My Final Thoughts on My Learning Journey in MAE 812

It's been a fruitful yet thought-provoking journey during the past ten weeks....I thought I've always been one of those teachers who uses ICT confidently in the language classroom and know why I am using it. Not after going through this course, though. There is so much that I don't know about ICT - the advancement in the technology itself, the objectives of using ICT for a language classroom, the many digital resources that is available out there and what makes an effective digital resource in the first place. So, what is my personal outcome after this journey?

Firstly, I would say that this journey is far from over. On a personal goal, as an individual, I've realised that I am not updated on the advancement in technology as much as I think I should. There are many language resources available online that I am not aware of. This course has exposed me to some of these digital resources and so, the next step for me would be to try them out in my language classroom so that my pupils can gain some learning from them. I also should keep abreast of the kind of ICT activities and tools that the Net-gen kids are involved in so that I can better understand their skills and tap on their expertise in ICT. The course also reaffirmed the importance of designing a student-centred learning environment for an effective language classroom. More importantly, the design of an ICT based lesson should support the pedagogy in the teaching of the language and not the other way round. As a teacher, that should be my first priority. I must also be willing to learn from my pupils and see them as partners in my classroom. Pupils wil gain more if there are mutual learning between them and between me and them. With the introduction to Chapelle's model, I am in a better position to assess the digital resources available for my use.

Through attending this course, I realised the importance of a teacher to understand why there is a need to use ICT in a language classroom. It is not about the 'what' of ICT but to understand how effective ICT can be as an effective tool and resource to teach the language. On a collegial goal, I see the need for me to share and educate my colleagues on how ICT can be an effective tool in the teaching of the language. They need to know why they are using ICT. They need to realise that an effective language classroom starts with a good pedagogical lesson plan (Clear, Relevant, Interesting, Short and Productive). They also need to be convinced that planning an ICT-based lesson may take up more time but will eventually save time over time. Their mindset also needs to be changed; they should be willing to work closely with the pupils, learn from them and tap on their expertise.

Once every teacher in the school is clear on the role of ICT in a language classroom, the school can then work on its institutional goals with regards to the use of ICT in one's teaching. The school can then build up on its ICT culture and uses it to teach across subjects so as to maximise the benefits of using ICT in one's classroom. Assessment modes need to be looked into so that pupils will be assessed fairly on the skills and objectives achieved with the use of ICT in the classroom.

Piecing it Together

I. Know
A. ICT motivates teachers and pupils

B. It involves the use of IT tools and software

C. Not all teachers are comfortable in teaching language using ICT

D. Most of the time, lesson plans are designed to support the use of IT and not using IT to support pedagogy.

E. Availability of internet resources, educational CD-roms

II. Want to know
A. How do we know that pupils have acquired the language skills taught through using ICT although the ICT lesson motivates them more?

B. How do we then convince ourselves and our colleagues the importance of using ICT in the language classroom?

C. How do we decide which ICT tools and resources are suitable in the teaching of the EL language?

D. How do we monitor pupils' learning through an ICT classroom?

E. Effectiveness of digital resources
- How do we know which digital resource to use to teach language and is it suitable for our pupils?

F. What changes must be made to ensure the effectiveness of an ICT lesson?
1. Types of assesment modes
- What kind of assessement tools should be in place for an ICT langauage classroom?
2. Teachers' mindset
- How do we change the teachers midnset on viewing students as assets, working together and learning from each other so that their strengths in ICT can be tapped upon?
3. Pre-requisite of teachers
- What are some of the pre-requisite that a teacher should have before he or she can be an effective teacher in a language classroom?

III. Learn

A. The use of ICT in the language classroom should support pedagogy and not the other way round

B. An effective ICT-based lesson first begins with an effective language lesson plan with CRISP objectives

Clear
Relevant
Interesting
Short
Productive

C. An effective ICT based language classroom focuses on a student-centred environment

D. Framework on assessing Digital resources

E. The importance of ICT

1. A lifeskill lesson - pupils should not have fear of the computer just like not having the fear of swimming
2. It can enhance teaching provided
a. teachers themselves know why ICT is important in langauge teaching
b. teachers adopt the prinicple of a mixing desk in an ICT language classroom

F. Availability of Digital resources like Corpus, Online Dictionary & Thesaurus, etc

G. Importance of tapping on Pupils’ Strength in the world of ICT
- teachers should not feel threatened by the lack of knowledge in the area and must be willing to view pupils as partners in using ICT in their language classroom.
- teachers must be willing to learn from the pupils themselves and with their knowledge on what constitutes a good education, they will enhance their teaching and the pupils’ learning.

