Writing is fun!

For many years young people at school have been writing on a sheet of paper in order to do activities or homework. We can say that it is part of a ‘traditional teaching’ in which students did every task using just a pen/ pencil and a notebook. Nowadays, we can notice that if these kinds of activities are implemented in a lesson, young people tend to be off-task or they do them just because they need to have a certain mark so as to be promoted. However, we cannot deny that Writing is an essential and helpful skill that students must develop. But, we must also admit that we are living in a technological era which offers new alternatives that might be fascinating and advantageous for the current students. Therefore, a ‘new way of writing’ must be considered taking into account not only the power of writing, but also the benefits of the innovations available in the digital world so as to have other options for working in order to make our lessons more motivated.

            If we ask young people about what they think about Writing, we might well listen to phrases like ‘oh, such a boring thing’, ‘why should we write? I can’t see the point of writing’, ‘It is a waste of time’ among others similar to these ones which reflect the negative perspective that young people have on what Writing is actually. However, we believe that no one should limit oneself to such a point of view and go beyond and look for the positive aspect of Writing. For this, we propose to think about Writing in a reflective way so then, the person who writes might find it meaningful and engaging. Now, if we think about young people at school, it is advisable to work with ‘learning journals’ as Jennifer Moon (2010) affirms ‘[it] is usually a vehicle for reflection’. Hence, the students will have the opportunity to think critically in order to write a personal journal. The students will have the possibility of using their voices by making a reflection that represents an orientation to the way they live their lives (Moon, 2010), that is to say, students can express their experiences, thoughts and feelings in a comfortable way. By using learning journals, students might have new tools for seeing better (Fulwiler, 1986, as cited in Moon, 2010) improving their learning day-to-day.

            In this modern century, we must consider what Dudeney et.al.(2013) define as digital literacies so as to be able to make use of the technologies at our disposal effectively as it is demonstrated in the image on the left. It is crucial for us since the current learners are constantly keeping in touch with technology and implementing it properly in our lessons might well benefit the teaching and learning process. Thus, students’ digital skills need to be developed and in order to do so, we can incorporate activities like a creation of a blog in which students will have the opportunity not only to share with others what they have written, but also to participate in wide social groupings. Teaching digital literacy work in our English lesson appeals to today's youth and might encourage the students’ participation significantly. And, what is even more important is that it makes the lessons more relevant. Hence, students might well be engaged in their writing task and find the purpose of it. What is more, the development of digital skills might help adult learners get ahead in the workplace, or prepare younger learners for better future job opportunities (Dudeney et.al. 2013).

In view of all the aspects mentioned above, we think that it is really necessary to modify that students’ ‘misconception’ about what Writing is. We, as future teachers, must raise awareness of the benefits of writing by showing them interesting tasks in which students can see the purpose of writing. Consequently, we strongly believe that if we integrate a learning journal together with digital literacies into our lessons, we will ensure a change in the students’ minds. So, come on people, we are in the 21st century, let’s start and show students that writing is fun!     

  

REFERENCES

Dudeney, G, Hockly, N and Pegrum, M (2013): Digital Literacies. Harlow: Pearson. 

Moon, J. (2010). Assessment- Learning Journals and Logs. UCD: Dublin.

Teachers in the age of technology

Technology has evolved over time and it is highly perceived in our everyday life. In fact, nowadays almost everybody has a modern gadget at hand and relies significantly on it.  There are several aspects of our life that have changed bearing in mind this huge technological development. Actually, this evolution has a great impact on our traditions, culture, and what is our main concern today, our education system.

In the 21st century, the considerable changes lead to new expectations about the role of the teachers. Thus, now, the teachers are not expected to be that source of information who know everything and are “the leader” of education in terms that they take over every emerging situation in the classroom (Ujlakyne szucs, 2009). Despite the fact that there are new roles expected from teachers, several of them keep on relying on a traditional way of teaching considering it essential for students to learn effectively. Therefore, this is a reality that concerns us since, from our points of view, teachers must be flexible, creative and able to recognise the context in which they work and the students’ needs, by paying attention to their preferences, interests and suggestions. Personally, we believe that now, good teachers are the ones that learn from their teaching experience and reflect critically on their lessons in order to find new alternatives and innovate their ways of teaching. For this, teachers should keep in touch with the development of technology as it is part of students’ lives. In this way, modern teaching involves the teachers in different roles, taking into account mainly their students’ needs. Teachers have to bear in mind that a particular group of students has different interests, opinions, levels of the English language as well as learning styles. Furthermore, teachers must pay attention to the context in which they are working, the learners’ first languages and cultures, and their experiences (Ujlakyne szucs, 2009). It is essential for us that teachers are able to bring what is outside the classroom inside (Moon, 2012). Hence, the teachers must contextualize their lessons according to the interaction with their learners, taking into account their particularities when planning lessons. Then, the teachers must select the appropriate methodology, topic, and material resources to work with in order to give the students the opportunity to learn in a better way. The activities and tasks implemented must be in contexts and significant for this particular group of students, and intended to stimulate and motivate them so as to encourage students' participation.

Marc Prensky (2001) states that digital immigrants- those persons who were not born into the digital world- think learning can’t (shouldn’t) be fun. Considering this quotation, we can affirm that it is reflected in the voices of some teachers who do not feel comfortable dealing with the digital world and prefer to keep using the traditional teaching methodology in which technology is not regarded as an essential tool for teaching and learning. On the contrary, we strongly believe that these types of teachers, who are known as “digital immigrants”, should be aware that learning can be fun by implementing different and interactive activities in context and using different material resources.

As regards the wide range of innovations, alternatives, resources, materials and possibilities available for teaching in this century, we consider that it must be taken into account when designing our own material. Teacher-produced materials have really important advantages since they provide an appropriate contextualization for the developing needs of a particular group of students (Howard and Major, 2004). What is more, when teachers are designing their own materials, they must make sure that a task should be neither too easy nor too difficult. This is because if it is easy students might not find any challenge in such a task and, if it is too hard to do, they might feel frustrated and see the task as impossible to do. Therefore, there should be a balance between what is considered easy and difficult, so teachers should select and adapt the task in order to ensure appropriate challenge and level of success.  

All in all, we believe that we, as future teachers, must take advantage of this technological era so as to discover new alternatives, sources, materials and ways of teaching that allow us to make our lessons more accessible as well as fun for our students. By doing this, learners will have the opportunity to learn in a meaningful way.

REFERENCES

Howard, J. and Major, J. (2004). Guidelines for designing effective English language teaching materials.

Moon, P. (2012). Language and literacy as social practice. British Council.  Retrieved from http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/continuing-professional-development/teacher-educator-framework/knowing-subject/language-and-literacy-social-practice

Prensky, M (2001). Digital natives, Digital immigrants. University Press, Vol. 9.

Ujlakyne szucs, E (2009). The role of teachers in the 21st century. Retrieved from

https://www.sens-public.org/article667.html?lang=fr