The speed in which new technologies emerge is just incredible. A person who is attempting to learn about any software, after a while he would need to learn about a different one. I consider, because of the amount of things to explore, it becomes difficult to be totally updated. Nonetheless, as more updated we can be, the better the results we can get from the students and the better we can use what is available for our teaching practice.

A useful manner of being updated, which I knew about during the development of the subject New Learning Environments, is to belong to communities of practice. By doing this, we could share experiences and learn from other people who can give us ideas on how to use certain tools; this practice will optimize our time and teaching procedures.

Another way to get updated is to visit the favorite webpage about the programs we use. It is a starting point to see if the program has improvements from the previous version or if it’s possible to download an upgrade to add new functions. Also try similar software in order to compare or even, to complement the programs we have in order to add more content or more functions.

Not only for the designing programs, but also for the hardware we use in our laboratories. Upgrading the software for the hardware we use in class will fix some issues given in the lab or even to provide more functions to control the class or to offer proper feedback. Using old software for old hardware can be really harmful if we don’t visit the support webpage in order to get the most recent information about which bugs have been removed or which improvements or functions have been added.

Also try to talk with your partners about the difficulties you have in the laboratory or the program you use. Talk with the people who know how to use the program to get better information about its usage. Otherwise, you have the option to visit the forums to consult other’s problems and to find – the most probable – a solution there. This can be applied from the lab programs we use in our schools and home until the hardware that can be upgraded via software.

Learning through videogames is a must nowadays. Learners want another experience and also to get fun learning. Videogames provide the following issues that in the classroom is quite difficult to achieve: First, the learner is engaged through gaming rather than learning. Learning through gaming is an excellent alternative to teach, especially for those who get bored easily and want something new and funny to learn. Next it’s the challenge provided by the game in order to achieve a specific goal and to overcome his/her own record on it. Actually several games provide prizes according to the performance in the game and the learner is self-encouraged to overpass his/her personal record to get more content. Not the last but the most important, the learners’ feeling of progress in the game and the feeling that the learner is finally getting new knowledge to apply in the classroom.

To offer an example, I’d like to show you this informative video about Berlitz’s My English Coach for Nintendo DS. It’s an amazing program in which learners can improve vocabulary, idioms, pronunciation, writing and other features. The demo video can be seen here:

Another example of other games is “Personal Trainer: Cooking”, in which the program teaches the learner to cook different recipes: From the utensils the learner needs, the ingredients he/she needs to buy, until educative videos showing how to cook more than 260 recipes. Although this is not related with language learning, also provides an interesting background about the use of DGBL in other subjects. Nonetheless, games oriented with creativity can be exploited as language teaching-learning resources. The demo video can be seen here:

Some important limits with the use of DGBL are, to start, the lack of personalized feedback. The program is limited to certain options about offering answers, but don’t imply a direct feedback from the teacher. There’s a possibility to offer the feedback only if the teacher uses this program and offers direct feedback to the learners who use the same game. Other problem is the false sensation of progress. A game though helps the learner to improve his/her language use doesn’t guarantee the effective use of the language in real communication. Also hardware compatibility is an important fact to consider: Some software is not compatible with hardware. Nintendo DS games are possible to run in Windows with the help of some programs called emulators, but don’t provide the same experience, nevertheless considering the hardware required to run these games.

Digital Games are extremely useful provided that the game in question has been under research about the results it can provide to the learner’s process and how effective it is. Also we need to take into account if all learners in our groups have either a NDS or a PC with the emulator to run the games commented before provided the hardware is enough powerful to run them.

Not exclusively NDS games, but also PC games join here. Gaming must be taken seriously when it is used as a learners’ tool to acquire new content to use in class indeed. Not all videogames fulfill the teachers’ expectations, but as the videos shown before, they can provide a nice aid and an excellent alternative to learn English. A game deserves a serious analysis before use them to benefit learners’ process.

According to Wenger (2006) a community of practice is “a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”. It has three characteristics: domain, community, and practice. Belonging to a community of practice can be useful not only for professional development but for language learning.

For professional development, in the educational field, it can help teachers to solve problems in a classroom, receive and give suggestions for the development of a class, share resources, receive feedback, share experiences, build knowledge, find new approaches and methodologies, explore new technologies, hold discussions, and innovate teaching practices.

As for language learning, a community of practice can be a good strategy to encourage learners from around the world to start collaborating in their learning process and hold real communication and interaction synchronously and asynchronously. Learners can also share experiences, learning strategies, exercises, resources, web pages, and even give advices.

