Saturday, January 15, 2011

My blogging mind...

Words such as blogs, wikis, social networking, micro-blogging and so on have been swimming in my head for the past 5 days since I created this blog.  I have been reading all about these Social Media tools and have been amazed at the potential for these tools to be used not only in teaching and learning, but also in many businesses around the world. That said, as a teacher, I think to spend the time learning about and using these tools is an amazing asset to be used in our classes, whether online or f2f. Our students need to know how to use these tools in their jobs in order to collaborate with others. The task may seem daunting to us "book users" and "paper pushers", but taking a part of a f2f class to teach our students how to use these tools will enhance our lessons as well as give the students varying options for using their learning outside the classroom and collaborating online. This New Year, 2011, is a year for me to offer my students new options for practicing their English skills outside of the safety of their classroom.  Are there any other teachers who want to join me in this challenge in 2011?

6 comments:

  1. I'm in Darlene!!!:)
    You have said what i think beautifully! :)
    BTW, what does f2f mean, please?
    Congrats on your blog & resentation (I LOVE it!).
    Marie-Hélène

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  2. Hello Darlene,
    That is a wonderful blog with a great title: Life Long Learner. That is what we teachers are. I am really interested in your idea. Who knows we might have a collaborative project with our students in Brazil/Canada sort of thing.

    By the way Marie-Helene, f2f means face to face.
    Congratulations on your baby blog

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  3. I think Web 2.0 offers myriad of excellent tools for language teachers. You can easily get overwhelmed! Darlene, take a look at Merlot (http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm) and Free Technology for Teachers (http://www.freetech4teachers.com/).

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  4. "...after all, we are all learners and teachers, in some aspect of our lives". I like that...it's very true!

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  5. Great looking blog and good kick off posts Darlene!

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  6. Hi~! Darlene. You have such a great idea!! I also totally agree with you. In my workplace, as a English teacher in Korea, I usually use On-line program and CD player to make up native speaker's pronounciation.. Because I'm not a native, so the recording materials are really helpful. I'm really looking forward to your 2011's new challenge. Go for it~ :-)

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