- Activity 1 - What do these numbers and dates refer to

- 1975 _______________________________________

- 14 _______________________________________

- 1995 _______________________________________

- July 4th _______________________________________

- 23 _______________________________________

- 2007 _______________________________________

- 33 million _______________________________________

- Activity 2 - Answer these questions: - 1. In which part of London is David’s birthplace?

-2. When did he play his first game in the Premier League?

- 3. Why did he receive an OBE?

- 4. Where did he marry his Spice Girl wife?

- 5. Against which team did he make his international debut?

- 6. Where does he have his sons’ names tattooed ?

- 7. What does Ataxaphobia mean exactly?

3. Come together in groups of four and compare your solutions.

4. Write a summary about what you have heard so far in form of a short creative article.

I would like to ask:

1. How many students attend this highschool and how many computers are provided for them? –> i.e. How is the student-computer-distribution?
2. Does the school offer some kind of computer license? If so: Is it obligatory for each student to get this license?
3. Are teachers trained in new media usage?

Well, I am looking forward to tomorrow .

Yippee!

Right before the Christmas holidays we went to the

–> http://www.landschulheim-steinmuehle.de/schule <–

There we were provided with some pieces of information about the equipment with and usage of computers in this school. It is really impressive how many computers this highschool has got: the student-computer-distribution is 2:1 –> approx. 2 students per computer. When I look back at my schooldays and the new media equipment we had got, I really get jealous. But in the same breath I have to say that the “Steinmühle” is a public school and probably has got a lot more money available for stuff like new media than ordinary state schools. Well, this school has got a special room for new media containing 24 lap-tops (pc-room of the school), a room where several lap-tops are kept safe and a new media room for the teaching staff. One can enter the internet with all of the pcs. In grades 6,7 and 9 informatics lessons are obligatory: the pupils learn computational basics like how to work with the programme word, how  to use the internet reasonably and efficiently, how to avoid possible dangers of cyberspace etc. In the other grades the use of computer and internet is optional, but highly recommended for all subjects.  The school does not offer some kind of computer license yet, but they are planning to do so. Teachers are not trained in the usage of new media, but there are a lot of  federal state further education programmes which offer knowledge about computer, internet and co.

To make a long story short: I liked our field trip to the “Steinmühle”. It was interesting to see this amazingly well-equipped school from the inside and get to know what kind of and how many new media they have got there. But I also have to note critically that this school is not very representative for most of the continuative schools in Hesse or Germany in general. It is a public school which has got way more money available for new media equipment. I think maybe it would have been better to go to a highschool with ordinary, average computer equipment in order to see how the status quo in German schools really is.

HOWDY EVERYBODY! MAY I INTRODUCE MYSELF? MY NAME IS PRIMUS CELAVIUS, I AM THE PRIMARY, PARAMOUNT COMPUTER AT A HIGHSCHOOL CALLED ALTE-LANDESSCHULE KORBACH. THERE MY HUMBLE SELF RULES ABOUT 40 COMPUTERS. I AM THE KIND-HEARTED BOSS AND THEY ARE MY LOYAL COMPANIONS. WE LIVE IN 2 CHAMBERS (20 PCS IN ONE ROOM, THE OTHER 20 ONES + ME IN THE OTHER ROOM) AT THAT NICE SCHOOL AND REALLY ENJOY BEING AND WORKING THERE. WE ARE KEPT BUSY ALL DAY LONG: TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ENTER OUR REALMS AND REQUEST TO WORK WITH US; WE OF COURSE CANNOT AND DO NOT WANT TO REFUSE THEIR REQUESTS, BECAUSE IT IS FIRSTLY OUR JOB AND SECONDLY WE LIKE TO HELP HUMANS TO IMPROVE THEIR COMPUTATIONAL SKILLS. WE KNOW THAT IT BECOMES INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT FOR HUMANS TO BE FAMILIAR WITH THE COMPUTER, THE WORLDWIDE WEB AND THE INTERNET IN A HIGHLY GLOBALIZED WORLD.

