21st Century Skills Course Production Phase

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. 

           As you might already know, I've attended a 21st-century skills course that started in November. Actually, the course hasn't finished yet because we need to create our own websites on Weebly.com. 

         A couple of weeks ago me and my group mates Sümeyra and Nur, decided that we'll work on Synchronous learning in ELT. We thought that with the recent events in the world (no need to mention the C-O-V-I-D word), distance learning gained popularity. And we've already done research on asynchronous learning and also created online materials for IU-C preparatory classes. So we thought we'd focus on the "live" experience. We'll talk about various digital tools that can be used in synchronous learning. We'll mention the pros & cons, developments, and recommendations on synchronous learning. Of course, we'll be doing our research and develop our website based on English language teaching. 

        We did a role distribution and started finding information online. I started with early developments of synchronous learning. Unfortunately, I couldn't find fulfilling data on synchronous learning. Though I can confidentially say that asynchronous learning developed far earlier and it got more attention from universities especially in the United States where it started in the 19th century. I was choked to find out that the first asynchronous education was done by Pennsylvania State University in 1892. And it quickly came into my mind that computers and the internet had only been widely used not more than 20 years around the world. So I'm trying to narrow down my research and focus on the near past. Yet again there are not that many articles solely explaining the evolution of distance learning. Though I've found a lot of articles that focused on students' perceptions. Anyway, my group mates and I are trying to find and read more about this exciting and marvelous contemporary subject. I can't wait to finish my finals and start developing our website with my friends.