An 18-page electronic document in interactive PDF format. McKenzie March 2001
Description of Content
Description of the way teachers might use technologies and the way they improve their functioning
Outcomes & Main issues
- Understanding of the term “Powerpointlessness.”
- Reconsideration of the role of technologies
- The best way to implement them into teachers functioning.
Brief
Powerpointlessness The author delves into the advantages and disadvantages of the mass usage of technologies in the modern sphere of education. He admits the fact that along with numerous benefits, specialists and students might also face significant problems resulting from the unique character of technologies impact. Therefore, the author states that nowadays there is some risk that all innovations might condition the slick of student performances. Moreover, there is also a tendency towards the excessive usage of software and different programs. For this reason, some specialists might call this sort of behavior powerpointlessness. McKenzie is sure that technologies should be used in an appropriate way to increase the efficiency and guarantee that certain tasks will be performed faster and with better outcomes.
However, when a specialist, either a teacher or a student, uses software to emphasize his/her innovative character and show people that he/she comes along with the modern tendencies, it might have a pernicious impact on the performance. McKenzie is also sure that when networks enter schools and provide great amounts of data for students and teachers, a certain threat appears. The information from the internet could be distorted or corrupted. For this reason, teachers should monitor the usage of technologies and assure that only appropriate software is used to achieve certain goals and increase the efficiency of performance. Only under these conditions technologies could be used.
CALL A 19 page electronic document in interactive PDF format. Egbert, Paulus, and Nakamichi November 2006
Description of Content
The authors provide the ways teachers might use CALL and barriers that should be overcome to become an efficient and innovative teacher.
Outcomes & Main issues
- Identified the main aspects of the CALL application.
- Description of the main barriers appearing in the teaching process.
- Better comprehending of.CALLs peculiarities
Brief
BBarriers preventing teachers from using CALL Egbert et al. investigate the way teachers understand the basic principles of CALL. They say that despite the obvious positive effect of the usage of CALL, there are still numerous problems that might appear for teachers who try to implement technologies into their functioning. For instance, these might be time pressures, lack of resources and materials, negative attitude to technologies, inefficient guidelines, lack of support, a clash between the old and new technologies, gender, personal qualities, teaching skills, experience, and other personal factors. The authors state that all these factors should be considered to guarantee that a specialist will be able to understand the basics of CALL and implement them into his functioning. In this regard, consideration of the ways and methods that could be used to overcome the above-mentioned barriers is crucial.
It is also possible to suggest several approaches that could help to eliminate these barriers. For instance, Hubbard in his paper states that to help a specialist become innovative and get rid of barriers, an educator could engage in CALL by himself/herself. It will contribute to a better understanding of the main problems that might arise in the course of the investigation of CALL and prepare efficient solutions. Moreover, an educator might also adhere to the efficient strategies that rest on CALL to demonstrate the advantages provided by this very approach and help teachers to reconsider their perspectives on its usage. Finally, the ability to overcome these barriers should be considered one of the main aspects of the modern approach to teaching and learning. Teachers should be able to implement CALL in their functioning.