I'd hate to give up direct email in teaching. WEI’s Internet teaching website,(www.worldenglishinstitute.org/), has some time saving features and built in communication tools making it possible for a single teacher to manage hundreds of students. But, direct email facilitates relationships without the incumbents of automation. Teaching the student instead of teaching lessons is central to bringing about change. Think about having the Subject line read “chat.” This brings about a feeling of friendship.
Another even more enticing and facilitating feature available to the teacher is face-to-face sharing using Skype. Taken together with direct email a personal relationship emerges miles beyond the written lesson. Skype with a "motion eye” camera brings the student into my home just to look around. On the email side of correspondence, outlines and photographs can be transferred in the flash of a download. And, it can be accomplished by almost anyone anywhere on the globe. Even hand held telephones can send text and photos. Amazing!
In this IT age, there is a complimentary method lurking in the wings -- Internet lessons + email chat + Skype with a camera + email attachments. It’s like being there with a prepared lesson, a graded quiz with written explanations, and an open private tutoring all in one place. How much more do I need?
Shall I wait on teleporting of the student directly? Likely not. How would they get a visa? Ha! Someday far in the future!
It was way past my bed time in Oregon that Skype’s screeching demanded immediate attention!
“Hello, China calling! I just got off work and thought about talking some.”
“Well hello! What time is it in your side of the world?”
“I just got off work and am raiding the fridge. About four-thirty.”
“It's 1 am here. I'm happy to see you? Oh! You don’t have a camera on your laptop. I forgot. Sorry! I love my new laptop. It came with a built in camera looking right at my face. Wish you had one too. How do I look? Older than you imagined?” That was before I straighten my hair and shirt collar.
“How's your job?" "Fine!”
She's learned how we Americans skirt talking about American’s unemployment. Oh well, we shared stories for a while, stories about bosses who were not open to hearing about Jesus as they walk us to the door. The streets are filled with young people looking for the next rung on the ladder or maybe a necessary career change. The love for Jesus is not always popular when shared openly.
“Do you know Jacob? He’s a great friend in China. He would like to join us. May I invite him to join us?” I said.
“Okay! How do we do that?”
“I just invited him. I have his Skype address.”
“Hello Jacob. I’d like to introduce you to my WEI student.” “We would like for you to send your lesson outline so we can chat about it. You can take over and I will listen. But, remember, I don’t speak Cantonese. My student is pretty good at English now. It’s okay to slip in some Chinese as you may need.”
“Okay. All that I need is an email address. I can send the outline as an attachment.”
Now, you can see why I don’t want to give up direct email in teaching. Powerful!
Next time, I’ll share when I became a “long winded preacher.”
Have a great day and check out the WEI’s Internet “teaching website.” www.worldenglishinstitute.org/
There, we gather students by offering FREE English with Bible reading as an assignment. This gets the ball rolling and when determined to be safe, we chat, Skype, and share in a real-time classroom.
God bless,
Bob
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