Writing a news report in EFL classroom

No doubt that at low levels it is practically impossible because the reporters speak too fast and the vocabulary is very complicated. It is obvious that for low level students it is very difficult to listen to news reports or to read newspaper articles and write a report. However there are some solutions for that. 

It is true that now CNN has great impact on news media becasue it is famous for its truthful news and it is a great source to use in EFL classrooms for almost all levels. Of course you will think that CNN news is complex with difficult vocabulary. However let me inform that CNN provides transcripts for most of its shows which you can find at 

http://www.CNN.com/TRANSCRIPTS/index.html

In this link you can find an article which will help you to introduce and use news reporting in EFL classroom for all levels. 

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Mackenzie-CNN.html

This tutorial may also help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCOy9yyAHQk

The best course ever!!! :)

I guess this is the last post for this course and that's why I wanna share my knowledge and experience gained during the whole course. So, reading my posts you can see what we have discussed so far in our classes-SIMPLY THE BEST :). As a future teacher and in general as a representative of the 21 century youth generation it's obligatory to be aware of different technological innovations and the ways that they can be used in educational settings and in TEFL in particular.

WEB 2.0 tools that are used by teens so much appeared to be very helpful in learning and teaching. Various studies have been conducted to find out their usefulness. In fact they can be applied in the students' learning process very easily because most of these new technologies are user-friendly. After having explored and discussed so many interesting tools it becomes clear for me that new technologies and even games can be beneficial for language learners. And the only advice that I can give all  young language teachers is:

NEVER FEAR THE UNKNOWN JUST EXPLORE IT.

That's what we did in our course with our instructor's guidance. So thanks him for showing us new ways of thinking, creating and analyzing. 

Technologies in Education

Before starting my blog post I want to share a few links  with you about the technologies in Education. These links will give you kind of an overview about the history of using technologies in Education and about its trends now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ0nlh5FU5A


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzi2RIt8_nk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?=9cxyH1qgKZQ&feature=related 


Nowadays education happens anywhere and anytime due to the new technologies.There are modules to support learning outside of the classroom because there is such a wide range of activities provided by the technologies for learning to occur. Its a very different space for learning. Students especially kids are motivated and become very fluent in using new technologies. Adults should recognize that there is all kinds of learning when using new technologies. Students develop their collaborative relationship and teamwork skills. Students create, edit and comment. This leads to all kinds of mediation in the learners' behavior that can promote learning.
  Today there is a shift from:

• consumption to participation
• institution to network
• users to producers

So now there are 21st century learners with completely different behavior, needs and interests.
Here is a link with interesting opinions. Have a look! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw&feature=related 

So far I have discussed a few new technologies that can be used in education and in the  language classroom in particular. It seems that there are no other things to think in terms of using these new tools in the classroom but it’s not so. There are still a lot of questions that can not be answered yet. So, there is a need for further research.

 While listening to a talk by Connie Yowell which was held in the Breakthrough Learning Conference a question arise for me in terms Armenia. For example it is still unclear to what extend  Armenian students are digitally literal. This is the question that should be investigated in order to know the feasibility of this or that technology for the target audience in Armenia. The main reason is that learning with the digtal media is fundamentally different and the lack of awareness of may bring some unnecessary difficulties in the learning/teaching process.

So before using new technologies in the classroom educators need to think about how to reconstruct the learning system in order to fit it with the new changes. Another important question is to find out how young people are learning and where and finally how they are using and participating with the new technologies. And as final note in my post I advise you to watch this video by Bill Gates " How do you make a teacher great?" It's part 1 of his talk at TED's conference. Enjoy !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnfzZEREfQs&feature=related 

Cloud Computing

I guess having heard these terms you will think that the topic of today’s post is whether or environment. But I have to disappoint you J it is a new notion of the software somewhere in the cloud. Two decades ago the main delivery system of software was University or school computer labs. And then it came to the students own computers. But nowadays that is going to change as teaching and learning involves the use of computational tools through software applications virtually. In cloud computing the Internet is the one that provides computational service. The applications aren’t installed in the personal computers but are used directly from the cloud. It is simple, easy and the important thing that it is accessible for all operation systems (Windows, Macintosh etc.). Accidentally I remembered Freidman’s idea that the “world is flat”. Everything is becoming accessible and the whole information is being shared in the cloud. So that’s kind of a new twist on outsourcing. Now we don’t know where is that outsourced system, it maybe everywhere or somewhere in the cloudJ.

