Week 9

Collaborative Writing: The Future of Group Work

In the two required articles for this week, a new way of using technology to teach a second language was introduced: collaborative writing.

The first article I read for this week was “Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis” by Paul Sze, in this article I found an example of a collaborative writing task. The teacher asked his students to write in a wiki. A wiki is an online platform in which anyone can add information and edit information that has been previously added by other users. What I liked from this article is that the author provides a very good description of the task he assigned to the class, the way they worked in it and finally, of the results obtained. The author also provides some other examples in which collaborative writing can be applied using wikis. Thanks to this article I learned that students can feel very satisfied with a result as a wiki, in which not only their classmates and teachers, but also their friends, relatives, and literally anybody can appreciate their final work.

In the second article, “Process Writing and the Internet: Blogs and Ning Networks in the Classroom” by Isabela Villas Boas I learned that effective writing must consider the reader’s background knowledge, needs, interests and ideologies. In order to engage students in interactive and social writing, the author proposes two technological resources, blogs and Ning. A blog is a website with different entries that students can use to practice their writing skill. A list of benefits of its use is provided in the article. Ning is a group social networking site, similar to a blog but with a wider audience and more technological resources, such as multimedia. The author also provides a free alternative to Ning which is Grouply. Finally, two examples of collaborative writing tasks are provided using the platforms previously mentioned, all the process and the results are clearly exposed.

In summary, thanks to this week’s articles I was able to identify an innovative way to promote group work using technology and to know the benefits of applying it into the lessons.

Week 8

Technology for Writing and Reading

Thanks to this week’s articles, Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction by Jarek Krajka, and Using Internet­Based Children's Literature to Teach EFL by Larry J. Mikulecky, I could confirm one more time that technology and internet can be very useful tools to teach specific skills of a second language, in this case writing and reading.

Something I learned from Mikulecky’s article is that internet can provide a big amount of material that we, the teachers, can use with our students to practice their skills. Mikulecky mentioned that there are some websites that allow students to get literature in English to practice their reading skill, and at the same time it allows them to overcome some barriers that were common in the past, like problems of access, and expense. At the end of this article, the author included some links to websites that can do what was mentioned before.

On the other hand, Krajka’s article talks about the benefits of using internet to teach writing. One of the benefits mentioned here, and that I think is one of the best, is that thanks to internet students can be exposed to real usage of the language. By using internet they can communicate by writing e-mails to other people, including people from other countries in which their target language is the native tongue. Besides this, the author provides some examples of how teachers can apply internet to their lessons in order to teach or practice writing.

In conclusion, it has been demonstrated one more time that technology and internet can become great tools to teach a second or foreign language, and its skills. With this articles, I have learned how to apply CALL to teach writing and reading. 

Week 7

UTILIZING CALL TO TEACH SPECIFIC SKILLS.

After reading this week’s articles The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills by Julia Gong, and Using Original Video and Sound Effects to Teach English by Shahla Yassaei I have acquired new knowledge on the way that CALL can be used to teach specific skills in a second or foreign language.

There are many different things that I learned from the material previously mentioned. First, in Gong’s article I was able to learn the theory on how CALL is useful to teach speaking to second or foreign language learners. Something that I read here and that I believe that every teacher should know is that students tend to feel more comfortable practicing speaking using computers than practicing with a real person because they feel less afraid of making mistakes while pronouncing.

On the other hand, in Yassaei’s article I was able to read how to apply in a real class the principles stated in Gong’s. My personal opinion of this article in particular, is that it is very useful because it provides several ideas that can be used to teach specific skills using CALL and specially video and sound effects. What I liked the most from this article is that it shows how simple it can be to apply technological resources to our lessons. Thanks to it, I realized that finding these kinds of materials is really easy, the author even said that TV shows like The Simpsons can become a teaching tool if we use them properly. 

In conclusion, from this week’s material I learned that by using CALL to teach speaking (or any other skill) we can help our students to feel more comfortable, be more engaged in the content being studied, and to be exposed to the way the target language is used in real life.

Week 6

THE HOW AND WHEN OF TECHNOLOGY 

There is no doubt that, when used correctly, technology can become an incredibly useful tool for teachers and for students. However, we cannot pretend that by having a computer and a projector in the classroom our students will magically become experts in the content studied. It is necessary for teachers to know how and when to use the technological resources that they have available.

