In the university where I work, there isn't much involvement of technology in English language teaching. The only technology that has been employed there is Language Labs, where the teacher gives listening classes. Therefore, there is a big difference between the description given by Gates and my teaching situation.
The students don't have easy access to Internet since the library has limited capacity and students will have to pay to use the computers. Many students go to Net Bar outside school to surf the net, but few do it for the sake of study or language learning. What's more, English teachers there are not quite familiar with the information technology, and many don't have access to Internet at all. Thus, few teachers surf the net to gain teaching materials for their classes. Classroom teaching is still teacher-centered and lacks of communication with the students.
Although I agree with Gates in saying that connecting classrooms to the network will enable students and teachers to communicate with their counterparts across town and around the world, there is a long way to go before my university to catch up. Hopefully, I expect we'll have our Digital White Board, Multimedia, and better classroom environment soon.
The students don't have easy access to Internet since the library has limited capacity and students will have to pay to use the computers. Many students go to Net Bar outside school to surf the net, but few do it for the sake of study or language learning. What's more, English teachers there are not quite familiar with the information technology, and many don't have access to Internet at all. Thus, few teachers surf the net to gain teaching materials for their classes. Classroom teaching is still teacher-centered and lacks of communication with the students.
Although I agree with Gates in saying that connecting classrooms to the network will enable students and teachers to communicate with their counterparts across town and around the world, there is a long way to go before my university to catch up. Hopefully, I expect we'll have our Digital White Board, Multimedia, and better classroom environment soon.
4 comments:
Yes, I cannot agree with you too much. The lack of IT equipment is a big problem for us to the use of IT in daily teaching and the language labs are not always available.But, at least, we can show students some soun and video materials and they are helpful. Hope, one day, we can apply IT to our daily teaching as described in the book.
Yes, I believe that IT now plays a very important role in language teaching. And I think even though now we can not use IT well in our teaching, we should make preparation for it, because I am sure that in the near future, we can easily obtain access to IT in the classroom.
Nobody dare to deny the great value of using IT in teaching practice. However, the point is how we can make IT promote language teaching. If IT in classroom only means showing films, playing CD listening materials or showing PPt slides to students, I don't see much value of it. Hopefully, this IT class will help us learn how to use IT effectively in language classroom.
You are a critical reader.Thanks for posting those questions.
what I mean those advantanges are the potential benefits of IT application in the teaching classroom. But the problem is that many teachers and students are not using them wisely and effectively.
I think one benefit is that using computer,teachers can share the teaching material and discussion with students outclassroom.
In my teaching the public english reading class, all the teachers who teach the same textbook will prepare the teaching plan and material for one or two units, then the other teachers can share the teaching plan and material. Besides,you can add or delete something as you like. It is quite convenient and saves time as well.
If you are interested, we can discuss together.
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