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Technology in the classroom

To sum up, when you prepare for important conversations, these simple questions can be a great help:

1. What is my purpose? What do I want to achieve through this conversation?

2. What are the main points I want to get across?

3. How do I prepare both myself, and the person I'm talking to, for the kind of conversation we're going to have?

The importance of these questions depends on the nature of the conversation. Obviously, simple conversations about relatively unimportant matters usually do not require a great deal of forethought. However, if the message is more complex, the time spent answering these questions before the conversation takes place, is often time well-spent.

Here are two situations that represent opposite ends of the spectrum. Both involve messages left by your friend Bert on your answering machine.

In the first, Bert says, "Hi. I’ll meet you in front of the theatre at 8:15 this evening. The show begins at 8:30. I'm assuming that you'll be bringing the tickets with you. Give us a ring just to confirm everything’s okay."

Responding to the message doesn’t warrant much by the way of advance thinking.

But what if the situation were more complex? Let's assume that the world changes. This time the message on your answering machine from Bert says that you’ve both been invited to a last-minute farewell party being given by Danielle, a mutual friend. Bert has decided to go and skip the theatre.

He adds, "Why don't you see if you can get rid of my ticket. If you can’t, I’ll still pay for it."

To complicate things a bit more, you decide that you, too, would like to go to Danielle’s party. But you have a friend in the cast of the play and don't want to let her down.

It's mid-afternoon. You have a few minutes to prepare for your conversation with Bert. How would you answer the four questions above? Take a few minutes to think you way through this situation.

e. Isn’t preparation the enemy of spontaneity?

Someone might say, "Come on! People don't go around preparing for conversations. That's too much logic in an illogical world. Conversations should be free-flowing. Anyway, doesn't preparing fly in the face of the uncertainty of outcome that is supposed to be characteristic of dialogue?"

What shall we say? Of course conversations should be free-flowing. But going off half-cocked in critical interpersonal situations is usually less than helpful. You will have to decide for yourself which conversations merit some degree of preparation. If people spent more time thinking about important conversations, there would be less guilt and regret after they are over.

Furthermore, preparing for an important conversation does not mean unilaterally deciding on what the outcome should be. The purpose of preparation is to do whatever you can to foster a decent dialogue, not engineer it for your own personal benefit. Therefore, if some preparation will add value to both the conversation and the relationship, do it.



 

Technology in the classroom

1.Technology in language teaching

2.Attitudes to technology

3.Implementing ICT in the classroom

5.Skills and equipment for getting started

 

Technology in language teaching

Technology in language teaching is not new. Indeed, technology has been around in language teaching for decades - one might argue for centuries, if we classify the blackboard as a form of technology. Tape recorders, language laboratories and video have been in use since the 1960s and 1970s, and are still used in classrooms around the world.

Computer-based materials for language teaching, often referred to as CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), appeared in the early 1980s. Early CALL programs typically required learners to respond to stimuli on the computer screen and to carry out tasks such as filling in gapped texts, matching sentence halves and doing multiple-choice activities. Probably one of the best-known early CALL activities is that of text reconstruction, where an entire text is blanked out and the learner recreates it by typing in words. For all of these activities the computer then offers the learner feedback, ranging from simply pointing out whether the answer is correct or incorrect to providing more sophisticated feedback, such as showing why the learner is mistaken and offering remedial activities. The CALL approach is one that is still found on many published CD-ROMs for language teaching.

As access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has become more widespread, so CALL has moved beyond the use of computer programs to embrace the use of the Internet and web-based tools. The term TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) appeared in the 1990s, in response to the growing possibilities offered by the Internet and communications technology.

Although the use of ICT by language teachers is still not widespread, the use of technology in the classroom is becoming increasingly important, and it will become a normal part of ELT practice in the coming years. There are many reasons for this:

• Internet access - either in private homes, or at Internet cafes - is becoming increasingly available to learners.

• Younger learners are growing up with technology, and it is a natural and integrated part of their lives. For these learners the use of technology is a way to bring the outside world into the classroom. And some of these younger learners will in turn become teachers themselves.

• The Internet offers excellent opportunities for collaboration and communication between learners who are geographically dispersed.

• Technology is offered with published materials such as coursebooks and resource books for teachers.

• Learners increasingly expect language schools to integrate technology into teaching.

• Technology offers new ways for practising language and assessing performance.

• Technology is becoming increasingly mobile. It can be used not only in the classroom, lecture hall, computer room or self-access centre, it can also be used at home, on the way to school and in Internet cafes.

• Using a range of ICT tools can give learners exposure to and practice in all of the four main language skills - speaking, listening, writing and reading.

The contexts in which teachers are working with technology can vary widely, and the access that teachers have to computers - the so-called digital divide - will affect what we can do with our classes in terms of implementing technology.

2.Attitudes to technology

Many people are afraid of new technology, and, with the increasing presence of the Internet and computers, the term technophobe has appeared to refer to those of us who might be wary of these new developments. More recently, the term digital native has been coined to refer to someone who grows up using technology, and who thus feels comfortable and confident with it - typically today's children. Their parents, on the other hand, tend to be digital immigrants, who have come late to the world of technology, if at all. In many cases, teachers are the digital immigrants and our younger students are the digital natives.

Think about yourself. Where do you stand? How confident do you feel about using the Internet and computers? Although there is a tendency to call computer users either technophobes or technogeeks (a term for a technology enthusiast), the truth is that most of us probably fall somewhere between the two extremes.

A large part of the negative attitudes teachers have towards technology is usually the result of a lack of confidence, a lack of facilities or a lack of training, resulting in an inability to see the benefit of using technologies in the classroom. It is also often the case that teachers may not be fully in control of their work situations. A teacher may want to use more technology in their teaching, but the school may not have the facilities, or, on the other hand, a teacher may be instructed to start using technology for which they feel unprepared or untrained.


Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1206


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