EVERYDAY TEACHERS TELL US HOW VIP WE ARE:

• DURING CONFERENCES THE TEACHING STAFF HAS DECIDED TO CREATE A NEW MEDIA-PEDAGOGICAL CONCEPT WHICH INCLUDES BESIDES OLD MEDIA LIKE BOOKS, MAGAZINES & NEWSPAPERS, AUDIO & VIDEO CASSETTES, RADIO & TV –> COMPUTERS & THE INTERNET!
• PUPILS SHOULD ACQUIRE BASIC PC- AND INTERNET-SKILLS (E.G. TO SWITCH ON THE COMPUTER AND WORK WITH SIMPLE PROGRAMS LIKE WRITING AND CALCULATING ONES/ TO ACCESS THE INTERNET AND SEARCH FOR EFFICIENT PIECES OF INFORMATION).
• TEACHERS SHOULD BE FURTHER TRAINED IN NEW MEDIA IN ORDER TO GAIN MORE MEDIA EXPERTISE.
• AT THE END OF GRADE 8 PUPILS SHOULD KNOW HOW TO USE THE INTERNET AS AN INFORMATION TOOL. MOST OF THEM HAVE ALREADY WORKED WITH COMPUTERS OR RATHER PLAYED ON THEM VARIOUS GAMES; AT ALTE-LANDESSCHULE KORBACH STUDENTS SHOULD LEARN HOW TO USE PC & NET FOR SCHOOL MATTERS. STUDENTS SHOULD BE ENDOWED WITH THESE SKILLS SO THAT THEY CAN WORK AND COOPERATE IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY LATER ON.

I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE MY TEAM ENLARGED, BECAUSE 41 COMPUTERS ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT ENOUGH FOR 1495 STUDENTS. THE HEADMASTER AND THE OTHER TEACHERS SEEM TO AGREE WITH ME, BECAUSE THEY ARE PLANNING TO GET MORE NEW MEDIA EQUIPMENT.

RECENTLY, A FORMER PUPIL OF OUR SCHOOL - NOW STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARBURG - MISSES KATHARINA HACK CAME TO ME AND TALKED TO ME ABOUT HER SCHOOLDAYS AND THE USE OF AND INTRODUCTION TO NEW MEDIA IN SCHOOL. SHE SAID THAT THEY SCARCELY USED COMPUTERS/ THE INTERNET DURING HER SCHOOLDAYS. SHE HAD TO FAMILIARIZE HERSELF WITH THE NEW MEDIA ON HER VERY OWN. HER 19-YEAR-OLD BROTHER AND HER 15-YEAR-OLD SISTER, WHO ARE BOTH ATTENDING THIS HIGHSCHOOL, ARE DOING FAR  BETTER: THEY ARE FREQUENTLY INTRODUCED TO NEW MEDIA AND ACQUIRE MORE AND MORE COMPUTATIONAL SKILLS (FOR INSTANCE HER BROTHER AND HIS  MAJOR COURSE ENGLISH, WHO READ BRAVE NEW WORLD, CAME TO MY ROOM AND WATCHED ON YOUTUBE A CRITICAL COMMENTARY BY ALDOUS HUXLEY AND A SONG PERFORMED BY IRON MAIDEN, WHICH WERE BOTH NOVEL-RELATED). MISSES HACK REGRETS THAT SHE NEVER HAD THIS KIND OF PRIVILEGE, BUT ALSO CLAIMS THAT SHE WAS SMART & CLEVER ENOUGH TO SURF HER WAY THROUGH THE NET WITHOUT ANY HELP…BUT SHE ADDITIONALLY WOULD NEED SOME HELP WITH OTHER COMPUTER MATTERS LIKE CREATING AN OWN HOMEPAGE ETC.

