Week 14

Based on the article: Assessing language using computer technology by Dan Douglas and Volker Hegelheimer.

Rate: 5

The evaluation method in the technological age

Technology is a fundamental part of students' lives, today there are different ways of evaluating students and one of them is related to technology, which is what this article talks about, virtual classes are now great help for those who do not have enough time because of their jobs or daily life, the time in this evaluation method, short and less expensive. In addition, students can be evaluated on websites that help the teacher to design their tests with multiple options, a clear example of which is Quia that was used by the language school as an evaluation method that I experienced. However, using these websites as an evaluation tool also has its disadvantages and that is why Quia happened to be an obsolete site for us, since students can not solve doubts instantly or have a direct interaction with the teacher. 

To conclude, it is possible that the advantages of this method generate a good response from the students who day by day live hand in hand with the technology so that very possibly in a future as a teacher I am encouraged to apply it in a student community that has the necessary computers and tools.

Thanks for reading! 😊

WEEK 13Based on the articles: “10 Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in Classroom Discussions” by Maryellen Weimer and “Think-Pair-Share” by Kristina Robertson.

Successful interactive classes

Students participation is very essential to have a successful class, as in the article of 10 benefits says participation adds interest to a class and it is totally true because students can fuel a class with questions or different opinions. Also, teachers can capture students comprehension and give them feedback if it is necessary for they to understand better, to clear doubts, or for they to have more knowledge. Besides, ask them to read articles or to investigate before the class is a good manner to involve them in the class,  they will be comfortable and happier to interact with the teacher and classmates using new or their own vocabulary. On the other hand, the second article “Think Pair Share” talk us about an effective and easier way to help to the student to clarify and delve into something, the teacher ask them something and students have to share their ideas and thoughts with another classmate before to share it with the rest of the class. In conclusion, collaborative work help students to be more secure to participate actively in classes and as future teachers we can get better results.

The activities of the week for me are a bit related to the articles we read because we have to discuss and reflect on them with our classmates and we also have to do the activities they assigned us, so we are doing an interactive work. class and learning more about the language.

Rate: 5

Thanks for reading. 😊

WEEK 12
Based on the articles:
"Maximizing the benefits of Project Work in Foreign Language Classrooms" by Bülent Alan and Fredricka L. Stoller and "Educational Leadership Giving Students Meaningful Work: Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning" by John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller.

Meaningful projects for leadership

According two both articles, It is amazing to have knowledge about how to evaluate students in different ways in which they and the teacher can feel very confident that they have acquired a true knowledge of the target language. On the other hand, getting them not to feel bored but the doubt, the desire to know and learn to become a challenge for them is not easy but it will undoubtedly help them to increase their knowledge in real life. In addition, taking into account the way in which the teacher encourages students when developing a project can be essential to achieve a good result, clearly students will enhance their own learning based on the structuring of projects that are really significant and not just represent one more activity but become challenges for them, that they feel the doubt or desire to want to clear any doubt to find an answer. To conclude, learn based on projects could be a clear challenge for students but it will clarify all the doubts that are in them and solve the problems they already have with the target language.

Rate: 5
Thanks for reading!

WEEK 11
Based on the article: "Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning" by Ulugbek Nurmukhamedov.

The evolution of dictionary uses.

Dictionaries are very important when it comes to learning a language either native or foreign, people have required dictionaries for many years in order to learn new meanings and words to expand their vocabulary and learn something new about a language. Currently the world has different applications and websites that offer the possibility of accessing a dictionary for free without the need to buy one, the variety of options of printed dictionaries, dictionaries on DVD and online dictionaries have facilitated the life of the human being. On the other hand, the advantages that currently exist when using a dictionary are varied because students can consult the correct pronunciation either in a manual dictionary or online. Also, if an online dictionary is used, students can obtain more than one meaning, they can hear the correct pronunciation of a word and they can put these words into practice either through practical exercises or grammar with the help of the teacher. Besides, teacher can create practical exercises with the words for them to memorize or learn by playing. To conclude, dictionaries have become multifunctional, cheap and practical, the infinity of languages ​​that can be accessed through them is wonderful what undoubtedly makes them an essential tool when teaching a second language.

Thanks for reading!

Rate: 4

Conventional classes with cellphones

WEEK 10
Conventional classes with cellphones

Based on: Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom, by Hayo Reinders.

It is very interesting to see the ways in which the article focuses on the use of mobile phones for learning a second language inside and outside the classroom. Currently, this is essential for the daily life of the human being and create activities that lead to its use is ideal because it provides a quick and easy way to access vocabulary through an online translator or any type of information. On the other hand, students are given control over their own learning, they can look for what they want and feel comfortable with their own information. In addition, many activities can be developed, they can take pictures of the class to any platform, download school applications or create audios and share them. However, to be able to do many things instantly from anywhere, you need to have a data plan in your cell phone and apart from that, not all students have a good mobile device in countries like ours. To conclude, making use of cell phones for learning a second language is certainly a conventional idea, since it facilitates access to information and provides new learning strategies that as future teachers we must take into account to put into practice because it is a new stage of evolution.

