Problems with online websites for language learning.

                        It is undoubtedly true that using technology as a supplementary source for teaching/helping students to better understand and practice what they have learned is helpful. There are many great reasons to use websites like Quia that give language learning exercises, and can even be paired up with textbook exercises! There are however some disadvantages to this supplementary learning site, some of which I have experienced myself.
                       Some of the types of learning exercises that websites offer are just like ones you would see in any language learning textbook. There are grammar exercises, vocabulary exercises, fill in the blanks, matching, etc. The problem that can tend to arise comes not so much with the exercises themselves, but with the self-grading that many of these websites come equipped with. Many of the websites will automatically correct what the student has done in the exercise, and although many people believe technology makes no mistakes, it doesn't allow for interpretation. The self-grading can be a great tool for exercises in which there is only one answer, however many activities, especially fill in the blanks, have more than one correct answer, and this is where the self-grading comes to be an issue.
                      From my own experiences and from observing other's, I have seen many times where these online websites have falsely graded an activity due to the fact that it does not allow for interpretation. An example of this, would be a grammatical exercise in which maybe the activity wants you to say an opposing sentence. For example, maybe the sentence will say something such as "Does she have a car?" As human beings, we know that there are many opposing sentences that one can create for this example, however many online websites have trouble with that concept. A student may answer "No, she has a motorcycle." If the exercise was expecting the answer to be "No, she has a bicycle.", it may mark the answer wrong and affect your grade. Although this seems like a very minor problem, for language learners, it not only affects their grades, but it is ingraining in their head that their very correct answer is wrong, and therefore directing them away from using a perfectly correct sentence.
                     An easy solution to this problem would be to just have the teacher grade the exercise and not go by the grade that the computer gives. Although this is a perfect and easy solution, many teachers do not understand the fact that the computer doesn't always grade fairly and therefore they rely solely on the websites to automatically grade the student's online work. This is where the problem arises. Teachers need to be aware that although technology is an excellent supplementary source for teaching foreign language, they cannot rely on it as the only source, and must always go over any "self-graded" work for themselves to check for any errors. As many people say in educational programs, "Teachers teach students not computer programs."