DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP.

Building vocabulary through training the reading and writing skills seems to me the fundamental task for learning a foreign language. Indubitably pronunciation / audition is formative, customizing the language input, but the main content is the vocabulary stock one is able to accumulate and operate with. It was amusing how a scholar was referring to the choice of reading for young learners, the rule of the five fingers. If a Second Language learner finds/counts five unknown words on one page - the book is difficult to read for him/her, the large number of new words would impede comprehension. For adult learners in order to comfortably read and further process an EAP text the word bank should be up to 7000 vocabulary units.

The methods through which vocabulary practice can take place are numerous. The writing /reading skills can be enhanced through different forms, genres of writing proceeding from correspondence which can readily be trained using templates, ready-made lists of phrases for different types of letters, authentic materials can be found on different sites, situations, case-studies, advertisements column may be scrutinized in different newspapers and reviews.

The most demanding form of writing is however the essay: narrative, descriptive, argumentative (cause-effect, comparison and contrast, instructional step-by-step how-to etc). Here again we have a profusion of resources, books, sites dedicated to training writing essays, particular attention being given to all the component parts even in the form of recommended formula in order to embed the basic structure the skeleton of the type of writing under consideration, further on everything depends upon individual capabilities, resourcefulness, creativity and an enormous amount of writing training.

The Internet and Web technologies become an in-built default tool for all the stages of the learning/educational process. This is the new study paradigm. The preliminary research takes place with the Internet resources, drafting is electronic in MWord text editor, the blogs become the personalization of one's presence  on-line, a form of publishing for a limited group, learning through peer-review and collaboration, communication enhancement.

The virtual field-trip projects can be planned so as to encompass consecutive stages:  research/documentation, a virtual field-trip, an equivalent real life visit in the own locality; all the steps being reflected in the learners' blogs posts with a final accumulative report drafted, presented, evaluated. I think this type of web-enhanced and technology-assisted case study projects are at the top of modern education and language learning.

How about the role of the teacher in a wired classroom, does it decrease in a active learning environment student-centered, where the learners are empowered in their individual research pursuits and they learn collaboratively with peers on team projects. The teacher/instructor’s role becomes even more responsible than previously, he still is the educator/pedagogue motivator, provider of knowledge and directions, instructions, but also a bit of a technical assistant and forerunner in the Web resources, who selects the appropriate technology for the stated objective and knows exactly how it operates, the content, the output it must provide within his syllabus and its long run effect.

When it comes to misconceptions, psychologists have elaborated a Misconceptions Analysis regarding education science, misconceptions by the students towards content, process of learning and misconception of the teachers in rapport to their task or learners. Thus Hadi Farjami in “Misconception Analysis: A Necessary Complement to Foreign Language Teaching” quotes

Ausubel (1968) who asserted that if he had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, he would say that the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows.

And a farsighted interpretation of approaches to learning therefore does not content itself with just good presentation of material. It also considers the students’ minds and investigates what sense they make of the material presented. In the process, it informs us not only of what a concept is but also of what it is not. Overall the conclusion of the author is that gaps in language learning should be filled only by positive instruction so going beyond giving negative feedback.

Here I wanted to arrive to another gross misconception that goes like a sticker to a new generation of learners the “digital natives”, which was rejected by many scholars because instructors should not take this for absolutely valid and start progressively their learners’ digital literacy and web instruction step by step before proceeding to adjusting infusing, seamlessly applying in an authentic way a piece of technology to their language acquisition curriculum.

In accordance with the Arizona Technology Integration Matrix only the fourth stage the Authentic use is a mark of being a digital citizen, possessing citizenship when students not only apply skillfully technology for their tasks across disciplines, but also model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions.

my PREZI, WIRED CLASSROOM.