|
Reflections on Technology |
The Department's decision to incorporate more technology into the classroom reflects not only the relevance of technology to students and their lives but is also a response to research exploring how and what students learn in foreign language classrooms. Carefully designed lesson plans utilizing PowerPoints and multimedia introduce Spanish to the students in such a way that they are 'distracted' from the process of learning they expect from a foreign language class. The structure and deliberate presentation typical of drill-based learning is absent in my classroom, where we instead focus on the meaning of learning any langauge, including our first language: communication. My technology-centered classroom returns to my students the responsibility - and ability - to learn the material. Online lessons, quizzes, and extra material allow them to learn at their own pace, receive immediate feedback, and review what they need help with. Classroom time focuses on employing the grammar or vocabulary studied in ANGEL; instead of chanting conjugations and memorizing vocabulary, students work on proficiency and the ability to express themselves through their second language. |