Thanks for reading!

Rank: 5

Week 9

Wiki as a teaching strategy

Based on: "Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis" by Paul Sze.

The internet has given us hundreds of options to be able to teach a language creatively and effectively, the ease of using sites like Wiki in which the same students can work with an internet connection and modify in the way they want it. Also, it facilitates the pedagogy of a teacher and improves student learning. The student through Wiki can work comfortably from home and edit their work as they like, it is not necessary to attend the classroom to develop a specific number of activities, the best of which is that the student can effectively improve the writing area and Strengthen your teamwork skills. However, this type of methodology could not be possible everywhere, since not all students and their families have Internet, as it is in the case of El Salvador and this is where this type of methodology could be affected, since which does not cover all socio-economic areas. To conclude, the use of new teaching methods such as Wiki can be much more comfortable for the teacher and for the student, facilitates their methods of evaluation and favors the learning of students through technology that is currently a major axis in life of all young people, it means that if we have all the necessary tools to apply it, it could be very useful.

Rank: 4

WEEK 7

Learning through children's literature

Based on the article: Using Internet­Based Children's Literature to Teach EFL by Larry J. Mikulecky.

Using reading to teach a second language is a great strategy, either to teach young children or adults, however, it is known that there are certain types of problems when the student does not know a certain number of words or meanings existing in the reading and is when students can be frustrated or unable to advance to the next level. On the other hand, in the past to use books meant that you had to invest money to buy them, now with the use of the internet to buy books is very easy, free and simple, nowadays, there are hundreds of books on the Internet that can help a lot of teachers, especially because children's books are easy to get, they are short and simple to understand ... nothing better for those who are venturing into the first steps of learning a language. In addition, if the student does not have the possibility of accessing a website or with access to the internet, the teacher can download readings and provide them with the possibility that they can photocopy, as it is done in the university with the reading books that they can be found on the website of the school of languages or they can be purchased at the photocopier.

To conclude, as future teachers we must be sure that our students are able to understand the readings we have to assign them, and we can do this through activities such as the activities in the text, which confirm how great their learning is or how big it is student previous learning to be able to advance to another stage.

Rate: 5

Week 6

 Creative and attractive ways for teaching languages

Based on the article: Using Original Video and Sound Effects to Teach English by Shahla Yassaei.

Over the years, teachers have invested too much time designing different forms and methods of teaching, even though many of these contents have not succeeded in developing during the classes, for which the teachers' work ends up being in vain but why is this happening according to the text? Well, many of these teaching methods do not awaken the tastes and interests of students since many topics are boring or uncreative, this is due to the lack of interest on the part of the students and often in the low performance they have.

In order to provide an entertaining and interactive class to our students it is necessary that we design teaching methods that awaken their interest day by day and that they create a sense of doubt, that sense in which they may want to discover or develop a topic. In addition, adapting to your environment and making use of technological tools is essential to teach them in a novel way, even taking ideas from the teaching that is offered in other countries through the Internet.

Using programs your favorite television shows or what is fashionable is a way to attract students attention immediately and we can teach any subject, be it grammar, vocabulary among others. Radio can be a fundamental element to practice listening, currently learning English thanks to technology is very simple, so much so that now each teacher can create their own content as the author of this text to reflect and make a video and perform a grammar class. Finally, as future teachers we can develop our classes in hundreds of ways but if we see that a certain form of teaching does not give us the results we expect, we can change our teaching methods, teaching can be entertaining and fun but that depends a lot on the methods of teaching that each teacher applies and develops during the content of a class.

Thank you for reading!
Rate: 5

Week 5: Significant Learning

Based on the article: Critical Thinking and Technology by Ken Bain.

Making students worry about learning and thinking critically is not something simple, for it intrinsic motivation and abstract reasoning are fundamental axes at the time of learning, through intrinsic motivation students are autonomous and have purposes to achieve something without having to be pressured because they have the interest to do things by themselves, likewise, students can feel more motivated if they are supported and made to feel comfortable with what they are doing. On the other hand, abstract reasoning helps them to reason about different situations and makes them more analytical when carrying out their activities, it helps them to learn consciously.

Moreover, human beings learn in different ways, not all of them have the same interests and learning abilities, there are those who learn visually through pictures, videos, etc, or those ones who learn aurally, with podcast, videos, etc, it is why providing good learning environments encourages and motivate the preferences of all types of students, if students feel comfortable working more efficiently due to lack of stress and worries they have.

