After university, when I enrolled in an Italian course for foreign teachers, everything turned into a nightmare: the platform had constant technical problems, the profiles of the participants were very different from each other and the course activities could be done by my fifteen-year-old brother. years. Two months later, I dropped the course.
According to the European Commission, this is the ' use of new multimedia and Internet technologies to improve the quality of learning, facilitating access to resources and services and exchanges and collaborations'. "The quarter is overloaded," agrees Joe Hegarty, CEO of Intel Innovation. " Technology is now clearly tied to providing solutions in modern learning."
Virtual learning in context
The first internet learning initiatives can be traced back to the early 1980s, as personal computers were introduced into daily life, chat and instant messaging expanded. Over time, the advancement of technology made this type of virtual learning possible (and with it the development of new platforms and standards in computerized learning management systems) in which the student finds a different methodology and didactics. The learning environment was clearly influenced by the development process: students were no longer sitting together in a bubble and closely assisted by their teachers, but had to cope on their own against their own competences.
With these elements on the rise, social networks and the boom in web 2.0 applications are advances to consider. Contemporary research has attempted to maximize the "collective" potential of online learning, without neglecting the social creativity and inspiration that interaction and teamwork can produce. Anna Kirah was educated between Taiwan, Japan, China and the United States, and is very aware of what it is to try to see the world from another perspective. “Personalized study environments can be effective ways of taking toolkits, but not unless they can be flexible to the combination of reflective and group work. My fear is that we kill creativity when we limit collaboration. ”
Germany in front of the mirror
At Bochum, an online learning platform at Ruhr University allows teachers to set up new courses, upload exercises to the web, and other materials in different formats, including audio and video. Students can also post their written or spoken words on an academic whiteboard and discuss them with others. For example, at the beginning of the German course, users create a simple login page in which they introduce themselves to other classmates. This page will be expanded with other tasks.
Errors are also corrected online - users can improve their skills by getting leads and guiding other colleagues online. "Virtual communication cannot replace real contact, since it reduces the possibilities of transmitting emotions"
"The great advantage is the temporary flexibility that these courses allow, the exchange with other students and teachers and the diversity of media on the platform," says Nicola Jordan, professor of Swedish at Ruhr University. Still, he says, “Not even the best online course can replace the complex process of face-to-face communication; it still plays a major role in our daily life. These courses lack an important part of the study of a language ”. His German colleague Hendrik Neukäter adds: "virtual communication cannot replace real contact, since it reduces the possibilities of transmitting emotions, which are very important in learning a language." Virtual education gets followers for the flexibility it allows. “A virtual tool is effective if it varies from one situation in class; for example,listen to my own voice and decide if the other students should also hear that expression ”, explains Neukäter.
Professor Michael Kerres, Head of Virtual Education and Learning Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen, anticipates a marked growth in online teaching. "The use of e-learning is expanding more and more, even if it is slower than many predicted," he says. "Virtual teaching plays an increasingly important role."
“I use the Internet to check the latest advances in this field of work, to exchange opinions with colleagues or even to blog. Today, the use of digital media translates into information, communication, learning and education ”, explains the professor.
Aware of our possibilities
The motivation is a key factor for success in this type of learning. Having a charismatic, crazy and energetic teacher, emanating from Chinese discipline, who angrily scribbles tons of characters on a big blackboard in front of us is certainly very inspiring. Virtual learning applied to languages is an infinite resource asset. It only takes time and familiarity with the network to get the best results.
