TLT+course+materials+Unit+1-2

= **UNITS 1-2**  =

What is a learning technology?


= Integration = According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, integrate means //to combine two or more things in order to become more effective.// So with learning technologies, it is all about combining the learning technology with our everyday teaching in order to provide our learners with a more effective learning opportunity. It is very easy with any new technology to get excited and forget pedagogy. It wouldn't be surprising that when teachers first got their hands on chalk and blackboards they spent an initial period where they had their backs to their students marvelling at what this new technology could afford them. Of course, over time technologies become integrated so much that we don't even consider they are in fact learning technologies. But it's not just the teacher who has to consider the implication of integrating new technologies. It is very important that integration is considered at the school or organisation level || ||
 * Integration is a word which will come up again and again over this course so it is worth taking a look at this concept.

// ** Integration at a school level** //
What does a school need to consider when thinking about integrating new learning technologies? > There is also the recurring cost of maintenance and IT support, something that is often overlooked. One suggestion, to help keep the costs down, is to share support between a number of schools.
 * cost - how much is it going to cost to provide enough resources for teachers? We can't expect students to share one copy of a key course book; it's no use only having one whiteboard in one classroom and none in the others. It may be a great idea to buy a new piece of software for students to use but if the school cannot afford to pay for the licenses so that everyone in a class can use it then it will be pretty useless.
 * modes of access - how will students access the learning technologies? If there is only one room with all the computers in then it will be very difficult to book time in it for your learners (and the computing teachers will be hard to shift).
 * availability of resources and equipment - to find out how something works we need to experiment with it first. If teachers can't access the tools to experiment then the equipment will remain unused in classes.
 * teacher training - possibly the most important. School managers invariably do not provide adequate time and resources for training - both for the basic IT skills needed and the pedagogic skills to integrate it (although if you're reading this then maybe your manager has considered this).
 * keeping up with the students - we must ensure that children aren't 'dumbing down' when they come to school. If they have better equipment, better connectivity and better learning resources at home, then the school experience may be undervalued.

// Integration at the lesson level//
This is what this course is concerned with and involves two key areas:


 * Syllabus integration - how are learning technologies used throughout the syllabus? Is there even usage?
 * Lesson integration - how are learning technologies used in the lesson? This is related to lesson planning, what activities will be done before, during and after the stage using the learning technology?

The key thing throughout this is that **pedagogy leads technology**. We must ensure that everything we do is led by desire to provide the best educational experiences for our students. It is important not to get blinded by what technologies are available and always question the benefits of using a particular technology.

Advantages

 * Interactive – it can give feedback and evaluation and, unlike the teacher, never tires of giving feedback repeatedly
 * Multimedia – it provides a combination of media (text, graphics, sound, and video) in one place
 * IT skills acquired – students learn IT skills
 * Student paced – students can work through the material at their own speed
 * Variety = Fun! – novel and entertaining, and can add variety to courses
 * Presentation quality – work on the computer is often neat
 * Authentic – content of CD-ROMs and the Internet is often written by native speakers
 * Real communication – lots of ‘community’ functions on the Internet such as forums, email etc.
 * Storage – you can save work for future access and sharing
 * Promotes independent learning – many web-based activities can be done at home
 * Compact size- you can store more 150 books on one CD, so on
 * Unlimited resources of global network- you can find everything you want to know
 * **Portable and exchangeable** - you can carry a piece of information around or you might send a whole book if necessary
 * **Motivating** - some students who are not too excited about learning English can get interested in learning English with the help of modern technologies.
 * **Learner-centred** - a learner is a key person in the process.
 * **Supporting and encouraging -** for both students and teachers
 * **Better understanding** - the students can watch the images, videos and read texts or commentary for better understanding the topic;
 * attention-gripping - user is unlikely to get distracted by neighbors;
 * It develops pupils' self-studying skills
 * Use the referring links below to navigate.
 * **Creative - students can be free in showing their personal interests, skills,creativity**

