I was sort of reassured after reading all the statistics about technology use in the U. S. higher education.
Before reading the article, I was expecting a more frequent and various use of technologies in the U. S. There are so many advanced labs at Penn. State University and Nikki has mentioned so many different kinds of technology terms that I have never or seldom heard of before. All this has led me to the conclusion that technologies are widely used at American universities now. The statistics show that similiar to the situation at Chinese higher education, only "convenient" technologies are used frequently, such as ppt. and various websites on the internet. Things like wiki and podcast are still new things for many American teachers. So this reassured me that I am not that far behind the up-to-date technologies and their usages in classrooms.
I still hold a somewhat doubtful attitude towards technology use in teaching now. I think technologies cannot take the place of teachers in teaching and learning, but I am afraid that they could some time in the future. But the statistics from the study reassured me in my own beliefs. My belief that technologies would only be helpful for ESL or EFL when it is appropriately used, which means they should be adapted to particular contexts and the teacher would be the one who is responsible for knowing his or her own students well and deciding how much technology should be used.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
thoughts on using technology in class
Nobody could deny the fact that we are already in an information age, and so it is inevitable that technology is more and more widely used in classroom teaching these days. But to tell the truth, I am not the one that welcomes a variety of technologies in my class. On the one hand, I am not very interested in technology and thus good at it myself. On the other hand, I didn't get a lot of positive results from trying to promote some technology use for my students.
I'd like to say more about the second factor. I've been teaching Advanced Reading to juniors majoring in English in China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing for five years. I originally asked them to give presentations for the reading materials we covered in classes. They did this in groups. What I got from their feedback was that they did get some useful information from searching the internet for background information of the authors and the texts, but they spent too much time for selecting from all the resources. Many of them agreed that the process of preparing for presentations was more like that of learning about ppt. skills. But wait a minute, I'm not the teacher responsible for teaching computer skills, and they were going to have classes on that subject. Besides, as I had observed, they were less capable of thinking deep and critically than I had expected them to become by attending my classes. I actually hoped them to learn to think critically on the reading materials, reflect their own life and thus form their future goals in life. Then, inserting too much technology did not really work well with my intentions of teaching and learning.
I did not drop all the technologies, though. I still give the presentation assignments. But now I don't emphasize on technologies. I try to activate my students' background information on a particular text first and then encourage them to linger in the pieces of reading and give the class their own understandings during the presentation period. PPT is not required as a necessary part any more.
In a word, I do think there is no way to escape the technologies in classroom teaching, but we should be very cautious not to get obssessed in and overuse it.
I'd like to say more about the second factor. I've been teaching Advanced Reading to juniors majoring in English in China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing for five years. I originally asked them to give presentations for the reading materials we covered in classes. They did this in groups. What I got from their feedback was that they did get some useful information from searching the internet for background information of the authors and the texts, but they spent too much time for selecting from all the resources. Many of them agreed that the process of preparing for presentations was more like that of learning about ppt. skills. But wait a minute, I'm not the teacher responsible for teaching computer skills, and they were going to have classes on that subject. Besides, as I had observed, they were less capable of thinking deep and critically than I had expected them to become by attending my classes. I actually hoped them to learn to think critically on the reading materials, reflect their own life and thus form their future goals in life. Then, inserting too much technology did not really work well with my intentions of teaching and learning.
I did not drop all the technologies, though. I still give the presentation assignments. But now I don't emphasize on technologies. I try to activate my students' background information on a particular text first and then encourage them to linger in the pieces of reading and give the class their own understandings during the presentation period. PPT is not required as a necessary part any more.
In a word, I do think there is no way to escape the technologies in classroom teaching, but we should be very cautious not to get obssessed in and overuse it.
PSU first impressions
The sky is really blue and beautiful!
It is really exciting to meet so many nice people.
Everyone follows the transportation disciplines well.
I also like the sound of the churches here, which makes people so calm.
Everything co-exists in harmony, the students, the buildings, the trees, the squirrels, the ducks, and even the rabbits.
I am sure that we will have fantastic days here!
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