There are two types of clouds: public and private. Though private clouds play not so much role in general, they are important in teaching and learning. Today many Universities have started to move their students’ e-mail services into public cloud environment (e.g. Gmail and Google Apps in general).

 There is a whole host of challenges. Risk management is key, particularly if institutional data is being held in the cloud. In other words you move your personal information, your identity to the cloud where everybody has access to it. Also strategies need to be employed to manage not only risk but also those situations when a cloud service provider suddenly and unexpectedly stops delivering services.

No doubt that cloud computing is the future but now we still have a chance to choose whether to use it or not or to what extend we should use it. 

Google Apps for Education

At first I want to share two links. Go there and watch. You'll have better understanding of what google Apps are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AI1CNpa0rU&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L-C5dUVHcY&feature=related

Nowadays there is a challenge-everything is shifting from individual into group work, collaborations, joined research, projects that different schoolsa nd Universities can do together. And here is a need for complex environment, kind of cloud where all the information will be stored and shared.Such kind of environment is provided by google Apps. There are different google Apps but as I am a future teacher I'm ineterested mostly in google Apps for Education.

Google Apps Education Edition is a broad that schools and Universities can use to bring communication and collaboration tools to the entire academic community for free. Students, teachers and staff can share ideas more quickly and get things done more effectively when they have access to the same powerful communication and sharing tools (it’s notion of cloud computing). Google Apps Education Edition lets tech administrators provide email, sharable online calendars, instant messaging tools and even a dedicated website to faculty, students and staff for free. There's no hardware or software to install or maintain, since everything is delivered through a standard web browser -- anytime, from anyplace. 

The advantages of Google Apps Education Edition are:

·         No adverts for faculty, staff ad student

·         7.3 GB mail quotas

·         24/7 administrator support

·         Advanced integration capabilities

However, its disadvantages are not clear and maybe they are but we can’t see them behind so many opportunities that Google App for Education give us.

This is in general about google Apps now I want to tell about my experience of using them both as a learner and as a teacher. This is a site that I found while exploring google Apps. There one can find a lot of resources for educators to use.

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/educator-resources.html

Web Analytics

"Web Analytics is a measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of undersatandeing and optimizing Web usage" 

                                                                                      (Web Analytics Assosiation, 2006)

Nowadays analytics are everywhere...

A few decades ago when theWorld Wide Web was used as a tool for sharing information, only a few could think about the role that it plays today.  The increasing popularity  and use of Internet access raise the possibility of using the Web to observe,  monitor and undersatand  a human social behavior. 

Now many websites are using  Google Analytics to follow their visitors behaviors. The visually enhanced reports by Google Analytics provides information on where visitors come from, what pages they visit, how long they stay on each page, how deep they go in the site, where their visits end, and where they go from there. Even Sciences turn to analytics and visuals to have better understanding of different field related issues. Web analytics offer objective satistical data which helps better see the interaction between the website and the visitor. 

