Firstly, I want to congratulate all of you for your self-study efforts! If you joined MyEC to practise and improve your English, you made a great choice. This club is full of people who will help motivate and inspire you in your English learning journey. It also has direct links to resources related to pronunciation, speaking, writing, grammar, and much more!
What are the challenges of learning English online? Can you share your thoughts?
Here is an article about the 4 Challenges of Online Education. This is about attending university online. I believe that when my children are ready for post-secondary education, this will be the norm. How does this list compare to learning English on MyEC?
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I want to discuss the 4th item, the social piece, and the desire to interact with people in class. There are some efforts going on in these areas that I will share with you here.
One result of these efforts is that I just posted, this weekend, my first formal English lesson online at Voicethread http://voicethread.com/share/2498999/ and I am testing the “social” piece of the theory. At Voicethread (which is free), I make the lesson on powerpoint slides, upload it to Voicethread, then add the video and/or audio. I'm still a little clumsy with it, but it should get better. Once finished, I invite students to try it out and comment on the lesson. You can choose whether to allow only people you have invited to see it, or to make it public. I made mine public. In this case, the lesson is how to properly pronounce “-ed”, so students can practice it themselves by recording their responses and also by listening to the responses of others. I think Voicethread will become a good place for somewhat interactive lessons. The interactions are not instant or live, but because of the audio or video do make the online experience feel more personal.
I learned about Voicethread from a community college teacher who used to be a colleague of mine. I follow her blog, http://mpbreflections.blogspot.com/, which is targeted at teachers . She was an online art history teacher, and her blog continues to look for ways to more closely involve and energize online students . Voicethread is one media she has used with success, as well as blogs and wikis.
Because of time zone differences I do find it difficult to connect with students over Skype, although sometimes we do connect. But I am also using http://www.audioboo.fm , where you can make digital recordings for free, to exchange targeted recordings with students on specific topics.
Another exciting development that is happening is with the Khan Academy website, http://www.khanacademy.org This site began with only math related videos but now has international attention and the support of Bill Gates and Google, so is growing exponentially, including humanities. They are planning to translate the site into many languages with intent to make it freely available to students all around the world. I sent them an email to consider including not just the translations, but actually teaching languages, and listed English Club as a sample using the social aspect. Got no response, but, maybe… I do notice that they have partnered with http://www.smARThistory.org for art history lessons. This 20-minute TED Talk (sorry! It is long) video tells the story of the Khan Academy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk They are using it now in one school district with great success!
hello mrs TARA, I am a new comer and to me, the most complicated is that you no one to say to you things face-to-face so that you listening skill will improve but also it's really a good thing to learn online 'cause it does help me, the fact is that I am a bit shame sometimes especially when I don't master and at least il helps me to express, thank you and have a nice day
To me it's getting people to talk to you, whem you are a beginer.
Challenges of online learning, this was part of the writing topic I got in the IELTS.
As far as comparison to the challenges mentioned in the article is concerned, MyEC poses somewhat similar challenges; the most important being self-discipline. This is because it is human nature to interact and socialize, and the option "chat" attracts all the learners to chat-room more or less like a flower attracts honey-bees to the nectar. Though chatting is a very interesting way to improve learning language, but the urge to interact with people from all over the world often over-weighs the urge to learn the language if the learner lacks enough discipline or sincerity. So self-discipline is a big factor as mentioned in the article. Another similar challenge is the inability to interact personally with a teacher. It is especially being faced by those who are almost new to language. Such persons need to be told some basics by a teacher or an expert so that they atleast know how to make simple sentences. I think a separate option should be made available for the newcomers from where they can start their learning process by forming short and simple sentences. I think this because I got to meet a person here on MyEC who was trying to learn the language all by himself and was facing a lot of difficulty. What I have noticed here is that even those who know english well do not point out mistakes of those who are weak in it. This adds to this challenge faced by freshers.
I believe MyEC is doing a great job by providing an opportunity to learn the international language at global level. I just love the discussions and active participation of the members and administration of MyEC. It has covered all the possible ways to motivate the learners to participate and thus learn more. In the end, I would like to say that learning depends on the individual himself/herself. If a learner wanders from the aim of learning and starts concentrating on developing bonds and socializing, then it adds to the challenges which he/she may or may not realize at that time; but if he/she has a spark to learn the language whole-heartedly, then his tenacity and determination would overcome all the challenges!
Hello Miss Tara,
I think is an interesting option to learn through Online especially for those who live far away from "normal" facilities.
The first one seems to be a big challenge, however my believes are that when a person is determined to use this way to learn he/she can set the right environment to keep distractions away from the place of study. On the other hand in regard of discipline, that's a must because without discipline nothing can be achieved (Including learning at Campus or Online)
The second one is most likely to be more challenging because besides the childcare, etc. It depends on the Country, State, City, town, or village the person lives. That can make a big difference of the hidden costs (could be cheaper Online than attending classes on campus if we compare costs annually). But as I said depends on where the go-to be student lives.
The style of learning and the peers interaction are the biggest things to ponder here. At the end I agree that the best decision is up to the students, but without basing that decision on excuses to get only what they want but to get the right kind of education they really need.
About your question; Yes discipline can be taught with example, commitment, and determination from the parent/ tutor side.
The first challenge was to be self_motivated. when I got disappointed or frustrated, there was nobody to help me. When you are in the class, your teacher is a good motivator, they encourage you or give you some instruction how to deal with your difficulty. But, I should have done all these things by myself. And, this is really tough especially when things get complicated. And, there is no teacher to answer you in a face-to-face communication. Finding the answer is another challenge.
The second is one should be so disciplined. Otherwise learning won't happen at all.
In a class, you may have constructive and competitive attitude when you see your classmates.However, in an online learning, you don't have that feelings that much.
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