lunes, 28 de febrero de 2011

Learning technologies in the classroom

Apparently, the use of ICT’s has, gradually, become part of the learning-teaching English classroom, and as such, teachers should be aware of how to use them adequately. In addition, taking into consideration the purpose behind its use, and what is wanted to achieve throughout these resources within the learning process. In this sense, this implies much more than just knowing about ICT’s, it is considering the way of implementing and adapting this tool to the learner(‘s) necessities. However, some teachers are, probably, still learning to manage the learning technologies, and others reluctant to even dare to make use of these tools. As a result, the manifestation of many reasons for not obliging with the progress of what could be called a technological methodology as the existence of many positive aspects that support the idea of learning technologies. Nevertheless, maybe the starting point is to question ourselves if the learning technologies favor ‘the student(s)’ and if we are prepared to take advantage of these.

References:

The Role of Technology in teaching and the classroom by Marc Prensky

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky

Computer Assisted Language Learning: an Introduction by Mark Warschauer

sábado, 26 de febrero de 2011

Netiquette

After reading about the netiquette rules, one may think that a few guidelines, as in any civilized society, can help to avoid chaos amongst "netizens". However, having clear the starting point, lack of visual-gesture contact, is very important as to be sure on what is being written (meant) by taking into consideration those who are to read one's message. That is why, writing carefully is extremely necessary because, in this case, it is almost entirely the only way to get your message through. Eventhough, the use of emoticons have pretty much helped to satisfy the demands to fill this gap. Moreover, analysing the rules a bit, words, such as, remember the human, respect, help, share, be forgiving, act accordingly, think twice, give credit, be responsible, and so on, show more or less the posture one should maintain when writing on the net. So if a teacher of English is going to use this tool for his/her class, not only is the learning of English vocabulary, grammar, writing, etc, going to occupy a great deal of the class but, also, the appropriateness and idealness of it's use in order to accomplish effective communication.

"Teaching: more than just lecturing" (Roettger, Roettger, Walugembe, 2007)

References:
Netiquette - study guides and strategies file
Open University Netiquette summary file
Master the Basics: Netiquette
http://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol4/iss2/6