Hi everybody,
Here are the link to the two videos we watched in class. If needed, watch them again and post your comments to the following question: Is the use of Educational technology taking us away from the real nature of teaching?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA1Aqp0sPQo
http://www.ted.com/talks/ramsey_musallam_3_rules_to_spark_learning#t-381128
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion you can use technology in your class as long as it has a purpose and your students can learn and get something from it that is gonna be useful for them, you should know how to use it with an educational goal, plus students love technology and they want to use it in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteFor sure it must have a porpuse and something very reliable as this might lead to students lack of attention and interest. Keeping a well motivated class using the TIC'S helps us to be more immerse with technologies available and tools now days, students of today are keeping track of evolving technologies and are enjoying and getting the best out it.
DeleteWhen I think about ICT in the class, I also remember that English teachers have always been looking for resources or real materials – realia, to get the students in touch with a real context of the language. Who didn’t use videos, cassettes, CDs, TV, in an English class? Technology is a tool, it can be the best tool but useless if the teacher doesn’t know how to use it or continue teaching the class on the same way. So, my answer is no, but it is changing our educational practices and the way learners are learning. I want to share with you something I read and liked it. “Particular tools (cultural artefacts) have always been central to the language teaching process and the introduction of Web 2.0 is only really a further step, but one which might have a significant impact on the learning process as other tools have done in the past” (Motteram and Sharma, 2009, p. 86).
ReplyDeleteIn addition, schools with sufficient ICT resources achieved better results than those that are not well-equipped. Many teachers use ICT to support innovative pedagogy. Students learn new skills: analytical, including improvements in reading comprehension, also developing some writing skills: spelling, grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting. Still new technologies encourage independent and active learning, and students’ responsibility for their own learning. ICT proves that students who used educational technology felt more successful in school and at the same time are more motivated to learn and have increased their self- confidence and self-esteem.
DeleteI agree with you Yaneth. Technology is definitely changing the way people learn, it is also changing what people learn. I don´t reaaly like about technology is that it happens to be the most important thing now. I do believe that is happening in the streets now. Anybody can see that. But anyway, we´d better try to use it in the classroom for the best.
DeleteWell I agree with Yaneth, Yes! The using of technology or artefacts only add more tools to the process of teaching but its impact or in better words its positive things are proportional to the bad things. I mean, now students have important resources to correct their grammar mistakes but they are so dependant to them to the point that they are incapable to write one sentence well without a keyboard in front of them. And I disagree with Monica, no all the institutions which have the last fashionable equipments have the better results... I give you an example, there are public schools have a good resources in technology but nevertheless they don´t have the better results with their students Why? Because Education is a process where there are a lot of factors that are getting involved.
DeleteI believe that if you use technology a lot in your class some of the fundamentals lessons of learning will be lost. For example, when you tell a student to look up a definition in a dictionary, the student has to look for the definition, read it, and write it down but, with technology they don't go through any trouble looking for the definition and they can copy and paste it and, it just make everything very easy for the student therefore, the effort he puts looking for the definition is zero and I think that is making people lazy students. I also think that teachers have to make every minute count therefore, the teacher should be experienced when using technology so time isn't wasted on technical problems. In addition, I think you should always keep in mind the resources the students have access to. Finally, I would like to state that I am not against having technology in classrooms but, strongly believe that we as teachers should always keep in mind the activities we use when using technology and to not use technology in a full class, we have to vary.
ReplyDeleteI feel what you are saying. Information is much easier to obtain nowadays.That should be an advantage but in many cases this has become a negative thing because students dont learn or memorize. The fact is that since people know they have any information at a touch of a button or mouse click they have become lazy or over dependent on their smartphones, computers, tablets, etc...
DeleteI think that what Andres says about keeping in mind the resources that the students have access to is important because if some of the students don't have the access to the technology or the don't know about technology they may find those activities frustrating and boring.
DeleteI totally agree with Andres' comment. One of the keys for any successful class is the unknown, the element of surprise and even though there many interesting things you can do with technology we can still have a great class based on zero tech support.
DeleteNo, as a matter of fact technology is helping us to improve our teaching methodology by implementing different and interesting activities within the classroom to be able to reach more multiple intelligences.
ReplyDeleteHey Monica. I feel the same way about it, it is helping us to be involve with technology and evolving at the same time. Our world is modernising day by day and students need to keep track of this new technologies and improve the way they are learning. Hence it give us the opportunity to open wider doors of knowledge and expand our abilities.
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DeleteI don't think educational technology is taking us away from real nature teaching. Technology actually helps us improve teaching in the way that teachers can create fun activities on the web. Technology is in a way "ruling" the world and as teachers we need to keep up with it. Obviously it's not good at all if all of your classes were based on just teaching with technology because it's always good to have that human contact between students and teachers. All there really has to be is a balance between educational technology and real nature teaching.
ReplyDeleteCamila brilliant comment. The human factor in teaching is a very important part of learning.
