Simon+Thomas

Reaction to the first week of EVO Video:

It's been an interesting time with most of it spent with my head buried in my e-mail. I am very glad that this group put forward the e-mail etiquette quiz, which obviously encouraged participants to keep any personal e-mails and replies in restricted circulation and out of the group mail. I have been inundated by mails from the BaW group. Managing to work my way around the pages and to insert profiles and photos hasn't been smooth and I still haven't completed all of week 1's tasks but being part of this group, observing the communication that has been taking place and the support that is available to those people that are new to the ideas that are being put forward is encouraging. So, thank you to those people who take the time in their schedules to be there.

Reaction to Week 1 Reading:

The points that have been made by Hanson-Smith and Marzio regarding Authenticity, Individualization, Autonomy, Culture and Collaborative Communication and backed up by the comments that Ayse Kok has made on her page are so highly relevant in this day and age. Taking learning out of the confines of the four walls of the classroom, where learners may have been for years without having any contact with authentic speech, body language and behavior, other than that of a teacher/instructor is revolutionary in stimulating further progress of social, cognitive, linguistic and technological skills.

Encouraging students to produce their own Vlogs (and progress through the processes that are required in their production) moves towards making language learning more relevant and personal (and therefore, motivating) to each learner, while also giving the individual more responsibility for their own development.

I can’t wait to learn more about how to bring this into my classes, and how to enable my students to produce their own materials. I only hope that my own competence doesn’t impede this, and that is another reason why I am grateful to the support of this group.