If You Can’t Beat Them…

      Last year, we had the opportunity to attend a conference delivered by Nicky Hockly at the UNL ATE Hotel in Santa Fe city, Argentina. The aim of this event was to present Hockly’s latest book titled “Going Mobile”, a book that offers different strategies to incorporate technology in the EFL classroom, a matter that is often discussed by teachers everywhere.

     “Going Mobile” encourages us to consider technology as our friend and ally in the teaching task, and not as the unwanted intruder that we sometimes believe it is. Now, the question that all teachers have in mind is: How can I incorporate technology in my classroom in a positive productive way?

As a possible answer to that question, Hockly suggests the use of applications such as “Aurasma” (a web 2.0 tool) which create the opportunity to use the cellphone in class to complete specific tasks and at the same time achieve different learning goals in the process, in a motivating way. This application is only one of the many present in Hockly’s book, in which she opens a world of possibilities to bring technology to the classroom in a prolific way.

The only thing left is to be willing to give technology a chance.

Face-to-Face or Online Teaching? BOTH!

    As we all know, technology is part of our everyday lives as we are constantly manipulating it in almost everything we do, and education is not the exception. Digital methods are becoming a popular resource in nowadays classrooms but, are these current methods better than traditional ones?  In fact, both types of teaching methods have positive and unique benefits so why don’t mix the best of each of them?  The combination of them is called “Blended Learning”, that is to say, a mix of face-to-face learning and online instruction.

  Imagine providing students with opportunities to learn through a tool that they consider an essential part of their lives. This might mean that a simple task can become extremely motivating for them if we, for example, give them the chance to post it and comment on it on a digital platform. In that way, students will not only make contact with tasks and activities outside the classroom, but also feel attracted to do it because it will imply using their technological devices. What’s more, they will be able to share their work and, at the same time, have access to their classmates’ ideas. Besides, through this kind of activities, teachers can become aware of possible difficulties students might have and therefore, plan a new lesson accordingly.

     If you want that Blended Learning works efficiently, it is important to consider your (and your students) personal context and to think of where/when in your classroom would be a good idea to use one method or the other.  Face-to-face teaching give us the chance to make of the learning process of our students something personal and valuable. When it comes to answer and help each student individually, the teacher is a key resource . A digital platform won’t be able to guide or adress the learners' doubts as well as to give them  confidence to enjoy their learning experience. 

     We can’t say that one method works better than another, but we do know that by mixing them, you can make profit of both. Despite the fact that with the rise of internet and technology students have huge amounts of information at their disposal, we need to teach them how to manipulate that information and how they can trust what they read on web-sites. By becoming familiar with technology and internet, we will help our students to handle these significant and vital tools in the best possible way.