Languages of the
Wider World
Friday 17th April
2009. London |
1. SURVIVING
WITH ICT IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
2.
INTEGRATING
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
3. SEVEN
CONDITIONS FOR INTEGRATION
4.
EXAMPLES OF APPLICATIONS ON LINE
5.
IMPROVING
LEARNING
6.
THE TEACHER AS GUIDE
Bibliographie
1. SURVIVING
WITH ICT IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
I
would like to explore with you the conditions for
the successful integration of Information Communication Technology
(ICT) in
Language Learning and Teaching.
Living
with computers in our classrooms, planning, monitoring,
controlling and checking the learning with these tools is stressful,
even disruptive.
What can we do with such a versatile tool? How can we tame the computer
and the
internet? How can we change our teaching practice?
For
30 years we have been working to integrate
technology in a variety of countries.
We
have been progressing at different speeds, with varying levels of
success and
failure; some have lost patience, claiming that we’re forever
starting again
from the beginning, and yet each circle of the spiral of innovation
takes us
further forward.
2.
INTEGRATING
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
We
are still able to use the qualifier ‘new’ for the
simple reason that teaching and learning technology regularly provides
us with
new tools. First we saw teaching software (helping us with exercises,
tutorials, presentations and demonstrations), then we had simulators,
experiential
software and software tools – (word processing, spreadsheets,
data bases). I
won’t go into artificial intelligence.
Then we had email,
interactive
whiteboards, web1, web2, then blogs, podcasting and virtual classes or
M-learning.
Despite
the technology already in use, in order for
language learning to take place and for this technology to be
successfully
integrated into teaching and learning, it must support the development
of the
following principles of teaching:
FIGURE 1
|
1
– increase contact between teachers and students
2 – raise student expectations
3 – support reactive, proactive and interactive
learning
4 – facilitate immediate and efficient feedback
5 – improve and increase study and reading time
6 – encourage a variety of talents / skills
7 – value cooperation between students
|
Even
if training technology doesn’t actually
contribute to the development of these pedagogical principles, it can
still
prove to be a useful tool, but is it worth the effort and expense it
demands?
Let’s
agree from now that the main challenge in
integrating the technology is not to multiply / duplicate tools. We
can’t measure
success by the ratio of students to computers, nor by the transmission
speed on
the internet.
Nevertheless,
let’s admit that the more computers
there are, the more often they are connected to the Internet and the
more often
teachers use them in their daily practice in class or in training
centres. « Those who have more than five in their classroom use
them
more than those who
have less than five! » .
In
the United
States,
84% of
teachers consider using computers and internet access to be ways of
improving
the quality of teaching. However, only 26% use them regularly in class.
We
need to focus on the students first and then on the
technology, rather than the other way round. This is the basis of a
humanist
vision of and a systematic approach to technological innovation in
education.
Too
often in the past, the implementation of
information technology has been done in an atmosphere of improvisation
by
osmosis and contagion by proximity. This «utopian»
vision of the integration
process goes like this: a teacher sets up an innovative project using
ICT. The
innovator thinks that his colleagues, intrigued by so much innovation
and
envious of his success, will spontaneously want to transform their
teaching
methods and take on the innovation as well.
It doesn’t work like this.
Pedagogic
subversion needs to be organised and instead
of this spontaneity-based vision of innovation, we need to set up a
systematic
and systemic approach.
3.
SEVEN
CONDITIONS FOR INTEGRATION
FIGURE
2
1 |
A
clear political will to support local managers in their efforts and
their «unfailing» support
for teachers
|
2 |
Significant
financial resources guaranteed annually for several years, a
prerequisite for
long-term planning
|
3 |
Large
numbers of computers which are high-performing, reliable, accessible,
networked
and linked up to the internet for distance collaboration and learning
communities.
|
4 |
Powerful,
stable, dedicated applications which are user-friendly and which offer
access
to content in the language of instruction and digital resources which
are
well-adapted to the various subject areas.
|
5 |
A
constant and regular flow of a large amount of information and support
|
6 |
A
systemic integration plan which is the result of good cooperation
between the
education partners (teachers, headteachers, education advisors and
technology
experts)
|
7 |
Time
for teachers, time for reflection, for training, for the planning of
learning
and evaluation
|
Source : « A soir, on fait pas peur au monde
»
4. EXAMPLES OF
EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS ON LINE
ICT
has proved to be effective when it is integrated
into a varied teaching methodology which sets out clearly the learning
activities and the various teaching methods.
Empirical,
behaviourist, rationalist, cognitivist and
humanist-constructivist approaches have all been associated with
computer
applications and reactive, proactive and interactive processes from a technological point
of view.
Does
ICT naturally favour cooperation and sharing of
discoveries? Not necessarily. It’s true that ICT facilitates
communication.
Communication is a necessary but not the sole condition for
cooperation.
In
order for ICT to improve cooperation, it also needs
a cooperative approach to teaching and teaching and learning activities
that
initiate exchange and encourage collaboration. To support cooperation,
collaboration needs to be valued and competitiveness, individualism and
egocentrism need to be challenged and discouraged, maybe even using
ICT.
5. IMPROVING
LEARNING
Can
the integration of technology nevertheless achieve
better results for students? Many factors can support the achievement
of this goal,
in particular, the
teaching method
favoured in each specific context and the way the technology is
implemented in
that context.
The
CARET research centre (Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation) has compared hundreds of American studies measuring the
effects of
using ICT in school on students and their learning. It seems that,
given
certain conditions, using ICT does improve students’ school
results.
1. Technology
improves school results when the technological resources for teaching:
1.1 directly support the aims of
the curriculum
1.2 provide opportunities for
collaboration
1.3 adjust to abilities and
prior experience and
provide rapid feedback
2. The
technology allows the
development of higher order cognitive operations when:
2.1 Students are taught to apply
problem-solving
processes and are given opportunities to apply the technology to look
for
solutions
2.2 Students work in learning
communities supported
by technology to solve problems
2.3 Students use presentation
and communication
tools to process, present, edit and share the results of their work
3. Technology
improves student motivation
if they use:
3.1 Applications to produce,
present and share
their work with their peers
3.2 Games applications to
develop basic skills and
knowledge.
6.
THE
TEACHER AS GUIDE
ICT
brings into question not just the organisation of
the teaching profession but also its professional identity and
teachers’ role in
a society and thus the very conditions of their ownership of their
profession.
The
shape of the learning imposed by ICT, which is no
longer on technical lines, but rather cognitive and behavioural, is
beginning
to be seen in everyday life.
Teachers
need to become GUIDES. This is nothing new.
Guiding students has always been part of the teacher’s job.
The ease with which
students can access this huge bank of knowledge, which is not
necessarily
validated, organised, structured, interpreted or contextualised makes
this
aspect of the job even more important.
The teacher is the observer, the manager, the resource
in the triptych
Technology
Subject-specific
teaching methods
Varied
approaches to teaching, whereby the student is the main agent in his or
her
learning within a structured and systemic teaching context.
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