Learning in the 21st Century

Connie Yowell’s talk was very enlightening and interesting for me. She talked about the role of technology or digital media in the 21^st century learning. Reports conducted by different researchers say that those learners who are digitally literate have strong results than those who don’t. It is important to know that kids become digitally literate outside the school without any guidance from school administration, therefore, school stays behind and sometimes ‘out of date’.

Connie Yowell also talks about 3 conceptual shifts:

Ø Shift from education to learning. The first one refers to what institutions do and the second one refers to something that the youth and adults do.

Ø Shift from consumption to participation. Today learners are more doers than consumers. Thomas Freidman also talked about the need to move learners from consumers to makers, doers.

Ø Shift from institutions to networks.

The speaker also focused our attention on the necessity of conducting more and more qualitative or descriptive research on how kids use digital media in order to identify new categories and theories for a quantitative research. Besides, she pointed out the fact that it is not about technologies, it is more about social practices that technologies can afford. In order to satisfy 21^st century learners it is critical to move away from all traditional skills and to try to link the virtual reality with the real one and to support the whole learning environment both online and offline.

As a future EFL educator I think that is it necessary for me to explore the technologies that students are interested in and try to include them in face-to –face language learning. It is crucial to figure out the context in which the kids learn and try to operate in the best practices of the learners. Also, we should involve parents in the whole learning process and raise their awareness in the need of digital media in EFL learning.

To wrap up, nowadays learning has become more dynamic, more flexible and more learner-centered. Learning can’t be limited only in an offline context but includes other sectors situated in an online environment, like Google. The teachers should be open to innovations and try to recognize the new literacy practices whenever or wherever it occurs. The digital media is a powerful tool that if used correctly in an EFL classroom can be a real “springboard” in the successful language learning. Also, I would recommend using those technologies that are the most effective and can be applicable in for research agenda. They are digital storytelling, podcasts, blogs, Google apps, social bookmarks and wikis.

Google Apps for Education

                                               

Google has become very powerful nowadays. It is not surprising that it offers applications for Education. It offers schools or universities solutions for their e-mail, calendar or chat through Google Apps for Education. Here are some advantages of it:

•         It is free

•         It is easily accessible (no need for downloading and installing software)

•         It is secure

•         It motivates collaborative work

•         Its stores a lot of information

I am familiar with Google docs, Google, Map, Blogger, Google Earth and Google Book Search. I think all this apps are very useful and can be easily used in education. The one that all of us have tried and are still using for various projects is Google docs. It is easily accessible and stores the information that all participants add.

Now let’s move to the apps that I am not familiar with. Google Notebook is one of them. It is an online notebook which is designed for online collaboration. It consolidated in one place and one can access from anywhere. Besides, one can share it with others. It is a helpful tool for gathering the information you need in one place instead of saving it on separate word documents. Here is the link on how to add Google notebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2fuwVhwEG0&feature=player_embedded#!

The next app is Google SketchUp. It is a user-friendly program that allows students or learners to create, modify and share 3D models. After finishing the sketch one can make a movie or print it out. It is a creative and interesting app that I think students would be eager to use. Here is the link of tutorial

The last app is Google Groups. This app helps students to become motivated outside the classroom. It is an open forum that enables students, teachers and parents to communicate with each other and discuss some issues related to teaching and learning. It is some kind of distance education forum that helps people to benefit from each other’s feedback and answers.

Overall, Google apps for Education as any other Web 2.0 tool makes the learning process more engaging and effective. Also, it promotes collaborative learning, enhances students experience and supports them.

Cloud Computing

                            

I have a feeling that the more technological tools we learn the more we still need to know. It was very interesting for me to learn about cloud computing. As far as I could understand from readings and videos cloud computing involves sending hosted services over the Internet. The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that's often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams. Therefore, these services are divided into 3 categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service.

Cloud computing has many advantages. Here are some of them:

ü  It costs less

ü  It is flexible in a way that each user can have as many of its services as he/she wishes

ü  It is easily accessible- one just needs a personal computer and internet

ü  It is more reliable, more secure and more scalable

Hence, the examples of cloud computing are:

ü  E-mail services

ü  Yahoo

ü  Picnic

ü  WordPress

Taking into account the fact that we are future educators we should try to apply this tool in our teaching. One of the possible ways is to provide information accessible anytime and anywhere or to reduce the need of saving files on a CD or DVD as now blogs or e-mails are the places where these files can be stored or to be used as a personal work space both for teachers and students. I think we could use cloud computing in Armenian EFL classrooms. All we need are competent people that are willing to help, cooperation and a lot of effort and belief in the successful implementation of this tool. 

