"Feel-bad education"

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Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on November 2, 2009 at 7:17am

PACI,

Please explain how you used the web 2.0 tools with your students and how it helped them master part of the instruction? What did you do to help them master the part they didn't get from the web 2.0 tools? What subject/s are you working with and what age level?

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Permalink Reply by PACI Dominique on November 2, 2009 at 7:46am

I teach English as a second language. I use a smartboard everyday. I do have a lesson plan but once the students are set into motion I tend to let them talk, ask the questions, answer, comment pictures, youtube videos...Then they write a short summary of what they said and found on the smartboard (I then copy and paste it on their class blog). That's to begin with, then according to the kind of work we did, they can tape a comment on Voicethread or we can imagine a scenario and then film it (we did that last year on Lamb To the Slaughter by Roal Dahl and it worked very well.) We have computers and they can do grammar exercises online etc...
They do not get much out of web 2.0. tools We use them everyday. If I compare the sort of response I used to get, to the enthusiasm with which they read Lamb to the Slaughter I am still surprised. They read and did nice comprehension exercises, it became very easy on computers of course but also once they knew I would then ask THEM to do something with it. Something they could all work at, finish, feel satisfied with and show to everybody...
My students are 11 to 15 years old.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on November 2, 2009 at 10:39am

PACI,

Teaching a language is a good use of the communications available with the web. Certainly recording what they learned at the end of a lesson is a good idea. Discussing a book read by all is a great exercise in communication. You may want to contact a class that can correspond with your students either in real time or asynchronously. Comparing localities and daily life may be another good subject for your class.

You said, "They do not get much out of web 2.0 tools". Was this a mistype on your part. I seems they are getting very much out of the tools you are using. What tools are not working for you? Maybe I'm just not clear on what constitutes the "web 2.0 tools".

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Permalink Reply by PACI Dominique on November 2, 2009 at 11:47pm

Sorry! My mistake, I mean we mainly use web 2.0 tools.
What I originally wished to know was if you thought or felt that web 2.0 tools actually makes learning not only easier (I think we can say it does) but also more pleasant. How ? Why? according to you. Can we say that it is a way out of the feel-bad education Mr Alfie Kohn very justly deplores?

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Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on November 3, 2009 at 2:19am

Paci,

While I have not read Kohn, but have read enough similar stuff to have a good idea what he is saying, I will suggest that it is not the tools that are used that make learning easier and more pleasant, but how you are using them. If you use the tools in ways that engage the students they will fulfill the need. If you make them as boring as the old pencil and paper routines (which were once a new and improved method themselves), then you stand the chance of not exciting the students as well as you could.

I will suggest that with the web 2.0 tools, you have the capacity to let your students interact live with native speakers not only via reading and writing, but also verbally. This is an especially important tool that was never available before web 2.0. It will make the difference between your students understanding native speakers, and speaking so they can be understood, and being unable to actually use their second language in a real situation.

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Permalink Reply by YU-Lin Lai on November 3, 2009 at 7:01am

I think most of the teachers will have time to feel puzzled and confused if their students do not perform so well. But I believe that any tool can be useful for teachers if we know how to use it properly. For example, normally lots of games are involved in an English class, but we as teachers ought to know how to adjust the game that can fit into the course and enhence students' leaning. As for me, I haven't use any web2.0 tools in English class since there are several limitations, but I think these tools can be really helpful for students if teachers can be able to apply it properly. So these tools can be helpful, but it depends on how you use it. It 's just my thought, hope that it will help.

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Permalink Reply by PACI Dominique on November 3, 2009 at 7:51am

It does thank you

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