Always the first days are hectic and there are many things to cover and clarify. We started our first day with a getting to know each other activity as you may guess but without using any technological devices. Although it took a bit long, it was not boring. I had the chance to meet nice people.
Then we started talking about technology integration via "Today's Meet". We discussed why we integrate technology into ELT settings and also we discussed about the drawbacks of it. The use of the website as an online discussion board was nice, to the point and quick. By doing so we were able to catch up with the great ideas of our colleagues.
First we discussed why technology integration should be done and the answers are thought provoking. Her are some examples:
- Appealing to students
- Keeping up with digital natives
- Mobility and flexibility
- It's motivating
- A way companies attract more students (distance is no longer a problem)
- Quick access to any info
- Fun factor
- Easy access
- Learner autonomy
- freedom to choose resources to learn from
- Work at own pace
- Instant feedback
- Cheap for intitutions to run
- Might replace teachers in future
- Not to be seem stupid because they are not good at tech
- Find it distracting for the Ss
- Time consuming
- They find tech threatening which is known by the sts well and not by the teachers
- Tech becomes the purpose rather than the tool
- Information overload
- Too many apps platforms etc to choose from- it may be confusing
- Information is consumed ao quickly
- You may get the same results without tech
As you see, using technology has its advantages and disadvantages at the same time. In our institutions we are using technology as an integrated part f the curriculum. We have some hours allocated to tech supported activities which are lined with the outcomes of our program. But still there are some problems and I'm sure we will work them out in the future.
Apart from technology in education, we started our own blogs as a reflection tool on our own learning. As I had experience on keeping blogs, I didn't have any difficulty in doing so.
I'm really curious about tomorrow's lessons as I really want to learn more about Blended Learning models.
Aysun ;)
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