WELL, I THINK THAT ALL PUPILS SHOULD BE FAMILIARIZED WITH NEW MEDIA IN SCHOOL, BECAUSE THEIR JOB FUTURE WILL BE MAINLY BASED ON SUCH HIGHTECH MATTERS.  BUT I SUPPOSE YOU KNOW THAT.

CHEERS! YOURS PRIMUS CELAVIUS

When I was in grade 12 we read with our English basic course Bernard MacLaverty´s awe-inspiring and sophisticated novel Cal. It deals with the bloody, cruel and terrifying conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland and a morally questionable love story embedded in this denomination fight setting. Well, I remember that I really enjoyed reading this novel and that I was keen on gaining more pieces of information about the book on the internet while preparing for an exam about it. I googled the work and was of course provided with several pages concerning the topic. One webpage I did appreciate more than the others.

At university – at the moment:

In our seminar “New Media in Foreign Language Education” we got the task to write our next blog entry (this one:) about a teaching project including new media, which we think was successful. After several googling attempts I found the page http://www.schule.de/englisch/hyper.htm where quite a lot of new media projects from various English lessons are listed. All projects are so-called hypertext projects.

I scrolled down the list and I saw a project called Bernard McLaverty: Cal. Immediately I clicked on it and was lead to the homepage I familiarized myself with during schooldays (http://www.schule.de/englisch/cal.index.htm). On the main page one could find under the heading “Bernard McLaverty: Cal” a well-structured link-list with five topic-related items like author, contents, characters, background, interpretations and an item called “about us and this project”. First of all, I clicked my way through the first five links. The page about the author for instance is subdivided into several sections and offers texts on biography, other novels and short stories written by the same author, some films produced on the basis of the author´s literary works, etc. The page about the contents for example provides a summary of the whole book and chapter summaries. All texts give an overview about the novel and offer some more pieces of information . Most of them contain certain keywords which are marked blue and are underlined and function as links to textinternal or textexternal pages. A lot of pictures are inserted in the text as well in order to support and illustrate what was said. After I skimmed through all these texts, I finally clicked on “about us and this project” and read it through. An English major course (20 pupils and 1 teacher) of a grammar school read in grade 12 the novel Cal. They had to read and to write about this book and search for background information. The hypertext project emerged out of the idea to offer their texts and knowledge to the topic-interested www-public and to learn how to create and manage a well-structured homepage concerning a specific theme. The whole course planned the structure of the page carefully. They brainstormed ideas for form and content of their webpage e.g. which keywords should be on the page; what kind of information should be provided under each keyword; how, where and when graphics and links should be inserted. And they organized who should write about which theme. Then they worked on their texts and the presentation of them on the page. Finally they regarded their product and clicked it through, read the texts in order to correct, delete and add something, in order to improve it to get a fine result.

I think this hypertext project was a real success. Just look and see! Everything was well-planned, structured and organized. The information provided can help other readers to gain an in-depth understanding of the novel. Obviously the English major course students put a lot of effort and passion into this project; they were highly motivated, because they knew that their work would be available as kind of  a product on the worldwide web to a lot of users. They were probably keen on doing their job well, so that they could not be blamed by the public, but instead praised for what they have done. I am of the opinion that this is a great result for a teaching project including new media.

Back to school 2 – foreshadowing:

When I am going to be a teacher later on, I could easily imagine to plan and organize such kind of hypertext project with pupils, too. If one reads a narrative text or play, thinks and writes about it, one could also offer those things to a broader public. A great plus factor of such a project is that students also learn a great deal of soft skills like:

• planning, structuring, organizing their thoughts and ideas
• doing research and writing publishable texts
• developing teamwork-abilities (communication and cooperation)
• handing work results in on time
• gaining new media competences

I would definitely do a hypertext project with my students, if time allows to do so. But I do not know how to create a homepage, therefore I would use a blog instead or ask some of my collegues to show me how to produce a webpage.