DeleteCompletely true Camila, balance is the key of life.
DeleteI also agree on this one, having a real teacher right there is so much better, we cannot forget that teachers can find many different ways to explain something in the classroom in a way that's gonna be easier for students to understand and apply in real life.
DeleteTechnology provides great tools but lets not forget how important teachers are.
The use of technology in today's classroom is increasing dramatically. As time goes on this is expected to grow exponentially. I feel that technology is a great tool to facilitate learning. However from my personal experience I have encountered teachers that dont teach anymore but instead they just put A powerpoint presentation. It is important to remember that no electronic device can replace the teacher. Technology should be used as an aid not a substitute.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Xavier. Bringing it back to what I said before that it's always good to have that human contact between teachers and students. There are some teachers that simply create a PowerPoint and have us copy down some notes, no explaining or anything and those are the type of teachers that take away the real nature of technology.
DeleteI believe that we can not forget the roll that as teachers we have and our final goal as leaders in the student knowledge process. Therefore, with that thought in mind, if we have access to technology in our classroom, we can use it as a TOOL that complements this learning process. In that case, it’s our responsibility to learn how to work with it in a positive way. By the other hand, if we don’t have any technology access at all.. What can we do? We always will have access to our best tool: CREATIVITY. With this resource always available, a good teacher anywhere or anytime, can teach with or whitout it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment in special that part that said that our best tool is creativity, the technology could be useful or harmful according the using that we give to it. Always we have to think that creativity propels us to a high level of development, moreover we can be free of our bounderies and cultural prejudices.
DeleteSometimes making things simple is better because that allows to understand the facts in better way and technology in some occasions make it too complicated.
I believe that technology could be a very useful tool to get information and work with it. Getting information is the very first step in the learning process, so we can´t say that just because there are a lot of information on the internet people are getting smarter... In fact, the opposite is shown in many statistics about people´s education and critical thinking. You can see that also in the way that people behave... Technology is just a tool and although it is absolutely true that it helps the linguistic process of learning a language, it could become also an obstacle if the teacher does not know where to use it and where not to sue it. I would not say that technology is good or evil, instead, I´d say it could be useful or harmful
ReplyDeleteThat's right juan it is pretty much about how teachers use technology in order to give their students something that they can learn from and it's going to be helpful throughout their learning process. Technology can be harmful so we should be definitely careful when using it.
DeleteI am agree with you, Juan. In fact, the concern about the use of technology is not limited to the educational field. Scientists of our generation are asking the same question in other fields of knowledge. Days ago, I read the following article where Stephen Hawking warns about how artificial intelligence could even be the end mankind. Sounds terrible, but... possible?
ReplyDeleteTherefore, it is in our hands the power to use this tool in the best way that works for the benefit of our students.For those who want to read the article, here is the link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540
I understand what you are saying that technologies now days are getting ahead of us until the point where that same technology is and will be replacing us as time goes by and unfortunately for us we are tending to be more and more dependant of today's technology but lucky for us that the effort and the ability we human beings have tends to have a margin of error and that is why we change, improve and better ourselves which is the key to success.
DeleteHi Viviana,
DeleteThanks for sharing the article. I read it and it is indeed quite intriguing to think about the endlesss possibilities technology has. It is in our hands you said and I think that is very true.
I am agree with you, Juan. In fact, the concern about the use of technology is not limited to the educational field. Scientists of our generation are asking the same question in other fields of knowledge. Days ago, I read the following article where Stephen Hawking warns about how artificial intelligence could even be the end mankind. Sounds terrible, but... possible?
ReplyDeleteTherefore, it is in our hands the power to use this tool in the best way that works for the benefit of our students.For those who want to read the article, here is the link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540
I believe that technology is actually a great tool to use in our classes, as long as we have the purpose clear it could be very useful, on the other hand as every other teaching tools we use, we have to be really careful not to bore the audience with the same resources.
ReplyDeleteWe were able to see many different and very interesting ways to use technology to our benefit in class, things that will really catch peoples attention and if we are good enough developing the topic the students are going to enjoy learning in a different way.
I have read your comments and I see we are all in the same boat. Technology can be really useful for any EFL/ESL teacher but we can not forget the human factor. When we hit the classroom we are not only teaching a language but a series of elements for students to apply in real life. Technology is everywhere nowadays but we need to help our students remember we can still learn a lot from each other. Finding a balance is fundamental when using technology because at the end it is just a means to an end. Thanks for all your great comments.
ReplyDeletewe see people walking like zombies only looking their cell phones every time, this has changed this generation completely, but if It has made this new generation more greedy, ignorant, and lazy why we can not use these amazing tools differently? in a better way? now we can get information faster than before, share information in seconds and to have a class without going to a classroom. if a person learns how to use these tools for helpful reasons he would get more advantages than disadvantages.
ReplyDeletetechnology is taking us away from human contact, but in terms of education, these tools allows us to teach more efficiently.
