Sunday, February 19, 2012

Open Educational Resources (OER)

In language learning the input plays a major role for successful learning (Krashen’s input hypothesis).  For this reason language teachers should have access to huge amount of materials in target language. Open Educational Resources are digital materials that can be used for teaching, learning and research and which is available for free use. OER include different kinds of learning content: courses, course materials, collections, and journals. I’ve discussed in my previous posts the influence of new technologies and availability of internet in language learning and teaching. It can be argued that the most visible impact of the Internet on education are the Open Educational Resources (OER), which has provided free access to a wide range of courses and other educational materials to anyone who wants to use them. (http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses, http://www.coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/, http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm)

We are entering a world in which the main focus is on the interaction with others and the participation in an on-line environment. This fact is highly effective for language learners, as according to prominent language acquisition theorist Stephen Krashen "Acquisition requires meaningful interactions in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding."  In this century there is a shift of attention from access to information toward access to other people. For this we all have to acquire new knowledge and skills on an almost continuous basis. Because new kinds of online resources, such as social networking sites, blogs, wikis, and virtual communities came to replace traditional ways of interaction which allow people with common interests to meet, share ideas, and collaborate in innovative ways. This is a great opportunity for language learners to interact in the target language and use the language for meaningful communication.

Perhaps the best known example of online open source is Wikipedia, on-line encyclopedia which is available for every user and which can be edited by every volunteer who has new information to share. Having in mind this fact, these open sources enable users a new kind of critical reading because it is up to the readers to consider what information is reliable or important in this huge open resources and which is not.  

References
http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Mlearning

In my previous posts I've already discussed various ways facilitating learning process and making it more interesting and interactive. Another very useful and effective tool for language learning may be considered mobile learnig. Language learning is a continous process and it is highly recommended to try to emerge it to our everyday life and use the language in daily simple actions. Choosing English as a language for phone menu would already offer its users a huge vocabulary. The permanent exposure to such words as call, send, delete, set, contacts, missed call, and also days of week or names of months etc would be transferred u conciously to users active vocabulary.

One of the ways to use the mobile phone for learning is texting with friends in English. This is a very interactive and authentic situation to apply the language learnt in classroom. Integrating Mobile learning to language classrooms adds more creativity and gives learners huge implications for personal learning.

The key advantages of mobile phones are that they offer learners accessibility, mobility and flexibility. They can access a variety of content, from a variety of locations.And this helps them to create their own schedule.

Language Learning in Virtual World

The use of new technologies brought more virtuality to our life. Next to the real world there exists a virtual world which allows us do everything that we can do in our real life. As an example of virtual world I would like to speak about Second life. Second Life is an online 3D virtual world. Users choose an online identity - an "avatar" - to represent themselves within the Second Life community. The avatar can walk, run, dance and fly in the virtual world, and can also communicate with other avatars using chat and instant messaging.

There are different articles that discuss the language learning in second life.  Calongne, for instance, in the article “Learning in a Virtual World” claims that in order to have successful language learning in Second Life, it is very crucial to have the required technology, tools, engagement, course structure, feedback and a good orientation to use the tool. Second life gives us opportunity to create a safe learning environment. It is known that fear and hesitance are barriers in successful learning, and in the virtual world learners should know that it is ok to make mistakes and that they are required to actively participate in learning process. It is known that Ss best learn from mistakes and rarely forget them. So these mistakes are great opportunities for learning. Language learning in second life has focus on interaction. This method, surely does not replace traditional way of teaching, but it does offer additional ways of making students show what they know and especially how they can apply this knowledge.


One of the problems that I consider very important in the use of Second life is that this way of learning requires a lot of time spent on other things than learning. The problems in downloading or installing the program may take some students’ time and discourage them to go on working with it. Besides, in second life there are so many interesting places to go and things to try that may disturb language learners. To solve this problem a synchronous class session organized and monitored by the teacher may be the best solution. So, first of all, language teachers should be “experts” in using second life for learning purposes, and in this case, they may very successfully complement their traditional language classrooms with new interactive way of teaching. 



 

References
1.  M. Calongne 2008, Learning in a Virtual World, Educational Frontiers, Educause.
     2.  secondlife.com