The Internet tools and exercises I
have tried this week are very interesting. Each of them has a specific feature
of their own and to my mind can be successfully integrated in EFL lessons for
students of different levels of proficiency. Now I am a little bit overwhelmed
with the number of tools and software, that I need some time to think over and
decide how efficiently integrate them and adjust to the requirements of my curriculum.
For sure, my teaching methods have undergone considerable change. From now on with the amount of knowledge I
have acquired from the Webskills course I just won't be able to teach as I used
to. It will be a "crime" to keep this knowledge about me and not to share it with
my students and colleagues. I am deeply concerned, that the new interactive web
resources will not only motivate my students at the lesson, but also (and it is
even more important) will promote their self-directed, autonomous learning by
providing them with the opportunity to enrich their knowledge on the subject in
out-of-class activities. The variety of tasks that may be suggested for them and
diverse information on any issue can be effectively used to develop their basic
linguistic skills as well as skills of critical thinking, collaboration,
cultural awareness etc. I think it will take some time to get my students
accustomed to technology enhanced teaching and learning and then they will do everything
on their own. The most difficult thing will be to start. To implement the
change, to reorganize their traditional way of learning. I know it will not be
easy… but not impossible. With effort and perseverance everything can be achieved. Under these conditions of unlimited possibilities
the role of the teacher is not lessened but, I am convinced, of paramount
importance. For students not to be lost in the torrents of new information, not
to be discouraged by the variety of new tools, it is the teacher who should be
responsible for the appropriate selection of the content of the sites (the
students are to be informed about the danger of internet bullying), level of
the activities, thorough planning of the lessons. Integration of these technology innovations of
course should be gradual, step by step, from simple activities to more
complicated ones. The teacher should be an active manager of the class, because
a mere fact of employing an innovative technology in class will not lead to
success, with time students may get bored or frustrated with new activities and
the teacher is responsible to make the process lively and engaging.
Week 8 gave me a chance to communicate with my
project partner, exchange information on our projects, help each other make it better. I have a nice
partner, Sandra, from Colombia. I like her project and the site she created for
her course.
This time I got to know about a new resource ANVILL
and Jeff Magoto, its developer. The software is great. I have registered for it
and I hope to use it with my students. This software is a rare case of high
quality and free access. I am happy to have a chance to try it. The fact that I
missed the workshop makes me very sad, but I had to be present at the meeting.
