, perform different situations and finally learning how to communicate in another language, which is not an easy task.
ReplyDeleteWeb 2.0 can offer huge advantages for those students who are shy!! As you previously mentioned Vicky, I also think that it is much easier for them to communicate with their peers through different types of web 2.0. It is easy to see that when you have a group of students that has just started learning English, most of them do not want to speak, and that is totally acceptable because it is not easy to start interacting with your classmates using a language that is not yours. Thus, and speacially in those first stages of language acquisition, the use of web 2.0 might be a excellent idea to help students overcome their fears and their feeling of embarrasement, which is totally normal when you start learning a second language.
Delete*Specially
DeletePersonally, I think that one of the most valuable benefits of using Web 2.0 when learning English, and at the moment of sharing information on the internet is the opportunity of having your students working in a thorough and careful way. As they know that other people are going to see what they are sharing, they have the need of paying attention to every single detail in their assignments, in order to do their best.
ReplyDeleteThis benefit is specially worth appreciating in our Chilean Educational context, because due to the fact that English is not a course that is assessed in the PSU test, students tend not to pay too much attention to the activities that can be done in their English classes. For this reason, teachers should start thinking about how useful web 2.0 can be for both their students and themselves, because this tool can significantly increase students’ intrinsic motivation in order to excel at using English in different contexts.
Caritooo, I agree with you in the sense that students many times do not care about learning English because they think that it is not meaningful for them and as they don´t understand it they tend to feel stressed and bored. As you mentioned using Web 2.0 is a really good idea not just because it is fun to use but because it is a tool that allow them to connect ideas and realize that English is useful for them.
DeleteI also agree with you Carito. As the text mentioned, using the Web 2.0 is fun! Maybe, as you said, many students do not pay much attention because the class is boring and useless just because their teachers continue doing their classes in an old fashioned way, according to their point of view, starting using the Internet, and those million of web sites we are available to access to, can motivate the students, even the teachers. So both of them are beneficiated in terms of learning :)
DeleteIntrinsic motivation... what a beautiful term :P I hope when we teach and use these resources, our students become interested in looking for more and not just learn about the contents that are discussed in class
DeleteEven if this text mainly goes for an US audience, I think that we as future Chilean teachers can rescue and implement these benefits or challenges in our classroom. In my case, I chose the one which says that students (active learners) don't work only as information or knowledge receivers, but as creators and authors of new material. Although nowadays teachers in our country try to use the Internet as a tool in every subject they usually use this element only to give information about certain topics (in my opinion, primary and secondary school), making their students only receptors of new data. I am not complaining about their job, but I think that is very important giving the students the opportunity to become more participants and critical, and this, personally thinking, is going to help them to develop their knowledge through the teaching/learning process, and improve the skills they already have, as well as we are doing in this course. Each student is capable to create new ideas, or at least to give their opinion, not only serves as a knowledge consumer.
ReplyDelete*Thumbs up* I agree with you :D! I think we should do more of what we're doing in this course :) It definitely enhances students motivation and most importantly, makes all users (students) aware of what they are writing or creating in order to do it clearly and interesting for other users.
DeleteI agree with you Josi and, I think that teachers sometimes just don´t know what else they can do or what else the web 2.0 can offer because teachers and students are digital divided
DeleteGood one!
Deletehttp://myreactiongifs.com/gifs/thumbsupcomputerkid.gif
I personally believe that the Chilean educational system is prepared to implement and make use of the many benefits that the Web 2.0 can provide to teach languages and others subjects; I think that it doesn’t exist a digital gap between Chile and the U.S that can be a stone of stumbling to introduce any of the multiple uses of the Web 2.0. However, I also believe that all the challenges presented in the book as difficulties in the United States’ system, are the same challenges that schools and teachers in Chile will face when implementing the Web 2.0 resources; especially, safety concerns or “technopanics”. According to the text, some schools are not willing to introduce meaningful purposes to the use of technological and digital devices in their curriculums due to the risk of a possible exposure of the students to explicit content. The previous can lead to the “Everest Syndrome” that we discussed in classes; the equipment and the use of it will not have a determinate or a specific goal, it will be used just because is there. Moreover, if schools do not train teachers who are able to structure meaningful and safe methodologies as well as activities using the Web 2.0 tools, the fear of allowing students to have access to explicit content may “turn schools into barriers rather than contributors to young people´s constructive use of technology” (ConnectSafely as cited in Langer de Ramirez, 2009, p. 9).
ReplyDelete