Tatiana, Kazakhstan
Our teachers don't have constant access to modern technology, but they know how to keep the balance using creative tasks and projects for learners. Frankly speaking, the quality of language teaching doesn't depend on modern technology- it's first of all a human-human interaction.

Rehan Khan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
What I think is that there is too much talk about the use of technology in the language classroom, but what is more important in language teaching, is what researchers say, that there must be some outcome. Whatever you do in the classroom, learning must take place. Technology is quite helpful in language teaching, but may be not always. So, one must analyse and examine his/her teaching situations, level of students etc. then he/she must go for it.

Nadeem al-Murshedi, Yemen
Don't give me the fish but teach me how to fish.In Yemen, we hardly ever use technology in classrooms. Computers, internet and other materials are there but teachers and schools need training to use it and should be told about the power of technology in enhancing the teaching and learning processes.

Arissa, South Korea
In South Korea, teachers are required to use many kinds of technological tools when they teach. However, it isn't effective for learning when they is too much emphasis on those tools. So, I think that technological training has to be used according to the each subject or way to teach.

Nafisa BinTayeh, Yemen
Technology is very important in our teaching /learning process. In our school our students are exposed to the multimedia. Students have access to the internet, teachers use Power Point, DVD's etc. but I feel we need to train our teachers as to how to focus on making technology pedagogically effective in the classroom.

Tatyane, Brazil
I'm taking English at college, and there is a subject named media communication and education, there we discuss a lot about the influence of technology, but it appears that nobody knows how to use it in a pedagogical way.

Charles, China
In China, more and more universities are teaching English with modern multimedia and internet. However, with the enormous teaching materials and the reluctance of English teachers, the effect of English teaching is not better. It is the main issue in Chinese English teaching.

Olga, Argentina
Today, learning a foreign language effectively requires the use of technology; the Internet provides innumerable possibilities for real communication, which in turn allows us to be updated in every field of language teaching. Nevertheless, few teachers have adequate training to devise activities to be carried out with a computer in the classroom.

Mian Sharif, Pakistan
I think that still the majority of educational institutions need to increase the use of technology for teaching languages here in my country. The teacher training in this regard must be emphasised.

Jose, Spain
I guess technology is changing our way of living faster than should be done, and sometimes nobody realizes that technology must adapt to our lives, not vice versa. Therefore it wouldn´t be a bad idea to stop buying so much useless new products we don´t need at all, and start learning how to spot the information we are looking for in the Internet.

Veena, India
Use of technology makes the job easier, but kills creativity & individuality of teachers. Soon we are going to plan our lessons also on computers to share with everyone. I fear in the long run, many of the skills will be disused because of everything being available at the click of the mouse.

Alma, Oman
Teaching comes alive in virtual classrooms and the use of technology is becoming quite indispensable these days. Therefore, teachers should keep themselves abreast of the effective use of these technologies and incorporate them in the classroom. I've seen how learning is best facilitated with knowledge on the use of these technologies. These two Ts - technology and modern teaching are much-needed partners in globalization. The most important thing, though is to strike a balance in the classroom. Technology is not a panacea to effective learning. Students can still benefit from the traditional.

Alice, Italy
I think it's often a matter of thinking through how a particular technology will work in your classroom/teaching setting. My school has proudly invested in a projection screen linked to a computer. However, if a teacher wants to use it they have to prepare the materials (difficult without access to a computer!) and move the class into that room. Consultation with the teachers might have indicated that a simple, old fashioned OHP, requiring minimum prep, and portable, would have been a more flexible and useable solution. I feel that new technology is exciting, but that expensive pieces of equipment should only be invested in after a thorough consideration of it's practical application.

Nadia Niu, China
Most teachers are using technology in their classes. For example, language teachers in China are encouraged to use power point to present materials or explain language in class. But some teachers even don't consider what's the purpose of using them, and what content should be put in Power point. PPt looks good, but does not assist effectively in language teaching and learning. It is a good show , but some teachers are becoming lazier in teaching.

Andreas Stuebinger, Germany
From my point of view it is very much important indeed that teachers are technologically trained. Modern media should play a central role in the classroom, especially in foreign language teaching. Nowadays through media such as the Internet and DVD players it has become very easy to actually get the English world into any classroom around the world. Students have to get in contact with native speakers and students have to listen to spoken English. The media can help us a lot as far as this is concerned. Especially foreign language teachers should not lose touch and should always catch up with the latest developments and bring them into the classroom. The black board and chalk of the previous century should finally rest in peace.

Larry John, Angola
Indeed there are plenty of them but we need to follow the IT path otherwise we can get behind in this matter of technology. In the meantime we must seek pedagogical methods for refreshing courses whenever it is possible.

Surraiya, Pakistan
Yes I do agree that much emphasis is given to technology rather than focus on pedagogy and the affective domain is almost neglected.
Where is the wisdom we lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we lost in information?