H. Importance of the Change in Teachers’ Mindset
- teachers should keep themselves updated in the world of ICT
- teachers should not feel that it is time wasted with the planning of ICT but to believe that over time, they can actually save time as the use of ICT opens up the many other windows to access and share knowledge worldwide.

I. The need to change the nature of assessment so that pupils are assessed fairly on the learning that has taken place in an ICT language class.

My first hands-on experience

So, I've been tasked or rather encouraged to explore digital media that is available in this era and see for myself how it can actually play an important role in someone's life today, be it in terms of providing information, as a tool at work or as a means of communication and social networking or simply a form of recreation in one's life.

I decided to give a go at an online game which my own children are playing - The Club Penguin. With my youngest son as my mentor, I began my journey... Logging in the game was easy but navigating myself through the game was otherwise. In this game, we are all penguins who are able to select the country that we would like to visit. In each country, there will be several places of visit and in each place, there will be a number of rooms that we can enter. There will be different games available in each room and our mission is to collect as many coins as we can.

This game allows people to communicate with one another through the chat function and you can always invite others to be your friend. This allow people to play a virtual game with their friend without having to see each other physically. As I was playing, I realised that I could not click on the arrow key as fast as my son could while playing the game, thus losing the game most of the time. I guess they are more accustomed to moving their fingers around the keyboard as children nowadays are exposed to the computer from such a young age.

The game is very interactive, colourful and the animation makes the characters in the club comes alive. It is no wonder why my children cannot stop playing once they start! It is easy to be absorbed in the game, especially so when you have friends to play with.

Digital media is really here to stay, like it or not!

The BIG Move...

Yes, so how do we do it? Where do we start? As it is, the internet network is already complicated enough. What's more when a virtual world exists for the Net-Gen Kids and it seems to mean the whole world to them. Imagine how shocked I was to learn about this virtual world called 'The Second Life". If these kids feel that there is a "second life" for them, then they may just "throw away" their first life if nothing seems to make sense to them from that world.

As someone who exists in the real world for the pupils, then we should try our best to help them make sense of that world and make it seemingly important to them. Our challenge would thus be focused on bringing the real and vritual world together for the pupils so as to make English langauge and teaching more meaningful for them. The use of ICT would thus be the platform for teachers to achieve this objective.

How do we do it? By recognising the multitude of roles that we must play in an ICT language classroom and more importantly, to understand why ICT is important in language learning in today's context. Equally important would be to acknowledge the strengths and expertise of pupils in ICT and to work with them and tap on their expertise for the benefit of all.

CALL in the 21st Century

It is very interesting to note how the role of technology has changed in a language classroom since it evolves in the 1960s. The change in its role is aligned to the change in views on the teaching of the English language. Currently, language is viewed as socio-cognitive and the purpose of it is for social interaction. Thus the focus is on content-based language teaching. The advancement in technology has allowed us to move from learning 'from it' to 'with it' and now 'in it'.

Yes, 'in it'. This is especially important when the availability of internet has allowed learning to take place anywhere in the world and opportunities are abundant for pupils to engage in authentic discourse.

But how then do we exactly move from the 'with it' to the 'in it'?

The NET Generation - what does it mean?

At one glance, I thought the NET generation represents solely a generation born in the era of advanced technology and that's that! It never crossed my mind that being a Net-Gen kid also means having a set of qualities which are totally different from kids in the previous generation. It just dawned upon me how important it is for us, as teachers, to know what these qualities are. By knowing and understanding, we would be able to tailor our language teaching to suit the pupils' needs and interests. By knowing what drives these pupils, we are able to bridge the gap in their learning by providing them wisdom in what we know and harnessing their skills and potential by transferring them into academic purposes.

Silver bullet - yes? No!

Of course, ICT is not a silver bullet...it is not going to solve all the problems that we, as teachers, face in the teaching of language learning. As it is, the use of ICT has produced pupils who are addicted to gaming, the invasion of privacy, infringement of copyrights, etc. Yes, it is a tool that can be used to enhance language learning but when used wrongly, it can also have detrimental effects on users. Teachers must play an active role in faciliating these ICT sessions in the classroom and pupils must have enough guidance in becoming a critical user.