Disadvantages
= = = = = Reviewing teaching examples = Using a projector the teacher guides the whole class through an interactive story. Click on the orange character on the home page to see the big book. Click on the lock on the new page and click to type your class name. Once inside the story elicit the vocabulary from the pictures on the left and students can choose what happens in the story. The class can practise reading the story aloud, add sound effects, change the ending etc. In the computer room students listen to a weather report and match the weather symbols to the country flags. || || Either as a whole class or on individual computers, students watch @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruYas part of a lesson on countries (see [|note] if you cannot access this). Ask students which countries they know. Extend activity by giving them word cards with names of geographical features like mountain, desert etc or adjectives like peaceful, ancient which they put in order as they see them. || || In the computer room, students create an entry in this user-generated encyclopaedia about their school. They can include, location, history, interesting facts, information on teachers and photographs. || || In this activity students complete a text that has had all the verbs removed using a word processor such as Microsoft Word. This can either be done with a projector as a whole-class activity or with students on a computer in a computer room. Click the picture on the right for a larger image (will open in pop up). || || In the computer room students add speech bubbles and choose appropriate sayings for the people in the pictures representing every day situations. Click the picture on the right to see an example of this PowerPoint (will open in popup). || ||
 * Technical issues – if technical support is not easily available, teachers may need more training, or be confident enough to ask their learners if they know how to solve the problem
 * IT skills required – for software and the Internet
 * Mixed ability and degrees of comfort with technology – both learners and teachers
 * Student objections – students may have had bad learning experiences in the past, they may use computers too much in other subjects
 * Can seduce teachers – “I’ll get a coffee while they get on with it”, “I haven’t had time to plan a lesson – I’ll take them into the computer room” etc. Need to be careful about technology leading pedagogy, and using technology as an easy option
 * Integration problems – teachers don’t use the equipment and software available
 * Classroom management – teachers may have to change their classroom management techniques
 * Accuracy of language and appropriacy of content on the Internet may not always be suitable
 * Distraction – many Internet sites have a lot of distracting advertisements, and it’s easy for learners to get lost
 * Tiredness - remember students may access the Internet considerably at home and if you’re teaching adult students, they may use computers all day at work
 * Not reaching the speaking goals, little interactive speaking practice inside the group
 * **Time-consuming planning and preparation** - you need time to prepare relevant tasks, plan the instructions
 * **Not reliable** - a teacher should always have an alternative lesson plan or activities in case electricity is gone or either the computer or the software don't start.
 * Netiquette - a user should know in what way to communicate not to offend other people (manners)
 * **Frequent and expensive maintenance** to keep it in good condition for use
 * **Health issues** - Ss may object to additional load on their eyes (especially if VDU is something from the previous generation, e.g. electron-beam tube, which is often the case in our schools...or at least in my university) ;
 * Sometimes it is not possible to use it during each lesson, so there is no system work;
 * Bad signal - uncomfortable when demonstrating the open lessons;
 * ==Cubeez - @http://www.cubeez.com/==
 * Note - you may get a request to install Flash. If you already have Flash installed, click 'let me in'.** || [[image:http://courses.britishcouncil.org/pub/learningtechnologies/file.php/11/Images/cubeez_frontwitharrow_267.gif width="267" height="171" caption="Screenshot of www.cubeez.com showing Orange cubee" link="@http://www.cubeez.com/"]] ||
 * ==The weather - @http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/practise-listening/whats-the-weather==
 * ==Video sites e.g. YouTube - @http://www.youtube.com/==
 * ==Wikipedia - @http://en.wikipedia.org/==
 * ==Using Word to edit a text==
 * ==Using PowerPoint to create a photo dialogue==

Further reading:

 * The Role of Technology in teaching and the classroom by Marc Prensky
 * Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky
 * Computer Assisted Language Learning: an Introduction by Mark Warschauer