Regular Posting-16
I just read the article “What is meaningful learning?” by Jonassen. Meaningful learning is a balance between cognition and metacognition. Students should learn how to learn and to be able to think about their learning. Thus, students should be engaged in meaningful tasks which allow them to work in interactive groups and master their own learning. For Jonassen technology can be used to enhance these ideas in different ways. As a prospective language teacher two points stand out for me: Technology support discourse among knowledge-building communities and help learners to articulate and represent what they know. (Jonassen, 2008 ). Learning a language is far more complex that learning a tool to communicate. In a traditional teaching it can be challenging to express the complexity behind the language such as the cultural differences and the different way of thinking.
If students are asked to construct a project, a blog or a digital video, they will have to seek information and to build their own research. Thus, they will encounter people on the Net that thinks, write, and speak differently. They also can find material that can change their mind on the language and the culture they are learning.
Technology is a support to both the LOTE teacher and the students, giving the opportunity to the students to go deeper into their knowledge and their learning process. In the way, tools like the Internet, blogs, and podcasts make the language learning experience more real. It is a step outside the classroom a first step to discover the world.