The articles Critical Thinking and Technology by Ken Bain, and Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis? Give us relevant and useful information about how and when to use technology. From these articles I learned that we cannot perceive technology as totally good or totally bad. Depending on the way we use it, it can help or harm our students’ learning process. Besides this, I realized that not everybody learns in the same way. Therefore, not everybody will be benefitted by technology in the same way. 

There is one point mentioned in one of the articles that I consider that every teacher should know, and it is that when we (teachers) think about using technology, we should not think about how it will make our work easier, but we must think how it will help our students acquire the knowledge we are transmitting to them.

In conclusion, these articles result helpful when we wonder if we should use technology with our students and how to use it.

Week 5

Opening the Doors of Internet to Education

The article CALL Me … Maybe:  A Framework for Integrating the Internet into ELT by George M. Chinnery introduces a whole new level of CALL: the use of the internet in language teaching. I found this article amazingly informative and useful for many reasons. The main reason is that it made me realize what a great tool internet can be in order to support our lessons.

Sometimes, we talk about the internet and we give it for granted because since the last decade (at least in El Salvador) almost all of us have had a certain degree of access to it. However when we think about the internet in the way Chinnery has done, we realize how useful it can be in order to teach, practice, and learn a new language. Regardless of the amount of access we have to it, there will always be a way in which we can take advantage of the benefits of using internet.

Something I learned from this article is that, internet has been used as an information technology, as a communication technology, and as a social and mobile technology. In addition to this, I learned that internet can help to increase learner motivation and reduce learner anxiety, engage learners, promote learner autonomy, and aid in retention. Furthermore, something I believe that every teacher should know is that depending on the level of access, internet can be used as a medium of instruction, or as a source of content.  

In conclusion, this article results very useful because it shows many different scenarios in which internet can become our best friend while teaching a new language, the article also provides many examples of websites that can be useful for teachers and students, and it also introduces Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL), providing a few examples in which mobile devices can be properly used to support a lesson.

Week 4

Applying Technology in Our Lessons

Once we get to know how technology works or what kind of software and hardware we can use to support our lessons, we must learn how to utilize this tools inside and outside the classroom. After reading the articles Blending technologies in ESL courses: A reflexive enquiry by Paul Gruba, Cameron Clark, Kellyn Ng, and Marisa Wells and Integrating CALL into the classroom: the Role of Podcasting in an ESL Listening Strategies Course I can say that I have learned significant things that I will consider in my future career as a teacher.

From these articles I learned that there are some devices that can be used to teach and practice some specific skills. Both articles mentioned podcasts as an example, with podcasts students can discuss topics, share their ideas, or learn new content and at the same time they practice their listening skill.

I would like to share my personal experience, I am currently taking an online course in which we use podcasts to discuss and comment weekly, and it is surprising to know how simple devices that I used to use only for entertainment have become my main tools for that course. Every week, I use my cellphone and my earphones to record my comments, and then I post them using my personal computer.

One of the things that I liked from these articles is that they are booth very realistic, they study the pros and cons of using technological devices as a tool for teaching languages. I appreciate the fact that the articles state certain disadvantages of using technology to teach because it is evident that not everybody has access to technological devices, or feel comfortable using them. Therefore, it will be our responsibility to find a way to overcome those barriers.

Week 3

Using Technology to Promote Autonomy

The article Effectiveness of the Integration of ICT Tools and Activities to Foster Awareness as the First Stage to Reach Learning Autonomy by Andrea Ariza and Mario Suárez Sánchez, resulted very interesting to me because it poses a purpose for CALL and technological resources in general, that I had not considered before (and that will be the emphasis on this week’s post): promote autonomy in the learning process.

Personally, I liked this article because the authors are very detailed on the purpose of their researches and the results obtained in them. They also support their statements by quoting several researchers that had studied this topic before. This takes me to share with you something that surprised me from this article, and it is that the authors mention that Jones (2001) said that one of the four major constraints on the use of CALL to promote autonomy is the lack of interest from the learners; this contrasts with an idea found in the article described in my previous post (week 2). The authors of that article state that students show a positive attitude towards lessons that use technology, and I strongly agree with the last statement.

I agree with the authors when they say that in order to promote autonomy in students, teachers should guide their students and encourage them to be independent in their learning process, promote self-evaluation and self-monitoring to help them to know themselves as learners.

To conclude, I think that technology can be a very useful tool for students and teachers to create an autonomous environment, it provides many different resources in which students can learn and practice with a teacher’s guidance in their school, or by their own at home becoming more and more independent with the time.