Špela Bagon, Osnovna šola Vič

I teach at a distance since 2012. Students from the United States are learning Slovenian language for the first time, therefore we have lessons in English. We meet once a week over Skype, the rest of the work is carried out separately. It turns out that learning language at a distance presents a double challenge: the students and the teacher have a limited number of meetings and the student is faced with learning language for the first time. Our learning has improved considerably when I realized that we need to pay more attention to students’ independent learning at home, because meeting once a week is not enough. In addition, the time we spend together over Skype does not differ much from the traditional teaching in the classroom. The teacher can use worksheets, electronic slides, crossword etc., which are adjusted to work with ICT. It is important to dedicate the independent student learning at home, so that’s why I made various interactive materials, such as video conversation in Slovenian language, sound recording Slovenian songs, interactive quizzes, Slovenian music, Slovenian photos on social network etc. Students using this material alone at home learn Slovene and about Slovenian culture. The added value of distance learning is this student selfadjusted multisensory learning.