I think technology has had both a positive and negative impact on how we learn. On one hand, technology has given us more access to more information which has made a more creative society as a whole. On the other hand, we now need to remember less, so we are out of practice. Also, technology and the ease of access of so much information has decreased our attention spans and everything needs to be flashy just to catch our attention.
Technology has given us the ability to reach all corners of the world, but at the same time I feel we are losing a lot of connection to our local communities.
All this complicates and enhances language teaching. Our students have more access to authentic materials and we as educators have the ability to offer so much more outside of the classroom to our students. On the other hand, this means we have to search a lot more and spend a larger part of our time researching the best materials for our students. We have a lot more work to do with creating communicative and technological competencies on top of teaching language.
I think technology has influenced the way we learn because it has shifted the focus of textbook-based learning to many other medias which now allow us to learn in various forms. While textbook-based learning is still used and useful, I think that incorporating technology in (language) learning has given us many challenges but also advantages which, if employed successfully, can enhance (language) learning. Through technology, we are able to access much more authentic data which we can incorporate in our learning, and not to mention the possibility we have now of directly connecting learners of languages online. A couple of decades ago, when one learned a language, one might never actually meet a person who spoke that language (I am thinking here of my parents for example who learned a bit of English but never had the chance to go to England and never met anyone who spoke english really); but nowadays we can simply meet people who speak the target language(or even other learners) online and I cannot emphasize enough the opportunities this presents for language and culture learning.
I think technology has very much altered the way we communicate, process information and so on. We no longer rely on face-to-face communication but often use technology as our primary means of getting and trasnmitting information. In a way this sometimes feel as though we are losing a bit of the personal connection to people; on the other hand the quickness of online communication allows us to pass back and forth much more communication than we were hitherto able to. Technology has definitely changed the way we live... it has permeated every area of our lives and sometimes I wonder how we ever managed without it, while at the same time sometimes thinking that things were easier and less complicated before all this technology. It seems that we had more time for true connections while most people seem to almost live in their computers/cell phones today. I do not like the trend and while technology presents many advantages and possiblites for language learning, I am not sure I like how technology is changing personal relationships and the everyday life of people.
Technology influenced our learning by enriching our learning methods/strategies and offering us more content to learn. I remembered when I started learning English at the age of 6, all I have are one English text book and 6 tapes. After my family bought a computer and got connected to the Internet, I started to chat with people all over the world in English via ICQ. After I bought my first iPod, I became a big fan of itunes since I can download authentic, high-quality English podcasts (and later the itunes U) of various topics to my iPod and listen to them whenever and wherever I want. But just as Dan mentioned in his comments, our attention spans has being shorten. I can hardly remember how many times my on-going assignment was interrupted by a Google chat conversation or a Facebook reply.
I think because of the technology, I became more independent (or maybe more dependent). Whenever there comes a problem or something I'm not familiar with, the first thing I would do is to Google it. I google everything from recipes, maps,best restaurants to professional knowledge like SLA researches, medical terminologies and sometimes even used it as translators and corpus. I'm less likely to ask help from people around me, but "experts" on the Internet. I'm more independent from the people I know, but depend on people I have never seen (unknow bloggers, editors, video makers etc. ).
With these changes, the language teaching and learning became more vivid and diversified. Both students and teachers will have more access to authentic materials, but that would also increase our burden of selecting appropriate teaching materials. As for students, the importance of autonomy is unprecedented. And as for teacher, we have new things to learn--the technology itself and how to integrate it into our language teaching.
I believe that technology has completely changed the way in which we learn. It allows us to have access to information that would not had been available a few years ago. Students who are learning a language, are able to communicate via the web with native speakers. They can also access authentic materials (videos, newspaper articles, etc.) that are not readily available in their own community. Technology has also affected they way in which students learn a language. Many activities/homework are done on the internet (WebSam) rather than textbooks, which allows students to have direct feedback. I remember when I used to have to write out answers to activities in the textbook, and then it took weeks for the teacher to grade the homework.
I think that technology allows us to access information that is not always available in our communities, and that it gives us the opportunity to see the happenings around the world. With technology, we can also communicate with people from around the world, which I think is amazing. It also makes it easier to keep in contact with friends and family, via e-mail, skype, facebook, etc. Even though technology is an amazing invention, I do feel that people depend on it too much, and that many are loosing practical interaction.