Web Analytics in EFL Learning

                               

Web analytics is a tool for measuring the traffic of the web site. Fortunately, it can also be used in EFL learning. It is a “mentor” that helps the teacher to improve his/her teaching. So, web analytics helps us to:

·         Follow students’ learning

·         Identify students’ needs

·         Identify students’ weaknesses and solve them

·         Help design blended course

·         Recognize the most popular activities

           

 It is worth mentioning about metrics that allows teachers to find out their learners’ needs and improve outcomes for them. There are four of them: engagement, satisfaction, behavioral and outcome.

I myself would like to try web analytics when I teach with any kind of technology. It gives a clear picture of students’ learning progress and makes them active learners rather than learners who simply complete the given assignments. Web analytics is a learner-centered tool that “monitors” students’ online presence and individual learning preferences. It makes e-learning more effective and engaging for all kinds of learners.

VLE vs. PLE

                                                                                        

Virtual learning environment is a virtual classroom where teachers and students communicate with each other. Materials, homework assignments, grades and discussions are carried out via Web. One of the examples of VLE is Moodle.  It’s already two years we study via Moodle and it is very interesting and useful experience. It is a place where one joins the community of learners and participates in the learning process. As compared to VLE personal learning environment (PLE) is more focused on individual tools and individual preferences. However, if in VLE the teacher can leave individual comments in PLE it is almost impossible to keep privacy.

I myself prefer VLE as it is a popular method of e-learning, which refers to learning through electronic means. While a VLE cannot fully replace the traditional classroom, it can be a useful way of teaching students who live far from the school or the university. Moreover, the experience that we had when we tried to add different activities in Sandbox showed that VLE is a very user-friendly tool and easily accessible. Therefore, VLE is the basic components of distance learning and can be integrated with traditional face-to dace learning.

Distance Learning

The articles that I have read and the video that I have watched spoke about the role and the main benefits of distance learning. So, what is distance learning? Distance learning is a field of education that delivers teaching to students who are far from the teacher and are making use of various technologies, like Internet, DVDs, and CDs to fulfill their learning.

Nowadays distance education is being used across the world. From high school students to those who are involved in high education, corporate trainings and lifelong learning. It is well-known that Internet connects people all over the world. Today Internet supports education in the form of virtual classes. The virtual teachers mentioned that they established more personal relations to their students, identified their main strengths and weaknesses more quickly and got to know them better than in traditional classes. Besides, online courses are there to help those students who are busy and can take those courses anywhere and anytime if there is internet access. Moreover, virtual classes offer students the opportunity to take courses that are not available in their schools and to fit their own schedules.

Thus, educators point out that virtual classes are not for everyone and one has to be highly self-motivated to take some courses and learn on his/her own. The main disadvantage is the lack of   social interaction between t-s and s-s.  

Distance language learning courses have been developed over the past years. First of all it is crucial for learners to develop the ability to engage with aspects of the learning context without direct mediation from the teacher. Distance language learners must develop the habit of controlling their own learning and constantly writing tests to check their progress.

Finally, distance learning has totally changed our perceptions of how teaching and learning should be. Its main goal is to improve the course via technology and improve the quality of education. Moreover, distance learning provides learners with new opportunities and new perspectives. The learners become more self-directed and autonomous as compared to face-to face-learning as they face the role of a teacher and participate in learning experiences that match their individual learning needs.

Open Educational Resources

The discussion on Open Educational Resources that we had with our guest speaker was very informative and meaningful. Before the discussions we had to read an article and learn about OERs from different sources. As far as I could understand the mission of OERs is to provide all kind of learners with digital materials for teaching, learning, research, etc. Here are some examples of OER: quizzes, tests, syllabi, lectures, textbooks, different activities, variety of games, etc.

OER is widely used across the world. The main advantages are the following:

ü  It focuses on learner involvement

ü  It creates space for individual learning

ü  The students are to choose from various resources on their own

ü  It supports lifelong learning

ü  It saves time and effort

ü  It is flexible in selecting from a wide range of materials for teaching and learning

ü  It promotes critical thinking and problem solving

However, learners should be very careful in choosing materials and try not to violate copyright laws. Naturally, face-to face interaction equals to zero.

There is some OER development in Armenia. Our speaker mentioned that there were no major changes in that direction as many OERs faced challenges, like mentality, lack of quality and financial support, etc. Thus, I do hope that the success stories that she told us and the overall movement that was going on in that direction would bring the desired results.