Reading Reflection # 3

I felt this was a very good article. This article approached using technology in the classroom from a very honest perspective giving both the good and the bad about it. In addition to that it also stated some areas where students might get hung up using technology in learning; such as software that is not user friendly and some that does not provide immediate feedback. It gives some suggestions on how to make learning better for the student and it tells how the students can make learning better for themselves. This article also discusses the control you, as the student, has over the control over the pace of the course. For some learners having complete control over the pace may work great for them, but for some (including myself!) they need someone else to control the pace and set deadlines or it takes forever to learn a language when they could have done it faster with deadlines.

There was one statement that I disagreed with “teachers can control the environments they establish and can choose to design classrooms and labs so that the equipment, software, and staff move in concert to enable learners to be self-directed."(p391) That is a great idea, but unfortunately it doesn't always seem to work that way and teachers don’t' always have control over how they design their classrooms, but you can make the best of what you have and try to enable the students to be self-directed with what you have.

I also liked how the article touched on learners from different cultures, and how their culture may not view independence or autonomy as a good thing and that you as a teacher need to work within that culture to give autonomy in a culturally appropriate light.

It seems to me that a lot of the students that I teach are unclear why they are learning English. There parents sent them to this school, so they have to learn and speak English because those are the school rules. So they are not very likely to be motivated when it comes to learning the language.

The way the author presented using autonomy in the classroom was very clear to me. I think that, yes, we do need to try as best we can within the boundaries of the culture to help the students become autonomous so that they can start internally motivating themselves to learn. We also need structure the classroom so that can happen.
-Holly