Survey!

Here is the survey we did with Macarena Albornoz


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bEygdic_Go0LCzgb2YKc9PLeTInOtzjwif9NYEejYME/edit?hl=en_US

Open Course ware

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/brain-and-cognitive-sciences/9-57j-language-acquisition-fall-2001/

This is OUR topic as Teachers of a foreign language. It would be interesting to know a little bit more about this.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/brain-and-cognitive-sciences/9-98-language-and-mind-january-iap-2003/

(This is also related to the previous one)

http://ocw.usu.edu/education/research-for-the-classroom-teacher/index.html
Really interesting ...It might help us with our thesis.

An Open Mind

While Reading this article I could not find any significant flaw in the Project.  It has many advantages for many people who do not have the enough resources to go to college and want to expand their knowledge about certain topics. Every person with an internet connection can get access to these extraordinary courses which are intended to be seen by everyone willing to learn something. It opens the “education doors” to the people who could not get a college education, elder people interesting into learning, etc. Today, almost everyone has internet access and it would really help to increase the society’s level of knowledge.

Another advantage this project has is that it helps teachers in different ways: First of all it helps teachers to complement their lessons with these lectures which can clarify some specific topic to students. On the other hand It helps these lecturers to improve their teaching methods and strategies, so the people who is watching these videos and getting these written or oral lessons is getting good quality information.

One “flaw” of this project is that the people who is learning through these Open Course Ware is not getting any kind of grades or certificates of what they have (supposedly) learnt. It does not give any formal certificate; people can take the courses but not “graduate” from them. This is a disadvantage for the people learning through this method but otherwise it would not be beneficial to the Universities that give the courses because in that case no one would go to College.

Another flaw that it may have several years from now, if this project continues, is that it would probably eliminate the contact between teacher and students. It would probably turn teaching into a technological relationship which is not good at all. We, as human beings, have to have social relationships among us; it is vital and crucial to our natural development.