Online Learning - Benefits & Obstacles for Foreign Language Teaching

On Tuesday, July 24, 2012, Stanford researcher Dr. Don Roberts gave a presentation of his 2009 study, titled the "Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds" at Saint Mary's College of California's Soda Center. Several of the study's findings were extremely relevant and valuable to my profession as a teacher. For one, Roberts showed how there has been a huge increase in media exposure and media multitasking in students from 1999 to 2009, due largely to the increasing accessibility and mobility of technology (think smart phones and I-Pods}. Another finding that struck me was the close correlation of grades and media users: "Heavy" media users are highly-correlated with lower grades, while "light" media users are correlated with higher grades. (Roberts noted, however, that correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation.) The presentation sparked discussion over what it meant to "incorporate technology" into the classroom, and teachers' responsibilities to help mold "digital citizens" in the modern-day classroom. Opinions were numerous. I walked away with a few conclusions and questions:

1) It is clear that teachers themselves should understand how to evaluate online resources so that they are able to help students do the same. Not all information on the web is reliable information.

2) Teachers should make time for skill-building that is not necessarily related to technology, as 8 to 18 year-olds on average are exposed to and use media for a large chunk of the day outside of school. Face-to-face communication, academic discussion, public-speaking, written expression, and researching among tangible sources are all examples of non-technology skills that are vital to success in college and the workplace today.

3) There is a delicate balance between incorporating technology into the curriculum and letting it run your classroom. (One should implement a good electronics policy regarding student use in the classroom.)

4) My question: If students are using media so much outside of class, what, then, should we as teachers emphasize or teach in the realm of technology? What technology-related skills should our students leave high school knowing in order to succeed in the academic post-secondary world?

The New York Times' article, "More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality," really brought up some good points about online education. I do agree that required online courses in high schools are being implemented as a way to save money. I dare say that I think there may be a day in history where all teaching lessons are given on pod-casts, and there is no teacher-to-student contact. I share union leader Sherri Wood's frustration with the fact that many school programs' decisions about implementation of curriculum are tied to private investment. I strongly feel that education should not have affiliations with private corporations or politics, and yet, the reality of education is extremely political. If only these education policy-makers surveyed students' feelings about online courses. Every person I talk to with online course experience DETESTS the online course process, and would rather learn in an actual classroom.

All this being said, I acknowledge that our world is moving fast, and students' tendencies towards technology should be considered when assigning assessments, papers, and projects. Four websites that I found useful and would probably share with my students are:

http://www.openoffice.org

http://www.tubechop.com

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com

http://www.easybib.com

The benefits of these four sites are abundant. Open Office is a free site for downloading MicrosoftWord-compatible and comparable word-processing software, making basic word-processing accessible to students whose families may not be able to afford the costly MSWord software. Tube Chop would be ideal for PowerPoint lectures, aiding teachers in posting the relevant part of a youtube clip for their lectures, rather than having to maneuver through an entire irrelevant clip. Puzzle-maker is AMAZING! Engage your students with academic language by creating a word puzzle using those key words. And finally, Easybib is a site that can eliminate students' disdain in having to provide a bibliography for an assignment. If only I had these resources a year ago.

Ahhh, technology.