Self diagnostic exercise

Self Diagnostic exercise

A. I am your friend. I don’t work in education. You are talking to me about the idea that we all learn from each other, in all kinds of contexts, and that this can often be richer than more formal classroom based learning. I am sceptical. Tell me about an informal learning experience you have had online in which collaboration was involved, show me a concrete example to help me to see what you mean.

I have been taking part in Educational groups for over 8 years now. Thanks to the exchange of information and interaction that is promoted I have learnt of a large number of different tools that are used in education to help students improve their learning.

I was able to introduce some of them into my daily teaching and see the positive results as well as the engagement in the activity.

This involvement has not only enriched my students but me from the point of view of of my personal growth inside language teaching understanding the usefulness of developing networks to empower the knowledge we possess.

B. We all explore new technologies, some grab our attention more than others, some seem revolutionary, others simply bore us. Tell us about that new tool, or set of tools, you have just discovered that really excites you, talk about the potential it has to change your work. What do you want to do with it?

The tool that really excites me at the moment is ' Second Life'. I have been experimenting this virtual world for 2 years by now.
Regarding the potential it has, I can say that I envision virtual worlds as the tool that will involve the rest to deliver Online Courses. I believe that virtual worlds will be able to develop or connect all the online tools to complement the excelent requirements for Online learning.

I am using Second Life to deliver Language Courses. Nowadays the disadvantages that I find are : a) voice, since depending the environment you are in, voice is not as stable as you expect and b) PC requirements as well as firewall problems inside companies that do not allow Second Life to be installed.

C. Do you see yourself as a pioneer? Do you think you are more innovative than others in your organisation? Do you think your organisation is lagging behind? Tell us how you feel about this?

I definitely think so. I consider myself a pioneer researching and trying new tools to develop educational courses in my country.Our educational system is still evolving and technology is still not fully considered in some areas.

Regarding my organization is not a problem since I am the head, therefore I am the one who promotes among teachers to include technology in the education.

I was recently interviewed by the media about my presence inside Second Life and its Educational purpose. I had the chance to motivate Uruguayans to try Second Life and experiment on their own the benefits of virtual worlds.

Therefore I feel great to have an intrinsic motivation towards technology and to be able to continue evolving in it.