Week 4.- Multi- skills web sites

There are many web pages that can be used to teach and make the students produce a new language, they are really interesting and with a correct use they are really worthy.
Some web pages are devoted to develop specific skills in the students, well, actually they help in the current activities done by teachers, the activities are varied and begin with basic things just for making the students get confidence in those activities.

Sometimes we do not know there is this kind of help just in our hands, that is because the lack of the time and the unflexible schedules and activities carried out by teachers, but if we want to improve the level of acquisition of our students we must use all the help we can have, in this case the web pages with lots of activities.

It is easy to use technology when we have the desire to help others, just look at the web pages suggested by the instructor, they are easy to handle, and the activities are really fun and engaging, the video and the MP3 files help in the process of practicing and producing the language.

Another important fact is that the students can check their progress, so they have the chance to repeat what seems difficult and they have the chance to improve something that is weak, besides there are also themes of interest that young people like, those actual facts are what they want and the vocabulary acquired is useful and real.

You think of giving your students better tools, so it means you are thinking to include these kinds of activities in your daily class, for sure they will enjoy solving them and checking at the same time their level of knowledge.

I found some pages really interesting but I think there are in the web many pages that we can use, the idea is to put into practice and engage the students so we have to be skillful when proposing them the activites because many of the students do not like to participate in extra curricular activities, they think what is learnt in class is enough, that is a normal problem we have to face in our classess , but let's be positive  and we will succeed.

Marcos Morales

Third week : CALL in the classroom

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is something new in Latin American countries, it has had a huge development in recent years, But technologies applied to education are not new is some parts of the world, we know that the first experience took place in The United States in 1960, but there are many objections about the use of technologies in class in my country because some people are oriented to the presence of a physical teacher to share the knowledge, they say they learn better when they see someone in from of them, but what they do not know that the teacher may not have all the answers, that is true because a teacher is a human being not a computer.
I work in a university where a virtual platform is used, we do not see our students very often, but we are all the time in contact with them, I have learned that working with internet in a platform is really rich because the students share what they learn, they share the new knowledge with teachers and peers, and that is great because one also learns a lot.
Education is changing very fast , and the use of new technologies are important, as it is mentioned the generation in which we live is a generation of knowledge and information, everything is in the air, all the knowledge every activity of human beings are now related to a computer, so we cannot be blind to the changes, let's bring CALL to our classroom to get better results, our students deserve to be well prepared to face a future with the tools they need.

TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Technology is something related to every human activity, just have a look what happens in our homes..Can you imagine your home without all the technology that surrounds us? no way!!.
It is amazing to see the level of dependence we have to our gadgets and devices, the cell phone, which nowadays is an inseparable friend, cannot be away  for a single moment.
Technology is something that is here to stay, the same happens with the computer and Internet, we spend many hours a week on Internet, just because we have to find out information, or just because we have to contact all our friends, but is technology such important?.. well I think that the answer is "yes", we all know that the world changes very fast, so education must change at the same speed, it cannot be blind to the changes society demands.
Teachers around the world are the ones who make  these changes possible, in some cases teachers are magicians because they do not have the resources in their schools, but is the passion they show enough to make those changes?......
Technology must be a right, not only a privilege of some, let's have a look in third world countries where children and young people cannot access to a computer, that is really sad since we are living in the twenty first century, but it happens more than we can imagine, it happens all over the world where the income is not good to afford a computer or Internet service.
But we are teachers, and we are the ones that encourage students and give them hope to overcome difficult situations, let's keep on moving !!