Hi Albert & All

Great topic to be discussed. The Tech SIG people are always discussing this but I still think that there is some link missing. Just yesterday I mentioned Second Life in my Masters class here in the UK and people looked at me as if I was talking sci-fi! My colleagues come from countries in transition and had never heard of it! When I starting telling them about it I could see in their faces that could hardly believe me. And they are people well into the career path.

I think there are two things we should be concerned with in terms of teacher education: (a) familiarisation and (b) the pedagogic, phylosophical educational principles behind the use of technology. I think especially the latter still has a lot to be developed.

Cheers - Chris

Hi Chris

Many thanks for sharing your experience with us.  Yes, it is true many teachers of English and even trainers and educators haven't heard of Second Life. 

Could you please suggest ways to integrate technology into teacher training and education?  Do trainers and educatord need to be trained / educated? 

Again there is a wide gap.  How to bridge the gap? 

Looking forward to your fresh ideas.

 Albert P'Rayan

Dear Gavin and All

Many thanks for the wonderful Hebrew quotation: Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.  It is unfortunate that some teacher trainers are reluctant to change or try any new method.  I know some trainers who do not not know how to send emails. 

I categorize teachers into three types:

1) Neomethodomaniacs (those who blindly follow new methods)

2) Neomethodophobes (those who are allergic to new methods)

3) Neomethodophiles (those who find new methods meaningful and useful and try them)

A successful trainer should be a neomethodophile. To put it differently, a neomethodophobe cannot be a successful trainer.

Do you agree with me? What is your opinion?

Hi Albert, Chris, Gavin and Suma,

I also loved Gavin´s  proverb- I´m going to use it this very Monday as the starting point in my first lesson- I agree with Chris  and I think that the pedagogical philosophical use of technology has to be incorporated in all the subjects taught at the teacher training course, I also loved Albert´s  categorization of teachers-I´m going to use this too- and I want to tell you that I work in a teacher training course(profesorado de Inglés) in the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina, we have two large classrooms with computers and internet access, two projectors, two screens, digital camera and audio equipment. All the English teachers work with technology and students can use the computers.I do not know about  how much technologically advanced other students are, I speak about my reality, when students in Pergamino-this is the place I live in- start their first year here, they just know how to chat and e-mail, the teachers tell them how to send files-most of the teachers correct papers and tasks this way-, how to use the pen drives, how to deliver oral presentations in powerpoint, how to use blogs, e-portfolios, webquests.  Communication via e-mail between teachers, principals and students is a must- all the teachers and students have to have an e-mail account-, teachers have e-mails groups to send info and tasks and materials to their students.I think that when young students see that their 40-year-old  and over teachers use technology there is no excuse for their not  using it and for their becoming experts as regards its pedagogical use, another asset is that when they start using it, they feel that the teaching process is both- sided , they can teach you. Technology is not a subject in the profesorado, it has been incorporated as a tool in all the subjects and is the tool the administration uses.

I´m telling you about this because I believe that technology should not be an extra tool. What do you think?

Dear Gavin

In many parts of the world in the ESL class technology is just an extra tool.  Technology-integrated language teaching / learning is not common in many developing countries. Based on my experience in Rwanda (5 years) and in India I make this statement.

Could you please suggest ways to make technology-integrated teaching / learing gain acceptance?

Albert

Albert,

Yes, I'm always careful when talking about technology to acjnowledge that access to it is not global. I've just come back from a work tour of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam, and the difference between classrooms in the Philippines and South Korea was quite stark. What I'm saying, however, is that where technology IS available, it should be integrated into the classroom.

Gavin,

Yes, I do agree with you. 

Though India is more advanced than most developing countries most teachers of English are reluctant to integrate technology into the language classroom.  We should try to help the teachers realize the importance of information and multimedia technology in the ELT class.  Some of my own collegues do not have email accounts.  I'm optimistic that soon the situation will change.

Albert

Thanks for this great thread, it's a topic very dear to my heart. I have been know to rant on about it for hours at a time! :-)

I know that on many initial short teacher training courses, there is still a 'session' on 'technology' of usually an hour or so, and sadly in some cases 'optional'. Of course until trainers start using technology themselves in their own training, there won't be much progress on this, even though there are in-service courses (the new DELTA is a case in point) that puts a technology related aim into every section of the syllabus. However, I'd like to know how many DELTA trainers actually implement this - unless they have received technology training themselves, I suspect a lot simply don't know how to.

At the risk of a shameless mini-plug, we've been working for a number of years on getting ICT accepted as an integral part of international teacher training certification, and have recently launched a new Cert ICT course which is fully validated by an international training provider. I mention this here, because I think it provides a reasonable blue-print for a basic ICT-related syllabus of skills and tools, that all teacher (and trainers) should be up to speed on. Once a trainer is confident with technology, there are many ways to integrate their new skills into their f2f training courses, from such obvious thing as using PowerPoint (occasionally!) for input, to having trainees set up and use reflective learning journals in the form of blogs, to creating wikis for collaborative content and lesson planning. And that's without mentioning the vast opportunities online for teacher development via social networks, once a training course is over...

Sadly in many training scenarios technology is still seen as something to be added on and ‘dealt with' as a separate input session, as opposed to being present in the trainers practice itself...

My two Euro cents' worth J I wonder what your experiences are of having technology integrated or not in your own training, either received training, or training you give?

Nicky Hockly

Hi all

Under new proposals for primary school education in the UK children are to leave school familiar with blogging, podcasting, wikepedia and Twitter.
(Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/25/primary-schools-twitter-...

As these kids move up into Secondary School it seems to me that teachers unfamiliar with new technology are going to be seriously disadvantaging this generation of learner.

As far as teacher training is concerned I totally agree with you Nicky. I don't think simply adding 'technology' on as one of several modules really is enough either. Whenever possible this technology has to be embedded into the delivery of the course itself, not simply treated as a subject to be covered.  Teachers will then experience it and come to understand its potential as well as some of the issues it throws up.

Pete

Thanks for your comments Pete and Scott.

Sounds like you (Scott) ran a great session on concordancing, and if trainees are all wired up, so much the better. There are also plenty of way trainers could integrate technology (and Internet-based tools) into their training using just one computer connected to the Internet and projected onto a screen - which may be more accessible for many trainers/schools. And the joy is that an IWB is not needed for this (I heartily agree with the comments being made on the Materials Development forum here re IWBs!).

The Guardian article on primary schools and social networking tools in the curriculum (thanks Pete) makes me think about how my daughter (aged 12) already uses all of these tools in her own social (non-school) life. Typical scenario is 7 hours of class with her friends at school, followed by 2 hours online chatting on messenger, blogging, and leaving blog comments, with exactly the same people! What is very noticeable is that she uses the computer mainly for social networking, and very rarely for play-alone computer games... (This is all in Spain, btw).

So I imagine the UK primary school curriculum is simply trying to keep up with what are already habits for many of the children who have access to technology at home...

Nicky

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Jacey