lets bring web 2 0 technologies into language classrooms an interactive project

Cem BALÇIKANLI

Gazi University, Faculty of Education,

ELT Department

Electronic Village, TESOL 2010

Boston, The USA

OUTLINEOUTLINE

• Technology integration into pre-service language teacher

education

• Context

• NING

• Activities

The teaching profession as a

whole has much to learn from

its digital native students,

especially at the technological

and social frontier of Web 2.0

(Wildner, 20000; Davis, 2002;

Evans, 2004)

It is highly encouraged that language teachers must develop awareness and competencies to effectively integrate technology in language teaching and learning.

They need to equip themselves with the recent technological innovations to make learning process more relevant to the needs of the modern world.

(Churchill, 2000;2007)

Pre-service teacher preparation programs play a vital role in developing modern English-language teachers who can effectively bring technology into their workplace (Koubek, 2003; Suh, 2004;

Mrazek and Meadows, 2006; Fuchs, 2006)

The pre-service English language teacher training program at Gazi

University, Turkey

Activities

DESCRIBING PEOPLE

Teacher asks the students to describe what people wear, what they do, where they

stand, etc.

• After you go over, you can do the following.

• It is used as a while-activity.

• It is a speaking activity.

Make your own Make your own moviemovie

• Your students can easily make their own movies

• Open http://www.xtranormal.com/

• Sign up

What learners can use it forWhat learners can use it for• Introduce themselves• Send a message to friends

(invitation, appology)• Make

– presentation at school– talkshow– own TV series– create story

Let´s startLet´s start• Set your movie in one of the world

Number of actors

• Write a script and use the action icons in your script

• Design the scene

• Do not forget to save all the changes you make

• Publish your movie

• You can post your work to facebook or somebody´s e-mail

Some useful skills to use technology in language learning

An understanding that information technology is a necessary tool in contemporary second-language education

An opportunity to learn about many new activities that involved technology and the underlying pedagogical principles that support

them

A good balance of professional and personal use of technology

Email, reviewing software, developing technology-based lessons, and using content-based software packages

Outcomes

To enhance learning and motivate students

The personal motivation to keep up with current technologies

and use it to help their students develop language skills through

means beyond those offered in traditional classrooms

The favorable use of technology to connect their students with

native speakers of the English language.

Opening a channel to connect students of different linguistic

and cultural backgrounds through technology

Pearls by Student Teachers

We have been using internet for a long time. But, we should question how effectively we use internet. We, as future teachers should be real effective in

using internet; also we should find way to use internet in language teaching. But how?

Though man can learn such things on his own, sometimes we need help. We have received some

training on using web 2.0 technologies for a few weeks. The achievement of these lessons were

incredible. I may ask myself, to what extent I make use of language learning? Yes, I use internet for

language learning aims. After these lessons I really realized that Internet is a big ocean of opportunities. I cannot ignore the effect of these lessons on how

can we use internet on language teaching.

In our world, there are different kinds of English teachig methods. In my opinion the main point is

having fun while learning. As the students are keen on technology, they spend most of their time playing computer games or surfing the web.

Because of this reason the teacher can make his lesson more effective and enjoyable by web 2.0 technologies. They are up to date so they attract

students' attention. Also they makes teaching easier. The teacher can find a lot of visual or audio

materials and games.

We can get use of web 2.0 technologies in the classroom effectively. As known, new generation is crazy about the internet and computers; therefore it

will be a fun way to use web 2.0 in language teaching. However, the possibility which students could misuse it should be considered; for it may

change its way and might be a disadvantage instead of benefiting its great advantages.

First of all I was not aware of the advantages of using web 2.0 technologies in language teaching until I

took the course about it. In my opinion this is a very strong, effective and funny way of teaching and

learning English at almost all levels. We need new kinds of activities that attract the students' attention.

Especially for this generation which uses internet and techologies very effectively and easily in their

life, it will become very enjoyable to use it in learning a language. Uploading and sharing photos,

videos, playing games through internet which means learning in a funny and unconscious way is

a brand new and useful technique for language learning so their bias about the boring and difficult

activities of English will disappear in time.

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