Reflection on Webinars

From day to day this subject is becoming more and more demanding and this week’s task was about Webinars. We were presented with two webinars on our blog , one about ‘ Discovering Grammar with Consciousness-raising Tasks’ and the other one related to ‘ Proverbs and Quotables’. So far , all the lectures have had one thing in common , the massive usage of Technology, and with no exception, Webinar deals a lot with technology. I have to admit that using the latter in a classroom may be a little bit challenging, mostly here in Albania I think, because I guess that also for us as students was somehow new and it’s not so common to be seen in practice  around here.

To begin with , I would say that this new form of presenting information to students would be embraced by them, taking into consideration that this is the era they live in, so why not to deal with something of their level ?  So , next I am going to present some opinions on why and how to use this in a classroom.

Firstly , as with the other methods described in earlier posts , their biggest pros and cons was Technology ,sometimes a very good help but sometimes it may let you down , and that’s exactly what we will try to avoid whilst using Webinars. To not get confused , Webinars are just like seminars, the only difference is that they are held on the web, just like the name itself suggests. Now ,back on track ! Internet , internet and again internet access is all we need but I think that we can set a Pre-Webinar stage before hand . We can provide our students with some materials, videos, websites that may be useful while attending the Webinar , so that our students prepare themselves and then we can assure an active and longing internet connection.

Secondly ,  Facilitation is a great advantage of Webinars. Students can log in from wherever they are, watch or listen to the videos , lectures uploaded and also answering questions asked by the teacher to ensure their understanding of the Webinar. An interesting thing that we as teachers can do to avoid monotony during online classes , is also to upload these lectures so that they can be assessed by students at any time, so they can deal with them in total pace. This is good because in this way we tend to depart from the traditional teacher that somehow ‘forces’ the students to deal with materials and a set point of time and in this way they will definitely lose their focus.

Thirdly , the main reason why Webinars and not Seminars are organized is because they can provide with optimal use of available time and space for both students and teacher. And yes , geographical distances are no big deal . What this kind of learning really emphasizes is providing an immense geographical space for learning. In this way , Webinars are cost free. So , if you are from China and want to participate in one of this in America , you wouldn’t have to travel all the way round to participate in it but otherwise , you could just log in online.

To sum up , I think that Webinar should definitely be a part of our education. We could profit so much from this kind of experience and we would indeed , forever extinguish the so hated traditional way of learning students. Webinars can stimulate traditional classrooms and further improve the best opportunities on its time and limitations.

In the end , school departments can realize that with webinars , we don’t stimulate anything , we just give a push to an effective learning experience.