Eureka

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I was very fascinated by the video crated by Michael Wesch called The Machine is us/ing us. It’s about what we can do today with Web 2.0 technologies. Today, as the title given to the video points out, and as opposed to the beliefs of someone “the machine” is not using us but is “us”. Thanks to Web 2.0 we can create, edit, and tag texts, share them and collaborate with other people around the world. As Wesch underlines, today “we are the web” and I reckon that as future teachers we have to put our efforts in introduce this new technology in the classroom.

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I’ve recently come across this interesting website. It’s about learning Italian with podcasts. In this site there is series of podcasts based on famous Italian movies which help the learner to become fluent with the language while at the same time discovering the Italian culture. As a future LOTE teacher, I find podcasts an extremely useful and funny way to learn a language because by using those students are exposed to real life conversation and not to the sometimes artificial conversation on CDs and audiocassettes that we use in schools. Especially at advanced levels (year 11-12) students must come in contact with the real and authentic spoken language and podcasts seem to be one of the best tools to do this.

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here

I found this interesting press release in Italian which is about the ever increasing number of students who are learning a second language (in this case English) through virtual worlds such as Second Life. Thanks to the simulation of realistic environments and scenarios, students around the world are finding new creative ways to improve their linguistic skills. According to one of the students’ feedback, learning English with Second Life was a new and stimulating 3D experience which at the same time helped him improving his English. It’s also good to know that a growing number of languages teachers is exploring the great potential of the virtual world. The 2007 SLanguages Symposium has gathered numerous language teachers from around the world who have shared their teaching experiences with Second Life. As I mentioned in my previous posting, learning languages is becoming an ever more interactive process because learners love the idea of playing a game which at the same time gives them the opportunity to gain some skills (in this case language skills). That’s why in Bolivia someone has had this brilliant idea of creating an Avatar English school where the school offers individual lessons for students around the world. Every lesson takes place in a virtual setting, like an airport or a supermarket which are also the topics of conversation of each lesson. It looks like that from the old textbook- based lessons we’ve come a long way.

I have read a posting on Matthew’s blog about a collaborative project led by the French teacher Bernard Garcin. The project involves 30 schools around the world and its aim is supporting the students to learn languages through technology. They have organised 60 virtual classes dedicated to collaborative learning. I reckon this is a great idea because learning languages with the help of technology it’s really a big step in the future of LOTE education. Today people look for fun and interactive ways to learn languages and the web is packed with interactive languages courses (I’m personally trying to learn Spanish through a hilarious and useful online comedy-like Spanish course and I have to say it does wonders). I find very positive the fact that across the globe teachers are “connecting learners across the world”, as Matthew says. For language learning, which is all about communication, interaction and sharing, this is definitely the way to go.

This posting is a reaction to Rosa’s posting “Teaching the Digital Age”. I more than agree with her when she says that teachers should incorporate ICT in their lessons because ICT can make teaching and learning more exciting and motivating for students. Before my second prac I would use a very few technology-based activities with my students. But afterwards I realised that students find this kind of activities much more interesting. For example, on one occasion, I completely re-thought one of my lessons and I tried to incorporate technology in it. The original task was this: students had to read an article about the history of soccer and then write a composition summarising in the target language (Italian) the main information they got from the reading. I made them creating the same piece of writing as I would have expected from a more conventional task, but this time I had students using photo story, so that they could add images, motion and sounds to their writing. They really enjoyed the activity proposed in such a way and the outcome was of a much better quality. I do believe that sometimes today’s teachers should leave their comfort- teaching zones and experience new ways of teaching to keep up with students interests.

In the reading Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Marc Prensky talks about how today’s students have changed. The way they think and learn is different, they like to multitask and receive information in a very fast way. Prensky defines today’s kids as the Digital Natives, native speakers of the digital language, as opposed to the previous generation which he labels as the generation of the Digital Immigrants consisting of all the people who were not born in the digital world. I agree with Prensky when he says that the educators of the previous generation speak an “outdated language”, the language of the pre-digital era and that they are having problems teaching today’s students who speak a new language. I reckon that, as teachers, we should leave our comfort zones, learn about students’ interests and try to integrate technology in our activities. We should experiment new things and shouldn’t be afraid to ask for advice and suggestions from our students, especially about technological material, because kids can be a real font of inspiration from which all of us can draw. If we really want to create a quality learning environment, it is important that we start thinking with the students. We must take into consideration engagement, not only content when teaching, and we have to pay attention to how students learn, and value what they know.

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1–2. Available:  (NB. can do ‘natives’ test here:
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/digitalnatives/index.htm )

The article from the ABC 7.30 report “Concern over Teen Internet Habits” about the scary suicide of two girls in Victoria has raised concern in regard to the thousands of hours Australian teenagers spend on the Internet. The girls gave clues of their imminent suicide on the Internet before disappearing. I think the enormity of the event, which patently shows that children’s addiction to the Internet is something that we cannot control, raises so many questions on children’ safety. Most of parents today are not aware of what their children are doing online. They log on MySpace and Mns and parents already experience a feeling of danger. But surfing the net one can encounter even more dangerous websites and be trapped in, like the so called “vampire websites” containing themes such as suicide and death. There are also sites that support anorexic lifestyle giving hints on how to lose more weight. How can parents be vigilant of the sites visited, if not setting parental controls?

ABC (2007). Concern over teen Internet habits. The 7.30 Report. (From 2nd May, 2007)

I somehow agree with Athina’s posting on the ABC article. Today kids are so immersed in technology that every time you come up with an alternative pastime like going for a bike ride or going away for a few days, they automatically answer you that they prefer to play with their computer otherwise they will get bored. It’ s happened to me every time me and my parents  have tried to ask  my eleven year-old step-brother to go for a run in the park or to do something that didn’t involve technology. His set reply was that he’d rather stay home and play with his Play Station. I’m not sure if the ones to blame are too permissive parents or the society itself that has become so technology-addicted, but one thing is sure: if kids prefer to be glued to their screens instead of enjoying a beautiful day outdoor with their family, things are really going out of control.