With technology, teaching and learning a language is transforming. Teachers are able to create varied learning experiences, but it is important that they learn how to correctly integrate language learning with technology. Students have more access to authentic materials, and they can also easily communicate with native speakers.
I agree with the previous posters, that technology has greatly influenced how we learn. I think learning has become a lot more learner-centric, with more opportunities for individuals to explore whatever it is they want to learn about on their own.
Technology has made communication and information-gathering nearly instant and maybe even difficult to escape. Between Facebook, smart phones, email, Google chat, etc., we're always connected, somehow. While it's nice to have instant access to information we're seeking, it can also be stressful to feel like we're "on," 24/7.
Technology in the language classroom can be a great asset. With it, teachers can share authentic materials with their students, and students can use their language skills to communicate with others around the world. As Christy mentioned, though, it's important that the teacher knows how to bring technology into the classroom so that it's beneficial. In my opinion, it can sometimes be a distraction, and when it fails or doesn't work how it's meant to, it can be very frustrating for teacher and student alike.
I think that technology has greatly changed how we learn. With the invention of the internet, it is much easier to find out information that ever before and we have multiple technological tools at our disposal all day every day. This creates an environment in which there is always an information overload. For example, right now, I’m writing in this blog, with the tv on, facebook open and I also have the Kern article open on the computer in a pdf in front of me. This makes us better able to deal with polyfocality. Surely this must affect how we learn things.
Technology has also changed the way we communicate and what our communicative expectations are. If I step away from my cell phone for more than a few hours, my mother and boyfriend and perhaps a few friends of mine will start to wonder where I am and why I haven’t talked to them for such an extended period of time. If I don’t respond to a facebook message within 24 hours, the person who wrote me is most likely to think I’m ignoring them. Technology has made us all extremely accessible at almost every hour of the day and night.
As far as language learning and teaching goes, this can all be very beneficial. Teaching and learning can take place for a more extended period of time, even outside the classroom. Technology also makes teachers and learners be much more flexible than they were before. Teachers have to design new tasks that are compatible for a computer-assisted format while students have to accept that technology will bring the classroom into their homes. One final technological implication is that everyone (both teachers and learners) will have to keep up on any new technological advancements. To not do so is to extract yourself from a new world that is being constantly redefined and reformulated by technology.
Not only has technology changed how we learn, it has changed how we think. This is the fundamental concept that we need to keep in mind. It is not just a changing of methods, mediums, or learning styles, it is a complete paradigm shift.
Because we now do more things at one time and faster, focusing on a single issue or theme at a time in a language class has become too slow. Always presenting material in the same way is boring. If something does not happen instantly, it might as well not happen at all. Activites have to be complex and engaging. The faster the information comes in, the less we seem to be able to really concentrate on what is going on.
Obviously, this presents a problem for language teachers. Sometimes learners have to sit and memorize things. Sometimes the process is slow and repetative. Learning does not come easy and there is a long-term, difficult commitment that needs to be understood by learners. However, we as teachers also need to be aware of this. Just because we learned a language one way, does not necesaraliy make it the best way for another learner.
As a side note to the way we think through technology. I find it extremly difficult to type in this little box. I cannot see the whole of my post at one time and it is driving me crazy. It leads me to repeat myself alot. I also have a hard time telling myself that this is a very academic environment and feel that I can only write informally in this setting.
