In my introduction, Evelyn, I may possibly have mirrored your questions to some degree. Over the years I've observed that some may jump on a bandwagon simply because it's rolling into town and their 'non-ICT-colleagues' may pick up on that.

There is, also, a blindspot when it comes to defining the rubric of  'ICT.'  I've also observed that ICT-geeks (pardon the expression) believe in the fallacy that everyone needs a dedicated CAL room.

You might find the following interesting and, hopefully, it may answer most of your questions:

http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.162.html

Hi,

I don't think we should worry over much about colleagues who are unwilling to use the tools that are available; if they are unwilling to change I guess they will get left behind. Earlier today I found this which is, rather worryingly, included under the heading "Education".

Of course, colleagues may be reluctant to change for many rerasons. Training, of course is an issue - it's not realsitic to expect people to embrace developments in ICTs if they denied sufficient support to help them integrate these new approaches/technologies into their teaching; there can also be problems at an institutional level concerning the choice of technologies, timescale and expectations.

But some people are genuinely unwilling to change - I am reminded of some assignments I saw a while ago. The student submitted their assignment by e-mail; the lecturer could have marked it on their computer - instead they chose to annotate it by hand in writing that was largely indecipherable. It struck me as being extremely discourteous, but also undermining the whole purpose of writing the assignment in the first place.

Pete

I guess Im an ICT geek :D  Iffaf, youre right in that it is not always necessary to have a room dedicated for ICT. In fact, if the school has the money, certain technologies are probably best in the regular classroom (audio and basic video and perhaps someday interactive whiteboards). The nice thing about having such readily available in the classroom is that the teacher can break up the class with a resource other than his/her own voice. When its only available in one room, then that entire class session has to revolve around the resource.

That being said, a room dedicated to ICT can have advantages too. First of all, it allows the use of more expensive technologies. Secondly, if the ICT facility is designed well it can be used as a resource room/self-access center as well as a classroom. In fact, that is my project right now at my current school. The idea is to make the "language lab" into a multi-functional space so that it can be used for more things, which should translate into more use. I had pretty good sucess with a similar design at my last school. Perhaps more important than the room is to have a resource that teachers and students can use as they figure out how to use new technologies. For most of us humans, having a physical place to go and people to talk to is still extremely important.

Pete... but those who go to ICT as a fad probably do the field more harm than good. What usually happens is that a school buys some expensive toys, which never live up to the vendors' promises because the human element is neglected (pedagogy,training) We could probably be called the transitional generation, most of us were born late enough to to see the digital revolution but too early to see it as an integral part of the educative experience. In a way, thats a blessing. We get the exciting task of experimenting with new ideas. The bad part is working in the dark with impediments from the old way of doing things.

 When we say about "new technology"  what we mean.On the basis of what criteria do we differentiate new techologies  from old?

How do we estimate efficiency of new technologies? If I use new technologies  and my learners will know the new information presented by new tecnologies , and fit it to life , can I say that this tecnology is efficient and use  in your teaching process?

If  new tecnologies are usefull why do we resist to apply them? I can't  imagine our teaching process without CALL: it

 1. enriches with information(if you have information, you have everything)

2.saves your time which you spent for routine work

3.helps to transform materials in available according  to demand of auditorium ( learners)

Hello

Where I work, all students have to buy a laptop when they join the college - but then, most of our exams are handwritten. The quandry I have is how to combine the use of ICT and the end product of the written exam. Students invariably set up their laptops for every class - and obviously laptop use is encouraged and factored in - yet, problems arise like multitasking by doing chat during the lesson, then should they be using online dictionaries all the time, and if i accepted typed work, is it original - and then there's the Google Translator factor which seems to churn ouit garbage - and obviously is not 'own work'. Forget laptops - the mobile phone also has these features - especially for vocab and translation. 

It's great that all these facilities exist, but how to implement wise and considered use?  And how tokeep my students on task? On the one hand, college policy is to incorporate ICT, but how to monitor use?

Ideas gratefully received!

Heather

I've been using ICT tools in my courses for 3 years now, and eventhough we have multimedialabs, the connection is not so good or we can't use it because of the server (they haven't given a real reason).

My students do their online activities on their own time (not during class, and with a deadline) and place (homes or cybers) This is perfect for me since we can devote class time to our content and practice (I teach content courses to English language teacher trainees)and use ICT for further practice. At the beginning, students complained about using their own time (but they're supposed to study on their own time if they had a test) and that they don't have connection at home. Now, that has changed, they do it well by following the tutorials and instructions and they accomplish their tasks. Of course, by the end of the course, they see its benefit.

Colleagues, same situations, but that's their choice and as institutions move on to blended or online learning they will have to catch up (and a lot!!). Something else I've noticed with some teachers is that they want to do the same lecturing they do in f2f classes but online, this may lead to assigning the same kind of tasks or homework, and maybe there is when students start copying and pasting.

Regards, 

Hi all,

I'm lucky enough to have a CALL lab where I work, but, as Evelyn states, not all teachers want to use it.  To me, one of the greatest benefits is being able to train my students on how to complete the technology-based tasks that i want them to do.  These include using sound-files to produce book reports, which we have found cuts down the copying of other students' efforts; learning how to access the extensive listening activities and complete the questionnaires; how access and complete the different IL activities on our VLE; how to use the different features available to them on the sites we recommend to help develop their vocabulary acquisition. 

I have to agree that institutions often purchase software and other equipment that ends up gathering dust, but often this is because no one has had enough time to learn how to use it properly and, unfortunately, the training given by vendors does not always address the real needs of the classroom/lab teacher.  This can, however, be overcome by letting one or two people learn and then pass that information on to others.  Unfortunately, this is a solution that adminstrators fail to understand and seem to feel that purchasing the equipment is all that is required.  As we all know, we need time and a way to fully incorporate it into our lessons in a meaningful way.

Phil

Dear all

According to me, all are not motivated to use them because of their age and experience. Also it is difficult to be friendly with the new technologies.
Yes we need to use technology that is available at our institutions as Fazira rightly state that it enriches with information, saves time...

Hopefully I give a friendly hand & be motivated to use ICT in teaching.

Samjhana

Hi, Fazira

First al all, I'm agree with your ideas about the benefits of ITCs. The point is, that many teachers really don't show any interest for them. Maybe, they are afraid to new technologies. Teaching with ITCs have become a big " headache" for some teachers.

Where I work, many educators are reluctant to begin the training courses about the new technologies, in spite of, we have a " CBIT ", An Informatics and Telematics Bolivarian Center. I think the resistance to  use the ITCs is because they unknow important information about What are they? and How to use them?. I believe, try to convince them will be a very difficult  task, but it's possible...   

Judith