Revista simpozionului Eficiență și calitate în educație - 19 mai 2017 Eficiență și calitate în educație | Page 72

and the teacher. The value of the dialogue journal “lies in the open exchange of ideas that can occur and the concerned and warm acceptance by the teacher of the student`s writing” (Peyton & Reed, 2011, p. 4), drawing, voiced opinion or video representation of ideas and thoughts. Some of the advantages of having a dialogue journal from a student`s point of view are increased communication between students and teachers, positive influence in the educational approach of teaching, express fears and language problems they might be experiencing but they are afraid to elicit, complain about different issues or activities, take advantage of the opportunity of using language, images or their voice genuine interactions. The benefits of having a dialogue journal from a teacher's perspective are the ability to individualise and personalise language and content learning, using a subtle way of providing support and encouragement without making other students feel less or undervalued, contains information about interests or concerns that can assist in lesson planning, easy to adapt to a variety of students and helps the development of English fluency and of their own inner voice, learning to adapt and cope with different situations as well as addressing the students differently and giving them the chance to freely express their feelings, thoughts, comments or concerns. B. Collaborative Learning English as a foreign language is taught to children and teenagers in quite diverse settings. A classroom may not always have a computer, a video projector, an interactive board, teacher aides, or the latest in textbooks and materials, but every classroom has one valuable resource, every classroom has students. “Language acquisition is fostered if it occurs in a context that is supportive and motivating, communicative and referential, developmentally appropriate and feedback-rich” (Kagan, Dimensions of cooperative class structure.In Learning to cooperate, cooperating to learn., 1985, p. 12). The need to transform and improve the educational strategies has made teachers and researchers come up with new and exciting methods of teaching. What I like most about collaborative learning is the duality of the concept. It can be applied to students, as well as teachers because whether we want to admit it or not, “teachers who are well versed in a variety of team structures can create skilful lessons that engage and enlighten their students” (Kagan, The Structural Approach to Cooperative Learning, 1990), therefore language teachers need to continually study and learn in order to keep up with what educational strategies are in trend. This type of learning facilitates the inclusion of technology because it makes everything easier. Collaborative learning is a technique that teachers use to group students and generate a positive impact on the learning activities. An important aspect of using collaborative methods in a classroom is promoting a change of paradigm and shifting the learning activity from a teacher-centered to a student-centered model. The focus of the article is on possible versions of collaborative learning in an online space or virtual reality and letting students teach one another and deepen knowledge and understanding. Technology, in this case, offers the framework for collaboration in such an extensive manner that we can form groups with students from other non-native English countries by using savvy tools for online activities. We can use software like Stixy (online shared whiteboard space), Blackboard (the online version of the typical blackboard – a virtual learning environment), Google groups, webinars, Moodle( socially derived management system that supports open, collaborative partnerships), Sakai (a system designed specifically around collaboration and research) or Mikogo (free screen sharing and online meeting software). Collaborative learning is also promoted by AI gadgets such as Woogie (AI voice-activated robot that acts as a personalised learning companion proactively providing knowledge) or Google AI projects (Giorgio Cam – visual recognition of objects using the English language and music; Quick Draw – recognises objects so if a student 72