I think that technology has positive and negative impacts on our lives and the way we learn. I remember that when I was in high school I had to write papers for my philosophy class (last year of high school I had 7hrs/week of philosophy) so I was trained to think on my own and look at the work of great philosophers.....then came the Internet and I would just google topics and repeat what I would read on certain topics. I feel like Internet made everything available so easily that new generations are not trained to think on their own anymore. I feel like I was lucky to grow up without the Internet because I was taught in a different (and more formative) way. I think that the big risk with the Internet is that people are not able to find good information anymore and are overflowed with mass information which is sometimes not reliable. Of course, the Internet has also lots of positive factors, one being paradoxically the fact that we can find everything online. I think that new technologies, such as the Internet, are good IF people use them intelligently and reflect on the things they read instead of just accepting everything as facts. As for the way we communicate, I think that cellphones and the Internet have made our lives easier because we can now reach anyone at anytime. Also international calls used to be very expensive (and can still be), but thanks to the Internet I can now talk to my family in France, Turkey and Thailand for free! Yay! However (I want to be the devil advocate tonight), technologies can be annoying because people expect you to be available at anytime and I simply don't want to be reached 24/7 (I switch off my cellphone during the night!) People also depend more and more on cellphones and I feel like they are not as organized as in the past. Finally, I think that new technologies have definitely changed the way we learn and i sometimes feel like it made us lazier. For instance, I used to have a Turkish/French dictionary and I would write letters to my grandma or my aunts. Now I'm getting super lazy and I would type in English on google translate and copy/paste the Turkish output in my mail. Tools such as google translate are of course useful but it can become the easy way out and doesn't help you to improve in a language. (I know I'm a bad person but when can I find the time to write to my family with all the assignments I have as a PhD students?!?!) The good thing about technology though is that, if well used, it can foster language learning. For instance professor Hardison used pitch software to show students how their intonation differed from native speakers' intonations. Students liked the tool, it made practice more fun, and they also improved their pronunciation in a very short time. Without technology it is almost impossible to display intonation patterns.
technology has certainly influenced how and what we learn. Finding information is easier than ever. Creating documents is also much more common. Where we used to type a paper on a typewriter which was then shown to one other person, we now interactively create documents on Google.docs which can then be posted to a blog or shared on Facebook with everyone we know. This allows learners to be much more active in building their own body of knowledge. The question is, are we really doing this as learners? Are we really searching out the same amount of knowledge or are we lazy now because we know it's all out there if we should ever need it? certainly technology has changed how we communicate. Email, Skype, Facebook and the like allow unlimited access to people all over the world. As language instructors, this provides great possibilities for connecting learners and teachers. Much of the learning we do today deals more with learning how to make use of this new technology. I think we have become more pragmatic and creative thinkers as opposed to memorizers and immitators. As language teachers this provides a particular set of problems. On the one hand we have to provide lots of input which has to precede the students doing any type of creative work. Once they have some language capability then we can begin to use the tools of technology to help them interact.
I think technology has had a great impact on how we learn. One, it has expanded the possibilities of what we can do in learning due to the information that is now more readily available. It has also moved learning beyond the traditional classroom setting and expanded what can be learned outside of class time. What was once a very static way of learning, has now become more vibrant, authentic and meaningful. One of the biggest changes that technologically has brought is the speed at which we receive information. For example, finding resources for a paper does not have to be a daunting search through the aisles of a library. With a couple clicks on a computer, you can find the majority of your information online. Also, we are becoming more accustomed to processing multiple pieces of information simultaneously. Our speech is changing into the smallest units possible so as to express ourselves more quickly. I use speech loosely here as I see that what started out as CMC is becoming more of our daily speech. Honestly, sometimes I can’t understand what my nieces and nephews are saying. Technology is therefore having a huge impact on language teaching and learning. As mentioned earlier, the language is changing rapidly due to chats, text messages, and other technologies. Students are going to need to know what a person means when they say “OMG” because it is now integrated in everyday speech. Therefore, teachers will have to stay on top of how language is changing due to technology. Also, teachers will have to redefine their roles as teachers. How will that look for them? How will they redesign their courses? How will they restructure their activities? What will their feedback and correction look like? What kind of time commitment will they make for investigating and using technology? I think these are really important questions. Overall, I think technology will only enhance the learning of students and the teaching experience. Students will be able to explore the culture of the language even if they are in another continent. Teachers will be able do things they were not able to do before.
How do you think technology has influenced how we learn?
Back in old days, it was difficult for learners to obtain authentic materials. For example, when I was learning English in school, the teacher was the best source, and at the most, CD was available to listen to native speakers' speech to learn native pronunciation. Yes. CD was truly useful. We could also used radio and some TV programs, but they were short, and also we needed to sit in front of the radio or TV when the programs were broadcast. But now, we have DVDs or Blue rays. Also, using the Internet, you can use unlimited materials anytime you want. In addition, you are able to communicate (chat or talk) online with native speakers living far, which was unimaginable when I was young. The ALT (assistant language teacher) was the only foreigner that we could talk to. So we had much better access to authentic materials and native speakers because of technology.
How do you think technology has influenced how we communicate, process information, gather information, and live?
