Transcript Technology: Friend or Foe?

Technology: Friend or Foe?
Ene Peterson
Virumaa College of Tallinn University of Technology
[email protected]
Things aren't what they used to be
A typical teacher-centered
classroom in the 1960`s
Typical student-centered 21st century
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classrooms
A New Generation of Students
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Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants
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Teaching digital natives
21st Century Learning - Digital Learners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEDulInv9rE
21st Century Learning - Tomorrow's Teachers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHSv_RFm23g&feature=related
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Dreams coming true ...
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Benefits of Implementing Technology
in the Language Classroom
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Access to authentic websites, online reference tools (online
dictionaries, thesauri (incl visual thesauri), encyclopedias,
spell-checkers, concordances (words in their natural contexts)
Web Concordancer has searched corpus
http://www.edict.com.hk/scripts/cgi-bin/Wwwconcgram.exe
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Getting help for specific business or specialtyrelated situations: turning academic skills into
transferable employment skills (looking for a job,
socialising (small talk), making presentations,
conducting meetings, negotiating, telephoning)
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Enhanced possibilities for synchronous (chat, skype, instant
messenger, audio/ web conferencing) and asynchronous
(email, email discussion groups, e-mail pals, texting (SMS),
discussion boards, blogs, dialogue journals) communication.
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Develop listening (online audio and video news,
podcasts, and speaking skills (online webcasts,
conferences)
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Internet-based tasks
- web quests
- short and long-term
projects (The House of
my Dreams. A Trip to
my Dream Country.
My company)
 Creating e-portfolio/
digital portfolio

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From 1.0 to Web 2.0
and Web 3Di
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Second / third generation of
web based communities
Social networking tools –
learning with and from others
Collaborating with others
(wikis)
Webvolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZTdFTZV5Q
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Technology as a friend
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The use of technology (“interactivity” of
language tasks) can be motivating.
Learners can proceed at their own space,
make their own choices.
Learners can get instant feedback on what
they have done and personalized
assessment.
The use of technology in and outside the
language classroom can make learners more
autonomous.
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Using ICT with learners gives them practice
for real-life ICT contexts.
It is possible to develop as the receptive
(listening and reading) as well as productive
skills (writing and speaking) skills via
computer-mediated communication.
Keeps the teacher and student learning new
skills.
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Pitfalls of the use of technology
I. Internet security and
privacy
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Cybercrimes from benign
spam and cyber slacking to
obscene or offensive
content, fraud, identity theft,
viruses, hacking, cyber
stalking …
The risks in sharing and
collaborating online
Useful website:
http://www.getnetwise.org/
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II. Lack of information
literacy
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Digital information
overload:
- how to search for
useful material
- how to evaluate the
appropriateness of
resources on the web
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III. In terms of learning
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The problem of
trustworthiness and
accuracy of online
materials (e.g.
translation programs,
spell and grammar
checkers)
?4U. WAN2 TXT? RU
n00b? TBL or CUL8R.
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My message:
I have a question. Want
to text? Are you
newbie?
Text back later or see
you later.

Hometask:
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IV. Lack of digital
responsibility
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Ignoring do`s and don`ts
of Netiquette
Read Core Rules:
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
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Cut and paste culture
(Copyright violation and
plagiarism)
Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
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Internet cheats with the help
of “paper mills”
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Summary
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Technology is both friend and foe.
Technology should fit learner needs – not fit the
learner to the technology.
Technology is not a panacea that can replace
language teachers and F2F classrooms, it is
something that can be used to enhance
language learning (Sharma & Barrett,Blended
Learning,2008).
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Thank you for attention!
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