In educational setting it also can play a vital role. They can measure the course and activity value in schools and Universities. This will help educators to design a better website/course/activities for their students based on the information that web analytics will provide. With the help of web analytics we can have clear understanding about the preferences and interests of our students  ans built effecctive courses and educational websites for them to enjoy. :)

Here is a link which explains how one can interpret and act with the data. If you are inetersted in it have a look :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdsb_uH2yPU

Another interesting video about web analytics by Avinash Kaushik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpDxGrSqA-E&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLBC519BB60F304EE0

Open Class

Open Class is a new kind of learning environment that goes beyond the Learning Management System (LMS). It stimulates social learning and the free exchange of content and ideas. It’s open to everyone, easy to use, and completely free. It provides dynamic cloud-based solutions. It's a free floor  around the globe which advances education by leveraging modern social technology to encourage collaboration and communication for students, faculty, institutions, and administrators.

Distance Learning

Will you be surprised if I say that the first attempt for distance education was in 1728 in Boston. Of course at that time it was via postal services. However, University of London states to be the first University to offer distance learning degree. But whatever it was let me leave this and consider distance education nowadays in this hightech century. 

Distance education means that one can study  from everywhere in this world without even waiting for the particular course or semester to start. In our growing and developing world getting higher education is vital but how can people get it if they live far away and don't have access to the high qualified teachers and resources. Here online learning that is virtual classroom due to inovative technolories comes to help. Now people from rural areas who generally don't have acces to on-campus education can gain qualified education via virtual classrooms. Its a new way of learning and interacting and a new way of connecting classrooms and the students. For students virtual classrooms give opportunity to take the courses that are not available at regular schools and they also can fit them into their schedule. So, the flexability to fit the schedule is one of the benefits of virtual classromms. 

 However, speaking about benefits let's not to forget that every good thing (it's consider to be a good one :-)) has its drawbacks. And of them is that virtual schools aren't for everyone. A virtual school student should be self-directed and self-motivated. S/he should take care of her/himself because there is no teacher to say what page to read and what to write. Moreover, there is belief that having only virtual classes without any real ones can't bring you desired results. So, maybe the mix of them will be great :).  Be honest I've never tried virtual classes (except 2-week skype classes) but I'd like to..........

Here are two interesting links. Have a look :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZk-WdYHkoc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhrzB6gmhEA

Two more links about virtual classroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMixI8t1yVw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdxeWRVCIXE&feature=related

Open Educational Resources

As a starting point I suggest you to follow this link and watch a video about open educational resources which will give you an overall understanding of this phenomenon. This what I did because I didn't know anything about OER     

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kRBS9vtOAw

Now let me discuss a notion of Open Educational Resorces (OER) from my point of view. OER is an open resourse available for everyone who need it. It's a kind of free online learning. The idea of it is to create an online/virtual space full of various resources for people who do not have access to the information they need. As we live in the technology century we should consider using it for educational puposes as wisely as possible. From the economic point of view having educated and inteligent generation is very important in this fast developing world and of course in this case the access to higher education is obligatory. But now it is difficult to find a single University which can provide its students sufficient resources. We need a new education extending tool. Thus, creating such kind of online resources and giving students access to them freely from different parts of the world will be of great help. Of course OER is a great tool but its design and creation cost a lot of money and effort. Maybe that's why in Armenia we don't have so well developed OER and that should make us think about trying to develop and improve it for coming generation.


As you see OER is of great importance and the evidence of it is that the first world OER congress will be held 20-22 June 2012 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. The Congress aims to  influence educational planning worldwide and to encourage governments to support the development and use of open educational resources. 

Learning via mobile devices

Nowadays almost everyone has at least one mobile device (mobile phone, iPod, iPhone ….) and probably knows about its capabilities. Actually using mobile devices for their purpose and also for having fun is not a big secret but using them as learning and teaching tools, is something that needs investigation and exploration. So having read a few articles and blog posts (which I recommend you to read as well) I’ll try to describe some ideas related to the topic and also discuss advantages and noticeable disadvantages of using mobile devices in educational settings.

So, one of the main advantages is that deciding to use mobiles for teaching/learning purposes teachers won’t face many challenges in terms of availability of the mentioned devices. Though those devices may lack of some capabilities they still are valuable to use.

