At present I am working as ICT coordinator. I am supposed to help teachers to use Web 2.0 tools in their ESL (English as a Second Language) classes and it is not an easy task! I have to deal with two problems:
1- Students are already motivated to use digital technologies because they belong to the "thumb" or "digital" generation, but they think they are only going to play intereactive games at the computing lab. In Argentina, Digital natives associate Internet with having fun: chatting with friends and playing interactive games since the school has not incorporated computers and the Interenet as a learning tool, so I have to make them realise that we are going to work and practise the Second Language (SL) - English in this case- using computers. I mean, our aim is learning using technology.
2-On the other hand, teachers are still "digital immigrants" and they are , in a way, reluctant to include computing and the use of Internet in their classes. :-( Some of them are completely technophobes and others are a bit interested but they do not have a clear idea how to use the Web 2.0 tools and are "tied" to ready made material Cd-ROM.
I am facing two different situations, let's see how I will cope with them. If you read this article, please leave a comment about the situation in your place.
- NelbaQuintana's blog
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It's the same situation even in my country, Albania. I run an English Center, called smart centre and we had free internet courses for our students. The aim was to make them love practising English online, but all they wanted to learn was how to post photos in facebook. :(
Hi Nelba
The situation you are describing is exactly what inspired me to start creating my series of Daily (things that sts can do each day) English Activities: http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
I saw that teachers were struggling with learning the technology as well as many of the barriers put up to its use by their institutions, and at the same time learners were racing ahead and wanting to do all sorts of real and creative things online.
So, I'm trying to create a resource which teachers can point their students to and which students can access themselves from home, where there are less beauracratic controls on their access.
I've tried to design as many of the activities as possible around 'authentic' websites that native speakers would want to use and then combine in some form of learning task for exploiting these sites.
I've tried to focus on real sites as many of the made for EFL sites tend to be to 'clumsy' and 'obvious' in their appraoach. The sites say to the learner "This isn't fun, this is learning." I wanted these to say the opposite. I've also tried to combine in an element of developing the digital literacy of the students, so they also start to understand how they can use the web as a learning tool.
Anyway, a big ambition. So far I've created over 100 activities and amstruggling along with more. They are all listed here: http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/2008/08/sitemap.html
Any feedback or suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
Teacher Development: http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
News and Tips: http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
Student Activities: http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
On Social media: http://bloggingandsocialmedia.blogspot.com/
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/NikPeachey
What you are facing by your students on their approach to using ICT is very common. These students are more fascinated by technology and access to say Internet than indulging into boring "learning". Many projects the world over have reported... students are more motivated, very excited, etc. etc. and start to claim how successful their approach to learning are.
In reality, if you are to study closely how effective have current tech using Web 2.0 or any other methods using online systems or CDs have been. We more often than not were very excited about students being very enthusiastic etc but in reality like commenters said...more interested in Facebook and chatting with others.
Learning of a language like "English as a Second Language" means the students are likely not speaking the Language at home. Do not use methods to teach English for those who are learning ESL. Language learning or for that matter any subject be it Maths or Geography, are mostly learnt at home and not in school or the limited hours of Internet access they have in school labs. Learning happens mostly at home in their own time and comfort.
From here ask yourself, is your system able to allow your students to use the contents at home if he/she has no broadband at home? Can they have your CDs if everytime you have 45 students to provide for? If not, how can they learn the language properly? Whey these students find that it takes longer to find the contents than learning using the Internet... they get bored and proceed to more interesting things to do... facebook or the likes.
I am from Malaysia and we have spent lots and lots of money using ICT to improve English among our students especially the rural students whose parents do not speak a word of English. The system failed.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/30283-teaching-of-maths-and-science-in-english-a-flop
Read what happen using latest tech to try to teach English using broadband and the web. It would not work nor will it be sustainable as the cost is just too high. Many students here spent 13 years learning English as a subject and still speak "rotten" English.
The fault lies not in you or any educator. The fault lies in the use of the kind of platforms you are using. Get them to be able to practise at home. You would go somewhere. You would see a lot of difference.
Alan Foo
I am an ESL teacher in Istanbul working in a university preparatory school. I wanted my students to use a blog to share information in order to facilitate autonomous learning. Despite being "digital natives" the concept of blogging was new to most of them. The problems you mention are familiar ones. I wont be able to solve your problem, but would like to share how I applied technology.
One project was a blog kept as a class journal, where students were encouraged to share anything they wanted as long it was meaningful and ethical. As long it was facultative, the entries were few. Once I started pegging it to some grade, the project took roots. There were some very creative contributions, including poems and pictures, comments over news and feelings. The class owned the blog, which aided the sense of class community.
Another project was sharing vocabulary taken from a listening source I had provided. This was particularly interesting because my hidden agenda was that of teaching media literacy. The websites to chose articles/video/audio from were "trusted" news sources. By choosing topics of their choice, students were able to build on a vocabulary corpus of their interest; at the same time peers saw the vocab posted by their friends and learned new words. Surely, I had to gave them quizzes about the words they posted to have them to do it.
To conclude, if their work with the internet depends on grades, Turkish learners can be motivated to blog. Blogging is a relatively simple way for teachers to apply web.2 tools in a classroom.
Hi
l am khaled ben salem an English teacher in a secondary school, l want to know more about the methods that you applied when you were teaching pupils english using the new technology, as l will apply this method next school year.
Thanks in advance
What about web 2.0 tools?
I am starting a research project at Bangkok University to determine if digital technologies used with active learning can help in 2nd language acquisition. We all know the students use these technologies. Can we increase their learning English using them? Feedback welcomed. willard.v@bu.ac.th
Effectivenss of blended learning (BL) combining digital
technologies with active learning for 2nd language acquistion
by
Willard Van De Bogart
The purpose of this paper is to show that all institutions of learning need a completely new pedagogical framework to be developed within their institutions of learning to accommodate the influx of digital media into the framework of education and ultimately to how students today and in the future will learn dramatically different from students prior to the internet revolution. The picture above indicates what a learning environment may look like for the students of today. Shown is the laptop, a digital camera and digital video camera, a cell phone capable of downloading photos, files or emails from the computer and a digital voice recorder for making podcasts. This is just the beginning for there are many other possible combinations of currently available digital hardware such as iPhones, iPads, and even video conferencing capabilities.
Terminology associated with all these new technologies is referred to as active learning, collaborative learning, distance learning, participatory learning, computer assisted learning and the list goes on. These terms which have been created are used to describe the way by which people are interconnected using on-line technologies over the internet as opposed to learning that primarily uses or depends on text books and/or traditionally based teaching techniques which rely primarily on printed documentation.Granted there is a blending (blended learning) of both the older forms of media by which to learn ideas, but there is an increasing amount of dependence on learning with digital technologies. These problems have been pointed out at the MacArthur Foundation report (A US based research foundation) showing that there are no pedagogical frameworks yet in place at any learning institution that recognize the very dramatic way in which students use these new digital technologies to learn any given subject. The paper will outline existing Active Learning techniques and how they can be intergrated with newer digital technologies to augment the learning process when acquiring a second language.
1- Students are already motivated to use digital technologies because they belong to the "thumb" or "digital" generation, but they think they are only going to play interactive games at the computing lab. In Argentina, Digital natives associate Internet with having fun: chatting with friends and playing interactive games since the school has not incorporated computers and the Internet as a learning tool, so I have to make them realise that we are going to work and practise the Second Language (SL) - English in this case- using computers.