NYT article - An Open Mind

This article is one more way to evidence what is happening nowadays with technology and the impact that it has in our society. In this way we see how people can have access to many things through the net even education. In favor or against this option is a fact and many people are using it through many online courses. From one hand this is a good way to provide knowledge and opportunities for people that otherwise would not have the chance to study or learn. But on the other hand what about grades? How are this people going to be assessed? This is an important aspect in the process of learning as students need to have results, not for the grade itself but it is extremely useful to receive feedback in order to know what they need to improve and what they have already achieved.

Although internet connection allows people to have access to a lot of information what is something positive, it may not have the same effect when we talk be the same when talk about education because of the teacher role. Something similar happen with group work, students need to interact with peers as it is also another important way of learning in which students have the possibility to interact and learn from others.  

Anyways this Open Mind program is one more possibility for students who are interested in learning and do not have access to doing in another way. Despite it has inconvenient it is good to have these kind of options for people who really to improve their knowledge and cannot do it because of reasons like time or money.

 Links:

• The Open University: http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/e301.html
• MIT Open Course Ware:  http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/foreign-languages-and-literatures/21f-031j-topics-in-the-avant-garde-in-literature-and-cinema-spring-2003/
• Utah State Open Course Ware:  http://ocw.usu.edu/English/Technology_for_Professional_Writers/index.html

 

Rubric

This is the technology rubric for our Facebook presentation.
Through facebook sts will be assessed on their writing skill.
In this activity students must write a short story using their imagination after seeing several pictures in a facebook group.

Alberto Hurtado University (requirements survey)

Learning ITALIAN

I tried to learn Italian through http://web.uvic.ca/hispanital/italian/italian100/prelim/ page. Here I could find useful exercises for beginners, as the topic of greeting is designed in a didactic way. The basic greetings are accompanied by images that clarify the explanation and then there are some examples of the greeting in a conversation.
In this page it is possible to find grammar translation in examples like:
• ciao: hi, hello, bye (informal)
• buon giorno: good morning, good afternoon
The use of grammar translation is seen sometimes as something to avoid at the moment to learn a new language because it is expected to learn it in context, but the truth is that sometimes the best way to understand something is by linking the new language with the mother tongue. Something similar to what happen with cognates in English.
On the other hand behaviorism is the complement of grammar translation, especially in speaking and the performance of the speech. Grammar is mainly important because is the base of a language, but it is necessary to get to put it into practice. Whenever learning a new language you cannot just be focus on certain strategies of the language.
It is important to know about theory, but if there is not applied it can be easily forgotten. That is why both methods need to work in a collaborative way, in order to achieve good results in all the skills.

Essay 1