Innovation and Connectedness with the Real World
After being asked the following question, now that I am taking this online course entitled Laureate Educator in the XXI Century, I have given it some thought and came up with this answer that I would like to share with you. “In what moments or by means of what set of actions, do you consider that your didactic approach reflects the beliefs held by Laureate’s Educational Network?”
Working on an answer for the question provided in one of the course’s forums, I would like to state the following: “As an EFL professional working for more than 12 years for Universidad Latina, I have tried to focus my academic efforts in class towards Web-based technologies that can foster foreign language learning and student language autonomy. For this reason, I have been working on this field for about a year now to innovate on homework and project assignments I ask students to develop for my courses, based on the course contents and objectives.”
Right after taking another online course with Laureate’s Network entitled The Use of the Case Study Methodology, I have tried to design activities and learning tasks that somehow reflect this new didactic tool for me, mostly on my Oral Communication courses that present the perfect learning/teaching scenarios for this methodology. In this way I have also tried to align what is going on in the working environment and surroundings, which they will have to live once they become teaching professionals, with the class content and activities. With this innovative tool in my language teaching style, I can, up to a certain extent, connect the class with the real world.
To conclude this rather long answer to the question above, I personally believe that these two educational maxims, which are part of Laureate’s teaching philosophy are cornerstones to fully train the professionals-to-be found in one’s classrooms. With every single bit we teachers contribute with our students’ education, we can try to make the world a better place to live. Our personal educational standards can grow exponentially in the development of knowledge in the minds of our students. And students will be better prepared to face the working challenges they will encounter later on in their professional lives.
Jonathan Acuña
Universidad Latina
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