Reading Responses

The excellent article entitled “eTIPs – Educational Technology Integration and Implementation Principles” by Sara Dexter gave me a better understanding of the role of technology in the classroom. First and foremost, the concept of educational technology as NOT possessing “inherent instructional value” (57), in and of itself, helped me to put the whole field of educational technology into perspective. The article suggests that it is the teacher who creates the value of technology in the classroom by the way he or she “designs” (57) the activities that use it and before planning, the teacher must first consider the “learning outcomes” (58) desired. Maintaining this perspective in the future will keep me on track by reminding me that technology in the classroom is only a tool and not an outcome in and of itself. Furthermore, a focus on outcomes - what I want my students to learn by using technology - will keep me from losing myself in an abyss of technology and overly complicating the lessons I teach that utilize it. This article suggests that technology adds value when it makes something new “possible” or “viable” (58). Since my area of concentration is TESOL for adults, I am thinking about ways in which I can use technology to increase comprehensible input for my students since according to some language acquisition researchers, for example Krashen, delivering adequate and appropriate input is the key to effective second language teaching. I believe that if I can find a way to use technology to increase comprehensible input in my classroom, the outcome will be the generation of increased language by my students.

Despite the fact that the article, “Teddy Bears Go Blogging,” by Brenda Sherry was written with younger students in mind, it has inspired me with some ideas that I can use with my adult TESOL students. After our first MD 400 - Ed Tech class, I have been considering the creation of a class blog that could be accessed not only by students in my class but also by TESOL students in other classes, administrators and even students’ families. This article shows me that it really might be feasible to do so and that a class blog would be an opportunity for TESOL students to generate more language while exposing them to technology in a fun and useful way. In addition, I learned that it would be possible to edit / reject comments or postings before publishing them and that there is an audio feature, too. The latter might be an easy way to insure that students who do not have access to technology at home can participate in the blog by recording something in the classroom that I post for them later. Lastly, I can see that the positive results of creating two-way communication among the students and the increased motivation exhibited by the young students in the Teddy Bear Project would easily transfer to my adult students and would improve both their language production and technology skills.

“Who Are Today’s Learners?” an article by Christine Greenhow motivates me to do some research on adult TESOL students. I realize that just like Greenhow’s teachers in her Ed Tech courses, I have made assumptions about my students’ use of technology which may or may not be correct. This article demonstrates the value of constructing a survey based upon the suggested questions included in the article in order to try to understand my students’ attitudes toward technology, their knowledge of and experience with it. Armed with this research, I could craft effective ways to use technology in the classroom that would truly address the students’ needs. This article provides a link to the Pew Internet and American Life Project’s survey which I have downloaded and read. I believe that I can adapt many of its questions to an adult education environment. Finally, I appreciate the reminder that good teachers “tap into, reinforce, build on, and extend” student knowledge and experience, which is an approach that can be applied to all classrooms and lesson planning.