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Technology Assisted Language Teaching Home
INTRODUCTION
What does it mean to be literate today? If in the past literacy was viewed as the ability to decode print-based texts, now it has become a more complex notion that encompasses such skills as understanding methods of media persuasion, decoding political agenda of TV channels, or manipulating digital images and texts. The development of the information technology in the last decade has made it possible for millions of people not only to access information found on the World Wide Web, but also become active participants of a newly established participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006), that is to become creators of information. While in the 1980s and 1990s a majority of world population did not have access to the Internet and only a few well-qualified people could publish online, by 2008 more than 50% of population in 47 countries has acquired Internet access (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2008), and this rate has increased for 34% since 2007. What is more important is that newly emerging technologies, such as wiki or blogging software, enable amateur computer users create their personal sites and publish online (Warshauer & Grimes, 2007). Such social network sites as Facebook, My Space, or Odnoklassniki provide space for reunion and communication among people who have met in the real life or in the virtual world. Social software (blogging, wiki, web conferencing) is actively used in business and education as it enables real-time and delayed (synchronous and asynchronous) long-distance collaboration and encourages co-construction of knowledge.
The penetration of technologies in education is in many ways depends on its quality and price. Emerging technologies have not only become very sophisticated and user-friendly, but they are often offered for free or a small fee. Open source software encourages independent users to test it, thus involving more and more people as publishers and developers. Educational institutions also benefit from such generosity as it lets them invest their limited financial resources not in technology, but in people who integrate them. Moreover, it has become common to share ones’ creations with others. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, USA), for example, publishes online course materials such as syllabus, reading lists, description of learning activities and students’ work (see http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm) thus sharing high-quality educational materials with anyone who has an Internet access. Therefore, the development of new technologies not only supports efforts of educators who integrate technologies but also offers immense opportunities for knowledge dissemination.
Technology is not just the tool that makes teaching and learning easier. Technology is everywhere and it has gradually become an integral part of living for many people. New generations of schoolchildren are often referred to as “digital” (Buckingham, 2007) as they can not imagine their life without digital “toys” like computers or cell phones. Therefore, teaching with and about technology has become a matter of speaking on the same language as children do. Technology-friendly classroom is essential for making the curriculum relevant to children’s interests.
Language teachers have found many ways of developing language skills with newly introduced technologies. As creating and sharing learning materials have become simpler, faster and cheaper, the World Wide Web has acquired a variety of resources for EFL (English as a foreign language) and ESL (English as a second language) learners of all language proficiency levels. The technical ease of production of such materials, however, does not make it simple to create quality language activities and use pre-created materials effectively. It is not the technology that makes language teaching effective, it is how one uses the technology. In our course we will explore pedagogically-sound ways of integrating technology into the language classroom. We will focus on best practices in the field of foreign languages and will design our own learning materials. We will also practice collaborating online as this course is supplemented with a wiki (course website) located at http://talt.wetpaint.com/.
REFERENCES
Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology: Children’s Learning in the Age of Digital Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jenkins, H., Purushotma, r., Clinton, K., Weigel, M. & Robinson, A. J. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Retrieved February 24, 2009 from http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf.
Miniwatts Marketing Group. (2007). Top 47 countries with the highest Internet penetration rate. Retrieved March 20, 2009, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/top25.htm
MIT Open Source http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
Warschauer, M., & Grimes, D. (2007). Audience, authorship, and artifact: The emergent semiotics of Web 2.0. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 27, 1-23. Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://www.gse.uci.edu/person/markw/aaa.pdf.
What does it mean to be literate today? If in the past literacy was viewed as the ability to decode print-based texts, now it has become a more complex notion that encompasses such skills as understanding methods of media persuasion, decoding political agenda of TV channels, or manipulating digital images and texts. The development of the information technology in the last decade has made it possible for millions of people not only to access information found on the World Wide Web, but also become active participants of a newly established participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006), that is to become creators of information. While in the 1980s and 1990s a majority of world population did not have access to the Internet and only a few well-qualified people could publish online, by 2008 more than 50% of population in 47 countries has acquired Internet access (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2008), and this rate has increased for 34% since 2007. What is more important is that newly emerging technologies, such as wiki or blogging software, enable amateur computer users create their personal sites and publish online (Warshauer & Grimes, 2007). Such social network sites as Facebook, My Space, or Odnoklassniki provide space for reunion and communication among people who have met in the real life or in the virtual world. Social software (blogging, wiki, web conferencing) is actively used in business and education as it enables real-time and delayed (synchronous and asynchronous) long-distance collaboration and encourages co-construction of knowledge.
The penetration of technologies in education is in many ways depends on its quality and price. Emerging technologies have not only become very sophisticated and user-friendly, but they are often offered for free or a small fee. Open source software encourages independent users to test it, thus involving more and more people as publishers and developers. Educational institutions also benefit from such generosity as it lets them invest their limited financial resources not in technology, but in people who integrate them. Moreover, it has become common to share ones’ creations with others. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, USA), for example, publishes online course materials such as syllabus, reading lists, description of learning activities and students’ work (see http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm) thus sharing high-quality educational materials with anyone who has an Internet access. Therefore, the development of new technologies not only supports efforts of educators who integrate technologies but also offers immense opportunities for knowledge dissemination.
Technology is not just the tool that makes teaching and learning easier. Technology is everywhere and it has gradually become an integral part of living for many people. New generations of schoolchildren are often referred to as “digital” (Buckingham, 2007) as they can not imagine their life without digital “toys” like computers or cell phones. Therefore, teaching with and about technology has become a matter of speaking on the same language as children do. Technology-friendly classroom is essential for making the curriculum relevant to children’s interests.
Language teachers have found many ways of developing language skills with newly introduced technologies. As creating and sharing learning materials have become simpler, faster and cheaper, the World Wide Web has acquired a variety of resources for EFL (English as a foreign language) and ESL (English as a second language) learners of all language proficiency levels. The technical ease of production of such materials, however, does not make it simple to create quality language activities and use pre-created materials effectively. It is not the technology that makes language teaching effective, it is how one uses the technology. In our course we will explore pedagogically-sound ways of integrating technology into the language classroom. We will focus on best practices in the field of foreign languages and will design our own learning materials. We will also practice collaborating online as this course is supplemented with a wiki (course website) located at http://talt.wetpaint.com/.
REFERENCES
Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology: Children’s Learning in the Age of Digital Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jenkins, H., Purushotma, r., Clinton, K., Weigel, M. & Robinson, A. J. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Retrieved February 24, 2009 from http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf.
Miniwatts Marketing Group. (2007). Top 47 countries with the highest Internet penetration rate. Retrieved March 20, 2009, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/top25.htm
MIT Open Source http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
Warschauer, M., & Grimes, D. (2007). Audience, authorship, and artifact: The emergent semiotics of Web 2.0. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 27, 1-23. Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://www.gse.uci.edu/person/markw/aaa.pdf.
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