Course Written Assignment
- 1. ICT Applied to English Teaching Course Final Written Assignment Student: MARINO Romina Lecturer: LEDESMA Paula Course: 4.691 Year: 2010 Deadline: December 10th Marino Romina Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico 1
- 2. CHAPTER XXIII: Internet Technologies and Language Teacher Education (by Darren Elliott) Nowadays, we are facing the emergence of a new era that aims to change the way in which teaching and learning take place. It is the era of technology and information and although its development has begun a long time ago, it is now clearly seen how it purports to challenge life and education. In order to be prepared for the new era, people and teachers must be trained in the use of technology and be as open-minded as possible to incorporate these new ways of communicating with others around the world. Web 2.0 has appeared to revolutionize Internet and provide new kinds of interaction among people and with the web itself. Even though some individuals may not be familiar with the term ‘Web 2.0’, they are familiar with some of the applications to which it refers. “Web 2.0 (is) a platform through which tools can be accessed, a shared space for collaboration, and (…) a repository of knowledge which can be added to, manipulated and re-presented.”(Elliot, 2009) As a consequence, different labels have been designed to refer to the generations raised: digital natives as opposed, for example, digital immigrants. The former referring “to someone who grows up using technology, and who thus feel comfortable and confident with it”(Dudeney & Hockly, 2007) whereas the latter refers to those “who have come later to the world of technology”(Dudeney & Hockly, 2007) and may be afraid of it. In spite of the fact that many teachers feel they are digital immigrants, it would be a great idea for them to train themselves and manage their own learning through the use of technology. The author of the chapter here makes a distinction between the terms ‘teacher education’, ‘teacher training’, and ‘teacher development’. “Teacher development is often driven by institutions and tends to emphasize career requirements over personal values. (…)Teacher training (…) can be in a process in which teachers are developed, rather than one in which they are given the opportunity to Marino Romina Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico 2
- 3. develop.”(Elliot, 2009) The last term, ‘teacher education’ “is designated as an umbrella term to cover both self-initiated (…) practices, and more formalized training programs and systems.” (Elliot, 2009) Together with the advent of new technologies, ‘teacher development’ has proved to be insufficient. As a consequence, more and more professionals are now seeking new theories to look for ways in which they can develop themselves. “If technology is truly transforming learning, then theories of learning need to be transformed too” (Elliot, 2009). In this sense, social constructivism has been coined as outdated and a new model of ‘conectivism’ was proposed. It states that “learning is not about internal processes but rather the access to knowledge based on network communities.” (Elliot, 2009) The new model is transforming the field of education rapidly, with more and more people participating in what is called ‘blended learning’: “a language course which combines a face-to-face classroom component with an appropriate use of technology” (Sharma & Barret, 2007); or, on the other hand, ‘distance learning’ in which content is delivered completely via the Internet. The potential of these ways of interaction is unimaginable and immense. Collaboration with other people around the world is now possible and easily accessible through the use of wikis and blogs, for example. “Learners can create a Vygotskian zone of proximal development within a virtual world and collaborate to learn together” (Elliot, 2009) through the establishment of complex and realistic task that can promote cognitive processing. In a near future, we will probably face learners studying solely to communicate in virtual worlds and teachers trained in the use of them. Marino Romina Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico 3
- 4. THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ELT “While the teaching profession may not be changing as quickly as we might have expected, technology is still moving on at an astounding place, and the software and hardware we use are gradually converging into devices which are more user-friendly and which integrate a myriad of services in one place.”(Dudeney & Hockly, 2007) Taking into account the previous quote, we should mention that for this change to take place, we must also need a change of attitude on the part of teachers, trying to become acquainted with the use of the Internet and all the different possibilities that Web 2.0 provides us with. The new ‘teaching and learning method’ invites teachers and students to work collaboratively, making their own contributions in a more social way that can reach people from all over the world. Blogs, wikis, virtual learning environments, online learning, among others, are the new ways through which education will be transformed. Gradually, they will be incorporated in the classroom and change radically the learning-teaching process. Marino Romina Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico 4
- 5. WORKS CITED • Dudeney, G. & Hockly, N. (2007). How to Teach English with Technology. England: Pearson Longman. • Elliott, D. (2009). Internet Technologies and Language Teacher Education. In Thomas, M., Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language Learning (pp.342-350). Hersey, New York: Information Science Reference • Sharma, P. & Barret, B. (2007). Blended Learning: Using Technology in and beyond the Language Classroom. Great Britain: Macmillan. Marino Romina Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico 5