A Fantastic Journey!

  

Hello my friends from "Webskills",

Evidence: “It is 07:30 in the morning and I am in the language classroom sitting at the computer communicating, via internet with a software called Satellite, with another teacher 12 kilometers from here, I am asking her if there is a possibility for me to visit the primary school where she is working.

She says she will answerback during the first recess at 08:50, just a couple of seconds after the bell rings I hear a beep sound in the computer, the teacher´s answer is incoming: “O.K. Domingo, you can come next Friday and talk about Chile to my second grade students. See you then”.

Wonderful, don´t you think, this is not the future, this is right now, it happens every day, and it is now a common activity.

This great on line course from the University of Oregon is the proof that none of this tools or the possibility to meet teachers around the world would have been possible without the web or cloud. Today, technology plays an important role in many aspects of our lives; it exists at our offices, classrooms and homes, even with smart phones you can be connected every second of your life. All the readings in this course show that technology has been the greatest support to the whole world in communication, business, banking, communities and of course in Education. The most influential example is the way I present my classes from now on; I use the web and gadgets to provoke learning in my students. I know I am helping them to develop independence and autonomy in learning by offering them the opportunity to learn the way that suits their learning styles. It is a skill that I developed myself by exploring the many on line tools we researched during these weeks, specially the chance to create a webpage for my English classes that I am continuously updating with new tools.

 I believe that technology and Education nowadays are closely related, the same way students´ lives are connected to technology for they see it as routine, at school they are able to use it, learn and interact through it.

I feel more prepared and confident to use the technology in my classes and eager to continue learning, exploring, updating my web, etc.

Of course it is time to thank Courtney for her support and for being an excellent instructor during these weeks. Thank you University of Oregon, for this awesome opportunity  to be a part of this course and my friends and colleagues a big hug and Ihope we will be in touch to share our experiences in the the web.

Finally,I do believe that school should change their traditional teaching models oriented towards developing competences and skills in digital literacy and collaborative work model.

Best wishes for all

“One click can make the difference”

This is teacher Domingo from Arica Chile