Prabhu Avcs, India
In the process of making things easier and learning quicker, yes there is overemphasis on technology. In the process the human element and creativity is lost. Teachers are losing there individuality and depending on machines making them dependents on the gadgets. Teachers using technology excessively in the classrooms forgetting the objectives and also depriving the students from enjoying the fragrance of creative teaching and learning.

Ana Lopes, Portugal
I think that the most important is to make technology pedagogically effective in order to get our students really committed with their own learning and maybe e-learning can make the difference.

Roddy Kay, Brazil
While I agree with all the comments made emphasizing that the new technology is merely a tool and that pedagogy is all important, we nevertheless still have to recognise that there is an enormous range of skills to be learned and knowledge to be acquired about how to use the new technologies and what their capabilities are. A problem seems to be that acquiring such knowledge and skills is on the whole left to teachers' personal initiative outside the school environment. Just learning and practising how to use and access the basic functions of the new technologies can take up a lot of time. In the ideal world, maybe checklists or even self-access manuals supplied by schools are needed to help teachers acquire technological competencies. And this must be quickly allied to the pedagogy of using them.

Margot ,Oman
Whether we like it or not, technology is with us - FOREVER. Lets not hide from it. Let's train people to use it effectively and efficiently and not let it control their lives. The day has arrived where we have TV, DVD, CD technology on tap. We have computer technology that can drive us to despair when we research, when we are looking for that exact information. We have mobile phones which can now torment us in our sleep; can send us all types of information we don't want, with ads, with nuisance calls and of course, with the calls we want. Let's train people how to use all of these absolutely-can't-do-without technologies efficiently and effectively. I went to a conference recently and a presenter could do all the wiz-bang, bling-bling things on his computer with power point, but then could not speak effectively to his presentation! Ah, people also need to be trained on how to do things OTHER than technology also. Lets aim for a happy mix of both. We need both.

Suda Biyaem,Thailand
Pedagogical side is more in need for the teachers on how to integrate the learning in the classroom to the computer session appropriately and effectively otherwise it will end up like Adelaide from India said, but to be optimistic at least the students have got the searching skill. Working part time as a pedagogical advisor of an English learning software distributor, I had a chance to introduce the idea of the blended approach to the teachers of English but it is only a very small number of them to have a chance to join the seminar. I think that if the educational authority put more emphasis on technology in the educational system they should be more aware of how to make full use of it in terms of pedagogic and cost effectiveness as well.

Ramlee, Malaysia
We should not forget or fully abandon the basics of teaching English. Technologies only serve as a supporting tool and assistance to our teaching programmes. What students really needs is loving, caring and sharing attitude. I suggest that we should have proper control of the technologies, rather than relying on them fully. I don't think parents will allow their children to attend classes taught by a mechanical robot in the near future. Teaching is a holistic career and knowledge is taught right from the heart of a human being named 'teacher'. Whatever it is, a human touch can never be substituted by any other means.

Vasundhra Saxena, India
Technology is need of the day. Language learning is incomplete and ineffective without the Technological Aids (computer,tape -recorders, TV,DVD/VCD.) Many terms as CALL, Web-based Learning, Interactive Learning, had come out as the Technology boon. As I am also working on a technology based project. But in all these, sometimes I feel that it is mechanization of learning. The Students of new generation are being deprived of the moral support, emotional touch and friendly guidance of the teacher. They are lacking in values of life. Teachers with excessive use and blaze of technology, have forgotten the real goal of teaching.

Gertrude, UAE
I am of the opinion that children are getting too used to the idea of everything being done for them. They have become too lazy to even think for themselves. Their creativity is almost nonexistent as each topic is just downloaded from the internet! No need to research, no need to write it in your own words. It's just word-for-word recounting of what's been taken from another source. Technology is important, but it has its place and should not be employed to take the place of one's own ideas and thoughts.

Gwen Brown. Northern Ireland
The use of technology should be seen as another resource not the answer to all our prayers. I have seen teachers use Power point displays instead of using OHP. Is this an appropriate use of technology? Some interactive sites are very good and can motivate students e.g. BBC Skillswise is a very good web page and has lots of info for both tutors and students.

Adelaide Vaz, Mumbai, India
True, India is producing a large no. of technology experts, and teachers today are using technology just as another audio-visual aid. The full use of computers for example in pedagogical use is not being done. There is just a lot of cut and paste or copy-paste. Creative seems to be lost both in the teaching and learning process.

Nik Peachey, UK
I feel that we need to be confident in handling the technology, but just technology training isn't enough. We need to understand how and where the technology can support and enhance the teaching that we are already doing, and where it doesn't. Technology of itself isn't an educational tool, it's just a tool. We need knowledgeable teachers to transform it into a tool for learning. Interactive whiteboards, for example, should be called electronic whiteboards, because they aren't interactive unless the teacher is using them in an interactive way. Even a chalkboard can become an interactive whiteboard in the hands of a teacher who knows how to create interaction within their classroom. But this is a pedagogical skill that needs to be developed.