All in all, I am of the opininion that hypertext projects can be very fruitful…

P.S.: For further ideas for hypertext projects I can highly recommend: http://www.schule.de/englisch/hyper.htm

Well, I and my room mates, we are suffering from really bad internet connections for approx. two weeks now: sometimes it works quite well for a few minutes, sometimes it does not work at all. Honestly: who would not go nuts by this? Especially if you need the internet for very important purposes like university stuff (e.g. writing a new blog entry, doing some research for the next presentation, etc.). Metaphorically speaking: in the status quo of our hightech age the internet is not a candid, reliable companion, who stands by you in all situations, but instead the internet is a despotic monarch, who rules the world and does whatever he wants to do. Okay, maybe I have exaggerated a little bit too much here. But I am displeased about the internet and its absolutely strange moods.

Against the background of these facts, I should ask myself: Do I want to use the internet as a communication tool in my classes from time to time? Should my pupils be familiarized with high-level, formal internet communication? or Should they go on with unguided use of the net for private, informal communication (e.g. chatting with their friends, sending e-mails, joining forums about a special topic and so on)? Neglecting for a moment the fact that the internet sometimes does not work, I know that the internet is a highly crucial medium in our global society and that global communication via internet is important as well. Internet communication enables each of us to keep in touch with friends all over the world, to cooperate with business partners from nearly every place on earth 24/7. For citizens of a globalized world it is essential to know how to work with the internet as a communication tool. Therefore I am of the opinion that teachers should familiarize their students with different ways of internet communication.

But IMHO I think not all internet communication channels are fruitful and efficient. For example multi user dungeons (MUDs) might be an intelligent invention of the virtual era and undoubtedly require a lot of fantastic imagination and certainly provide a lot of fun, but I would not use them in class. I think letting pupils entering the MUD-world during lessons would lead way too far and might end into addictive behavior, because MUDs are some sort of internet game. But I would introduce my students to effective e-mail and chat use. Each student should establish an e-mail friendship with a native speaker of English. Students should find a nice e-mail partner of the same or nearly the same age and then at the initial stage of this contact they should write about themselves (who they are, what they are doing at school and in their leisure time) and about German culture and habits (in exchange they should get some pieces of information about their e-mail friend´s  biography and his/her respective cultural background (American, British, Australian, etc. culture)). At later stages of this e-mail friendship students can write about whatever pops into their minds. They just should improve their English vocabulary and grammar while using it continuously during e-mail conversations. Another item on the agenda should be effective use of moderated chats. The idea of familiarizing pupils with video-conferencing seems a little bit odd to me. Taking a look around in our schools and on their new media equipment might be enough to comprehend my opinion: most schools do not have many of the simplest computech items/ machines, because they are not that much financially subsidized by the state. I do not know a school which can afford equipment for video conferencing. I think the possibility is simply not given to use this communication tool in school.

To put the matter in a

 , finally I have to say that:

• I am joyfully surprised that my internet connection has not broken down while writing this blog entry, but still works
• I would not use all internet communication tools in school (e.g. I would not use MUDs, because I think they bear a risk of getting addicted to the game)
• I would introduce and familiarize my students with effective use of e-mails and chats (because that might be important for their future as global citizens –> e.g. communication with business partners)
• I emphasize again that I think face-to-face communication is nevertheless the  best way to communicate with each other (most authentic and natural –> facial expressions, gestures, bodylanguage, voice) and wherever possible it should be used

THX for your attention_____EOT_____&BFN

Well..hm..how do I start..you know..well..I think I have to admit something I kept very top-secret: I often lose track when searching for information on the internet. But shush, nobody should actually know this. Otherwise I am embarrassed and turn pink. But in defense I have to put forward that it is not primarily my fault. I accuse the internet being guilty for this.

In order to understand my internet-behaviour you should imagine something. For this purpose I am going to employ a metaphor, which I think fits very well. Just imagine the internet being an incredibly huge, really overwhelmingly huge shopping centre where nearly everything could be acquired. There you can get everything from concrete products to more abstract, non-material matters. And what is best about this mall is that all things are for free. Who wouldn´t like to go shopping there, fill his/ her trolley with gratis things and then return home? 

