Teaching New Media

Working with blogs enhances my idea of using media in Foreign Language Teaching with an interesting aspect that is easy to use. Again I had the impression that generating a lesson on the use of a media like blogs is a thankless task. Communication on the part of the students is more fruitful if they decide to write and comment on blogs on their own without any instruction. Although I did not think that the implementation of media like blogs or websites is that easy. Consequently, this is a motivation for me as a designated teacher with not too much technical affinity to use media like blogs in a more frequent way.

The session on creating websites provided me with some useful tools and examples that can easily be included into concrete lessons. Elaborating on current issues like politics or economy favours the adequate use of websites and their implementation into the lesson. Considering the lesson we experienced, I find it hard to create a complete lesson on the base of one media. In my opinion websites are more likely to be used by students at home, where they can find their own approach towards websites without being restricted by time limits or something else.

The session on creating websites showed me the possibilities and the enhancement of learner-centred approaches towards teaching languages by using new media. Despite that, it seems to me that the use of new media is restricted. Hitherto, the lessons we experienced were all embedded into the end of the unit plan, at least I think so, so that we as students had to think of possible realizations of aspects that were already learned in the unit. Consequently, there was few input, but much application. This is not a bad thing at all, but hitherto, I ask myself the question which methods are there to combine new media with concrete learning input, apart from simple research on the web.

Speaking frankly, my attitude towards the use of media in school education is pretty negative, which is due to my experience in school. Before the start of the class, I expected this to depend on the failed attempts of my former teachers to include media into a lesson. Admittedly, the first teaching session established my pre-existing attitude. The elaboration on the connection between social networks and teaching externalised few new information for me. The use of the media in the following lesson demonstrated the already known fact that using media increases the motivation and the communication of students but also can restrict the learning outcome, because of a lack of concentration on substantial contents.