Teach-Tech- Connect

Image credit: Pixabay  How can you create a learner-friendly environment to improve your students' writing skills in online classes? A big question, isn't it? 🤷‍♀️🤔 If you ask this questions to teachers in different contexts, most of them will say: " let your students work together". By this answer, they simply touch on the  Vygotskian S ocial Constructivism theory (1978) from which Collaborative Learning approach was derived. Collaborative learning approach supports the salient concept of student-centered classroom where the teacher helps in scaffolding, guiding and facilitating steps. Working on learners' metacognitive learning and their mutual accountability is a key condition for collaborative learning. That's impressive, however it is problematic when we think about online learning and about a productive skill like writing. 👌 So, if you seek to promote your students' (especially adults) writing skills using cooperative learning approach in online...

  Some students see their learning process like this. Image credit: charliehr.com                                                    While others see it in this way.                                                         Image credit: neuroleadership.com Whose decision is it in this case? Is it the teacher's or the learner's? 🤔 Thinking about these questions, I think that the key word is autonomy. There is a consensus among ELT experts and theorists that the decision of autonomous learning is both the teacher's and the learner's. However, without the teacher's understanding, motivation and facilitation, there may be many blocks in the student's road to autonomy. Both the teacher and the learner work on pa...

Some teachers get hesitant when they feel that most of responsibilities of the online learning process will be on their students. This is not because they feel alienated and have a little to do with them 😉😉, but as they are not sure that they can find an online lesson format that is appealing to their students, user-friendly and can take the students in a useful learning journey. The answer is not in a trendy technique, but in a known one that many of us stop using despite its benefits. Yes, as you are guessing, it is WebQuest .  WebQuest is an inquiry-based lesson format whose main aim is to make the best use of the learners' time.  WebQuest succeeds in   creating an engaging environment for the learner using technological tools. This shifts the role of the teacher from a controlling one to be more facilitating and guiding. It also raises the learner's awareness about his/her active role in acquiring a new language. Thus, through a good creation of the lesson from the ...

  Yes, isn’t it a new technique to start your blog by reviewing another blog? 🤔 I assume your answer is “ yes ”. But, let me tell you two benefits of this experience before going through the blog under review. After the first look at a famous blogger’s reflection, i.e., his/her blog, you may get impressed and say: “how I will create mine”. Yet, my evaluation of Ozge’s blog boosts my decision of what I can focus on in my blog. Second, as no one is perfect, I noticed some areas of consideration in her edublog that I may try to avoid while blogging. Let me introduce you to Ozge.                  Ozge Karaoglu Ozge Karaoglu is a foreign languages department K12 technology integration specialist, a teacher trainer and a course book writer.  She has been recognized by the ELTons Awards, ESU, MEDEA, Microsoft, and Telly Awards for her digital projects. She currently teaches young learners, and she...