GOOGLE MEET: THE NEW LANGUAGE DIGITAL NICHE

Gerald G. Guinto

When COVID-19 outbreak started last School Year 2020-2021 all of us were affected, giving language classes online did not appear to be as easy a transition as one might think as most generalist virtual classroom solutions miss many critical features required by language teachers. Fortunately, google meet dedicated tools to make online language teaching easier this pandemic.

Google Meet is a strong tool for synchronous teaching. Students and teachers can easily see each other, communicate both verbally and via chat in real-time. Sharing a teacher’s screen is a really good way to show instructional materials or present to students. Nevertheless, once a teacher wants to share a different types of files to the class, it can be a bit harder.

Teachers and students were given a chance to continue learning amidst the pandemic. It brought so may awareness on the use of “netiquette” in the online class and created a great impact on learning digital ways to connect with students, parents, and other stakeholders.

“Learning must continue”, as Secretary Leonor M. Briones battle cry in her advocacy in this health crisis. No one should be left behind in this endeavor to pursue quality education and so language teachers accepted the challenge in using Google Meet as the new digital classroom for learning the English Language. It provided new avenue for learning and teaching strategies were enhanced using digital platforms for students to learn the language.

Now, Google Meet became one of the most widely known virtual classroom solutions. There might be glitches using online platforms but we cannot deny the fact that it helped us to make learning easier and accessible in the comfort of our homes.

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The author is T-III at Bro. Andrew Gonzalez Technical High School