During my first classroom observation, I went to my local high school which has started integrating iPads into the curriculum. As part of the program, incoming freshmen, along with sophomores, have received new iPad 2s. The idea behind this new curriculum is that students need to adapt to a new world of education and business in which technology is paramount. As of now, although the students have their iPads already, only a certain number of classes are using the new iPad/online curriculum. The schools are rolling out in phases this new curriculum first as a relief to the taxpayers, and second to ensure that the new curriculum is tested slowly and carefully.
In the class I observed, I witnessed one of the first Spanish classes to use the new iPad system. The teacher I observed is the only Spanish teacher using the iPads, and one of only three foreign language teachers using the iPads. Because of this, she told me that the new system can be overwhelming at times. She does not have the resources she is used to because other teachers are not using the system yet. From what I saw, I would say that the iPad system is working at about 33% efficiency right now.
I can see the benefits of this system because it allows instant feedback and interactive learning for the students. It allows for the teacher to provide the students with their own technological world of learning, and it allows the students to explore technology early in their education. Not only does the system make it easier for the students, but eventually I think the teachers will become accustomed to online work making up a vast majority of the coursework.
However, I think this system could be doomed to fail. I did see some positive aspects of the iPad system in my observation. Students seemed to like the technology and one student even bragged to me about how his class was one of the first to use the iPads so much. But with all of the upside, I did see some drawbacks. One glaring problem with the iPads now is that there does not seem to be any way to regulate or eliminate time-wasting. As I sat at the back of the class, one student was on her facebook and Twitter feeds while another played a racing game. Another problem, at least in the class I observed, is the lack of "traditional" (used loosely) teaching methods; i.e. authentic materials, comprehensible input, students production. As I stated in class, the teacher told me that she only uses about 20% target language right now, and only hopes to improve to 50-60% target language usage by the end of the year; and I think this is because of the technological aspect of the curriculum.
So, my thought process here goes two ways: (1) this system really is beneficial and the only problem now is that there is simply not enough data to consider it a success yet; or (2) this system is not working because it is not taking into account the attention spans and interests of the students, and the lack of "traditional" teaching is hurting the students. What do you think of this kind of system? Do you think my observations about the shortcomings are valid?
I think that technology can be a great asset in learning a second langauge, but I also worry about the shortcomings. I do not think that language courses should be completely based in technology simply because actual human interaction is important. Learning a language also involves facial expression, hand gestures, and varying personal voice inflections as well as accents. I think that this aspect could be completely missed if everything is virtual. In fact, the amount of technology already in the world today sometimes hinders interactions between young people. Many do not know how to have a phone conversation anymore. I think we have to be very careful with the use of technology and make sure that students know that the end goal is personal communication with people who speak the target langauge.
ReplyDeleteI think the "time-wasting" aspect is really important and should definitely be fixed. Maybe the school/teacher could find a way to lock everything else on the internet that is not being used for the educational purposes of their classes? Because what's the point of having Ipads if students are just going to go on Facebook and play racing games? I definitely see how Ipads could REALLY benefit students and supplement their learning, but these important drawbacks need to be fixed first.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, in my opinion I think incorporating that much technology in the classroom does more harm then good. Speaking from my own experience, whenever we were required to do activities in Spanish using the computer lab, almost every student (myself included) just goofed off and searched the Internet for whatever we wanted, whether it was rushing through the assignment just to get it done or using Facebook, Twitter, etc. I understand why schools want to incorporate more technology like iPads but to me, nothing can replace a human instructor - not even one with instant feedback and shiny features like an iPad.
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