We feel comfortable when we teach as we did it before. I met a teacher in France and he said - what can technology give to students that I can't give? In any way it's just a text, then why not to use usual printed texts? I tried to persuade that a teacher can use a great variety of technology tools to develop these or those skills, to make learning process more efficient but I failed. The answer was - I prefer classical university teaching.
To my mind the answer is that this model is teacher-centered - I can do it and I'll do it as I think appropriate.
Learning and teaching should be a reciprocal process and student-centered because our aim is to help students and ourselves acquire new knowledge and skills which can lead to individual and collective development.
One more argument is that students are different as people are different, they have their own learning styles and it doesn't depend on them. Sure they learn completing assignments which teachers give them. But how more effective and useful and interesting would this process be if we were not so teacher-based!?
Conclusion of this week is - assignment can one but its results can be presented differently. Just add one or two sentences to your assignment and teaching-learning process will change to be more innovative, capturing and effective!
Hello Olga,
ReplyDeleteFollowing your comment on my blog entry Week 9, I agree that 'student-centredness' should be the target that we should aim in the language classroom. The teacher has the 'given' authority according to the traditional definition of the profession. However, our students were born into a digital era and obviously their needs, interests and learning styles are varied. As an answer to the French teacher's question 'Why do my students need technology?', I would recommend him/her join Web Skills online course by Oregon University to find his/her own answers : )
Best wishes,
Eda
Dear Olga,
ReplyDeleteNo doubt that the teacher's presence in the classroom is still compulsory and it doesn't matter which method we use: the traditional or the modern computerized one. The teacher is supposed to conduct the lesson and direct the way of learning whether the students use habitual textbooks or study online. You prefer classical university teaching because it is very familiar to you and probably it is a bit difficult to change it. Besides, the university in Russia might lack the modern technology, so there are some things that don't depend on you.
In my opinion, the learning-teaching process works well and it is really productive when it is suitable to the students' learning styles and the material is chosen in accordance with the level of knowledge and the abilities of the students. All the people are different, of course, but collaborating is effective. In this way students learn from each other, don't they? And the teacher is supposed to control this process - in my opinion this is a real "student-centeredness", isn't it?
Dear Julia,
Deleteit's not me who prefers classical university teaching - I'm for modern technologies and moreover the subject of my thesis was Media education.
I can say that Russian universities don't lack any modern technologies - at least federal universities in one of which I work. But I guess the situation is the same in all other universities. The question is that not all teachers are ready and can use all these technologies.
And I absolutely agree that students learn from each other, moreover teachers learn from students and it's great because in tyis case it's the real process of learning. I don't remember who said it but "Bad is the teacher whose pupils can't excel him."
Best,
Olga