Students’ Perceptions on the Use of Google

Transcript:Students’ Perceptions on the Use of Google:
Students’ Perceptions on the Use of Google Classroom in LSP Learning and its Effects on Developing Linguistic Competences Jelena Basta, mail: jelena.basta@ekonomski.rs Slavica Pejić, mail: slavica.pejic@ekonomski.rs Faculty of economics, university of Niš Introduction A new, modern, globalized world – digitalized technologies. The use of information and communication technologies – in all spheres of life, including the educational system, and teaching/learning processes. The pandemic of COVID-19 and the lockdown of all educational institutions – traditional teaching/learning methods put aside – online learning was brought to the foreground – all educational levels, all types of classrooms, including LSP. Higher education students more frequently refer to new technologies – an opportunity for web designers to develop new teaching/learning platforms. Students perceive new technologies as positive and desirable (Al Bataineh et al., 2019), but changes in students’ lives seem frightening. Not so much time for new technologies – students more involved in thinking about time limitations than in actual educational opportunities (Staford, 2011). Introduction Teaching/learning platforms – spare time, teach social skills, encourage autonomous and independent learning, keep pace with new technologies, improve learning outcomes and results (Taylor et al., 2011; Kuh & Hu, 2001) – students – active participants. Online learning – educational experiences in a synchronous and asynchronous environment with the use of various devices (Singh and Thurman, 2019) – applications, platforms, quizzes – no time limits to access the materials. The aim of the paper – the perceptions of the LSP students of the Faculty of Economics, University of Niš about the use of Google Classroom (GC). Three questions: Do LSP students believe that GC is easy to use? Do LSP students believe that GC is useful for LSP learning? Do LSP students believe that the use of GC positively affects the development of linguistic competences – writing, reading, listening and speaking? Theoretical framework GC – released on 12 August 2014 – a free platform – students and teachers connect both inside and outside the real classroom – more than 30 million assignments were submitted in the first six months. GC – a newly-accepted, innovative platform for teaching/learning – aimed at improving the process of digital learning – it integrates technology into a traditional learning setting – it complements traditional classes. GC – part of the package Google Apps for Education(Northey et al., 2015) – easy to use (Janzen, 2014) – a simple organization – time saving – easy to access