BEST PRACTICE Presentation
“Lessons of Computer Literacy for digital immigrants from digital
natives”.
English Teaching Resource Center- ETRC
Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
The English Teaching Resource Center - ETRC, is a Center designed for
contributing to Moldova English Teachers professional Development. ETRC is a
multimedia Center that has a library of over 1000 books, dedicated to teaching
methods and techniques and there are also 9 Computers in the Center that are used
during the ETRC activities. The ETRC was open in a collaboration between the “Ion
Creanga” State Pedagogical University form Moldova and United States Embassy in
Moldova.
The main aims of this Center are:
 to help English teachers improve their knowledge of English,
 to assist them in developing their lessons and classroom teaching skills,
 to promote communication and professional association among English
language teachers across the Republic.
Thus, the Center is located in the State Pedagogical University “Ion Creanga”,
block 1, room 302; 1., Ion Creanga str. Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.
Since the ETRC started its activity in 2003, its main purpose still remains
improving the quality of teaching English through different projects dedicated to
Continuous Professional Education of English Teachers from Moldova.
For the last 5-6 years the ETRC is coordinated by Larisa Guzun and Irina
Pomazanovschi. During these 5 years, the ETRC has implemented many projects
ETRC – www.etrc.md
1, Ion Creanga str., block 1, room 302
Contact info: www.etrc.md@gmail.com
022-508-816
ETRC Co-directors: Larisa Guzun – Irina Pomazanovschi
dedicated to improvement of Educational Process during the English Language
Classes.
One of the many projects that ETRC has developed is dedicated to teachers of
English who wanted to study the Computer in order to use the new technologies
during their classes.
Following this purpose, ETRC developed the project “Lessons of Computer
Literacy for digital immigrants from digital natives”.
It was implemented during 2 months, November and December, in 2012.
The project is based on volunteer work and there were two students from the IT
Department, State Pedagogical University, who volunteered to become instructors for
the group of teachers. There were 2 or 3 lessons every week, during which the
teachers had the possibility to learn new things about the IT programs that they could
use during their classes. The ETRC co-directors were the “supervisors” who checked
the plans the students-instructors had for each session. Thus, the students who agreed
to become teachers for this period of time were supported and helped in planning their
sessions and in making them more efficient.
The topics that were covered during these sessions were mainly aimed at using
different Computer Programs in the classroom:
-
Making power-point-presentations;
How to open a blog;
Using blogs during your classes;
How to use on-line materials for English classes;
Microsoft Word secrets; etc.
These were some of the topics covered during these sessions.
The main purposes this project promoted were aimed both, at improving the
knowledge of English for the students-instructors and increase the computer literacy
level for the teachers of English who attended the sessions.
Thus, the students who became instructors during these sessions had the
possibility to improve their English Speaking skills, as they had to present all of the
ETRC – www.etrc.md
1, Ion Creanga str., block 1, room 302
Contact info: www.etrc.md@gmail.com
022-508-816
ETRC Co-directors: Larisa Guzun – Irina Pomazanovschi
sessions in English only. This made the students be more motivated when they
volunteered to become instructors during the project.
The teachers who participated in this project came from different institutions, both
from lyceums and from Universities. There were 15 participants all in all, and the
teachers had to present their own projects at the end of all the sessions. The projects
they presented had to be on one of the topics they’ve learned and the participants had
to come up with their own ideas of implementation of these projects in their classrooms.
Thus, the main aim of the project remains to improve the quality of teaching and
to implement new technologies in teaching English. This project is one of the projects
that have an immediate impact on the teaching process in the English class, as
teachers would implement the newly acquired knowledge, at once, so that their
classes become more interesting and attractive for their pupils who are well-literate in
the matters of Computer Sciences.
So, combining English learning with Computer & Internet technologies makes the
English class more attractive and useful for the future generation.
The most positive aspect of this project is the flexibility and good accessibility. This
is a project that can easily be adapted to any environment; it can be adopted in
schools, where the pupils can become instructors for their teachers, and to many other
departments in Universities.
Hopefully, this pilot-project becomes more popular in the future and also
becomes a very useful practice for all the institutions which seek for improvement.
_________________________________________________________
For more details about the projects e-mail us:
www.etrc.md@gmail.com
etrc_moldova@yahoo.com
or see the links below.
ETRC – www.etrc.md
1, Ion Creanga str., block 1, room 302
Contact info: www.etrc.md@gmail.com
022-508-816
ETRC Co-directors: Larisa Guzun – Irina Pomazanovschi
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.507157489317975.120233.113374775362917&type
=3
ETRC – www.etrc.md
1, Ion Creanga str., block 1, room 302
Contact info: www.etrc.md@gmail.com
022-508-816
ETRC Co-directors: Larisa Guzun – Irina Pomazanovschi