Hi 
It is true that publishers are worried about the internet putting some "mess" in their business, but I think that in a certain way, the world must go on turning and indeed it is! When Gutenberg or whosoever started the printing business, I am not sure many people could predict that a number of centuries later it would take the turn that it took. 

I think, publishers should not worry but look for ways to adapt to the "technological new deal". We teachers have started, thanks to courses like this one, to use lesser and lesser paper materials for our courses and the way forward for teaching is with the plain integration of technology. This change has taken place in many fields and is welcome, so why not in teaching?

And I keep on saying that a book is but a pile of sheets bound to each other in one way or another. If what is on this paper could be made available online and users be given an opportunity to download it, even after paying for it, would it not make life easier for those who cannot always have access to the books they want/need?

This week there were two discussion topics which appeared to be very interesting, and I was very keen on the topic on "one-computer classroom". 

About three years ago, each classroom on our language center was equipped with a large flat wall-mount screen connected to a computer. The purpose of this was to help teachers have quick access to the listening and video resources which were saved in a central server and which could be accessed from each classroom. The computers also helped with administrative tasks such as roll-calling. At that time, I did not know anything about teaching with a computer in a classroom, but I thought that it could help a lot. 

Apart from the purposes these computers were installed for, there was the possibility of using the screen as a board, which I started doing. I would open a microsoft word/Ooo writer new file and enlarge the cases and what I wrote could be seen from the back of a 30-participant classroom.

Eventually, I also discovered that as they were connected to the internet, I could also make profit of the possibilities offered by websites like google, wikipedia and many others to explain concepts, realities and facts which could be difficult to explain in a classical teaching situation. The internet also gave me the opportunity to find extra-curricular materials which could help make my teaching more lively and dynamic.

With the reading materials of this week, especially 

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech092.shtml, 

I have learnt so many other strategies which can help me in my work. However, I felt the tips displayed here were mostly meant for schools/centers where it is difficult to find more computers apart from the one in class which is likely to be the teacher's own.

We in our center have a 16-computer internet-connected lab where some of our participants can exercise themselves, which makes one-computer sessions in class give less headaches. 

I also came across this website which provided me with more resources which could be very useful in teaching with a single computer:

http://www.lttechno.com/links/onecomputerclassroom.html

I also fell in love with wallwishers which I discovered this week:

http://padlet.com/

Now, I am struggling to put together my ideas about my project for Natali to have something to read by 8th April which is the deadline if I am not mistaken.

To give more precison about the solution to the problem that I raised about my students, I think the best way of tackling it is to define a curriculum of the term (since we function according to terms (and each term = 11 weeks = 55 hours).

If we know what we are supposed to do each week, we can use the internet through its interactive tools and the PBL (Project-Based Learning) to provide the students with working materials. Interactive tools like interactive powerpoint presentations, webquests, interactive websites, etc could be used.

The only problem which could arise here is that we will probably be obliged to change the general lay-out (2 hours with a coursebook, 2 hours with a video and 1 hour of CALL) of our course. So, instead of 1 hour of CALL, there will be 3 since the lesson with the coursebook will be replaced by the CALL.

There will be a structural problem, i.e. the one of computers, but this can be solved by delocalizing the session from a normal classroom to the computer room.

All in all, with all the possibilities offered by the internet, I am convinced that we can depend less - and can even become totally independant - of textbooks.

I am overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of web tools teachers have at their disposal to make teaching and learning a pleasant moment.

This week, we have learnt more about rubrics, especially how to create a rubric with the help of Rubistar and Zunal as well as I have discovered webquest and have made one on Questgarden.

It is just unfortunate that for the past two days we have suffered electrical power cuts which have not eased my participation in the course this week and I do not know if Robert will be understanding to take this into account in the grading process. Electricity supply is so unreliable in our country and working with the internet can appear as a real challenge. That is why I think distance learning is still to take off.

Hi there,

Week 4 has also come to an end and we're starting a new one. As I wrote last Sunday, the level of difficulty is smoothly increasing as we are moving towards the end of the course. The proof that the level of difficulty increased can be seen first of all through the length of the reading material made available to us.

The first article that we had to read was very resourceful.

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Krajka-WritingUsingNet.html

It went from reviewing the previous research as far as possibilities offered by the internet to learn languages are concerned to suggesting ways of using this internet efficiently in a motivating way for students to practice what they learn in class. A number of things in this article are not new to me as I use many of the suggested teaching way-outs with my own students, but I learnt a lot from it, especially its point 9 on how newspaper reports can help increase their reading and writing skills and I was very happy to learn that this website

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

is a central index of newspapers around the world.

The second reading text

http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Liang-ExtensiveReading.html

deals with a crucial problem in our environment. Our students do not read as they are supposed to. What they do read is especially their school books when their parents buy them. Even adults are not very much attracted by reading and they usually complain, even though this is not actually evidenced, against the cost of books. The possibility of reading e-books eases the access to original books and the story map

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tsl/TM/WS_storymapws.shtml

can be very helpful to teachers as they do not need to catch headaches for building story maps on their own. The advanced story map suggested in that article did not open.

It is however worth mentioning that there are downsides to these activities:

1. Electricity supply is not satisfactory in our country and some parts, including some neighborhoods in the capital city, can stay several days without electricity.
2. The internet itself cannot be accessed from everywhere in Cameroon and even in places where it is, participants, namely young secondary school students, may not have enough means to have access to it.
3. The teacher, before starting a series of lessons based on internet resources must first make sure that his students are computer literate. If that is not the case, he must, if possible, provide his students with this computing know-how, which is not always very easy to teachers themselves.

Thanks for reading my blog and commenting on it.