It is not a secret that many
teachers are currently struggling with incorporating technology in the class.
Terms like wiki and web logs are not new
anymore. In fact, the use of technology in the classroom is so vital that
teachers around the world are now dealing with what Broussard (2009) calls Digital
Natives which he defines as “the generation of young adults who have
come of age online and who are totally comfortable with emerging technologies.”
Teachers are facing the digital era and to cope with it, they are learning to
take advantage of tools such as the blog, google sites, google docs, wiziq,
among others. It is also imperative to recognize that times have changed
giving importance to collaborative learning among students and professors. Many
educators have evolved and believe in the human capacity to cooperate and
develop their potential; therefore, countless are structuring opportunities for
teachers and students together to bring authentic learning and technological
tools to the classroom, driven by personal interests and connected to classroom
realities. That is, technological tools are opening new doors and proving to
have enough benefits in the education field. For instance, one of the main
aspects I have learned this week is the fact that CALL environments bring
excellent teaching-learning opportunities and as stated by Thorne, such
tools have the power to transform the traditional classroom environment to
make it not only student-centered, but also to provide opportunities for
pedagogical practices and bring novelty (Thorne & Payne, 2005).
Moreover, I strongly believe that we should encourage students to become
autonomous learners by using their metacognitive skills and help them become
life-long and more efficient learners through the use of technology. Courses
like this one help break the gap between us the Digital
Inmigrants and our
students the Digital Natives.
Hello Roxana! Wonderful point, and I like how you say that this course acts as a bridge. It is interesting as I am teaching a face-to-face course on using mobile technology to teach English, and I find I am behind in this area. There are at least two students in that class who are much more comfortable with iPhones and iPads. Things change and shift so rapidly nowadays. But we need to keep ourselves up to date.
ReplyDelete-Robert
Hello Robert! The course you are currently teaching sounds really interesting. I just love how technology helps my students. But you are right, we are not so comfortable sometimes. The idea is to understand that you are a human being who doesn't need to know everything. The problem is that sometimes teachers are afraid to appear vulnerable in front of their students. In my personal case, every time I don't know something I remember not to freak out because I have 25 individuals who know the how's do's and don'ts when it comes to technological devices, so I just cry for help, haha.
ReplyDeleteThanks Robert for your insights! :-)