¡Webinar!

So, I just listened to the Webinar from the Futureofeducation.com - and I have some opinions.

First of all the pannel seem to be quite a lot like my classmate Jack: they don't quite see the value of technology, such as twitter or other social media sites, in the classroom.  As we spent all summer trying to decide, it most certainly can be!

One example of this I have seen in my placement this semester.  There is such a thing as Facebook for Professionals.  Here, students in a local middle school created videos on an app called "SockPuppet" using the target vocabulary, and then they posted it to their teacher's site.  It's safe and private, and the teacher is utilizing a piece of technology that students are already familiar with - Facebook! In this sense, technology isn't damaging any learning, it's making it easier for the students to use!

"Learn by doing" is one thing that the pannel members said that I do agree with. I myself learn by doing and by practicing the language.  I think that there is a lot that students can "do" with technology, while still learning (as evident from my other blog posts, I am very optimistic when it comes to this topic).  To appease these gentlemen, I think that teachers should definitely find ways for students to learn by doing on the internet or with technology (like the SockPuppets or a flipped classroom idea); then I think that these men would see the benefit of the technology in a classroom. 

To end this post I will just ask, if these men are not particularly fans of technology, why did they opt to do webinar?  Food for thought. 

That's it and that's all y'all.