This whole week has been really hectic with the final exams at school and preparations starting at home for the long awaited Diwali festival on the 3rd of November. I was a little bit awed at the herculean task awaiting me this week for my online course. Doubts gnawed at me from time to time, but I finally realized that with some good planning and regularity, all tasks can be fulfilled within the given deadline.

I did not open my Delicious account at the beginning. I preferred to go through the different reading materials provided and I was really impressed at how much was at our disposal to coach our children on listening, speaking and even pronunciation. I feel that my class can become more interactive and interesting if I make full use of what I have in hand now. Making use of CALL in our classrooms will surely make our learners become more autonomous and more concerned in the learning process.

Opening my own Delicious account gave me such a feeling of relief that now as a teacher, I am moving towards more organization in my job. I really feel that taking this course allows us to know where we stand and in what direction we are moving. All my favorite sites will be easily available at one click and I feel more reassured.

What to say of my fellow learners' posts on Nicenet. You are all so helpful and cooperative, we are all teachers and wherever we are we all have in mind the development of our students. Their future is in our hands. We can shape them into becoming good citizens of the world by what we inculcate in class. This course offers us the opportunity to keep pace with the changes , the challenges of this fast paced world. I cannot help myself by ending my post by a quotation again. This time it is by Mark Twain one of my favorite authors:

"If we were meant to talk more than listen, we would have two mouths and one ear."

 Google is no longer the only word of the day... My dear Google, I thank you for having been always there to provide me with all the answers I was looking for, all the why's and how's, all the solutions and readings. I will not be so very loyal to you these days! Eureka!Other search engines do exist and I hope I will be able to make full use of these. 

I always thought that Google was like Atlas, who in Greek Mythology was condemned to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. Well, Google still does it but I realize that the burden is shared now among so many other search engines such as Wikipedia, Newseum and all the other search engines listed on Noodle Tools.

In only one week I learned that the world is available to us at only some few clicks and it is up to us to manage all that we get and make full use of all these. When I was a University student, I went through loads and loads of documents at the archives of Mauritius and at the University to be able to write my thesis. It was a time consuming activity. I do not look down upon the good old ways of conducting research. I still love the feel of opening a book, going through the pages, searching for the correct information, reading and taking down the relevant notes. But I  really impressed at the millions of documents, books, journals and so many other writings made available nowadays just by properly searching on the web. Barriers to learning, to knowledge have crumbled down so let us all benefit from these so that we can as teachers inculcate a new type of culture in our learners. We have the power to do it, so let's do it.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” -- American futurist, Alvin Toffler

I wonder what is more difficult: creating a blog or posting my first message on the same blog...Finally, I realize I have to let go and express myself as sincerely as I can.I get along quite well with technology. I mean I can work my way fair enough with a computer but I am not an expert at it though. I had some difficulty in creating my first blog but I got some help. My 13-year old daughter helped  me a little and she went through the job in less than 10 minutes. It would have taken me longer, I admit. 

Our young people are of the computer generation. Technology is part of their life. As teachers, we meet these people every day so I feel that we have to adapt to new situations, to the new challenges of the 21st century. I sincerely feel that this blog can help me in creating a better student-centered environment, a more lively and interactive class. With the appropriate support from our respective institutions, the teaching profession will flourish and adapt sure enough to this new age.

 I am reminded here of a short story by E.M.Forster 'The Machine Stops'. In this story, Mr.Forster depicts a world enslaved by technology,where all our moves, all our thoughts, our air, our food are controlled by The Machine. Fortunately, our world will not turn out to be like this. As teachers, if we know how to adapt, how to include technology and the web in our profession, we will not be overruled by machines. The computer should become our companion, a close friend, a mean to bridge the gap and to bring us closer to our pupils. And I do really think that a blog is a good start...