Do you have a passion for teaching but somehow circumstances have hindered you from working like other traditional teachers? May be it's about time you explore the beauty of teaching online. I'm sharing with you an article written by Olive Coursolle, MFA; a 51Talk Chief Academic Researcher.
Education has long been abuzz over the place of technology
in learning. As technology has become ubiquitous, however, the question is no
longer whether it should be used in education, but how it can enhance a
teacher’s skills.
Educators will definitely have heard about online English
teaching by now, but may have never considered it seriously because of our
preconceptions of it as not being worthy of our time, or being beyond our
abilities. It may seem unworthy of any serious educator because of the informal
learning context of an online English lesson. The learning environment online
is one where the very technology that facilitates communication can also impede
it, as anyone who has had Skype issues can tell you. On top of this, the online
lesson is very short and therefore incompatible with lecturing, and demands a
great deal of concentration and focus because of the requisite multitasking.
With careful reflection, however, it should become clear
that despite the unfamiliar context and all the technical challenges that may
come with it, the fundamental teaching skills needed in online English lessons
are still the same as those needed in traditional ones: to communicate clearly
and effectively in order to help a student. The steps may need to be more
direct and concise because of time constraints, but the overall objective is
still to get one’s student to successfully use what is learned to communicate
effectively with another person.
It makes sense to think of teaching English online as the
next level of teaching, then. If the classroom is a teacher’s stage, the online
learning environment is but an extension of that stage, one that allows an
educator to do so much more to help a student learn. This can initially take
some more preparation than usual for a traditional lesson, but what
professional teacher doesn’t prepare for a lesson, anyway?
Teaching English online provides an educator with a wide
array of user-friendly tools that just need some getting used to. Definitions
of words unfamiliar to the student can be searched for in a few seconds and
given nearly instantaneously, for example. Once a teacher knows the best
Websites to use for definitions, it’s only a matter of having a reliable
dictionary Website open to be used during the lesson.
The chatbox or whiteboard replaces our blackboard and comes
with display capabilities that are a teacher’s dream. We can easily share
pictures or definitions with a couple of keystrokes and clicks. With enough
practice, we can even do this while still talking to the student.
Teaching English online is the wave of the future. True
educators will recognize and embrace this wholeheartedly because in the end,
it’s all about the teaching and learning that happens, and not about the tools
that are used. Being lifelong learners ourselves, let’s step up to the
challenge of learning how to bring the heart and passion for English to the
digital learning stage.
Passionate about education? Visit www.51talk.com/ph
to take your teaching to the next level.
51Talk is the largest online English education provider in
China. Operating internationally in multiple sites in China and overseas,
51Talk has millions of registered users and over 6,000 online English teachers.