How does this work again?
So I’ve spent a few hours now reading about technology-assisted language learning. I haven’t even graced the surface yet; it’s all a foggy haze I’m still trying to see through.
Sure, I’m a big fan of technology and education in general. I’m definitely in the camp that believes that world citizens today have got to be fluent enough with technology that they can solve problems and to express themselves. But how does this work again? How do you actually use technology in the classroom setting to IMPROVE language acquisition?
I’m still scratching my head on this. DiLL is a great piece of software and I can see how it may improve on the interactive games and role-playing I’m doing in my Italian class, but beyond that I’m still a little stumped. Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve got a ton of ideas for how technology COULD work in the language learning environment; I’m just a bit skeptical that it really will vastly improve on the activities that good teachers are already doing. Maybe some of my readers can appreciate this healthy skepticism.
I’ve been thinking about a WIN-WIN-WIN scenario as a possible direction. Teacher needs to win. Student needs to win. Technology needs to win.
TEACHERS. Teachers are short on two kinds of time: prep time and real class (curriculum) time. They feel pressed to cover more information than they could ever hope to in the short blips of class time available to them. And they have to make sure that whatever it is they are teaching is actually sticking through a variety of assessment tools, which in and of themselves eat up a huge part of their prep time. It’s not just the doing or the preparing for the doing; it’s also the assessing that plays into a teacher’s perpetual state of exhaustion. I’ve already heard reports that while DiLL is engaging and fun, it has essentially added to the teachers’ workload by requiring them listen to all the sound clips that the students leave behind. Add to all of that the fact that the language skills of students in any single class will run the gamut. So for teachers to win, a technology needs to 1. SAVE them eval and/or prep time or at the very least, not require any MORE time and 2. be flexible enough that students with a variety of skill levels can participate and experience some measure of success.
STUDENTS. At an Independent School like this, my hunch is that many of the students are here to get the good grade and move on. And that’s not a knock on the students; that is a well-worn knock on the system itself. It’s hard to imagine sometimes, but what’s really in the best interest of the students is that they acquire actual language skills that are practiced enough in the “safe” environment of the classroom, that they would actually be willing to use them in real-world communication. From my admittedly-narrow vantage point, for students to win, technology-assisted learning activities need to 1. result in a marked improvement over traditional language learning activities, one that can be clearly (and easily) assessed and 2. engage students in relevant forms of real-world communication, whether written or spoken.
TECHNOLOGY. Technology also “wants” something from its users. Following Mitch Resnick (creator of Lego MindStorms), technology would ideally be used used as a paintbrush (co-creator) and not as a television (distributor of information). Technology provides a powerful platform for creativity and problem solving. It is not the only platform, but clearly one that is essential for those who want to “make stuff happen” personally, or in almost any industry, country, nation, or community I can think of. It is very much in the interest of the world, that learners of all ages (students and teachers) experience using technology to CREATE, DESIGN, CONSTRUCT, EXPRESS, COLLABORATE, COMMUNICATE, EXPERIMENT, and EXPLORE. In order for technology to win, language learning activities should tap into at least one of these big words, or others like it.
So there you have it. The Holy Grail of Technology-Assisted Learning, according to moi. I’m eager to hear comments and discussion around these ideas. I anticipate that my views will change quite a bit over the course of the year. In any case, the challenge ahead for me and for the World Language department is to experiment, fiddle, and fail until we stumble on language learning activities that are truly WIN-WIN-WIN.
I’ll proably host a party every time we do.
