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Technology Reflection

Course Description

Spanish Resources

Microteaching

Pedagogical Innovation

Reading Activity

Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese

Spanish Basic Language Program

ANGEL

TWTC

As an educator self-instructed on technology, I had the opportunity to become an expert on, not only using technology efficiently in the classroom with presentational purposes, but also to develop my own applications and activities which bring as much educational information as fun to the class. My most basic skills involve the use of PowerPoint and the Internet in the classroom among others. Besides, I have advanced those skills by learning computational languages as Html and Action Script. These allowed me to rethink the approach of technology to the classroom and create materials that are specifically design for the purposes of the language class.

The advantages of using technology in the classroom are many both inside and outside the language classroom. In the class, on the one hand, I have experienced that the use of technology, when efficiently applied, can bring variety rising motivation and attention in the students and may change attitudes towards the language. Providing linguistic content through new approaches and designs will be conceived differently by the language learners. Colors, dynamism, or enhancement will help on this purpose. The use of presentation software as PowerPoint or Flash helps to fulfill this goal. Besides, technology also helps in a good extent to bring information to the students. The use of a teaching platform as ANGEL or Blackboard – extensible used in educational environments – provide chat rooms, emails, message boards or voice recording which facilitate the communication between the student and the instructor. Since communication is the primary goal inside and outside the language classroom, these tools are very useful to maintain contact with the students when developing communication skills.

However, I strongly defend a drastic change on the way we are approaching the use of technology for grading purposes outside the class. New communicative methods approach language teaching with an affective perspective (i.e. students have to express their own feelings when producing the language). Form, at this point, is as important as meaning. Therefore, outside classroom activities may involve also those two perspectives. However, language materials aimed to be used in distance learning – or outside the classroom – do not defer much to paper based materials, i.e. the same formats are used: fill-in-the-blanks, matching, multiple choice, etc.

Hence, new approaches have to be proposed in order to create unity when using technology in language instruction. The development of game-based materials would be a good starting point. This type of approach to online language teaching leads to self-instruction from the students while they are continuously in contact with language input. Also, repetitive practice necessary to solve the game would allow the student to practice output skills. Therefore, linguist developers can create short game-based activities where the student in unconsciously guided through the target language in use. Hints could be given so they can apply form to the purpose of meaning. In addition, for grading purposes, learners could send a code, given upon completion, so the instructor can give a grade to this distance learning process. However, arguments may arise against this possible approach. First, developing new materials would be very time consuming and need a level of expertise that not many educators posses. Next, the cost would not be affordable at the individual level. Finally, new approaches to technology use should be researched before hand so that confirmation on benefits can be guaranteed. Nevertheless, no change has always been easy and future materials from expert technologists may provide easy solutions for language instructors in the near future.

My personal observation has showed me that technology is a positive tool in the language classroom. It brings advantages in the teaching process both for educators and for learners. Motivation and changes of attitude arise when efficiently employed. However, to reach a good understanding on the use of technology, it is necessary to receive instruction. Furthermore, it is necessary to rethink its use, apply accurate methods, and design new possibilities that better reach the goal of the class, inside and outside the educational room.