I think communication became much easier than before. When I was young, we did not even have a cell phone. So we needed to meet face-to-face (or home phone sometimes) to talk and if we needed to meet again, we set up the time for the next meeting at the meeting. We tried the best not to be late for the meeting. But when we were late for the meeting, we had no way to contact them, so we just hurried up. If you were waiting, you needed to wait for a certain time until you gave up. But now things are much easier. You need not to see them any more. You can text, e-mail, chat, or Skype. And you don't need to set up the next meeting as you can do that any time you want later (or you may not need to meet any more). While this seems all beneficial and convenient, I personally think that people are belittling face-to-face communication. I mean, it is much better to meet and talk face-to-face than doing online. We can share the feelings, and avoid extra troubles. When you send some written message, sometimes the sentences are taken at its face value, which may cause misunderstanding. I feel that even for things that people should talk face-to-face, people nowadays tend to communicate online, as it is more troublesome and some people actually do not want to meet others at all. Another concern is that because people can communicate anytime they want, it seems that they came not to cherish the time when we are together. Back in the old times, when we are meeting, it was the only time when we could talk. So we did. But now, I see people gather while each of them is absorbed in using their own cell phones without talking to each other. They do not need to be together... So because communication became much easier, all the more, we should cherish the face-to-face communication. Regarding information processing, it became so easy to obtain information through the Internet. So it is time to learn how to find, judge, select, use, digest, and present them rather than to learn it by heart. It does not mean that we do not need to memorize anything, but we probably focus more on how to make use of all the information out there.
What does this all mean for language teaching and learning?
Certainly, teachers need to learn these options. It is often the case that their students know much better about technology than themselves. In my case, my students made their own websites (junior high school students). But some of them lacked ethics. So in order to teach them how to make use of technology properly, teachers need to familiarize themselves with technology. At the same time, teachers can look for suitable materials for their teaching, and easily use them in their classes. But it all depends on how they use them. So it is merely a part of their teaching, and not something that will take over their job. But as written above, with such a lot of authentic materials and nativeness in the Internet, rather than a model of that language, the teacher needs to be a coordinator and a facilitator of learning that language.
12 comments:
I think technology has had both a positive and negative impact on how we learn. On one hand, technology has given us more access to more information which has made a more creative society as a whole. On the other hand, we now need to remember less, so we are out of practice. Also, technology and the ease of access of so much information has decreased our attention spans and everything needs to be flashy just to catch our attention.
Technology has given us the ability to reach all corners of the world, but at the same time I feel we are losing a lot of connection to our local communities.
All this complicates and enhances language teaching. Our students have more access to authentic materials and we as educators have the ability to offer so much more outside of the classroom to our students. On the other hand, this means we have to search a lot more and spend a larger part of our time researching the best materials for our students. We have a lot more work to do with creating communicative and technological competencies on top of teaching language.
I think technology has influenced the way we learn because it has shifted the focus of textbook-based learning to many other medias which now allow us to learn in various forms. While textbook-based learning is still used and useful, I think that incorporating technology in (language) learning has given us many challenges but also advantages which, if employed successfully, can enhance (language) learning. Through technology, we are able to access much more authentic data which we can incorporate in our learning, and not to mention the possibility we have now of directly connecting learners of languages online. A couple of decades ago, when one learned a language, one might never actually meet a person who spoke that language (I am thinking here of my parents for example who learned a bit of English but never had the chance to go to England and never met anyone who spoke english really); but nowadays we can simply meet people who speak the target language(or even other learners) online and I cannot emphasize enough the opportunities this presents for language and culture learning.
I think technology has very much altered the way we communicate, process information and so on. We no longer rely on face-to-face communication but often use technology as our primary means of getting and trasnmitting information. In a way this sometimes feel as though we are losing a bit of the personal connection to people; on the other hand the quickness of online communication allows us to pass back and forth much more communication than we were hitherto able to.
Technology has definitely changed the way we live... it has permeated every area of our lives and sometimes I wonder how we ever managed without it, while at the same time sometimes thinking that things were easier and less complicated before all this technology. It seems that we had more time for true connections while most people seem to almost live in their computers/cell phones today. I do not like the trend and while technology presents many advantages and possiblites for language learning, I am not sure I like how technology is changing personal relationships and the everyday life of people.
