Week 9: Incorporate technology with various learning styles

     The difference that active learning makes it becomes easier to support finding ways to incorporate technology into education. People learn either visually (by seeing), auditory (by hearing), or kinetically (by doing). Allowing students with various learning styles alternate modes to interpret ideas and understand challenging concepts will enhance their success. This includes low performing students, average working students, and high achieving students. With the advancement of technological active learning techniques the teacher becomes more of a facilitator to help students engage themselves in the learning process. This creates the most interactive environment with peers helping one another. The pace, style, and depth of learning can be accommodated for by the student. As Confucius taught us, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." The increase in active learning directly corresponds to an increase in engagement, retention and achievement.

    Visuals comprising much of today's technology help at least 30% of our students have a better understanding of all disciplines. At least one third of us are visual learners which means we can comprehend information more rapidly when it is presented to us through pictures, images, graphic organizers, mind-maps, concept maps, videos, etc.). Neuroscientists attribute one's visual/spatial abilities to the following facts: (1) the brain having an attentional bias for high contrast and novelty; (2) 90% of the brain's sensory output is from visual sources; and (3) the brain has an immediate and primitive response to symbols, icons and strong, simple images. Technology based art forms have a tremendous appeal to these students, encouraging artistic expression among our diverse student population. These tools provide an outlet, a form of artistic communication for those who have been constrained by the traditional modes of written and verbal communication. For the visual/spatial child, learning with technology increases their motivation and may foster their creative problem-solving skills as they evaluate the many possible ways of expressing ideas.

Week 8: "Sweet is the memory of distant friends!....."

 

 

By the end of this splendid online course, we must say, " Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart." - Washington Irving.

 

As mentioned before, I'm very optimistic about the benefits of blogging in the language classroom, but much depends on the teacher's efforts in establishing the basis for an active group of student-bloggers, which is certainly a challenge due to schedule constraints, overflow of information, resistance from students, and constraints on educators and their institutions. Nonetheless, when a community of bloggers is created, the learning outcomes can be far-reaching. Going beyond the classroom has never been so easy, literally just at the tip of the learners' fingers. The audience is there, content is produced, meaning is developed, reflection is encouraged, and the target language is the means to establish these elements of communication. Nothing could be more meaningful for a language learner. But language learning through blogging doesn't "simply happen"; it happens only if learners apply themselves to developing semantic webs taking all into another level of understanding of the language being studied and of the vast, fascinating world surrounding them.

"Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.",

William Shakespeare