FINAL REFLECTION
I suggest that teacher autonomy in New Technologies involves the ability to have freedom of action and professional development and take decisions about teaching. I also argue that an autonomous teacher should be responsible for his/her own learning through reflection and analysis of it. That is why institutions must promote the participation of teachers in decision-making processes in order to empower teachers as well as increasing opportunities for discussion and resolution of real educational problems and raising spaces for the voices of teachers; encouraing teachers' responsibility to choose how Students learn, what to learn from teachers and what to teach to students, where and when to learn and teach and how Teachers assess learning.
The goal, as teachers, is to increase students’ awareness about their learning capacities, their role and responsibility in the learning process, and the importance of being a part of the process in order to be able to face the new challenges that society presents; the role that autonomy plays in students’ motivation, as learners’ autonomy and active participation in their learning. Being an autonomous Teacher involves exercising some kind of freedom over the curriculum, the use of New Technologies, and taking responsibility for their professional development.
Teachers can provide all the necessary circunstances and input, but learning can only happen if learners are willing to contribute. And in order to learners to be activaly involved in the learning process, they first need to realise and accept that success in learning depends as much as possible on the student rather than on the teacher. That is, they share responsability for the outcome. It doesn't matter how much students learn through lessons, they are always going to learn more by practice on their own. Also, the use of autonomous learning will require their need to learn and practice or study several times during their lives: then again, students will need to be able to study on their own and may be using New Technologies. The best way to prepare them for this task is to help them become more autonomous.
The development of learner's autonomy involves an ongoing emphasis on the student as the main point of the classroom experience. We have to create unique materials to motivate students to learn more about a topic, those materials must take into account students' needs and context. The materials or New Technologies we use have to be designed in order to develop all their skills and their strategies to improve language and culture knowledge. Pineda and Froddens (2008) underscore that,
“Since society assigns different roles, rights and responsibilities to teachers and students, there is no perfect match between the processes of learner autonomy and teacher autonomy; however, there exists a similarity between them, since both emphasize the value of co-learning, self-direction, collaboration and democratic participation regarding three principles of action: critical reflective inquiry, empowerment, and dialogue. It is via observing, inquiring, negotiating and evaluating our performance as teachers with our students and colleagues that these principles are put into action and we develop professionally”.
From my point of view, culture is also an important part of autonomy that Teachers have to develop in learners, because through culture people create a social environment, ways of thinking, feelings, beliefs and behaviors; and the way we interpretate all of them. Culture is meaningful for language learning and education because these take place within cultures, which influences Language learning form; and because Culture is also dependable from language, and so It belongs as part of the content of language learning and education. So, in order to teach culture Teachers require the use of appropiate materials in classrooms, such as sources from native countries which help students to know and enhance authentic cultural experiences. It is part of Teachers' job to evidence in the materials, situations, and uses of language in the context the culture and language they belong to. In this way students are motivated and increases in them the neccesity to research and learn more about the culture by themsleves.
