Abstract:

Over the past decades, and especially with the advent of what has become known as “Web2.0”, teachers have been experimenting creatively with technology in order to engage their students in enhanced learning experiences, both in the classroom and beyond. Thus, students are given opportunities for learning both in the traditional classroom context, as well as via an e-learning or blended approach. Over the past decade, I have experimented with a multitude of Web-based applications in order to determine their pedagogical effectiveness and their added value to the students’ experience. This presentation will compare and evaluate the use of various online communication tools available in the Web2.0 environment as adjuncts to the teaching and learning of language and culture, in order to demonstrate their benefits to both teachers and students. Specifically, I will demonstrate innovative ways in which I have used “chat” (both text as well as audio/video) within course-management systems (CMS) such as WebCT, as well as other applications, whether expressly designed for pedagogical use (such as LanguageTwin) or not (Twitter, Skype). In language classes, these tools allow students a higher degree of authentic participation in experiential “virtual immersion”; they can communicate one-on-one with native speakers of the language they are studying, at a time of their choosing, regardless of geographic location. In addition, in a Contemporary American Culture course, students can react to developing events, such as the results of the US presidential elections of 2000, 2004, and 2008 as they unfold during the respective election nights of those years. Students are caught up in the suspense and the immediacy of the moment, thus learning history “in real time”. The emotional experience of participating in a historic event with one’s classmates adds an unforgettable element to the course material, and ensures that the students will continue to follow the subject long after the course ends. A major advantage of these tools is their ability to provide the students a synchronous and shared learning experience, similar to that which takes place within the classroom, thus augmenting their learning time and increasing the contact that they have with the language and cultural material, outside the confines of the classroom space and time. An added advantage is the available transcript or recording, which both the teacher and the students can analyse. By comparing the various aspects of these tools, a teacher can then select the most appropriate one for the task, adding value to the course material for the teacher and most importantly, for the student.

Keywords:

Web 2.0, synchronous on-line communication, language teaching, culture.