One of the difficulties is that unless students are involved and interested in the content of the communication they will not continue: communication for its own sake is not enough. I think it is relevant that all the email / discussion possibilities in Blackboard on our course have rarely been used. I did send one email to everyone but didn't receive any replies so I haven't bothered since. In a classroom the students are in front of you - cannot easily leave - and can be instructed to "communicate." If students are going to give up their free time, voluntarily, the purpose must be useful and the process must be interesting.
There is a tendency for new devices and tasks to be popular for a short time before falling rapidly into disuse. It can often seem exciting to the teacher because the technology gives us the ability to do things in a different way and to create highly polished material. The students, after a short burst of enthusiasm, may be less impressed. I can understand this.
Also, if I were a refugee in this country and needed to learn English to function here I think I would ask you to help me learn English, please - computer skills can wait, thank-you. On the other hand, many students have existing computer skills which can be used to aid their learning.
Areas which anecdotally seem to involve and motivate students are those which allow students to review material that may be useful to them over a period of time (eg essay plans / help for IELTS), and material which uses audio / video in a way that is impossible with a book. I know that Simon has experimented with both these areas.
I use very simple techniques to share audio files with my students so that they can do spelling tests / dictations at home, check their results, and then try again later.
I believe that one way of looking at the internet and its possibilities is as a variation of a classroom, rather than as a variation of a coursebook. Some Universities (MIT) for example, make all their material freely available online - the equivalent of Manchester University allowing anyone to access the Blackboard system without paying a fee! This is clearly a fantastic resourse for students, but when I looked at the Spanish course each module had only approximately 4 hours of video. This is a small fraction of the amount of teacher talking time in a classroom, and is, I think, a legacy of the days when video was mainly distributed by CD.
Now there is virtually no limit to the amount of video that can be uploading and distance students could have the option of nearly as much "teacher time" as on-site students. The communication can be synchronous or not, but the feel of the communication can be live or near-live as it is called in broadcasting. I feel that this is a promising line of development, and certainly it is one that interests me a lot.
Sites like www.wiziq.com are making this easily available, with up to 500 students in a virtual real time lecture theatre. (I've joined the site but have never tried giving a class using the site - but I am going to!)
Anyway, these are just some of my thoughts. Unfortunately I won't be there tomorrow as I have to teach every morning this week - the old-fashioned way. Have a good lesson.
Paul
