MAE812 Lecture 2

On Wednesday, 16^th January, we met the second time for MAE812. The night’s emphasis was on Contexts, issues and problems: student’s language, communication and literacy needs in the Digital Age.

The Bemidji State University video raised some issues and some opportunities pertaining to the use of technology on teaching and learning. Issues raised include Motivation, Achievement, Assessment, Students’ Involvement, and Teachers’ Involvement; and opportunities such as Communication, Authentic Assessment, Creativity, and Team Work, to name a few.

Technology is evolving very quickly, not only in the area of hardware and equipment; but it also has the potential to change the thoughts of the users, like the faculty members, teachers and students. The hands-on and real-life opportunities for the use of technology make learning for the students more understandable, and as they become knowledge seekers, a life-long skill. It brings to mind an old Chinese saying, “I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand”. The wisdom of this is apt. In our situation, is this not why we are learning to blog by actually blogging?

Amongst the opportunities mentioned was the Communication between the teachers and students, via the networking of computers, thus not only building rapport but also creating a borderless classroom. Also mentioned was Authentic Assessment; an electronic portfolio which involved filming the process and product of the students’ learning. The I-Movie production showcased the students’ enjoyment and creativity as they worked in teams, and that is precisely what we want to see in our students – motivated learner. As I watched the students filming around the school and the neighbourhood, one question popped up - the matter of privacy of the “live” subjects, as the product may and can be made available for public viewing.

In our Group discussion, we were asked to consider the question: What do language students need to know and do with digital technology, especially in the area of the use of technology?

Firstly we asked ourselves whether as teachers we are to teach the hardware and software, or to impart skills of their uses to the students. We concluded that students will be computer savvy, so our task would be more to impart to them the availability of a variety of software and their specific purposes, and to teach the skills necessary to use them appropriately. Some of the points raised in the use of technology were:

1. Cyber safety: The emphasise to students the necessity of this and what the pitfalls are.

2. Academic purposes: Technology is not just for social or entertainment purposes only. Therefore, they need to be critical users of information; learning how to distinguish authentic and reliable materials (e.g. published journals, research paper publications, etc.), to use search engines, to do citations, etc.

3. Empowerment to life-long learning at finger tips: Students can learn to harness the power of technology instead of being harnessed by it.

4. Cooperative learning: Computers enable us to learn outside of the classroom by using the “virtual” classroom.

5. Responsibility: The users of the Web have to use it in an informed way and to see that it grows in healthy and productive ways.

This concludes some of my thoughts with regards to Lecture 2.