 Mobile assisted language learning (MALL) may encourage collaboration and co-construction of knowledge, even though mobility and portability very often seem not to be completely put in the design of MALL activities. The lack of interaction may be seen as disadvantage which supports teacher-learner communication and use the mobile device to deliver content rather than encouraging learners to communicate with each other. So here arising a question about how to use mobile devices to support non-teacher-led pedagogical approach that may encourage students’ collaboration. MALL develops very fast and begins to support multimedia, collaborative listening and speaking tasks and to allow learners to construct knowledge to sort out problems and fill information gaps.

However, let us not to forget that cell phone is just a tool to motivate and to engage a student to take part in the learning process but it’s not a curriculum. It’s an additional tool which supports a curriculum to be improved. Activities linked to curriculum are done outside of the classroom so we need to use a tool where it is best to use. I think that classroom time should be spend, students can listen to the teacher and interact with each other in reality and outside of the classroom when we can’t control them we can just give them assignments which will keep them in a language learning environment everywhere on the move. They can learn the language even without knowing that.

We need time to learn how to use the new devices and software because students may use them n unpredictable for teachers’ ways. Recommending the students use the devices doesn’t mean that they will follow it. So we must be aware of that as well before trying to implement MALL to our curriculum.

From the positive side I’d like to add that teachers can bring EFL podcasts into the classroom and guide learners how to carry on with them outside the classroom in the longer term. They can use this method to introduce the students to authentic video podcasts such as news broadcasts. Using of flashcards for vocabulary learning is also a good point for our discussion.

It will take a long time to get used to a new technology that is to say to the use of mobile phones in classroom settings but the best thing about cell phones is that students never leave home without them and they can be easily used outside of school and home.

Learning in a Virtual World

Virtual  world? How can it be used for learning purposes? Perhaps this is the first question that almost everybody asks him/herself reading the heading of this blog post. But hang on so far in my blogs I have written about using different new technologies in educational settings. Now it is a turn to discover a new world, virtual world, full of incredible opportunities, a world where people can not only play and have fun but also learn and teach. So hold your breath we are discovering a new way of learning-learning in a virtual world. 

Donald J. Welch (president and CEO of Merit Network) divides the virtual worlds into four sectors and along one line he put "general purpose" vs. "specific function" and along the other one "public use" vs"private use". For instance Second Life is public use and general access.

In terms of using virtual world in higher education he says that now there are some gaps but he is optimistic saying that in near future there will be worlds that are specifically designed for higher education. 
No doubt that virtual world attracts students. They are excited seeing various interesting interfaces and content. They want to interact in different environment (though virtual worlds reflect the reality) and experience new things.

Interestingly, according to Cynthia M. Calongne (Professor of Computer Science at Colorado Technical University) virtual worlds can be very effective and interactive tools for learning and teaching. Of course virtual world class differs from a traditional one, due to the three dimensional (3D) graphical setting, the use of avatars and virtual things specific for its virtual space. She says that “successful virtual class experiences require a blend of technology, tools, content, student ownership, identity, engagement, course structure, risk management, mentoring, feedback, and a good orientation to using the tool".

     Yes, maybe it's great that students can do lessons, interact and do projects on different places (beach, island, cafe or in the air) due to the virtual worlds but can we provide our students with safe learning environment? Or it's not a secret that people and especially teens mostly became addicted and it's hard to get them out of that virtual space. So we should be cautious about using different virtual worlds for learning purposes otherwise we'll gain opposite/negative results. However, virtual space can serve as an additional tool to motivate, to attract and even to encourage our students to learn because as I've mentioned in my previous posts learning and fun are two in-separate things if we want our student to be more motivated and interested. 