That is incredible, isn´t it? Well it is indeed a matter of fact with the internet. I hope now you can understand why I lose track from time to time.

Quite often I have to research things for university on the internet, e.g. for homework assigments, presentations, term papers etc. Using the internet for research purposes is based on a good-versus-evil fundament, i.e. on the one hand you can find a great deal of useful information in this vast database (good information superhighway) whereas on the other hand you can find a lot of unnecessary, sometimes outdated pieces of information (bad information highway to hell;). The internet can be an extraordinary fine information source if one knows how to handle it reasonably. That is probably easier said than done for many people. Most people are distracted by the immense offer available on the worldwide web. To fall back on our metaphor, but using a simile: it is as if a sales assistant constantly announces new, most recent, attractive offers via loudspeaker. Every step you take is followed by more and more announcements of the loudspeaker-voice and you simply could not resist to take a look at all of these products. That is what experts call “lost in cyberspace”. Sometimes it is really difficult to keep the right path, because of information overflow. But everybody can learn how to be back on the right track.

–> I completely subscribe to the opinion presented in the current virtual session that internet research has to be trained with pupils. In order to get effective results students need to learn how to use the internet intelligently. I would claim that most pupils do not have any problems with accessing the global electronic world, but I would also state that at least half of them, but probably more, do not know how to search efficiently for serious, up-to-date information. Teachers should show them ways for using the net as a useful information tool. Pupils should learn how to use (meta-)search engines, catalogues, linklists, specialized engines, wiki-web, dictionaries and corpora. Additionally they should acquire evaluation principles in order to analyse the sources found and of course quotation principles in order to mark where the information comes from and therefore to circumnavigate any accusation of plagiarism. If time does not allow to endow the teenagers with all that above-named knowledge, they should in any case be familiarised with the search engine Google and its specialized engines and with the wiki-web.

Just like I have to learn not to lose my way in the electronic realm with its colourful landscapes, the pupils should understand why it is better to keep track, too.

I think they visualized the answers to the questions quite smartly (hear, hear:).

This group is of the opinion that the drill-and-practice method is useful for easiest issues such as learning vocabulary, historical facts and dates, bio-anatomy by heart. They see a big problem in applying this method for more complicated matters such as learning grammar, mathematics and so on. The last mentioned matters require more than dull learning by heart: grammar and co. have to be understood.

The distribution and usefulness of drill-and-practice software was legitimated by saying that it is

• for easier purposes an effective way to learn by heart
• not so time-consuming and
• requires less preparation for the teaching authority.

I think there is nothing to add. One only could have integrated some criticism concerning the drill-and-practice principle, for instance that it is rather fixed and static and does not involve much activity from the learner (i.e. processes of thinking). When we are going to teach later on, we should bear in mind that we should choose our methods according to the content we would like to impart and not vice versa.

All in all, I think the solution is well illustrated and well done. Therefore you get a round of applause:)) :

Today I start my blog entry with an expressive illustration of the brain or rather the two more or less different hemispheres of the brain. On the left side we can observe several, abstract cubicles, in which employees are sitting in front of their computers and concentrate on their work. On the right side we can follow people, who are enjoying themselves while for example reading, meditating, painting, observing, explaining, making a movie, playing the guitar, running etc. The two sides are connected by solid bridges, which allow information exchange.

This picture should symbolize and underline my specific liking for and belief in the learning theory of cognitivism. But I also like the concept of constructivism.

There are three highly important learning theories namely

• behaviorism
• cognitivism and last, but not least
• constructivism.

Mr. Behaviorism says:

I only belief in stuff I can empirically observe. If I teach a person I can only measure his/her learning process by his/her reaction, behavior to the things I´ve taught. Everything can be explained on the basis of an input-output-relation. I don´t care much about the things that happen in between. There´s a brain in every human being – I know that – but I disregard this complex nerve cell unit. It doesn´t bother me.

