Learner Autonomy in CALL

During this week’s reading, I learned a little more about autonomy. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what it is and looks like, but there are a couple things I did not know. First, I did not think about how independent learning does not mean solitude. It can still involve collaboration. I thought about the real-world application with co-workers working together on projects. We want students to use their resources but that doesn’t always mean calling the teacher for help. Healy also mentions that research shows better results when students are working in pairs. Learner autonomy can take on different forms as well. I didn’t think about it including performance tracking. Students can use CALL to play back oral performances (audio or video) and asses themselves or even keep track of their own scores, grades, progress online like college students do. This is an important part of being a functioning student that many teachers do not focus on or forget about. Furthermore, I did not realize that learner autonomy is more a part of western beliefs. I have always felt like Americans do more for their children than other cultures and enable co-dependence. My final takeaway from this article was about “webheads”. I have never heard this term being used before. Webheads are communities of educators sharing best practices. I did recently see that a fellow teacher friend went to a Bloggers Meet event where blogging teachers had the chance to meet one another and their families. This was a really interesting concept. While the internet is a wonderful avenue for sharing ideas, there is nothing like actually getting together in person! I would like to research more webheads and see how I can get involved.