“CALL and I” with new discoveries

Wow!  It’s incredible and yet very satisfying to see all the work that I’ve done so far in my first blog !  This course has actually shown me a new window with a new angle to the CALL world, that I was not quite familiar with, and led me to some new discoveries.  Let me share with you what they are.

The first discovery is the wonderfully rich resources available online for CALL.  They not only help add more colours to the diversification of our teaching and learning process but also lessen teachers’ burden and time in preparing teaching materials.  Here are some of my favourites:

• Amazing Movie Maker or Photo Story 3 for DST–I really love the idea of making digital stories as it is a powerful means to deliver messages and express feelings.  It is also an interesting task for students to do and it can help develop their different talents as well.
• User-friendly, useful tools for ELT–e.gs. (1) Audacity for speaking practice of all kinds like reading aloud and recording listening materials for exams and so on;  (2) Hot Potatoes for creating exercises of different kinds like matching and gap-filling.
• Interesting, educational websites for teaching and learning different language skills–e.gs. (1) NAXOS spoken word library which enables students’ listening skills and understanding of the literary works. (2) breakingnewsenglish.com which provides teachers with detailed lesson plans, up-to-date news articles and useful tasks with answers.

The second discovery is the possibility of my being an effective I.T. English teacher who can meet the needs of increasingly large numbers of “digital learners” in our Hong Kong classrooms.

The next one is I always thought that it’s ineffective and time-consuming to go to the MMLC for English lessons, especially with lower ability, misbehaved students.  I always found the programmes boring and I was also very afraid of dealing with the technical problems occurred anytime and that time would be wasted.  Now, I’ve realized that I haven’t fully-utilized and familiarized with those interesting, useful softwares and websites available online for arousing students’ interest.  These problems can actually be solved very easily!   

Moreover, I’m glad that I’ve been holding firm to my right belief or attitude in corporating I.T. in class, i.e.  CALL should be used as a means to an end but not an end in itself.  Though we teachers are more like facilitators nowadays, we are still the central figure in class who plays a vital role in influencing our students’ learning attitudes and monitoring about their learning progress with care and love and I.T. can never substitute us. 

I sincerely thank Paul for all the effort he’s made in class, especially for all the brand new stuff related to CALL that he’s introduced.  Of course, if I want to be an effective CALL teacher, I need to update myself with the CALL world and practise using the CALL materials more.  One last thing, I know this course is just a beginning in my CALL journey, yet a GOOD one:D

You can discover a colourful CALL world when you use your heart!