Screen-sharing lets other people see your screen – so they can see exactly what you can see on your computer.This could be really useful for using Google Maps Street View or other applications in online lessons.
Twiddla already allows you to surf websites together with others online, so depending on what you want to do, it may be better to use Twiddla (quicker and easier).However, there are certain times when Twiddla won’t work and Mikogo fills this gap nicely.
The previous blog post on Dogme 2.0 sketches out how the web is becoming increasingly a normal part of our lives as well as an enormous source of both language learning content and opportunities to interact with others as part of the learning process.However, it is really the questions of relevance, meaning and motivation that are the key links between Dogme ELT and web 2.0.
If we see learning as a process of constructing meaning, and therefore one where relevance is key to enabling the learner to both find and create meaning, then the actual medium (be it online or offline) is not necessarily so significant.What seems more pertinent is the ability to create excitement and engagement such that language learning opportunities surface in class.
The web 2.0 is clearly changing how we work, communicate and learn.So, if the textbook is to keep up with these developments, what should it look like?
At Avatar Languages we are using many web 2.0 tools in online language lessons.This “teaching 2.0” approach leads to very different kinds of lessons from normal textbook based ones.When looking for some guidance on how to use the internet in place of a textbook, the Dogme ELT movement has been a real inspiration.But perhaps using 2.0 applications can take the Dogme ELT principles further than technology free teaching does.
Google Maps must surely be changing the way we use maps – especially now that it offers “Street View” for several countries. Street View allows you to see what the streets actually look like, thanks to a Google car driving around lots of cities and photographing almost every street at intervals of every few yards. It also offers language learning new immersive opportunities.
A Street View of Madrid is embedded below, so you can click on it and drag the image around to take a look.
In today’s lesson with a student from Madrid, he showed me around parts of the city using this Street View function. Ruben gave me directions to guide me and then described the locations.
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