The 21st
century has brought lots of changes into our everyday life. We are surrounded
by all sorts of devices and it is simply inevitable that we should bring technology
into the classroom. To develop learning skills we can use CALL to prepare for
lessons, on the one hand, and use equipment and web 2.0 tools in the classroom,
on the other.
There are dozens of
websites that can help you develop any skill in your students, for instance:
Speaking: Voice of America, Voice Thread, The Art of Storytelling, etc.
Listening: Randall's ESL Cyber ListeningLab, TEDTalks, VideoJug, etc.
Reading and
vocabulary: BBC Learning English, Reading for Everyone, etc.
Writing: About.com, English Club, etc.
Then why don’t we
agree to grab the chance to achieve better results with the tools students are
so familiar with?
I remember presenting
at a TESOL conference in Sevastopol, Ukraine in October 2012. My presentation
was about web 2.0 tools in teaching and I was demonstrating the results of my
work. It happened that the audience was divided into two parts – students and
teachers (Ukrainians). To my utter incomprehension, I saw indifference in the
eyes of the teachers and I was very very upset and sorry... However, at the end
of the presentation all students – every one of them – approached me and
thanked me for what I had said and shown. This time they were really sorry that
their teachers were not like me and that they were reluctant to introduce
technology into teaching. At that moment I was no longer unhappy. I understood
that I was doing the right things, I was doing what students liked and not what
was comfortable to me.
Yes, it is
sometimes hard – I am far from being a ‘hacker’ and sometimes it really takes
time to understand how this or that tool works. But now I clearly see that it
is what students need. They are a little different from us and no one is able
to ban ‘the generation gap.’ We the teachers should keep it in mind and not
ignore this gap but try to build bridges…
Dear Natalya, greeting from Caracas, Venezuela. I just wanted to encourage you and confirm that you are on the right path. Sometimes our colleagues are not very supportive or looking forward having changes in the way they do things. This resistance to change has been a constant throughout history, but in the end, we know that it is the best, so… you are not alone, luckily we are all involved in this process of changes, and as I have said before, we better keep our pace at a fast level, not to be left so behind!!!
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Mariale
Dear Natalya! greetings from Argetina. I must say that I feel totally identified with your comments. I also think we are doing the right thing, I reckon we have to struggle and be a pebble in a pond...after all change will take effect.
ReplyDeleteI've felt the same thing many a times, feeling awkward in other teachers' eyes! Being digital immigrants is a tough thing, at least we are doing our best to "speak" our students' language, in sipte of the fact that we sepak it with an "accent", we are striving to feel attuned.
Best,
Pablo.