Teaching English with Technology A little bit of

Teaching English with Technology

A little bit of history…. Web 1. 0 l 1960 – 1970: Tape recorders, laboratories. l 1980: CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) learners respond to stimuli on the computer screen. l 1990: TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) possibilities offered by Internet and communications. l 2000: ICT (Information & Communications Technology) use of Internet and web tools.

Where are you? Technophobe: people afraid of Internet & computers. l Digital native: someone who grows up using technology, feels comfortable & confident with it. l Digital immigrants: those who have come late to the world of technology. l Techno geeks: technology enthusiasts. l

2004: WEB 2. 0 l second generation of web-based communities such as social-networking sites, which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. It does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web. It also includes a social element where users generate and distribute content, often with freedom to share and re-use.

Social software Computer tools which allow people to connect, communicate and collaborate on line.

l BLOGS Usually kept by one person, who will regularly post comments, thoughts, experiences, etc to a web page, creating a community around a common topic. May consist of written text only or include pictures, photos, audio, video. Readers can post comments if allowed. http: //fceblogspot. com/

Different types of blogs Edublogs: cover a wide range of topics related to education from educational policies to learner productions. Can be set up by a teacher (tutor blog), individual students (student blog) or a class (class blog). http: //c 3 viseu. blogspot. com/

WHAT FOR? Tutor blog: provide learners with news or comments, extra reading practice or homework, summary of a class for students absent, study tips. Student blog: Learners can be asked to set up and maintain their own blog and post once or twice a week or post comments on others. Class Blog: All learners post comments on certain topics, on class work or any issue the teacher thinks interesting or relevant to learners. WHY? l l Provide real world tool to practice written English. provide a real audience for student writing. Meaningful & purposeful activity. Contact learners from other parts of the world.

Pitfalls to watch out for Unwanted comments. To avoid unwanted comments, you can always restrict comments to registered users. l Correction. It is difficult to use a blog for correcting students. Student written work should always be corrected before posting to the blog. l Privacy. Most blogs are public. Anyone with access to the Web can find and read a blog, and write comments (if this feature has been turned on). l

How? There a number of free blog sites available: l. Blogger: www. blogger. com l. Word. Press: http: //wordpress. org l. Getablog: www. getablog. net/portal 3. ph p l. Ez. Blog. Wolrd: www. ezblogworld. com

l. WIKIS üPublicly accessible word processing document available online, which others can edit. üPublic web page started by one person but visitors can add to it. Making it more dynamic as it can have multiple authors. üA wiki has a non-linear structure, pages may link back and forward to other pages. One of the best known wikis is Wikipedia üIt lends itself to collaborative writing, students can add new pages with their productions, as well as edit previous entries or pages displays multiple authorship and not owned by anyone, although accuracy is a matter of debate.

Examples www. wikipedia. org Pbwiki: http: //pbwiki. com http: //atwiki. com/

Internet based project work: WEBQUESTS Mini project in which a large percentage of the input and material is supplied from the Internet. l Has a clearly defined structure which has to be taken as a basic guideline. Teacher can design webquest to suit the needs and learning styles of students. l

Steps: 1. 2. 3. Introduction: overall theme. Background information on the topic. Introduces key vocabulary and concepts learners will need to understand complete tasks. Task: explains clearly and precisely what learners will have to do. This should be motivating and interesting. Process: Guides learners through set of activities and research tasks, using predefined resources (Internet based) presented in clickable form.

4. Products: may introduce or recycle lexical areas or grammatical points essential to the task. It will also have one or several “products” the learners are expected to present at the end. These will form the basis of the evaluation stage. 5. Evaluation: can involve learners in self-evaluation, giving feedback on what they feel they have learnt. Also involves teacher evaluation. Examples: http: //www. instantprojects. org/index. php http: //webquest. org/index. php

Technology based courseware: Electronic portfolios l l l Collection of learner’s work in electronic format, can include video, audio, blogs, websites as well as documents. May include reflections on the learning experience itself. Provides a richer way of assessing students, provides clear idea of learner achievements. Ongoing process, students and teachers choose and include what seems most relevant to learner’s interests.

Examples: http: //elgg. org/index. php http: //www. eportfolios. ac. uk/

Interactive whiteboards l 1. 2. 3. l l Three essential components: The whiteboards itself A computer. A data projector. A myriad of possibilities: video, CD audio, pictures, interactive exercises, access to Internet. Items can be moved, write over images, highlight things, use different fonts, styles. Lessons and content can be easily kept and retrieved as it is saved in the computer. Huge bank of resources. Authentic content accessed in seconds. Power. Point presentations. Increased teacher and learner motivation and attention levels.

Resources: l Dudeney G & Hockly N. (2007) How to … teach English with technology. Pearson Education Limited, Essex.