  

Here are a few tutorials about using virtual worlds for learning purposes if you are interested :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-oeCkBbwWo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNjV8Fvre4U

Digital Video Games as learning tools

“Games are effective not because what they are but because of what they embody and what learners are doing as they play a game”

 Richard Van Eck

Nowadays more and more people use digital games for different purposes. They are employing “cutting edge technology”. We don’t live in industrial economy anymore, we live in technology economy thus we have to think about using this technology in educational settings.

In general there are three factors which have resulted in broad public interest and attention in games as learning and teaching tools. They are as follows:

v  Ongoing research in Digital Video Games (DGBL) field

v  “Net Generation” or “Digital Natives” mismatched with the traditional instructions because it required multiple streams of information, immediate interactions with content: the features that engaged well with DGBL

v  Increased popularity in games

Besides claiming about the increasing popularity of games we should also mention that not all games are effective and have place in learning/teaching settings. Here the main issue is the attempts to integrate games into the learning process to broaden out their learning/teaching potential. According to Van Eck easy games can’t be engaging whereas well designed games require “input from the learner and provide feedback”. 

Let’s consider that we have designed an educative game but how we can attract kids play this game. So here comes the notion that they should be entertained and the connection between learning and fun will attract kids play the game. 
    In general, DGBL literature shows, educators have adopted three main approaches for integrating games into the learning process:

 1. have students build games from scratch

     2.have educators and/or developers build educational games from scratch to teach students

            3.integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games into the classroom (which maximizes the quality of games)

There are many COTS games which can be use in the classroom such as Civilization, The Age of Mythology and others. However, before using a particular game in the classroom setting various factors should be taken into consideration. A balance has to be achieved between the needs of the curriculum and the structure of the game to elude having “negative” outcomes from the teaching.

The new digital technologies made “cognitive changes” which led our younger generation to a variety of new needs and preferences in the area of learning. Due to these change the notion of generation gap comes to my mind because we play, learn and communicate in a way which is different from the way our parents did. Now kids develop hypertext minds. Their brains are physiologically different (Moore, n.d). According to Moore “computer skills are a tool for adults, but for teenagers using computers has become a second language”. Keeping this in mind I would like to present the main cognitive changes that Prensky (2000) observed in the Games Generation.

 v  Twitch speed vs. conventional speed

 v   Parallel processing vs. linear processing

 v  Graphics first  vs. text first

 v   Random access vs. step-by-step

 v   Connected vs. standalone

 v  Active vs. passive

 v   Play vs. work

 v   Payoff vs. patience

 v   Fantasy vs. reality

 v   Technology-as-friend vs. technology-as-foe

Each of them is very challenging in the fields of education, business and many others. Due to all these “cognitive differences” the learning styles and abilities have been changed which bring the need for new approaches to learning for the Games Generation.

    Though multiple studies have found that games promote learning and reduce instructional time across multiple disciplines we should be cautious while choosing a game for our students.  The benefit of DGBL  is undeniable  but let not to forget that not all games are good for educational purposes. Thus if we want to use DGBL in the language and other classrooms, the teachers and faculty members must be trained to analyze, to design, to develop, to implement and to evaluate DGBL.  

Video Production and movie making in EFL classroom

In the world where new techologies are "in power" it is possible and quite likely to use them for teaching purposes especially in EFL settings. Student-produced videos can be an excellent EFL/ESL learning activity. This activity differs from he other ones because the learner participate in video making process in variety of ways. Nowadays, when we have relatively advanced digital video technology ,EFLlearners have many opportunities to cerate their own videos on a specific topic given by the teacher or the topic which they are interested in. Maybe for the first time it would be better let the students choose their prefered topics to avoid feelting them uncomfortable with a the new stuff and letting them have fun with it. Moreover, due to decrease of the cost of video hardware and other neccessary tools it is relatively easy to have many students involved in creating videos and movies for learning purposes. It's not a secret that young generation or how we call it "digital generation" is fond of  new and advanced tools and it goes crazy about creating something new, intersting and attrective. So, having the EFL leraners develop and create their own videos will facilitate learning and teaching. Making videos is a powerful tool for teaching and learning from both the teachers and the students percpectives. Yooung students are inclined to tell about their family members, lovely pets, their schools and about every possible thing and event fron their life. So, with the help of video making tools the students can  make movies, use written and/or spoken language, hence improve their language skills. While designing and creating a video the student choose every single detail very carefully because there is a potential audience and they try to be the one who give creative and intersting solutions to the project of video production. 

