Week 4 : Class room Connection

I am sure you have noticed how rich and constructive this week’s readings are, with enormous websites which cater to divers tastes and school levels. I almost got lost amidst the numerous web sites which provide downloadable videos, e-texts and lots of pictures to analyze and interpret to build writing and reading skills.  In fact, all those links are useful if implemented in the right context and in reasonable ‘doses’ . I guess every teacher chooses what suits him/her best and what responds the most to their students curiosity and tastes.

The  paper by Jarek Krajkaen was very interesting as it starts with a valuable summary of previous research which reflect the innovative points of view as to maximizing the presence of the digital dimensions in the classroom daily practices. A very stunning dimension among these is the new  role teachers have to assume in a wired classroom. It’s no longer sufficient for a teacher to be fluent speaker who masters the use of the language structures and functions. According to Jarek, and this I totally agree with, digital proficiency along with language mastery equal a good teacher today.

It goes without saying that the pal connection tool is so amazing and promising not only for being well-recognized among both CALL professionals and wired language teachers but for the peer evaluation culture it promotes as well. You can’t imagine the amount and quality of learning that occurs when students rely on their peers, a thing I came to believe in after the classroom connection experience I witnessed with one of my colleagues connecting through Skype an advanced Science class  with an American class (same age and same interests). Coordination between teachers on both sides takes place before hand, fix a date and a time for students to exchange queries on weather, culture, eating habits, free time activities and so forth.  Being afforded complete autonomy to make their voices heard, students do practice listening and speaking with the teacher interfering the least possible.                                     

Really a non-such experience we look forward to clone over and over and over.