If I were asked about what it is that I got to learn this week on our U-Oregon's Web Skills online course, I would have to reply by saying the I cannot deny the importance of incorporating b-learning as part of our language curricula. And this can be achieved by those wonderful steps that our instructors are having us take: skill-building websites, reflection on articles related to what is being learned, and CALL environments.
As I got the chance to comment and share with some of my partners, in our endless Web searching sessions, we come across valuable skill-building sites that must be shared with colleagues. If I had the chance to exort my partners to share this wonderful Web-links on activities, readings, and the like, I would encourage everyone to open their learning in this course and share learning links with colleagues in their teaching centers and during national conferences or trainings you take part of. All of us will be making the difference in education for all those who are in our classrooms, not to be kindly remembered by them but to prompt learning in all of them. Let us share to make our reservoirs of skill-building links available to our colleagues, in our countries or elsewhere.
By reflecting on the selected articles provided by our instructors, we can come to important realizations that can guide our teaching style differently. No doubt that our instructors know the ulterior goal of this course, but this goal will only be achievable if we do our part. Valid information for our "digital" experience is hidden among the words found in the articles; if correctly decoded by us participants, we will start making the difference for our students no matter where we are working: primary school, kindergarten, high school, or the university. Updating ourselves with a bit of information on language teaching, as if we were computers, is a way to avoid becoming "obsolete," -someone who resists doing things different to benefit students.
CALL environments are a reality, and if we don't take the chance of learning about them and how to use them effectively, we are neglecting our teaching and our students' learning. Computers and the Web are here to stay and to be used; we can't go back in time and teach how we were taught in our school days. Education is being transformed worldwide, and now that we are in these course, we are experiencing the benefits of studying online even while being in our home countries.The fact that we can interact with one another is just the best way to profit from everyone's experience, experiments, and insightful opinions.
To conclude, now that we are an "online/digital teaching community," we are to spread our horizons by the exchange of ideas among ourselves. This "exchange" with partners and instructors can trigger positive changes in our teaching styles, lesson planning, learning objectives for students as well for ourselves.
Jonathan,
I like your reflection very much as you rightly pointed out the importance of start sharing learning links to strenghten cooperation and facilitates language teaching. Needless to say of all the insightful ideas and experiences we learn from colleagues all over the world when we participate in online learning just like we are right now.
Thanks again for your ideas.
Dear Jonathan,
It is good to see how my colleagues are putting all the developments in our human and professional environment into perspective. Life-long learning is a must for as well as for o many other professions. Building professional communites and communicating ideas and expertise is one of the things we do to thrive in that intensive environment. Plus, it adds a human dimension to our job. Of course, in our responding to others, we feel pressurized by time (but who doesn't these days?). In addition, it is hard to get your ideas through in a ccompletely effective way. Your remark on our forum on getting lost amidst the 'fascination' with segmentals and their features is brilliant.
Thank you for always posting early - I'll make you my role model for this week.
Best regards,
Andreja