This is why i think that when teachers are using technology they should be completely up to date, so that when using it in class they can not only teach students a lesson but how to take full advantage of technology and show that that there is more than to just looking up the answers.
DeleteTechnology is taking dramatically changes to our way of teaching methodologies, there for as teachers we must take this into account and in order to be on the right track we must update our technological skills every day. This is helping us towards the creation of new materials, new tools and new approaches to teaching techniques, the point is that we need to adapt to changes and to an evolving world and for sure this is taking us away from the real nature of teaching, how it used to be many years ago when we used to work hard to research for information, where critical thinking was a key of our own success and where the joy of the class was the nature of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with your point of view, for good or evil, technology implies a big responsibility for the teachers who are the ones who need to be updated in order to get the best of it for their teaching process and their learners but also understanding ICT are not a magical solution to improve learning-teaching process, however, it’s a tool which should be integrated efficiently to our lesson plan according to the class objectives and learners’ needs and context. It doesn’t replace the teacher but requires a new way of teaching and also new skills by teachers.
DeleteTotally agree with you, Yaneth! ICTs are not a magical solution but they do help a lot in making the learning-teaching process run smoothly. Of course, the close relationship formed during this process between teachers and students cannot ever be replaced by any kind of technology.
DeleteIn spite of what I said, I really think that technology is a great tool! Last night I downloaded lots of books about English language teaching methodology... Books that otherwise I would be able to afford... OMG Thanks for the technology... I still think that it may one day take over us if we try to mess with things that are beyond our understanding, though.
ReplyDeleteYeah! Technology really facilitates everything, but we have to be careful on the the way we use it.
DeleteI think technology is a wonderful tool, but we have to control the time, because sometimes we don't focus in the activities that technology brings to us for getting useful skills those will help us in the real world, and we must put some rules and to pressure controling the time in class we spent at internet. we always have to concentrated in the student when we use technology tools. if we don't think in needies of the students, we are going to lose the attention, then we are not getting our goal as teacher that is to lead our students to the knowledge.
ReplyDeleteOrlando, you're totally right. We have to be aware of students' needs, that way they can focus reaching the goal.
DeleteI do agree with you and specially in the part that you talk about to control the time that you the technology.
DeleteI feel that the use of technology is super to use nowadays, we have to be update and be actualize as this twenty first century goes on. plus it give us a new great tool to implement inside the class.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, it's a great tool and all we have to do is update our teaching knowledge. See you.
DeleteWow! What amazing ideas! I feel so embarrassed because of my late comment, but here I am.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the use of Educational technology is taking us away from the real nature of teaching, right now I'm studying in a long distance university my bachelor's degree in English as a foreign language and I know that it's been really hard, trying to change the classic way of teaching and learning, but it's fantastic see how students, including me, are learning by themselves searching, surfing, browsing or whatever is call. I'm going now refer to some of my classmates, saying that technology helps a lot to teach and to understand EFL/ESL and other sciences. Learning in virtual environments leads to the knowledge and use of some techniques and strategies for understanding and how they are used and applied according to the students' interest. It can give comfort, independence, ability to learn at home, at any time or day, students can pay attention and relevance to their weak skill and I think they can get confidence and satisfaction. And teachers can guide them through this journey, I think!
Is the use of Educational technology taking us away from the real nature of teaching? My answer is no. We improve our tools. Before we write on the board with a chalk and now we use markers. But the procedures (how people acquire knowledge) did not change. Maybe it´s more confortable for you now.
ReplyDeleteI agree, dorian i don't think the technology is taking us away from the real nature of teaching. I believe the over the years things change.
DeleteI don’t think educational technology is taking us away from the real nature of teaching. On the contrary, we are living at a time when borders are disappearing in a more demanding world for knowledge, capacity building, adaptation to different cultures, etc. and all of these at a breakneck speed but at the same time, it is also offering more and more opportunities. I firmly believe that the nature of teaching will remain intact or even grow as long as teachers can permanently cultivate in their students that curiosity for learning mentioned by Ramsey Musallam in his talk. Educational technology is definitely the tool that educators need to learn and teach their students so they can seize all the opportunities offered by this globalized world!
ReplyDeleteI think that technology is taking away the real valeu of teaching, the person to person expirience. I really think that one day the teachers will be replace with computers.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree the technology is thaking us away from the real nature of learning i believe the over the years thing got to change, so do we and thats whats movin now days everything is with technology. I say technology is great for information you can find things easely and not waste much time.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I don’t think that technology is taking us away from the real nature of teaching, because they’re just tools that the teacher can use to have a more dynamic class. Technology has always been used and that doesn’t mean that teachers are being replaced by it. Sometimes it is a lot better to use educational technology such as websites and blogs to put your grammar points into a real context (Communicative approach).
ReplyDeleteIf you know how to use it properly you could have wonderful classes because our students would be putting all their knowledge into a real context but we need to remember that you shouldn’t rely on technology for your classes, you just never know when something might happen and then you wouldn’t be able to “teach” a class.