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Matthew’s Connecting learning across the world post is about a collaborative project with 30 schools around the world that use online technology to support their students’ language learning. It is a fantastic idea to motivate our students to learn a second language! I think that the students will get a feeling of connectiveness. Communicating  in the target language they learn, will help them recognise and explore connections between classroom knowledge and situations outside the classroom. It will create a personal meaning for the students and will highlight the significance of the language learnt. In my opinion and from my experiences so far, I believe that podcasting and even typing in another language using a keyboard with English characters can  be a fun, challenging and productive activity in terms of language production. The students are given the opportunity to apply their knowledge in real life situations and they have an audience beyond the classroom. For all these reasons I believe that projects like this,could potentially be one of the most effective ways to encourage students to learn a foreign language.

I think the idea of ‘out-of-hours virtual teachers’ in this article is wonderful. It does have similarities with the Audio-lingual method of teaching that was popular in the 70s, however, I found it to be more appealing because:

∙the students do not listen to a strange voice but they actually see or listen to their own teacher they are familiar with

∙students who do not take good notes or need more time to internalize information will benefit from recapping the key points of what was already taught in the classroom

∙students who were absent on a particular day, do not get disadvantaged as they can still make up for the missed lesson

∙these videos can be a refresher-course for the parents, who will then be able to help their children with their homework, if needed

∙the relationships between students and teachers are more likely to improve. Students will trust and respect their teacher more, because they will have proof that their teacher considers them important enough to spend time on

∙the students are more likely to go to school prepared and having done their homework

∙students are more likely to engage with the system because it makes use of technology that is already popular with them

My children brought home this magazine, ‘Click, a technology guide for parents’ that I found very useful and interesting. This article in particular, explains what the interactive whiteboards are, how and why they are rapidly becoming the new tool of the teaching trade. I agree with Mr Taylor’s statement that “sometimes the teacher becomes a student as well and it is because of that role-changing that there’s a great deal of respect between students and teachers”. The following is a recount on my personal experience within the classroom that involves role-changing and the use of interactive whiteboard.

During my practicum and after having finished a topic about the Olympic Games I had a fantastic teaching experience using a CD ROM; it was a digital audiovisual tour of Ancient Olympia that allowed students to step back to 200BC Olympia. Initially only a small group of students attempted the activity and the rest of them joined in soon after seeing my reaction when I realised that we were actually using an interactive whiteboard. They later remarked that my enthusiasm and limited technological knowledge gave them the courage and drive to want to participate, overcoming their fears they might say something wrong in the target language. I would guide and help them to correctly interpret the written and oral instructions (by ‘eliciting’ the correct answer of course, and not just giving it to them) and they would occasionally let me ‘tap’ the screen as well.That particular lesson was greatly enjoyed by my students and me!!!

Attribution: Classroom photo by DaviDMuir

The situation that Julia describes is somehow very familiar. You can only book the tickets if you have a credit card, E-tag holders only, not cash accepted, automated messages and self service everywhere, which don’t get me wrong, I sometimes even like,but when it gets to not letting you do your job properly, I strongly disapprove of. I can only imagine the frustration of the poor teachers who go to all the trouble of planning and organizing a meaningful lesson for their class incorporating technology and then not being able to book the computer room… It just sounds so wrong. What about choice? Aren’t we supposed to offer our students variety of choices of their preferred means of communication? Is there a law that excludes teachers? Good luck with the librarian!

On Saturday I attended a staff development workshop at the Saturday I work. A number of teachers expressed concerns and confusion about how exactly to use ICT in their classroom. Like in this article, teachers feel compelled to just”stuff” the curriculum with ICT, in order to meet the Syllabus requirements. Our coordinator,however drew our attention to the fact that using multimedia in the classroom does not necessarily mean using computer, it also includes things like CD, DVD, video cassettes, books, newspaper, etc. Another teacher commented that power point presentations are ‘coming out of the students ears’, as she has been assigning every oral assessment they had, in this format for the past 4 years.This is where common sense and knowledge of pedagogy fit. No matter how interesting a teaching strategy, if overused, it loses its effectiveness!!!

After reading this tale of two classrooms I could not help wondering if and how many teachers will become more like Mrs Reed in the future. Her approach to teaching is totally different to the traditional, didactic, instructivist teaching methods, I am sure we are all familiar with. Inviting guest-speakers to share their own personal stories is a great way to get the students interested as they can see the connection of whatever the topic we want to teach with real life is. Getting the students to plan and design the multimedia presentation is a clever and certain way to engage them in meaningful learning. Mrs Reed allowed the students choices to suit their own individual learning styles, provided different levels of scaffolding and support. Applying this approach to the extend that Mrs Reed did, in a language classroom, I think, is probably unrealistic mostly due to lack of time ;we normally have 2 teaching periods a week, which is simply not enough. However, by reading this article teachers (including myself) can get a lot of practical ideas they can use, by tailoring them to their own circumstances, to the students’ and their own benefit. This article is definitely worth to read and get inspired by!

Attribution:photo be steev-o

I thought your practical idea is brilliant so I discussed the idea of a classblog with my Y10 students at the Saturday school yesterday and they loved it, but am I in ‘trouble’ now or what? they want me to organize a classblog for our class! Of course I gladly agreed and I promised them to do it in 3 weeks when I finish all my assignments. Thank god I still have all my notes how to do it… However, I might require some help , so we certainly need to  keep in touch, don’t you think?. When we went to the computer room yesterday for the power point presentations they had, the students discovered that the computers have now got ‘Audicity’ (it must have happened during the school holidays) and they can’t wait to use it.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this presentation and reading the associated blog post as it made rethink about the importance of real discussion with our students. I have certainly made blanket statements like: ‘no ipods or cell phones during class’. It never occured to me that the students could have actually been using the calendar program built in their mobiles or take notes by text messaging themselves, the same way that I like to write things in my diary. And I can certainly remember(Iam not that old) the days where I used to have background music when I was doing my homework at home. Since not everybody enjoys listening to music when doing a task in class, I think I should be more flexible with the ones that do, and allow them to use their ipods, as long as A.they don’t disturb the others and B. they do their work.

I think that it is really important that we have discussions with our students about appropriate use of technology in the classroom and come to mutually agreements, before we start ‘posting and imposing our rules’. I know I will. 

After reading Prensky’s article and his comment that Latin and Greek will become less important in the future although I did not agree with him or did not believe it to be true, (being a Greek teacher myself) I must admit I felt a little blue. I felt so much better after reading this article that Liam found that describes how latin, a language considered dead has returned and how the two middle schools in Westchester County town in the United States are starting an ancient-cultures club in which students will explore the lives of Romans, Greeks and others. the only problem is, I do not want to migrate to the USA to be able to work….

While reading your posting I kept on thinking that you are probably reading my mind; it could have been myself making these comments. Like yourself, at the moment I am not very immersed in a digital culture not due to resentment, but rather to lack of time, as my life is pretty busy with my 3 children, 2 part-time jobs and full-time studies. I enjoyed reading Prensky as well, until I read that Latin and Greek will become less important in the future. Did I mention that I teach Greek?