Technology influenced our learning by enriching our learning methods/strategies and offering us more content to learn. I remembered when I started learning English at the age of 6, all I have are one English text book and 6 tapes. After my family bought a computer and got connected to the Internet, I started to chat with people all over the world in English via ICQ. After I bought my first iPod, I became a big fan of itunes since I can download authentic, high-quality English podcasts (and later the itunes U) of various topics to my iPod and listen to them whenever and wherever I want. But just as Dan mentioned in his comments, our attention spans has being shorten. I can hardly remember how many times my on-going assignment was interrupted by a Google chat conversation or a Facebook reply.
I think because of the technology, I became more independent (or maybe more dependent). Whenever there comes a problem or something I'm not familiar with, the first thing I would do is to Google it. I google everything from recipes, maps,best restaurants to professional knowledge like SLA researches, medical terminologies and sometimes even used it as translators and corpus. I'm less likely to ask help from people around me, but "experts" on the Internet. I'm more independent from the people I know, but depend on people I have never seen (unknow bloggers, editors, video makers etc. ).
With these changes, the language teaching and learning became more vivid and diversified. Both students and teachers will have more access to authentic materials, but that would also increase our burden of selecting appropriate teaching materials. As for students, the importance of autonomy is unprecedented. And as for teacher, we have new things to learn--the technology itself and how to integrate it into our language teaching.
I believe that technology has completely changed the way in which we learn. It allows us to have access to information that would not had been available a few years ago. Students who are learning a language, are able to communicate via the web with native speakers. They can also access authentic materials (videos, newspaper articles, etc.) that are not readily available in their own community. Technology has also affected they way in which students learn a language. Many activities/homework are done on the internet (WebSam) rather than textbooks, which allows students to have direct feedback. I remember when I used to have to write out answers to activities in the textbook, and then it took weeks for the teacher to grade the homework.
I think that technology allows us to access information that is not always available in our communities, and that it gives us the opportunity to see the happenings around the world. With technology, we can also communicate with people from around the world, which I think is amazing. It also makes it easier to keep in contact with friends and family, via e-mail, skype, facebook, etc. Even though technology is an amazing invention, I do feel that people depend on it too much, and that many are loosing practical interaction.
With technology, teaching and learning a language is transforming. Teachers are able to create varied learning experiences, but it is important that they learn how to correctly integrate language learning with technology. Students have more access to authentic materials, and they can also easily communicate with native speakers.
I agree with the previous posters, that technology has greatly influenced how we learn. I think learning has become a lot more learner-centric, with more opportunities for individuals to explore whatever it is they want to learn about on their own.
Technology has made communication and information-gathering nearly instant and maybe even difficult to escape. Between Facebook, smart phones, email, Google chat, etc., we're always connected, somehow. While it's nice to have instant access to information we're seeking, it can also be stressful to feel like we're "on," 24/7.
Technology in the language classroom can be a great asset. With it, teachers can share authentic materials with their students, and students can use their language skills to communicate with others around the world. As Christy mentioned, though, it's important that the teacher knows how to bring technology into the classroom so that it's beneficial. In my opinion, it can sometimes be a distraction, and when it fails or doesn't work how it's meant to, it can be very frustrating for teacher and student alike.
I think that technology has greatly changed how we learn. With the invention of the internet, it is much easier to find out information that ever before and we have multiple technological tools at our disposal all day every day. This creates an environment in which there is always an information overload. For example, right now, I’m writing in this blog, with the tv on, facebook open and I also have the Kern article open on the computer in a pdf in front of me. This makes us better able to deal with polyfocality. Surely this must affect how we learn things.
Technology has also changed the way we communicate and what our communicative expectations are. If I step away from my cell phone for more than a few hours, my mother and boyfriend and perhaps a few friends of mine will start to wonder where I am and why I haven’t talked to them for such an extended period of time. If I don’t respond to a facebook message within 24 hours, the person who wrote me is most likely to think I’m ignoring them. Technology has made us all extremely accessible at almost every hour of the day and night.
As far as language learning and teaching goes, this can all be very beneficial. Teaching and learning can take place for a more extended period of time, even outside the classroom. Technology also makes teachers and learners be much more flexible than they were before. Teachers have to design new tasks that are compatible for a computer-assisted format while students have to accept that technology will bring the classroom into their homes. One final technological implication is that everyone (both teachers and learners) will have to keep up on any new technological advancements. To not do so is to extract yourself from a new world that is being constantly redefined and reformulated by technology.
