HIGH TECH VS HIGH TOUCH: ARE LANGUAGE TEACHERS LEADING THE WAY WITH EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY?

Abstract

Technologies have the capacity to transform teaching and students' learning and different technologies can change the ways students learn and mediate the learning differently. But for many of the language teachers, the productive use of Information and Communication Technologies presents a challenge in their teaching practice. Students are usually very engaged with technology and have developed expertise outside the classrom which the teacher may not have. This expertise can, however, be constructed as a resource upon which the teacher can draw, while scaffolding the linguistic and cultural dimensions of the students' engagement with language and culture through technology. Languages educators must encompass these. Teachers are faced with selecting and using appropriate technologies from an ever-increasing range. We seek to make teachers use, and students' use, of technologies integral to the whole language learning process and not an add-on to teaching or a replacement for teaching. When we do this, teaching and learning pedagogies engage students, enhance achievement, create new learning possibilites and extend interaction with local and global communities.

Keywords: Audio-visual, Blogs, CALL, ESL, EFL, ICT, Internet, Language teacher, LMS, Podcasting, Pedagogy, Wiki