I have not joined any community of practice yet but as soon as I finish the master course I plan to join as many as I can, because I consider this would be a form of being updated and enhance my teaching practice. I remember when I started the master course I did not know about the multiple resources available for teachers or adaptable for teaching, but know I am aware of many of them. Nonetheless, I am also aware that there are still a lot to explore and I am sure that belonging to communities of practice will facilitate this process

Microblogging is a more direct and immediate mode of blogging.  A microblogging entry is shorter than in a blog; it is allowed to write maximum 140 words. Entries can be sent accessing directly the web through a laptop or even with only a mobile phone. Entries can be public or kept private for those people who have permission or belong to a particular group of friends or community.

On the other hand, social networking is grouping of people into specific groups. The members of a social networking have common goals, interest, hobbies, etc.  A social networking is an important and useful strategy to meet people, share experiences, find professional contacts, know about other cultures, find employment, and make business.

In my teaching context, I consider I can use these two strategies for improving writing skills. Microblogging would be good for my students because they do not have a high English level therefore writing sentences and short ideas would be helpful for them. By microblogging students can reinforce how to write complete sentences. In a social networking, students could get in touch with students from different schools and even countries, using and thus learning in a real interactional context.

Collaborative learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students team together to explore a significant question or create a meaningful project (Concept to classroom, 2004). Collaborative learning creates interdependence among the members of a learning community in which the teacher’s role shift from transmitter of knowledge to designer of meaningful learning experiences where the learners have an active role in discussing, negotiating and building knowledge.

Collaborative learning has been studied for years and its early roots come from the year 1798 when the Russian psychologist Vygotsky explored the relationship between social interaction and individual learning. Then, in the year 1929, Piaget said that collaborative learning and cognitive development are paired in one single process: Learning. 57 years later, Bruner stated that learning is an active and social process where learners construct knowledge based on what they already know. Since then on, many researchers have stressed the importance that collaboration has in the learning process.

The implementation of collaborative practices allows learners to “extend and deepen their learning experiences, test out new ideas by sharing them with a supportive group, and receive critical and constructive feedback” (Palloff, Rena and Pratt, Keith, 2007) Furthermore, it promotes creativity, critical thinking skills, dialogue and initiative (Ibid).

Teachers have to provide learners with supporting hours in which they are available in chat rooms or any other medium (telephone) for learners to clarify questions or discuss specific issues of the course.

It is also important to mention that replies to mails and messages need to be fast, not only from the teacher but from learners as well. All messages need to have a reply and assignments need to be graded fast too, with appropriate, clear, and specific feedback.

Teacher can also send private messages to those learners with difficulties or who have not participated at all, to see what is going wrong with them and offer the necessary support. Moreover, teacher can post congratulation messages for those students who are doing very well. Rewarding is very important for people because it helps to increase self-confidence and self-esteem.

The interaction of a face to face space can be transferred to videoconferences, forums, chat rooms, e-mails, videos, blogs, and wikis, among others. The role of the teacher in the interaction is vital, he/she is the one in charge of encouraging participation, moderating it, modeling it, rewarding, motivating, focus discussions, and facilitate discussion.

We can also give room to interactions that are not necessarily academic. A forum can be created for learners to share videos, movies, experiences, ask for advice, share photos, etc.

In a face to face interaction we can convey feeling with our body language, our expressions, tone of voice, etc. In online environments this aspect can be enhanced with the emoticons which give life to a written message because of their expressiveness. Besides that, we can also use videoconferences, highlight texts, change the fonts, use colors, etc.

Net geners like to have everything personalized (Tapscott, 2009) that is why their preference for avatars. Nonetheless, I consider in a online language learning environment it is important to have photos uploaded instead of avatars that represent heroes, comics, animals, etc., because in that way learners personalize what they say, and can know who they are interacting with. Photos give a sense of reality to those virtual spaces.

Classrooms at schools use to have a board on the wall with photos of each student, their names and birth dates. And when someone is in his/her birthday he/she receives notes and the happy birthday song is sang. This ritual can be adopted in an online environment too; dates can be schedule in the calendar and we can have reminders about special dates. Furthermore, a forum can also be created to send congratulation messages, postal, cards, and even songs from part of the members of the course.

This kind of space does not only need to be opened in happy times but in sad times too. For instance when someone is sick, it would be important to send messages letting the person know that he/she is being missed, that people is worried for him/her, and to offer assistance.

These kinds of messages remind members of the community that despite the lack of physical contact they are still human who appreciate details and require the love and care of others.