FOSTERING LEARNER’S AUTONOMY IN CLASSROOM: WHY NOT?

Abstract

Autonomy has been defined as the capacity to control one‟s own learning. At the most
basic level, fostering this capacity in the classroom begins with the teacher‟s own
decision to become more aware actively in the student‟s learning in order that the
students may also become more actively involved in making choices and decisions.
Indeed, teachers need to optimize their roles such as facilitator who iniates and
supports decision-making processes, a counselor who responds to the ongoing needs
of individuals, a resource who makes his or her knowledge and expertise available to
the learners when it is needed, and so forth. In another word, we, as teachers, cannot
teach students to be come more autonomous. We can, however, create the atmosphere
and conditions in which they will feel encouraged to develop the autonomy that they
already have. One way to acquire this is by bringing Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) into the classroom. It is the use of webtools, Storybird web 2. tool
for teaching writing. It will not only highly motivate the students to write in English
and other languages but also it gives an opportunity for the students to control their
own learning experiences by means of technology device.