Grappling with technology

Any new innovation can leave some people feeling bewildered.



Thanks to Technologically Literate for putting me on to this.

Technology is not a light bulb, it's a wet paper bag

I've been using computers on and off since I was 14 when I got a Sinclair ZX81 which had 1kb of computing capacity. Later on I discovered the internet and started dreaming of ways in which this wonderful tool could help me teach English. It seemed, even then in 1996 that the net offered unlimited possibilities for foreign language learners with its ability to provided easy access to newspapers, magazines and a wealth of other English language material.

However, it is only been since 2004 that I have been able to put into practice many of the ideas I had years earlier. Finally, able to get regular access to the internet and a PC, many of my students are now in a position to utilise the power of the web in their language learning. Perhaps more importantly, The technology I use has gradually seeped into my teaching practice, slowly evolving from something I used occasionally into a core element that makes me, I believe, a much better teacher.

Using technology in the classroom is not like a light bulb which is suddenly lights up, but rather a paper bag full of water. Eventually the water soaks into the paper until it breaks and spills everywhere.

Creating a video introduction to your life

Hopefully over the coming weeks or months I will have the chance to get my students to collaborte with students abroad. What I thought would be a great idea is to create a class video that gives students in say, Canada or Japan an idea of what it's like here in Thessaloniki. I was inspired in this by the example of what students at the Mabry Middle School have achieved. The video could take any of a number of forms. Indeed a major part of the lesson would be deciding just that question. Possible ideas might include creating a photo montage of the city using students' and internet gathered images which are then made into a short two - minute video using Window's Movie Maker.

Alternatively, students could shot short films of their own using their digital cameras or mobile photos and we use that as the basis for the video. The final result could then be posted via YouTube to the class blog.

Mind blowing ideas

Photo courtesy of Seth Fisher

In a good month I get about 2000 visitors to this blog, a number that far exceeds my wildest expectations when I started it, however, imagine a school that gets 1.5 million visitors a month to their site. No, not a world famous university, multi-national corporation or big name e-retailer, but a middle school in Georgia, USA.

When I was over at ever interesting Cool Cat Teacher blog I came across an interview Vicky did (listen here) with the Principle of Mabry Middle School, Dr Tim Taylor, who set up the site.
The school is a world leader in the integration of technology into teaching practice and the amazing thing is how low cost and easily accessible most of the tools are. For example, the site itself is, in fact as series of connected Movable Type blogs. What you can't put a price on though, is the sheer inventiveness and creativity of those teachers and students that are making this idea a practical reality.

I found the student produced video particularly amazing. Now that I've figured out how to post stuff on YouTube and have access to broad band at school and at home I'm definitely going to start on some of the video projects I blogged about during the summer.

Check out their film festival here.

Ticking off the boxes

It seems more and more the internet means blogs, I mean that much of what I find interesting or useful on the web comes via blogs or links mentioned on blogs. While over at Ewan MacIntosh's one I came across a short post which linked to an interesting article on young people and technology. Although the article in The Observer was about the huge divide between journalist's and younger people's perception of this technology, Ewan's point was that this gap also exist between teachers and their students.


"These kids have been socially conditioned in a universe that runs parallel to the one inhabited by most folks in the media business. They've been playing computer games of mind-blowing complexity forever. They're resourceful, knowledgeable and natural users of computer and communications technology. They're Digital Natives - accustomed to creating content of their own - and publishing it. (Remember the motto of YouTube: 'Broadcast yourself!')

They buy music from the iTunes store - but continue to download tracks illicitly as well. They use BitTorrent to get US editions of Lost. They think 'Google' is a synonym for 'research' and regard it as quite normal to maintain and read blogs (55 million as of last night), use Skype to talk to their mates and upload photos to Flickr. Some even write entries on Wikipedia. And they know how to use iMovie or Adobe Premiere to edit videos and upload them to YouTube.

Now look round the average British newsroom. How many hacks have a Flickr account or a MySpace profile? How many sub-editors have ever uploaded a video to YouTube? How many editors have used BitTorrent? (How many know what BitTorrent is?)"

See here for the rest of the article.

Spurred on by this I decided to learn to do a few of the things mentioned. Today, I posted my first video on YouTube and despite a few hassles with my first attempt, it proved to be a lot simpler than I had imagined. Although I'm not in Marc Prensky's terms a digital native, I'm doing a pretty good imitation.



I can't see Steven Spielberg losing any sleep over this film, though. LOL

Support Blogging

Well, I've had a strange, if interesting morning so far. I was interviewed via Skype by Steve Hargadon , a Californian blogger and podcaster who writes about the use of technology in education. We talked about how I use the internet, more specifically blogging when teaching. I look forward to seeing the final result when he's finished editing it. The only problem is that I can't remember where he's going to post it. Oh well, never mind I'll ask him later and let you know.

Also check out his wiki page (Support Blogging) which has loads of links to other educators who use blogging, podcasting etc in their teaching practice.

UPDATE

Steve has just finished editing the interview, so if you go to The Infinite Thinking Machine you can read about it and you can listen to it here.