I think learning and "having fun" simultaniously is one of the best ways for students to learn.

Is it a new resource of teaching and learning for the “Digital Generation”?

    Nowadays teaching and learning has become easier due to new technologies used in educational settings. So far in my blog I’ve discussed a notion of “Digital Generation” and the importance of some new technologies such as blogs. But now I’m trying to provide an overview about what podcasting is and what’s its impact on teaching especially teaching English. Podcasts seem to be ideal resources for language teachers, especially English language teachers, because almost all possible topics imaginable can be found in podcasts and most of podcasts are recorded in English.

     Podcasting consists of two words “iPod” and “broadcasting”. Podcasts are basically audio files available mainly for free and which can be listened to on a computer or any portable playback device that reads MP3 files. Podcasting is becoming more and more popular, mainly because of the fact that anyone who has a computer and an access to the Internet can download and also create their own podcasts very easily. In other words podcasts offer alternative way of delivering the content. The most exiting thing is that all this one can do for free which gives an opportunity for larger community to access it.  

     Podcasting is being used in a variety of ways in educational settings. Traditionally, it can be used to distribute lecture material. However, there is concern that if the material is downloadable the students will stop showing up to classes.

According to the article (Windham C, 2007) students used podcasting in their classroom setting and outside of it responded positively and identified some advantages to podcasting technology. They are as follows:

•       The opportunity to access course materials at hand twenty four hours
•           The chance to create the podcasts’ content in a way that the students like
•      The mobility of using the materials wherever they want (in the bus, at the gym, etc.) 

•        Its possibilities are infinite if one has an idea there is always, at least, one way to carry it out.

Teaching Tools - Podcasting with Michael Johnson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHhFDUy7iR4

Recently I found an interesting article telling about the uselessness of reading books. Maybe it's time to change the way of reading the books into the listening them? Who knows :)

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-study-books-dont-take-you-anywhere,20595/

Developing writing fluency and lexical complexity with blogs By Terry Fellner and Matthew Apple

In the article the authors present their research which was conducted in September 2004. The aim of the research was to compare The researchers used student blogs in an integrated CALL program for low proficiency low motivation Japanese university language learners in a seven-day intensive English course. The goal of this research was to identify the impact of blogging on the learners’ writing fluency and lexical complexity. The researchers compared the number of words and word frequency levels in student blogs at the beginning and at the end of the program.

I would like to speak a bit about the criteria which the researchers choose while designing the program. The criteria were:

1. Language Learning Potential-improve both as writing and reading

2. Learner Fit-the use of blogs fit with students’ interest

3. Meaning Focus-students were responsible to write clearly for their classmates to understand

4. Authenticity-bogs are forum for people to express their thoughts and share information

5. Positive Impact-students acquire not only new vocabulary but also useful computer skills

6. Practicality- blogs imposed no extra financial burden on either the university or the student

7. Enhancement-blogs are much more practical to use tan paper diaries and journals

The interesting fact is that the researchers didn’t know the definition of writing fluency and how to assess it. So, according to the authors the importance when assessing fluency is whether the learners bring their vocabulary knowledge into communicative use. However to avoid some problem the authors decided to define fluency in writing as the number of words produced in a specified time frame, together with lexical frequency.

The results of those seven day program showed an overall increase in words produced and improvement in their lexical frequency by students from the beginning of the program through the end of it. The main focus was writing so the task provided students with more opportunities for meaningful negotiation via “comment” feature in the class blog. The interactive aspect was the most interesting and maybe useful part for learners.

