Empowering Students

Empowering Students Nikolina Tsvetkova Teacher trainer & course book author

Empower, independence, learner • Teaching a language is about giving learners the power to uncover the mysteries of this language… • Teaching a language is about equipping learners with skills and knowledge they will be able to apply in other subjects and other situations… • Teaching a language is about helping learners to become independent of their teacher in a way that will allow them to use this language in new contexts and to new learning and life purposes…

Reflection questions • Are teachers able to bridge the allegedly ever-widening gap between their students as digital natives and themselves as digital aliens? In a way that goes well beyond the classroom? • Can ‘regular’ course book material stimulate independent language learning?

The Digital Natives • Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphicsbefore their text rather than the opposite. They prefer randomaccess (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work. (Does any of this sound familiar?) Marc Prensky (2001)

The Digital Immigrants (Aliens) • These skills are almost totally foreign to the Immigrants, who themselves learned – and so choose to teach – slowly, step-by-step, one thing at a time, individually, and above all, seriously. “My students just don’t _____ like they used to,” Digital Immigrant educators grouse. I can’t get them to ____ or to ____. They have no appreciation for _____ or _____ . (Fill in the blanks, there are a wide variety of choices.) • Our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. Marc Prensky (2001)

The Teaching Content • “Legacy” content: reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the writings and ideas of the past, etc. • “Future” content: software, hardware, robotics, nanotechnology, genomics, etc. (it also includes the ethics, politics, sociology, languages and other things that go with them) Marc Prensky (2001)

Raul Casado Corral, Spain This will be my first attempt using the social web with teaching purposes and I am delighted to take part in this game. Congratulations to the Arguing team, by the way.I teach English as a foreign language and my problem is to adjust the high number of students with the limited number of computers. The access to the computer room is also another drawback. But among all the inconvenients it is my luck of experience and my fear to blow it the worst of all of them.However I am determined to start exploring these tools with teaching purposes and that's why I've joined this group of daring teachers. Emese Sebestyen I have mixes feelings after completing the tasks/games/quest. I hope my students will be more flexible Hi, everybody. I'm a Slovene High school teacher and I've applied for this project to get more experience. I'm also one of those who are a bit worried about how things are going to work out. I have one question for you. How many students are there per teacher (approximately)? be well,Barbara M. Voices before the ICT adventure

Hi Tamas, I can tell you that my students seem to be in a dream. They can't keep telling me all the time how happy they are with the game. They are lovely students always willing to know more and more. So imagine how excited I am about it. As for the goals of this game, I can say that the challenge has been achieved. I mean, the technological break has been overcome since they seem to have been working with this all their lives and, besides, their interest towards learning English has increased in just two days playing. Carmen Akrivi AnagnostakisMA English Language Teacher Dear colleagues Thank you very much for the certificate of participation. Me and my students were very much motivated during the game and having many ideas in our mind, we have already started to implement some of them on a piloting basis as well.Akrivi Anagnostakis by Ignas Gailiunas - Thursday, 30 April 2009, 01:45 PM I believe that EU forum is a good thing, i believe that the most effective way of learning foreign languages is using them, so if we talk with each other, for example in English, our English language knowledge will increase. Thats the way to learn foreign languages!! Lets keep up the good work and socialize with each other!! Voices from ‘changed classrooms’

Some examples from E4U

E4U: a course book with a difference • integration of content that is meaningful and engaging for teenagers (age 14) • content that makes optimal use of media and technology and content that is carefully sequenced for maximal English language learning • a contemporary adolescent lifestyle approach • intelligent, pedagogically solid use of popular culture and technology and cutting-edge approaches to English language study

Acknowledgements Rangelova, K., Meskill, C., Tsvetkova, N., Metodieva, M. & D. A. Hill (2009) English For You Prosveta • Prensky, M., Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, From On the Horizon (NCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001) • Connolly, T.M., Stansfield, M.H., Josephson, J., Lazaro, N., Rubio, G., Rodriguez Ortiz, C., Tsvetkova, N., Tsvetanova, S. (2008) Arguing For Multilingual Motivation In Web 2.0: Using Alternate Reality Games To Support Language Learning, 2nd European Conference on Games-based Learning (ECGBL), 16-17 October 2008, Barcelona, Spain

Empowering Students