Mrs. Cognitivism states:

In contrast to you, my dearest disdained Mr. Behaviorist, I think that it´s highly important to observe and explain what´s going on in the brain of a learner. If we teach (no matter what) we´ve got to know about some of the mental processes. There are two big brain hemispheres as shown in the picture above. The left hemisphere is responsible for rational, logical purposes such as language, reading, calculating, science etc. and the right hemisphere is responsible for emotional, intuitional matters such as body language, metaphorical language, creativity, art/dance/music and so on. Scientific research of neuro(bio)logists and -linguists has shown that pupils learn more effectively when both cerebral sides are activated by respective stimuli. Therefore we´re forced to care intensively about the processes and activities of the billions of nerve cells in the brain.

Mr. Constructivism puts forward:

Lady Cognitivism and Gentlemen Behaviorism, I have taken both of your theories into consideration and I´ve to say that you two and your fellows are on a rather low level of learning theory research. Your argumentation is partly right, but lacks quite a lot of things…especially yours, Mr. B …sorry, but I think and recommend that you should improve your theory and bring it in line with recent research results. Mrs. C. you´re on the right track, but you should rethink and assimilate your theory as well. I am the headmaster of the status quo learning theory research. My team and I, we found out that learning is a more complex process than ever imagined before in history. The learner constructs knowledge while comparing new pieces of information with old ones stored in the brain. New information is interlinked with old one. New experiences are connected with memorized ones. The learning process can be regarded as a highly specific and detailed brain activity in order to construct meaning, with the intent to create an individual picture of the world.

Having heard this part and other parts of the discussion between our three learning theory representatives, I can form my own view on the subject matter.

I am convinced that:

The behavioristic approach is not sufficient from today´s point of view:

–> the brain is not a simple tabula rasa, in which new knowledge is stored

–> the process of classic conditioning or that one of operant conditioning might be good methods for easy matters, but not for complex ones

–> drill and practice might be ideal for learning vocabulary and other easy matters, but again not for complex ones.

The cognitivistic approach is far more dynamic than the static behaviorist approach:

–> the brain is a processing unit

–> processes of thinking and understanding, storing and processing information are taken into consideration

–> the learner should follow the explorative learning principle and become more active ( in gathering information and solving problems).

The constructivistic approach has reached a rather high and proficient level of learning theory:

–> the brain is more than a tabula rasa and more than a processing unit; it is a self-organizing information-processing system

–> the learner has to construct his own knowledge and is merely guided by the teacher

–> a futuristic theory based on a high level of self-motivation and learner independence.

All in all, I think we as future teachers should make use of all three theories. We just have to decide where and when which of these learning theories fits. The principles of constructivism are most up-to-date, but bear several risks e.g. in that the learner is too independent and too alone in his/her learning process. Besides learning theories principles of learning should be kept in mind. In our global village it becomes more and more necessary and essential that one shows motivation for life-long learning, self-instructed learning, distance learning and that one is competent in the use of (new) media. I think – while regarding our highly globalized world – this is quite obvious.

Afterwards the course was subdivided into three groups as well as the video in three sequences. Each group had to watch its respective sequence, find the main theses, come to a personal opinion and then give a three minute presentation of the results to the other groups. As homework assignment we got the blogging task to comment about the discussion we had in class and then to explain how our course relates to this.