The researchers believe that only communicative writing encourages students to write expressively resulted in overall improved writing fluency for the 21 students in this study.
Here are some more  articles about the blogs as tools for learning. I think they worth reading :)

http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/2187/1/hall_davison_blogs_draft.pdf,


http://eprints.qut.edu.au/13066/1/13066.pdf?BXCTX=AD:BLACK_AND_WHITE;DDO:DC-PREVIEW;RSV:E0

http://studentcenteredlearning.pbworks.com/f/Instructional+Blogging.pdf

Reflection on Thomas Friedman talk about his book "The World is Flat"

As far as I understood, Thomas Friedman claims that the world is flat. It is the notion which he describes in his book “The World is Flat”. According to Thomas Friedman, there are no boundaries any longer among countries because of the Internet which made it ‘flat’. It means that people can be in touch, work together on the same project being far away in the different corners of the planet just sitting in their rooms or just from everywhere, only having an access to the internet.

In his book he names ten flatteners which lead us to the world we have today.

The first three, as he said, "created the platform". The first flattener mentioned by Thomas Friedman is ‘The New Age of Creativity:’ When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up. The second one is ‘The New Age of Connectivity:’ When the Web Went Around and Netscape Went Public. This flattener is a combination of technologies that gave us access to World Wide Web (www) and then the fiber optic cable came to light making different countries, cities and people like "next door neighbors". The next six flatteners he called the new forms of collaboration the examples of which are outsourcing,which is the process of taking work that used to be done in-house and paying another company to do it, and offshoring , which is when a company moves its production from its home country to another country where it can be done with cheaper labor and low taxes. He also mentioned about opensourcing, which he named as a "new model of production", insourcing and informing. Finally the tenth fllatener is, as he called, the steroids due the which all above mentioned fllateners started to work together and created the global flatform where there is no any borders for anything and anyone.In this moment the world became flat.

The implication this idea has, is that online teaching and learning have become possible via

the Internet. There are a huge number of online courses using which people can get a diploma just sitting in their apartments without leaving it. Also teachers can use online sources, a huge amount of data, and implement the existing information in their classrooms. This will help them to make their lessons more successful and real-life.

Digital Generation

The most striking thing for me is that very young children already know almost everything about the new technologies. They know how to use them and for what particular thing. Even their teachers learn from them sometimes. Frankly speaking previously I thought that new technologies damage children’s life more, than they help but after watching these videos about “Digital Youth” I completely changed my mind. Now I see that new technologies allow children to create and explore new things because usually children aren’t satisfied with what they search they want to use their findings and be creative. Children use technologies as a digital media which helps them to be informed all the time.

As an EFL teacher I can see the big challenges which exist in Armenia related to new and digital technologies, the use of them for educational purposes. There is a huge work to do to have students to use new technologies in their learning. Of course before doing that the experienced teachers should be in charge. The teachers should be aware that games also can be educative and can help students to create and use their minds. Students can face many problems which they would like to figure out, so they use their brains. As the games are very competitive children use different strategies to solve the problems raised. Also there are many students who don’t enjoy reading so now it’s very easy to listen to a book instead of spending many hours reading it. People can live miles away from each other but they can create a project and work together. Due to this people work collaboratively and build teamwork skills. Technology is more than a tool it’s a vital part of a digital generation. This generation thinks ‘outside the box’.

As a logical continuation as what I discuss above I would like to mention a few ideas from the Sugata Mitra's talk "How kids teach themselves". At first he talks about the remotness and the quality of Education and that the remote areas don't have good teachers and infrustructures. But the main point of his talk is that children can be self-instructed and "education can happen on its own". He conducted a few experiments in different Indian cities and found out that the children can learn themselves having only a computer and an access to the internet. Even without knowing the English language the kids can overcome the language bariers and learn English words (of course those which appear while using the computer) while browsing.