To conclude, the use of computers can help students think creatively and provide different learning methods according to their preferences, style and priorities.

Thank you for reading!

Rate: 4

Internet as an educational strategy

WEEK: 4

Reflection based on the article: CALL Me… Maybe: A Framework for Integrating the Internet into ELT by George M. Chinnery.

The article presents different alternatives to integrate the internet into language teaching, what is really interesting to me is the fact that integrating technology with education has become extremely fundamental, maybe in our country we are still in process but in other countries students are at a higher level in the use of applications and mobile services, George M. Chinnery author of this article makes me think that students and teachers from more developed countries not only use the Internet but they also create and present new contents, while we only learn how to use the tools they already have, copying their learning models, and this is definitely because in our country not all students and teachers have daily access to the Internet and schools do not encourage us from childhood to thecreation and design of new ideas.

On the other hand, intenet is giving us hundreds of tools where we can access videos, podcasts, interactive documents and websites where someone can learn creatively, or even speak with native speakers of the language, which makes it more awesome because exist a cultural exchange. Young people today prefer to learn visual and innovatively, the use of the internet generates a plus. 

To conclude with my reflection, access to the Internet or not does not mean that we can not find a way to bring new ideas to our classroom. 

Thank you for reading!

Rate: definitively 5!

                                      

WEEK 3:

The importance of combining technological and educational resources in ESL classrooms.

Based on the article: Integrating CALL into the classroom: the role of podcasting in an ESL listening strategies course by Anne O’bryan and Volker Hegelheimer.

Podcasts help to promote an integral learning when it comes to learning languages. Now that the technology has advanced, listening areas and oral areas have been improved with the combination of postcast and language teaching.

In the past, listening areas were reinforced with the use of cassettes, but nowadays access to the internet and technological resources allowed the use of podcasts to become more common due to the diversity and novelty of the materials they offered. However, upon the emergence of this training process, it became evident that most teachers lacked and still lack technological knowledge, which consequently prevented them from renewing their knowledge and implementing new forms of study in the classroom. On the other hand, most of the educational centers in our country still do not have the necessary resources to integrate the use of new technologies to their learning methods, which definitely does not provide good results.

To conclude, in the future we have the task of updating ourselves and creating our own interactive materials, sharing our knowledge and resources with our colleagues, it does not matter if our educational center has the resources or not, we are already part of a generation that has grown hand in hand with technology, so we have no excuses not to integrate new forms of study in our classroom.

Thank you for reading!
Rate: 5

WEEK 2 

The effectiveness of ICT Tools in teaching English.

Based on the article: Effectiveness of the Integration of ICT Tools and Activities to Foster Awareness as the First Stage to Reach Learning Autonomy by Andrea Ariza y Mario Suarez.

Nowadays, ICT Tools favor the learning of the English language greatly, since not only do they develop linguistic skills in the students but they also guide them through their experience, contributing not only to their development and to the mastery of the English Language, also it gives them a true knowledge of themselves, that is why the role of teachers is fundamental to discover and recognize the strengths and weaknesses that students have inside and outside the classroom.

On the other hand, it is very interesting to know that to achieve a successful learning of the English Language through ICT Tools, the learning strategies that a teacher uses and the meta-cognition processes that are taken into account at the time of teaching encourage in the student the ability to learn to learn to build truly meaningful learning.

To conclude, the use of ICT's will undoubtedly help students to be independent and work on making their own decisions, they will be able to recognize the tools that best adapt to their learning style and what their preferences are, making them more autonomous and helping them to improve in other aspects of daily life.

Thank you for reading!

Rate: 5

WEEK 1: TEACHING AND LEARNING FROM TECHNOLOGY

Computers and language learning: an overview argument by Mark Warschauer and Deborah Heale.

Rate: 4

Over the years, computers have played a very important role in the lives of people; this evolution is noticeable and necessary for human being progress, the easy use of computers created confidentiality and comfort in the users, motivating them to discover and develop new ways of learning.

Reading, writing, researching and communicating in real time with others synchronously or asynchronously with just one click became easier, also knowing other languages and cultures is no longer a taboo; this allowed that in the educational field the teacher became a facilitator of learning and not just in a knowledge holder, students are constantly updating, so teachers have been forced to update themselves to get new information.

Creation of programs for teaching languages has become indispensable, in our country the knowledge of a second language is almost indisputable to acquire a job, studying languages online people can save time and money, but it can not cover physical and emotional aspects in the student’s life.

To conclude, as future teachers we have the challenge of creating a fusion between education and technology because world is leaving us clear that electronic literacy is only a reality that takes giant steps. Artificial intelligence is just giving us freedom and suggestions to teach in a new way to our students.

Thank you for reading!