Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Some Thoughts from the Generation Gap

In our recent blogs ~ discussion topics have ranged from Cultural Norms to on-line degrees from Harvard.  Incorporating technology in the classroom, especially for Foreign Language Learners is clearly the here and now.  However, are we leaving out a group of students by utilizing technology in the classroom?  The following commentary by Timothy Van Slyke will explore the possible decline of education.

Some questions to think about when reading the article: 

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Some Thoughts from the Generation Gap

1. How might you, as an Foreign Language Teacher bridge the cultural and linguistic divide separating today's teachers or students in teaching or learning a foreign language using technology if teacher or student is not "fluent" in the world of technology?
2. Does our brain work differently today than that of "yesteryear," especially when it comes to technology?
3. Can Digital Immigrants learn other languages?
4. Will Digital Natives leave the Digital Immigrants behind?
5. What are your thoughts on technology ... a replacement ... or a tool ... in learning a foreign language?

Thanks!  Cat

Week 7 ~ responses due by Thursday, March 8  :)

Cultural Norms in the Classroom; yours or mine?

In our examination of the Cultura Project, we saw that the cultural nuances of an individual or a group of language learners cannot be ignored. There was one particular example that I could personally relate to from a discussion between Russian and American students. When the Americans were asked what they would do if their classmate asked for help on an exam, they all agreed that they would refuse to help. The Russians, on the other hand, were united in answering that they would assist their hypothetical classmate.
The culture in Ukraine, where I taught English for 27 months, is quite easily compared to that of Russia in this regard.  During the cultural training sessions facilitated by the Peace Corps staff, the topic of cheating in the classroom was addressed.  It was attributed in part to the many years of communist rule, which left its mark on Ukrainian culture.  Historically, Ukrainian people have seen many hard times.  If you were able to help your neighbor, it was wise to do so, as there would inevitably be a time when you too would be in need of a helping hand. 
If you were working as an English teacher in another country, one with cultural norms perpendicular to those of your home country (such as behavior concerning academic honesty), how would you meet this challenge? When you teach English (or any subject) abroad, must you impose the academic standards to which you are accustomed, or is it better to conduct your lessons within the cultural framework already in place?

The University of Wherever

I saw this article last year.  Imagine getting a degree from Harvard University from your home.  There are no admissions requirements, no minimum test scores or high school GPA.  You attend class (online), you do the work, you get the grades, you get a degree from Harvard.  There are classes now where the Lecturer is online and all the work is submitted electronically, but students need to be admitted to the institution to receive credit.  What if they opened those classes to the public?  Imagine "being" in class with tens of thousands of other students.  Would we get the same quality of education?  What would it mean to be an excellent teacher, simply someone that works at a popular institution or the teacher with the most students?  Is it a good thing for students/teachers/education, or not?  Can you imagine giving a Language Class like English Academic Writing to 100,000 students?

The article is a little long, but here are the nuts and bolts of the idea:
Thrun’s ultimate mission is a virtual university in which the best professors broadcast their lectures to tens of thousands of students. Testing, peer interaction and grading would happen online; a cadre of teaching assistants would provide some human supervision; and the price would be within reach of almost anyone. “Literally, we can probably get the same quality of education I teach in class for about 1 to 2 percent of the cost,” Thrun told me. The traditional university, in his view, serves a fortunate few, inefficiently, with a business model built on exclusivity. “I’m not at all against the on-campus experience,” he said. “I love it. It’s great. It has a lot of things which cannot be replaced by anything online. But it’s also insanely uneconomical.”

 The link to the article:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/opinion/the-university-of-wherever.html?scp=1&sq=the%20university%20of%20wherever&st=cse

Conferencing

Technology has supplied various forms of computer-mediated communication to help educators and learners in their second language learning process. Conferencing is one of the technologies I found useful for improving the listening oral skills since it is very similar to face-to-face communication, and provides an immediate feedback - as other synchronous forms. MOO is incredibly interesting for both teacher and learners who are involved in a virtual environment and exposed to a target language and culture. Apparently, most learners use the e-mails (asynchronous), where responses may delay, for submitting assignments, interacting and exchange information in their second language learning as my students used to. A common example of using this technology is “Tandem e-mail learning” where there is a balance between the roles of participants, between what they receive and what they contribute. CMC Technologies, in its effectiveness role, have a great promising future if they are pedagogically selected to achieve the planned objectives of second language learning. In general, synchronous forms of CMC develop the oral proficiency of learners and reduce the physical distance within diverse learning environments. In asynchronous tools, learners improve their linguistic quality lexically and syntactically. The individuals’ variations and the strengths and limitations of CMC material considerations should be the basis on which we choose an efficient teaching aid.

After reading the articles “Commentary: You’re Not Studying, You’re Just …. By Purushotma and Web 2.0, Synthetic Immersive Environments, and Mobile Resources for Language Education by Sykes, I realized how important it is to use games in language learning. Language learner get bored in using text books all the time by using games will keep them motivated to learn. I found this article in the internet; I like to share with you. My question is how do you feel about using games for teaching language learning? Do you find it useful or a waste of time?
http://www.teflgames.com/why.html

Incorporating Technology into Your Classroom at a Low Cost

Did you ever think about having your own website where you can control almost everything? I’m not talking about blogs, facebook, twitter and all the other social networking where you are somehow limited. Creating your own website gives your students the opportunity to learn important web skills and gives them a fun way to complete their assignments and other class work. Here are some reputable web services you can use to create your class website for a low cost:

 1- Weebly :

Weebly has a special option for creating a website for education purposes. You can create a free class website and let your students build sites too.

2- yola :

Yola is another good place to start building your classroom website.

3- ELECTA live :

Electa Live is a virtual classroom and Web conferencing real-time environment for live teaching and training over the Internet. You can arrange live classes, online meetings and Webinars. You only need a computer with an Internet connection for your live sessions.

This guy is an example of a man who's made a change to many people lives by making z free world-class education to anyone anywhere. His name is Salman Khan and he is Bangladeshi American. You can watch him talking about technology in classrooms.

Click here - Khan Academy

reference :
1

CALL minus the last L

When I first went to Japan I didn't know anything about Japanese.  But I felt that I would be okay because technology was on my side.  I had a PSP (Playstation Portable) and a game called Talkman.  I figured this game would do all the talking for me.  But the technology wasn't really advanced enough and I ended up having to take the time to learn.

But now, with technology advancing seemingly faster than ever, will there be a time when technology makes actual learning of languages obsolete? This is an old video but the technology that is being developed seems like it would make it almost unnecessary to learn new languages.   

Here's an application that is currently available for the iphone.