Languages from a Distance

It’s time to come clean. I have to admit that I have been a skeptic of distance learning for years. It all goes back to my TV Spanish course back in the sixth grade I think. It was such a failure in my eyes that still years later I was never able to see distance learning as a viable format for education—-until now, that is…but more about THAT later!! These days I ask myself what it was in that experience that disappointed me so much and even made me feel resentful.

Now I figured it out. The answer lies in the most central ingredient of the program: i.e. the ?”TV?” part of TV Spanish. The television is an apparatus that transmits information entirely in one direction. It’s no wonder we sixth graders were not amused. In the new setting we had an even more diminished role in “learning.” What little influence we had enjoyed in the regular classroom was now completely taken away . Whereas before we could at least provide feedback to the teacher—through our puzzled looks or our glazed-over, sleepy eyes—we now were utterly powerless. This new, electronic instructor took no note of our well being and plowed on through the lesson.

What could we do?

We rebelled of course and in the end had our revenge. TV Spanish died a disgraceful death and soon vanished into oblivion. Or did it? I don’t even remember…I was too busy growing up. It doesn’t matter anymore.

In the end though the creators of TV Spanish for sixth graders should not be blamed for the failure of their project. They were merely complying with the general assumptions in education at the time which have persisted for decades in schools. Like everyone else they were made gullible and blind by a very persuasive metaphor: that learning is simply a matter of filling vessels with knowledge. If it were so, television would undoubtedly be hard to beat as a classroom tool. Is anything better at disseminating information (and misinformation?) The internet comes close.

Perhaps the lesson of TV Spanish is that distance learning is especially ill suited to rely on a one-way, stand-and-deliver format upon which to base instruction since there is no on-site teacher to intervene and gauge the student responses. If DL is to become a viable alternative to classroom instruction then it must offer something more.

Last month’s report by the NSBA (National School Boards Association) which found that the dangers of social networking are overrated and that schools should allow students to use such networks was a big step forward. In the weeks following there was molto discussion on assorted edu blogs…like here and here. The recommendation of the NSBA has been weighing heavily on my thoughts because at the moment I am trying to decide on which technologies and networks we will build our distance learning program on for the coming years. Since our students are all over the country, and many of them attend regular high schools, we cannot be sure of the kind of access they will be permitted at their school site—-many schools do not allow YouTube or Yahoo, some schools do not even permit wikis or blogs.

Just a month ago that fact alone probably would have caused me to decide for a very secure, protected environment for our curriculum–one that would be acceptable to all. But now I find that that voice of realism in me which up to now has remained hesitant and reluctant in regard to utilizing real-life web sites–unedited and unfiltered– for resources and tools is beginning to change. Instead of getting bogged down on what’s NOT possible everywhere now…wouldn’t it be more realistic to recognize that in a matter of a few years students will be using these sites all the time –actually they already are!— for all sorts of routine communicative tasks. (To be continued.)

Foreign language instruction from a distance? The idea may arouse some skepticism…and perhaps rightly so. After all even in a traditional environment like the high school classroom, teaching a second language is a challenging endeavor to say the least.

Nevertheless, distance learning will most certainly experience rapid growth in the decades to come as educational goals become more individualized and focused. How can foreign languages be taught in this new instructional context? Learning (and teaching) a second language is tricky business and there are many parts of the puzzle to consider. These pages we will explore both the possibilities and challenges that distance learning presents students and educators alike