Thanks Klaus for posting your thoughts. The questions I posted that might help evaluate technologies are from the perspective of promoting student autonomy. They should act as a kind of prompt when looking at websites. I don’t think any website will meet all the implicit criteria contained in my questions. More to the point, I am suggesting that when analysing sites we could be explicitly searching for ways to use these sites that enhance students’ autonomy. Often CELE tutors suggest to students that they should use the VSAC. All well and good as far as it goes. But, it’s a bit like saying to someone that if you’re hungry, go to the supermarket. It doesn’t help the hungry person much as (s)he might need to know a bit more (how to get there, opening times, nutritional value, costs, currency, never mind how to cook! …). The VSAC is only useful if students can use it in ways which enhance their academic literacy. Therefore, for many students, their use of the VSAC needs to be mediated by teachers and other students. Their experience of using the VSAC needs scaffolding, until they are able to manage their learning more effectively. Students’ starting points in terms of their autonomy will vary (and may also be volatile, autonomy doesn’t develop easily and may, at times, regress) and it is the teacher’s judgement of what the student is capable of achieving that is key. So, any site will, in theory, be promising in terms of supporting autonomy. It is more a question of how it is used and how students learn to use it.
All of the questions that Klaus asks could be asked by students too (and possibly are). To help students develop their meta-cognitive skills and awareness – why not get the students to do the evaluating? What websites do they use to improve their language skills? What do they enjoy using?
Maybe, we make a lot of decisions on behalf of students without really having or finding the time to make these decisions together? This might be one, very simple, way of sharing control in the classroom.
In any case, whatever scheme or construct we use when we decide on technology, it is much better to make that scheme explicit. That’s when we begin to see ways in which we can look at technology differently. With new eyes as it were.
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Yup, that makes a lot of senese. Thanks.
Interesting. At CELE we give new students an introductory session on VSAC on their very first day, before their 'proper' lessons start. I think this should be followed up with reminders during the first two weeks of the course, but if other teachers are anything like me, they don't do so.
Usually, I am so busy cramming everything into my lessons that I forget to direct students to VSAC (I know that's not good enough and I'm not trying to make excuses). Too often, later in the term during tutorials, when I ask "Do you use VSAC?" (not even 'which websites do you use on VSAC?') the response can be a blank or quizzical expression and my heart sinks. I feel a mixture of guilt on my part and frustration towards the student who hasn't followed up on that first session. There are occasions, however, where a student enthuses about a site they have discovered through VSAC.
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