http://eslcorner.podomatic.com/
The podcast assignment was one of the most difficult assignments I worked during this course. Right now I still struggling with the posting of my students interviews.
I am currently teaching students from grades 8 to 12 in the ESL summer school. There are 23 students in my classroom and all of them in one way or another have access to different forms of technology.
Every day we have a circle time that we use to practice our English and discuss about different topics of interest. Last week we had a good conversation about their own definition of technology and how much access they have to it. It was very interesting to hear their comments and definitions of technology.
These are the questions I used during our conversation to get the information I needed for this assignment. What is technology for you?, Can you tell me what is Social Technology and Academic technology?, If you use technology at home what type of technology do you use?, If you have any type of technology at school can you name some of it?, Do you think the use of technology at school is important and why? How much time do you spend using technology at home?, How much time do you spend using technology at school?
All these questions made my students aware that almost everything that surrounds us nowadays is technology and that not everything that is plugged to the wall is technology too. They also found out that every day we learn something that is related to technology, even when they are texting. Right now the time they spend using technology in school and home is from 12 to 24 hours. Some of them like to text each other late at night or like to chat with friends from other countries during our sleeping time.
Some of the comments my students made about the use of technology at school were these: "In school not all the teachers like to use technology." "School technology will not help me in the future" "Some teachers do not like for me to try some other ways to do my assignments" "Sometimes they do not know how help me to solve a technology problem and they do not let me ask my classmates" " What we do in School with these computers will not help me in High school"
Since some teachers do not link the use of our programs or activities to real life situations, students feel that the way technology is presented at school is not useful and will not help them when they get out of it. The inconsistency of the use of technology and the lack of training creates this conflict and confusion in our students. They do not see the link between the technology they use at home with the one they use at school.
Some teachers do not feel comfortable with the integration of technology in their classes so they do not use it. Some others try to use it as a book, where every body has to follow the same sheet and write on the same blank in silence.
In conclusion the integration of technology in our classroom opens the door to new ideas and more interaction between teaches-students and students-students. The question here is are we ready for it?
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Raquel,
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious by your students' responses that they use technology both at home and at school. Do they use technology at home to complete homework, surf the Web, chat with their friends via text or IM, play video games and/or complete chores? They mentioned practical uses in every day life. Do they have opportunity to use the Smart Boards at school? How would you describe your students’ digital abilities and learning styles and the demographics of your classroom population? Would you describe them as technology immigrants or natives, or do you see them as a combination?
Dr. Howe
My students mostly use the home technology as a social form. In my school most of the computer assignments have to be done in the school. Students are asked to search for information outside the school, in rare cases. We have smart boards that the students use in their math classes. Their digital abilities are good if we are talking about social technology. They chat,text,download music and pictures but they do not know how to integrate that knowledge in the school.The academic use of technology is kind of low. During this summer school I am using all those talents they have to create a projet and we are also using audacity. They know how to do all what I mention beforeright now I am just showing them the academic aspect of what they know.
ReplyDeleteI consider my stuidents a combination of technlogy immigrants and natives. We have to remember that they come from diferent countries and the use of technology varies depending on the reagion. I don't know if you remember that one of them said that a student that has no technology at school can easily learn it.
What is happenning to some of them who do not know anything about computer,texting,download etc. When they get here to United States they are exposed to it and learn it right away.
I see this learning proces as the language acquisition described in the Cummins theory we called BICS and CALP process. Children learn BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills)first.Social English is easy and taught by your friends, in our technology class it will apply as Social Technoloy. Students learn Social technology from their friends
CALPS (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency)comes after BICS This is the language we teach at school the Academic English, in our case the Academic technology. This one right now it is kind of absent because we taechers are not ready.