hi dear coleague. In my view, e-learning does not fit the populated classes of more than 3 student specially at school and in that age they can't be controlled in the presence of their teacher, let alone distant learning.

Hi, Dr. Kotilainen,

The primary school that my sons attend (ages 7 and 11) uses e-Learning fairly extensively, but I think the difference is in HOW they are using it. They are accessing activities that engage them in the subject matter (science exploration, reading comprehension). Our school has difficulty enough addressing English (we are in the U.S.) let alone foreign languages, although I agree that this age range is optimum for addressing language development. So, I think you may be better off looking for language "games" and activities rather than expecting students to pay attention to a video feed from a distance teacher on foreign language. In my experiences with college-age students and distance learning, the same holds true for them - engagement with the material makes the learning more meaningful than simple content delivery. If you choose video delivery, note that bandwidth issues/slow download speeds can be problematic, particularly in synchronous situations where everyone ends up sitting around waiting for the instructor or the site technology liaison to "fix" the issue. The more remote the location, the more frequently these transmission issues occur. The few courses I have tried using synchronous video have spent more time troubleshooting the technology than conducting the course. Videos provided to the school would eliminate this issue, but also prevent the students from interacting with each other during the class session. This might be something that could be addressed with discussion boards (which can be done with audio, rather than text, now.)

Good luck with your initiative.

Carla