The Review:
One thing technology
doesn't seem to have been able to do is teach the publishers that
'English' starts with a capital letter! But joking aside, this could
easily be my teaching book of the year. I gave a talk for TESOL
France last week on the
use of computers and the internet in English teaching, called
It's Teaching, Jim, But Not As We Know It!, exactly ten years
after my first presentation on the subject.
Frankly, it's amazing how far we have
come, but it's also surprising how few of the opportunities modern
technology offers are being usefully exploited.
how to teach english
with technology is an excellent stepping stone for teachers wishing to
finally join those who benefit from the excitement and relevance of
cutting edge teaching resources. Written by two experts
in the field, the manual introduces us to all the latest
internet innovations which should be changing the way we teach forever.
The problem is, teachers either lack the skills and confidence to use
these new tools, or are restricted in their access to modern technology,
or by their teaching establishment's perception of what constitutes a
'serious' (i.e. credible and respectable) English teaching programme.
The book starts off with
a quick look at how IT in education has developed over the last few
decades. Classic ways of using technology such as exploiting word
processors gently get us into the right frame of mind.
The next four chapters
give plenty of useful information and new ideas for using standard
internet features such as websites, e-mail and chat in language
teaching. There's a particularly good section on web-based projects:
The simplest project
shown is about using the web to collect information on your favourite
actor, who happens to be... my favourite actor - Johnny Depp!
General and business
English simulations covering practical applications such as organising a
business trip or buying competition prizes on-line are illustrated.
Finally, an extensive
section shows how to create webquests, which involve students following
a series of steps, each of which requires the use of various aspects of
technology. Webquests can be very effective in developing skills such as
finding and evaluating information, and pulling it together into a
coherent final form.
The
later chapters delve into the really juicy stuff: blogs, wikis and
podcasts, for example. It's funny, but most teenagers will be far more
familiar with these than the average middle-aged English teacher, and
will often already have their own websites, blogs and podcasts. We have
to be careful not to end up appearing hopelessly behind the times by
introducing these as the next big thing, when to students they may
already be recent history.
Other technological
advances with clear educational applications are not forgotten, with
sections covering CD-ROMs and DVDs, interactive whiteboards, on-line
dictionaries and thesauruses, and popular authoring software to name a
few.
The last chapter is
called Preparing for the future, and discusses exciting
developments in social networking sites like My Space, and
virtual worlds like Second Life, along with the umbrella concept
of Web 2.0, which again many students will already be very
familiar with.
The ironic thing is,
most students would love to use some of their favourite sites in a
structured way in and out of lessons to help improve their English.
What's certain is that any teacher who starts to use these resources
regularly in a pedagogically sound fashion will quickly become one of
the most popular teachers in town! Will you be that teacher?!
