This week’s tasks included watching/listening to an interview with Ed Dixon, Lecturer in German Language and Culture at the University of Pennsylvania and the Technology Director in the Penn Language Centre.

What I learnt from the interview:

• The widespread access of computers and the internet is fueling an unprecedented growth in distance learning and blended classrooms in recent years.
• An online or blended classroom can utilise social media tools to enhance the communicative learning experience. Social media allows students to immediately express themselves about things that are currently affecting them, and are relevant to them. In this way, language learning becomes an authentic experience for those involved.
• Ed Dixon makes an interesting comment about wanting to cut down the amount of time he spends introducing a new language point, and often “flips” his classroom. That is to say, his students watch a presentation about a new language point at home first, and then students come to the online classroom already prepared with questions and ready to immediately participate in the offline classroom activities. This attention to time detail is mirrored with one of the main CELTA principles which encourages less T.T.T. (Teacher Talk Time) and more S.T.T. (Student Talk Time).
• Ed Dixon encourages positive social interaction and builds a sense of community in his online and blended classrooms by grading students on the amount of participation, their accuracy and effectiveness in communication. Students are encouraged to continue these habits by continuing the discussion from the classroom in social media, such as Facebook etc.
• Ed Dixon makes a bold statement about technology allowing students to do in 12 weeks what they would usually do in two semesters. The research has not be completed yet, but it makes sense that technology can facilitate and indeed, speed up, language learning.