Not only has technology changed how we learn, it has changed how we think. This is the fundamental concept that we need to keep in mind. It is not just a changing of methods, mediums, or learning styles, it is a complete paradigm shift.
Because we now do more things at one time and faster, focusing on a single issue or theme at a time in a language class has become too slow. Always presenting material in the same way is boring. If something does not happen instantly, it might as well not happen at all. Activites have to be complex and engaging. The faster the information comes in, the less we seem to be able to really concentrate on what is going on.
Obviously, this presents a problem for language teachers. Sometimes learners have to sit and memorize things. Sometimes the process is slow and repetative. Learning does not come easy and there is a long-term, difficult commitment that needs to be understood by learners. However, we as teachers also need to be aware of this. Just because we learned a language one way, does not necesaraliy make it the best way for another learner.
As a side note to the way we think through technology. I find it extremly difficult to type in this little box. I cannot see the whole of my post at one time and it is driving me crazy. It leads me to repeat myself alot. I also have a hard time telling myself that this is a very academic environment and feel that I can only write informally in this setting.
I think that technology has positive and negative impacts on our lives and the way we learn. I remember that when I was in high school I had to write papers for my philosophy class (last year of high school I had 7hrs/week of philosophy) so I was trained to think on my own and look at the work of great philosophers.....then came the Internet and I would just google topics and repeat what I would read on certain topics. I feel like Internet made everything available so easily that new generations are not trained to think on their own anymore. I feel like I was lucky to grow up without the Internet because I was taught in a different (and more formative) way. I think that the big risk with the Internet is that people are not able to find good information anymore and are overflowed with mass information which is sometimes not reliable. Of course, the Internet has also lots of positive factors, one being paradoxically the fact that we can find everything online. I think that new technologies, such as the Internet, are good IF people use them intelligently and reflect on the things they read instead of just accepting everything as facts.
As for the way we communicate, I think that cellphones and the Internet have made our lives easier because we can now reach anyone at anytime. Also international calls used to be very expensive (and can still be), but thanks to the Internet I can now talk to my family in France, Turkey and Thailand for free! Yay! However (I want to be the devil advocate tonight), technologies can be annoying because people expect you to be available at anytime and I simply don't want to be reached 24/7 (I switch off my cellphone during the night!) People also depend more and more on cellphones and I feel like they are not as organized as in the past.
Finally, I think that new technologies have definitely changed the way we learn and i sometimes feel like it made us lazier. For instance, I used to have a Turkish/French dictionary and I would write letters to my grandma or my aunts. Now I'm getting super lazy and I would type in English on google translate and copy/paste the Turkish output in my mail. Tools such as google translate are of course useful but it can become the easy way out and doesn't help you to improve in a language. (I know I'm a bad person but when can I find the time to write to my family with all the assignments I have as a PhD students?!?!) The good thing about technology though is that, if well used, it can foster language learning. For instance professor Hardison used pitch software to show students how their intonation differed from native speakers' intonations. Students liked the tool, it made practice more fun, and they also improved their pronunciation in a very short time. Without technology it is almost impossible to display intonation patterns.
technology has certainly influenced how and what we learn. Finding information is easier than ever. Creating documents is also much more common. Where we used to type a paper on a typewriter which was then shown to one other person, we now interactively create documents on Google.docs which can then be posted to a blog or shared on Facebook with everyone we know. This allows learners to be much more active in building their own body of knowledge. The question is, are we really doing this as learners? Are we really searching out the same amount of knowledge or are we lazy now because we know it's all out there if we should ever need it?
certainly technology has changed how we communicate. Email, Skype, Facebook and the like allow unlimited access to people all over the world. As language instructors, this provides great possibilities for connecting learners and teachers. Much of the learning we do today deals more with learning how to make use of this new technology. I think we have become more pragmatic and creative thinkers as opposed to memorizers and immitators. As language teachers this provides a particular set of problems. On the one hand we have to provide lots of input which has to precede the students doing any type of creative work. Once they have some language capability then we can begin to use the tools of technology to help them interact.
