Olena Zavalna

National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute,

Kyiv, Ukraine

Online services for education

XI century can be called “Century of information technologies” without any hesitation. Nowadays technologies play essential role in our lives. They have become a part of our daily routines. It is rather difficult to imagine our lives without smart phones, computers, Internet, social networks etc.

Business implements and uses technologies in their processes and that is why they have such great results and are able to earn money. And unfortunately, such field of knowledge as education with its great information potential, is left behind: technologies are not incorporated here in their full capacity.

Modern pupils and students do not want to study because they are bored. They use computers and possibilities of Internet for their personal needs but cannot do the same in their classrooms. Teachers keep on using chalk, blackboards, red pens and notebooks in the “era of modern technologies”. That is why lessons are neither exciting nor inspiring to study subject.

On one hand, new generation cannot imagine their lives without using any technological devices. On the other hand, a great number of people think that if a person is working on computer or smart phone, he or she is wasting his or her time and harming own eyesight. We must confess that there are plenty of children who use technologies only for playing games. But still there is a huge number of possibilities to improve studying and teaching processes through technologies.

Nowadays there exist thousands of resources and many of online services are very useful for teaching and studying foreign languages. Using such online service helps teachers to get rid of much routine, find ideas for their lessons, be up to date and relevant at the lessons and what is more important helps to inspire pupils and students for studying.

Everyone has heard about YouTube. A lot of people have used YouTube. YouTube is by far the most visited website in the world. All of us have visited YouTube at least once and you have probably watched some funny videos. The question is if there is still a chance to use it in any educational way. Ten years ago it was rather difficult to download 100 Mb video but nowadays it is the easiest thing. Uploading is no more complicated than downloading. YouTube gives you chance to upload and share your own videos with the whole world. There are millions of videos in this service and you can watch any piece of those.

YouTube is an international website, so the biggest benefit for learning languages is actually watching videos. Students can study with pleasure. They don’t have to listen to boring educational recordings. A teacher just needs to open his or her browser and show some video blogs or some video. They both watch and listen. If it is a regular lesson practice, students are quickly becoming familiar to different accents and different types of speech, different paces of speech. They are adapted to perceive different genres of audio and video. They can watch some video in the classroom, at home as their homework, or even record their own video and share with others. Moreover, with YouTube teachers can observe other teachers’ lessons, find ideas about activities.

The next thing where to pay attention to is cloud technologies. There are many types of them, for instance, Google Disk, DropBox, MEGA, OneDrive etc. Cloud technologies were getting more and more popular during the last years. Their usage is getting more and more popular. You save everything in a cloud. It does not take any place in your own computer. All your files are accessible wherever there is the access to the Internet. You can share files without sending them. You can work together at the same file at the same time. For instance, Google Docs give the possibilities to develop collaborative writing, collaborative work, and collaborative presentations. A teacher can see who did what, when, how much etc. Also, a teacher can create an account and put there all his or her task sheets and educational handouts students need. If the person is absent, he or she will still have the access to all the materials.

Speaking practice is the main and the most difficult part in learning and teaching foreign languages. Developing speaking skills is essential. Do we use all possible freeware to improve students’ speaking skills? No, we do not. We use Skype for personal needs. What you need is your friends and the access to the Internet. But also Skype can be a part of a lesson or homework. For instance, call a person and solve posted problems. A native speaker can join the session during the lesson, while students can pose him questions, listen and discuss his answers. Speaking practice becomes alive and necessary. Students are inspired to talk. Conversation can be recorded and used many times later. All these records are adjustable and can be used in future lessons or with other classes. For teachers and learners the greatest advantage of using this technology is that it supplies with a real language. It brings the element of incorporative motivation, simulates situations of real life communication with native speakers and provokes students practice their skills.

Only three modern technologies were mentioned to use in the teaching practice. In fact, they are more. And their advantages are countless. Being a responsible teacher means to implement modern services in teaching processes and classrooms.

As a conclusion, we would add there are plenty of opportunities to teach and to study. You just need to start using them. It does not matter at what extend. Practice makes perfect. Just do your best and you will improve and learn whatever you want to. Most teachers have heard about all those technologies and even used in their own realia, but now it is necessary to start thinking about using them in education.

Literature

1. Nicky Hockly. How to Teach English with Technology/ Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney. - Pearson Longman, 2008 – 192 p.