domingo, 2 de junio de 2013

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Technology In EFL Classroom



During this course I had the opportunity to learn different tools that are very useful at the time to teach. But in my case I sometimes felt disappointed because I did not know how to use them and I´m not accustomed to those technological things. But as we know everything requires an effort and as everything is changing we have to learn how to apply technology in a classroom. So we have to get acquainted with all the things that are emerging and start get familiarize with those things.   It can help us a lot because classes become more interesting and it is a way in which we can get the students attention. At the same time we can motivate them to be in the class. We have a lot of benefits using technology. Because nowadays we have the option to change the way teachers did in the past, they only used to be on front of the classroom speaking and writing on the board. But today we have the opportunity to have a variety of activities using different web pages. We can also address different kinds of learning styles. The use of technology can be implemented in other subjects, for example; at the university we can use Inklewriter in Literature subject. The teacher can ask students to write an extra chapter of a story. 


Inklewriter is a free tool designed to allow anyone to write and publish interactive stories. Inklewriter lets you write as you play, branching the story with choices. Also in the basic courses, we can use some tools for example ESLvideo are an easy way to address listening skill and at the same time the teacher can evaluate students learning. Because there is a test which students can take in order to practice their knowledge. I also consider that Slide.ly   tool can be used in any subject because you can search for photos online or use your own, and easily combine them with music to create musical video-like slideshows. So the teacher can ask for a speech in which students should talk about their daily routine or what they did during vacations. One of the last tool that I really like is Prezi because students can use it for a presentation and it looks better then a power point presentation, it also has many templates that can helps them to create a presentation.
Also we have Hot potatoes that can help us to develop a variety of activities, it also help us to create quizzes.

At the end I can say that was a great experience because I didn´t know about those tools. Also I have learned that we can take many advantages of them at the time to teach.

The only thing that I can suggest for next courses is to ask the University for a Lab because sometimes it was difficult to bring a laptop especially for the ones who are always traveling by bus, or when it was raining. But for the rest I liked the experience.

Thanks for sharing all those tips with us teacher!!!