I think technology has had a great impact on how we learn. One, it has expanded the possibilities of what we can do in learning due to the information that is now more readily available. It has also moved learning beyond the traditional classroom setting and expanded what can be learned outside of class time. What was once a very static way of learning, has now become more vibrant, authentic and meaningful.
One of the biggest changes that technologically has brought is the speed at which we receive information. For example, finding resources for a paper does not have to be a daunting search through the aisles of a library. With a couple clicks on a computer, you can find the majority of your information online. Also, we are becoming more accustomed to processing multiple pieces of information simultaneously. Our speech is changing into the smallest units possible so as to express ourselves more quickly. I use speech loosely here as I see that what started out as CMC is becoming more of our daily speech. Honestly, sometimes I can’t understand what my nieces and nephews are saying.
Technology is therefore having a huge impact on language teaching and learning. As mentioned earlier, the language is changing rapidly due to chats, text messages, and other technologies. Students are going to need to know what a person means when they say “OMG” because it is now integrated in everyday speech. Therefore, teachers will have to stay on top of how language is changing due to technology.
Also, teachers will have to redefine their roles as teachers. How will that look for them? How will they redesign their courses? How will they restructure their activities? What will their feedback and correction look like? What kind of time commitment will they make for investigating and using technology? I think these are really important questions.
Overall, I think technology will only enhance the learning of students and the teaching experience. Students will be able to explore the culture of the language even if they are in another continent. Teachers will be able do things they were not able to do before.
How do you think technology has influenced how we learn?
Back in old days, it was difficult for learners to obtain authentic materials. For example, when I was learning English in school, the teacher was the best source, and at the most, CD was available to listen to native speakers' speech to learn native pronunciation. Yes. CD was truly useful. We could also used radio and some TV programs, but they were short, and also we needed to sit in front of the radio or TV when the programs were broadcast. But now, we have DVDs or Blue rays. Also, using the Internet, you can use unlimited materials anytime you want. In addition, you are able to communicate (chat or talk) online with native speakers living far, which was unimaginable when I was young. The ALT (assistant language teacher) was the only foreigner that we could talk to. So we had much better access to authentic materials and native speakers because of technology.
How do you think technology has influenced how we communicate, process information, gather information, and live?
I think communication became much easier than before. When I was young, we did not even have a cell phone. So we needed to meet face-to-face (or home phone sometimes) to talk and if we needed to meet again, we set up the time for the next meeting at the meeting. We tried the best not to be late for the meeting. But when we were late for the meeting, we had no way to contact them, so we just hurried up. If you were waiting, you needed to wait for a certain time until you gave up. But now things are much easier. You need not to see them any more. You can text, e-mail, chat, or Skype. And you don't need to set up the next meeting as you can do that any time you want later (or you may not need to meet any more). While this seems all beneficial and convenient, I personally think that people are belittling face-to-face communication. I mean, it is much better to meet and talk face-to-face than doing online. We can share the feelings, and avoid extra troubles. When you send some written message, sometimes the sentences are taken at its face value, which may cause misunderstanding. I feel that even for things that people should talk face-to-face, people nowadays tend to communicate online, as it is more troublesome and some people actually do not want to meet others at all.
Another concern is that because people can communicate anytime they want, it seems that they came not to cherish the time when we are together. Back in the old times, when we are meeting, it was the only time when we could talk. So we did. But now, I see people gather while each of them is absorbed in using their own cell phones without talking to each other. They do not need to be together... So because communication became much easier, all the more, we should cherish the face-to-face communication.
Regarding information processing, it became so easy to obtain information through the Internet. So it is time to learn how to find, judge, select, use, digest, and present them rather than to learn it by heart. It does not mean that we do not need to memorize anything, but we probably focus more on how to make use of all the information out there.
What does this all mean for language teaching and learning?
Certainly, teachers need to learn these options. It is often the case that their students know much better about technology than themselves. In my case, my students made their own websites (junior high school students). But some of them lacked ethics. So in order to teach them how to make use of technology properly, teachers need to familiarize themselves with technology.
At the same time, teachers can look for suitable materials for their teaching, and easily use them in their classes. But it all depends on how they use them. So it is merely a part of their teaching, and not something that will take over their job. But as written above, with such a lot of authentic materials and nativeness in the Internet, rather than a model of that language, the teacher needs to be a coordinator and a facilitator of learning that language.
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