WEEK 2: Does metacognition really work?

Sunday, January 29,2017

WEEK 2: Does metacognition really work?

Rate: 5

The Reading for this week share interesting information about Effectiveness of the Integration of ICT Tools and Activities to Foster Awareness as the First Stage to Reach Learning Autonomy.

Does metacognition really work?

Something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know was metacognition. The metacognitive process takes place along with thinking processes. This means that the mind becomes aware of itself. Metacognition has to do with students’ awareness of their own cognitive processes and the regulation of these processes in order to reach a specific goal so that a reasonable assessment can be made about present and future performance.  However, making our students aware of their own cognitive process seems to be a complex problem.it is even more difficult if students do not care about going to school. In some cases students see education just a way of wasting their time because they do not find it interesting or really important; the metacognition is kind of far.

On the other hand,  the use of CALL in the classroom required that students become independent, self-motivated and self-evaluating.  This innovation required a syllabus oriented to improve students´ proficiency and the role of the teacher is critical in order to offer accompaniment, support and preparation to avoid any distractor students have while using resources provided by open content creators and online networks.

Something that made me read more about was the experiment developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the metacognitive in students.  In this project, students firstly were asked to identify their wish focus on base of their weaknesses or interest. Also, they were given instructions about how to develop a proficient writing and how to correct themselves without the assessment of a teacher. I would like to develop an experiment like this because it could help students to be aware of their own process of learning. This in our country could become an important way to help those students who consider drop school at early grades. With this program they could be able to overcome their learning problems and become conscious of their reality. And it is important to highlight that students who are aware of their process of learning become a benefit for their families and the country.

WEEK 1_Technology in the classroom advantage or disadvantage ?

The reading for this week share interesting information about computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Computer-assisted language learning is in other words the study of computer´s application for language teaching and learning which has been used since 1970 by teachers to facilitate to students an integrate way of learning a foreign languages.

The article “Computers and language learning: an overview”  explains an overview of current teaching practices and research related to the use of computers in the classroom by giving a brief history of computer-assisted language learning (CAL), a survey of current practices  and research and prospectus toward the 21st century. 

What surprised me in this article was the results students have when using any program to learn languages.   The used of them has revealed an interesting result in students who have gotten computerized error feedback in which they have improved their writing more than those who received only generalized feedback.

However,  the different and the wide variety of programs  that teachers have used to provide a new mechanism of  teaching a foreign language in the classroom represent a  cost in the use of these programs which make them unreachable for a great number of  Educators and students and even less if they have never bought through internet. Also, the teachers´ training to use any of these programs means an additional cost for them or any institution that is considering integrating such programs in their classrooms.

Here are some of the mentioned programs in the reading. In case you are interested to get any of them in order to develop your skills, each representative picture has a link for you to downloader or subscribe.

ELLIS Master Pronunciation -

click here to downloader  

http://www.formavision.com/ellis/masterpron.html

American Accent Program -

click here to subscribe 

http://americanaccentcourse.com/

 speech viewer -

click here to downloader  

https://blogsomosespeciales.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/speechviewer/

Something else I want to remember from this article is that CALL represents a benefit for students and teacher but a disadvantage if they cannot use it correctly. The majority of the students enjoy working with different programs because they have grown with the technology since a very early age. However, without any proper education in the use of CALL, students are not capable to distinguish when a text or information is from a reliable source or not. Hence, schools and teachers are forced to educate their students in how to distinguish when the information is Truthful, to verify and provide the necessary information students will use in any task or assignment.  





NOTE: I would rate the article with 4. It is because the article provides relevant information about the CALL since it stated. Also, The new perspective of CALL that is currently implemented in the education system, it is really interested and important to know because teachers that use this element in their classes should be updated and this article gives a brief explanation of it. And, it shared different programs´ names for you to look for it.