unit 8. internet

[cristina]

1. Yes, I use material from the Internet in some of my classes. There are lots of webpages you can have a look at and use some of the material they offer. I´ve used them to prepare powerpoint presentations on grammar or vocabulary, I also download videos from youtube. The students are used to using the new technologies and they are more motivated when you introduce them in class. So, it is a good help for the teacher. I recommend them webpages to practice on listening and grammar exercises, others to listen or read news and practice reading and also I recommend them online dictionaries, which they are keener to use than traditional ones. As for the email, I sometimes use it so they can send me their writings but other than that, I do not use it much.
2. sometimes the connection fails and if you rely on the online material for your class, you may have to change things on the spot. With the material you want to use with your students you have to be very careful and read through beforehand to make sure all the contents you recommend them are ok.
3.The amount of material the students can have access to is huge and the teacher becomes really a guide on how to work through it and help students use the material correctly and most profitably. The fact there is so much material to choose from makes teaching easier in terms of variety of resources as well.

[Admin]

Hi Cristina, thanks for your message! Too bad nobody else seems to be doing this unit - it would be interesting to hear what other teachers think about this topic. You mention online dictionaries, undoubtedly one of my favourite online learning tools. They are so much easier to use than those great big dusty books we used to use. The other really useful tool is Google: when I'm writing something in Spanish and I'm not sure an expression or phrase is correct, I paste the thing into Google and normally it is quite clear from the search results whether it's right or wrong or partially right. It would be great to use this in class, if you had enough computers, you could get them to self-correct their homework or other writing.

[Mercè F.]

1) Yes, I do use Internet to help me in my teaching, especially to help me with my lesson plans. I always give my email address to both my students and parents to get in touch with me when necessary, I mean, when I am available.
2) the major problem is the connection in the school and also that students tend to believe all the information they find on the net and sometimes this may lead to embarrassing situations in class.
3) it's obvious that times are changing and that technology will affect the teaching of languages, in fact, if we go back to ten years' time the way of dealing with languages is completely different. The role of the teacher is becoming to be a guide for the learner and my opinion is that this will be in the coming generations.

[Mercè F.]

1) Yes, I do use Internet to help me in my teaching, especially to help me with my lesson plans. I always give my email address to both my students and parents to get in touch with me when necessary, I mean, when I am available.
2) the major problem is the connection in the school and also that students tend to believe all the information they find on the net and sometimes this may lead to embarrassing situations in class.
3) it's obvious that times are changing and that technology will affect the teaching of languages, in fact, if we go back to ten years' time the way of dealing with languages is completely different. The role of the teacher is becoming to be a guide for the learner and my opinion is that this will be in the coming generations.