Prof. Bauerlein puts forward many smart theses that are intellectually substantial and sophisticated, but which also have to be critically examined. He states that the high-tech digital era is responsible that children and teenagers in the United States become more and more unintelligent, stupid, dumb. Earlier in time – when the internet came on the market - everybody had great expectations in it. People spoke about an information superhighway and thought that this new tool would lead into an age of greater knowledge and intelligence than ever before in time. The internet offered various, uncountable opportunities, access to lots of bits and pieces of information. And it was thought that people would use these sources reasonably and responsibly. But that never happened as Bauerlein found out during his research. The expert for studies about teenager behaviour in the digital age says that although the young generation has access to an unimaginable big bubbling source of information it does not make effective use of it. Instead of gaining new knowledge about politics, history, art and various other culturally determined goods, teenagers care more about the process of social networking via internet. Instead of becoming educated, cultured and mature individuals, they are just dumb members of the dumbest generation ever. Prof. Bauerleins argumentation is clever, logical and consistent, but partly exaggerated.

I subscribe to his opinion that young people are more surfing the net in order to do social networking, to meet and greet friends, to chat with members of the peer-group and other people than exploring the web to gain new information about political processes, historical facts, art works etc., which all would broaden their horizon and open their minds for the world. It is quite obvious that teenagers of our postmodern high-tech society are more keen on spending time in front of different screens (laptop, mobile phone, television screens and so on) than sitting in an armchair to read a good book, an informative magazine or newspaper or use leisure hours to go and visit libraries, museums or any other kind of cultural institution. I also wholly agree with the US-American professor in the point that the average fifteen-year-old´s bedroom resembles a multimedia centre nowadays and that this fact might speed up the stupidity of several young people.

But nevertheless – although I agreed to those points – I think Mark Bauerlein´s argumentation has an Achilles´heel in that it is too categoric, stubborn and pessimistic. There are also a lot of kids and teens who do not only use the worldwide web to hold electronic conversations. Their computer enthusiasm and their curiosity about what is going on in the world leads them to information on millions of different and intelligent topics. Many young users also enter the virtual realm when they are searching for specific information for various school or university topics. Web and net can therefore support knowledge acquisition. Users can pick up information and get new insights into world matters. The author of “The Dumbest Generation” has a committed and close-meshed opinion of the topic. He puts forward a great deal of theses that emphasize and strengthen his point of view. But he has failed to notice some other strong theses which could underline his arguments.

In my opinion a really striking argument would be that the internet has become some kind of second brain/ mind: in times of the information superhighway we do not need to store information and knowledge in our brains anymore. We just need to have access to the internet (which we have in nearly every place of our global village) to get bits and pieces of information. Metaphorically speaking: our brain becomes partly substituted by the worldwide web as a powerful knowledge tool. Maybe we get dumber, because we just google knowledge instead of storing it in our brains. Another important argument is that because of the masses of information available on the internet some users, especially the younger ones, might have problems with selection: what is important, effective and what is unimportant, unnecessary information?

As it seems Bauerlein underestimates social contacts/ relationships for personal growth. While chatting on the internet teenagers keep in touch with friends all over the world and maybe gain new cultural knowledge (e.g. when a German teenager and an American teenager chat they exchange happenings/ events of their everyday life and the respective life is culturally determined, therefore they exchange cultural stuff).

All in all I come to the conclusion that I mainly agree with Mark Bauerlein´s theses. But there are some points in his sophisticated statements that should be critically examined.

In the course “New Media in Foreign Language Education” we are familiarized with the new media – above all with computers, the internet and the worldwide web – and we learn how to make effective use of these high-tech tools for teaching English as an L2. As examined in the above section kids and teens are highly familiar with the new media and enjoy them very much. They are so familiar with these high-tech products and processes that they are quickly bored when they are at school and the teacher tries to impart themes to his pupils in an old-fashioned way with traditional methodology. The use of new media in foreign language education can raise the pupils´ attention and motivation for the subject matter. The infotainment generation is certainly grateful to the teacher for using new media. But we as future teachers should be aware that the new media bear certain risks as Bauerlein states. Therefore we should find a good balance between traditional education methods and new media methods in the foreign language classroom later on.

I really welcome you to my page. My name is Katharina, but all my friends call me Pixie. I am a student at the university of Marburg. Enjoy my page.

Yours sincerly Pixie