Week 10 readings

In this week, we read about distance learning.
Blake et al. suggest that distance learning can be an effective tool for those who may not have access to a traditional classroom setting, and can use the dvds and cdroms to their best advantage. Furthermore, the telephone interview can test proficiency, and gauge how much, or how little learning has been accomplished. They put a lot of charts and graphs, and use a lot of statistics I can not understand, so I am going to have to take their word on it that the research is good.

Incidentally, this is something I have to really challenge myself on. I can parse out long texts, get down into the nitty-gritty of even the most dull of prose, but when it comes to statistics, well, I am lost. I would say "it is all Greek to me," except I took Greek in school, and can understand that. These numbers really donot speak to me, so I am going to have to learn their language. I am actually a little scared of numbers, to be frank, being that I can barely add or subtract in my head. Well, I will have to forge on and figure it out. I got a "Dummy's Guide" to stats, and am going to start there

Anyway, back to the main point. Blake and crew do think that distance learning is valuable, but that the assessment be done by a qualified instructor, and this is the rub: how to find people technologically savvy enough to engage in the project, yet still flexible enough in their language skills to know when and how the students are having problems.

Next, Goodwin-Jones posits that the range of learning afforded to the distance learner lies in the realm of chat and blogs. This article is more of an informational gathering than critique, so that is left up to us to see if these resources can be used effectively. However, chat is an informal method of communication, and we can use this to encourage relationship building within students who are not in the class. Blogging is an extension of journal writing, which has been a tried-and-true activity focus for many educators. The key here is to make sure that the evolution of the technology of chatting does not encourage learners to think that the written and oral means of production are the same. Writing in a language is learning a meta-language, in my opinion, in that there ought be far more attention placed on the prescriptive. Clarity of purpose, ease of reading, poetry in the language--- these are all reasons to differentiate the written from oral, and it would do well for language educators to adhere to this, even when they are using the interweb.