On technology in the classroom: "Making web 2.0 resources part of the teaching"

Working with web 2.0 resources may not be easy for teachers of English as a foreign language. It is especially difficult for us given the characteristics of our context. However, web 2.0 resources provide us with infinite opportunities of improving our teaching, making it more interactive, more motivating, and much more appealing for “Generation Y” students.

An example of a web 2.0 resource which can be useful to work with in EFL lessons is “Stupeflix”. This web application allows you to make videos easily and with only a few clicks. So, it is very user-friendly and students would enjoy personalizing their creations.

Two of my classmates and I planned a lesson from a didactic sequence that has “Stupeflix” as part of the main task. This is due to the fact that we imagined learners making a video about their ideal city. As part of this lesson’s development we made our own “Stupeflix” video about our own ideal city, “Paracity”.

 The experience of making a video on “Stupeflix” was really entertaining and amusing; we even felt as professional video editors. The only disadvantage was that only two of the templates available could be used for free.
Clearly, this is not the only web 2.0 resource that can be used for EFL teaching. There are thousands of web 2.0 resources that can be part of English lessons. It is only, therefore, a matter of search, experimentation, and creativity.