Hello Cyber-world,
I'm Jena, and while I am no stranger to the blogoshpere, I still a novice when it comes to using technology in language teaching and learning. In the MA-TESL program at NAU, applications of technology have been introduced as important elements of language teaching in the 21st century. The introduction of these resources has been useful, yet, since I haven't necessarily had a chance to implement them into my classes (ENG 105 or PIE Listening/Speaking), I don't feel that I have gained solid command of them.
My goals for this course, then, are to gain command of more resources that I can use immediately in my PIE class, and also take with me after NAU. In particular, I would like to find a reliable, user-friendly voice recording software program for my students to use in completing spoken homework online. I've used voxopop.com with some success, but the site often crashes for days at a time, which is frustrating for students and teachers alike. The daunting amount of videos on youtube have also been a resource in my classroom, but I'd like to learn how to use this kind of mega-resource more effectively. Moreover, many of my job interests will take me to places that have limited access to technology. A colleague and I presented on making the most of these kinds of contexts at AZ-TESOL last fall, and the topic is still important to me. Even though the access to technology is unequal, the case could be made that most students in this digital age need technological literacy skills to be successful in the English-speaking world. I hope that this class addresses the varying resources available in different langauge teaching contexts. Another goal that I have for the class is to gain a checklist of sorts for deciding when it is appropriate to use technology, and how to use it to best meet students' needs. As I have signed up to create the evaluation wiki next week, it sounds like I'm the master of my own destiny and that this goal will be met very soon.
Until next time.
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