During the years the teaching situation has changed quite a bit because of modern Technology. Suddenly we have access to teaching Tools that were unthinkable earlier. These Tools gives us loads of New possibilities. What are the advantages and Challenges of this New teaching situation?
One of the advantages is easily Access to English native speakers. Searching online we can find good Language models, that we can use in Our teaching. Both children an adults can be used as examples for Our pupils. Another good thing about New Technology is how easy it is to find songs, poems and so on, that we can present to Our pupils. We can find things that fits almost every subject. These rescources are often presented as a video, so that even if you as a teacher dont know the song from before, you can still use it.
The enormous amount of pitcures avaliable online is another advantage in Our teaching. Pitcures are an important Visual support, and can be used in so many ways With Our pupils. Online the possibilities here are endless. There are also several websites that are meant for teaching, like Moava, 123skole and others in English. Here we can find a variety of exercises for Our pupils. Exercises on reading, writing, spelling, and Learning the clock, are only some of the Things avaliable. This can be used in Our teaching sessions, or we can have the pupils do homework on such pages.
So what about the Challenges? Using modern Technology takes away some of the face to face teaching, it makes it less personal. This is something we should consider when planning Our sessions. And what about the books? Will the internet and modern Technology eliminate the books from Our teaching? There is also the question about creativity. Will all these Visuals take away Our pupils ability to make their own pitcures? These questions are important to have in mind when we plan Our teaching session. We must also consider that when using online Sources we have to make sure that the Source is reliable, before we present New information to Our pupils. This means that we have to spend quite some time planning, and doing proper research before we present New information. When using textbooks, someone has already done this for us.
Listed above are some of the advantages and Challenges we will meet using modern Technology in the English subject. These are important to have in mind when we plan Our teaching. What we really want, is to combine different teaching Methods in Our teaching of the English subject. No mather what choises we make and how we plan Our teaching, it is important that we as Teachers make the Learning situation feel safe for the pupils no mather what skill Level they have.
Yes, the internet has a huge spectre and an almost endless of selections, which gives the teacher the opportunity to use these resources in the teaching process. By listening to English speaking people at different websites, the pupils can explore and learn the pronunciation of words that a Norwegian speaking person might have problems with saying. Even if the teacher doesn’t know a song, he or she can use the internet search for songs, and then learn the song from a video/sound-file together with the pupils. The teacher can also find many exercises connected to the English subject, such as grammar, spelling, writing, and use it in the teaching process.
Use pictures as a visual support is important, especially for the pupils that needs things visualised to learn. It’s also a positive thing for all the other pupils to, because the teaching process gets more varied. A varied lesson and teaching process is more motivating for the pupils. I believe that it’s the teachers most important role – to make the English subject (and of course all the other subjects too) exciting, so the pupils want to learn. If pupils are not motivating for learning, they will have problems gather new knowledge of the subject. Luckily we have a lot of opportunities with the modern technology today.
Of course there is some challenges connected with the modern technology. You are addicted to that the system actually works. The access to internet has to be available at all the time you are going to use it. We don’t know if the technology will eliminate the books in the future, and it’s our job as teachers to make sure that it doesn’t happens. I think that a combination of using the modern technology and the books is the answer.