Great blog and video

I came across this wonderful video at 21st Century Collaborative Blog.



As she says;

"Sure-- this is a Linux commercial, but forget that. Rather look at the real message. The message of information and how this generation of digital learners are being given an advantage over those who do not have access. As I watched this commercial I was taken with the fact that children of parents with digital access have a distinct advantage over children with parents without access."

Her post talks about the responsibility we have as educators in bridging the digital divide, that not to do so will severely disadvantage students in the future;

"In my opinion, we are the last generation of teachers who have the prerogative of deciding whether or not to master technology. Many of us chose not to acquire proficient skills and still have experienced a high level of success in our professions. However, the children we teach today are not going to be afforded that choice."

See here for the rest of her post.

When the impossible becomes a matter of routine

Forget the numbers, ignore the jargon, pay no heed to mbs or mps, the thing that makes technology so great is the way it allows ordinary people do extraordinary things. I'm now watching my niece's birthday party live on the web. Today Maisie will turn four and she is having her party at her grandmother's house.

Luckily, the room were everything is laid out also has a computer with an internet connection, Skype and a video camera. this means that I, too can follow the event and take part. With the computer connected to the speakers it almost sounds as if I were in the room with them. What was once a science fiction fantasy has become a piece of everyday reality. It's like being there when people saw their first motion picture or made their first phone call.

At no cost, I can chat to my family in England and share with them these special moments. Now that's what the best technology is all about; allowing us to do what would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago.

Incorporating technology into your teaching

Another tiring day over and I was just thinking on the journey back home that I would be lost if I didn't have access to technology. Over the past few years it has crept into my teaching practice, going from an occasional extra to being an integral part of the way I teach English, both in the class room and in private lessons.

For instance, today I found stuff at the British Council site to help with one of my students, updated his blog and next time I'm going to give him some American comics to read which I'll download.


In the next lesson at the school I realised that I'd made a big mistake, as I had prepared for the Wednesday's lesson instead of today's. It only occurred to me when one of my students asked my about what we were going to do in the lesson. With only ten minutes to go I surfed the web to find the lyrics to Nerina Pallott's "Everybody's Going to War (which I have on my pocket pc), printed them out and photocopied them.

In the lesson I used the song as the basis of a listening exercise which was in turn a warm - up activity for a debate on whether there is such a thing as a "good war". I asked the students to post their opinions on their blog. In addition I also asked them to take part in a competition; take a photo connected with leisure which will be posted on the class blog as well.


Later on we'll send them off to the BBC young photographer competition and see if we get lucky.



Finally, in the last lesson of the day I also got my student to post on her blog her latest film review, one which I copied without Greek subtitles, using DVD Shrink. I also asked her to listen to a couple of chapters of the first Harry Potter book audio book , which she has as an mp3 download, and write a summary. Also, as I didn't have any ink in my printer I scanned and emailed her the test from the course book we use.



As you can see access to technology and all that it offers allows me to find materials that my students find interesting and so they make the effort to understand and as a result they learn more effectively. All I have to do is open the door to a place they find fascinating and they'll do all the rest.

Convergence

I think that there is going to be a sea change in the way we teach in the next few years and I believe that this will depend on three factors: Cheap laptops, mobile phones and easy access to the internet via wifi.

If Negroponte's $100 dollar laptop comes a reality and wifi networks follow the same kind of growth patterns that mobile phone use has in say, Africa then we are about to see a revolution in the way every subject is taught. I think that this change will take place in foreign language teaching first as the subject is all about communication and so less burdened by a prescriptive curriculum.

The ability to freely download excellent materials combined with the opportunity to talk using voip and write to other all over the planet with web tools such as blogs or wikis will mean that everyone will be plugged into one global classroom. A wall - less teaching space in which the only limits are the imagination of the teacher and student.

Mobile phone features such as mp3, audio recording capability, digital and video cameras and the like will soon become standard features on even the cheapest models. As a result students will have the ability to create more than just text for the web. Once again the teaching and learning opportunities are endless ( see here for some ideas of my own). Podcasting, vlogs, blogs and wikis are just the beginning, once a billion extra internet users enter cyberspace, imagine what riches they will bring, what stories and ideas will flow through the net.

A generation gap

This year I've been teaching younger students, early to mid teens, as well as university students and assorted adults taking the FCE/CPE exams. The strange thing thing is that the generation gap I keep on seeing is less between me and the twenty somethings than between them and the teenagers.

When it comes to the use of computers, internet, even mobile phones the older students seem, to a large extent lost, afraid and unsure of themselves. For example the law school sophomore who told me she didn't know how to "copy and paste" Or the others whose typing is so painfully slow that you can actually see them look up every single letter. In many respects they're closer to their parent's generation in terms of being able to use "new" technology. The kids, however, all have access to the net, can all do the basic PC stuff such as download files, drag and drop, transfer files to their mobiles etc. What they don't know, doesn't scare them.

I wonder what kind of future awaits college graduates in the twenty-first century who cannot perform even the most basic of tasks on a PC? More importantly, why is such ignorance being tolerated in the education system ?