Running head: TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY 1

Philosophy of Teaching with Technology

Lisa Peskar

Southern Oregon University

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Philosophy of Teaching with Technology

As an educator, I believe it is important to prepare students for the real world by

providing experiences that transfer to skills outside of the classroom. We are currently teaching

digital natives that have grown up using technology for social media, news, finding new

information, learning skills, watching videos, shopping, music, communication and more! Since

technology plays such a monumental role in our students daily lives, it is important to

incorporate technology and use its many benefits to our advantage inside the classroom, as well

as promote digital literacy development in our students. However, since current educators were

not taught using advanced technology, it can be daunting to navigate these new waters to choose

the best activities for students. Ducate and Arnold (2011) explain that by using Computer

Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the classroom, it is important to design activities that

actively enhance learning in the classroom, rather than using technology solely to say one has

used technology in the classroom. While taking the course FL 515 Technology in the Foreign

Language Classroom, I was able to deepen my understanding of uses and benefits of effective

CALL in the classroom through reading published CALL research, reflection and discussion, and

finally using these experiences to design effective, sound CALL tasks for my own classroom.

In preparing to use technology in classroom design, I believe every educator must

consider the resources that the school and students have at hand, and at home. While internet

access is at a high level in the United States, found to be at 79% in 2012 by the U.S. Department

of Commerce (2012), there is currently a digital divide that separates resources and access

among different communities. In my current district, for example, all of my students the past

three years have had internet access, smartphones, and many have laptops and other technology
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at home. On top of this, our district gives all students personal Chromebooks, and to develop

more advanced technology skills, has 3D printers and supplies at hand for students and teachers

to use. While taking the course FL 515, I saw that teachers in other communities have much less

access to technology, possibly only having access to a computer lab when needing 1:1

technology. In designing CALL tasks, this will certainly need to be taken into consideration in

terms of technology used. When using this technology, the instructor must also consider

explanations needed in learning new programs--do students need to learn the technology to

complete the task, or is this something they have used before?

Perhaps one of the most obvious uses of technology and internet is how it gives access to

a vast amount of resources. CALL is especially relevant to world language teachers as we must

expose students to real-life, authentic sources. Virtually every online news article, Youtube

video, or website created by a native speaker gives access to authentic language in context.

However, each language educator must be conscientious about the source that s/he is using and

how it is used. Authentic resources can be used in three types of activities: teacher-led,

teacher-facilitated, and learner-determined (Brandl, 2002). There are advantages and

disadvantages to all three types depending on the proficiency of the language learner. More

specifically, teacher-led articles (giving a student one specific resource to use with

pre-determined activities) lend better to beginner language classes because it can be tailored

specifically to their level and vocabulary knowledge. Teacher-facilitated activities, such as

giving students a list of pre-selected sites for Argentinian restaurants, have been shown to fit well

in beginner and intermediate language courses. In learner-determined lessons, the teacher serves

as the facilitator and offers support, but students are finding the resources that they would like to
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use, analyzing them, and creating outcomes based on these resources. Because of the

overwhelming nature of the language found online, this is best used in intermediate to advanced

language classes for activities like content-based learning, group work, and project-based

learning.

In my own practice, there are two questions that I ask when using authentic resources: 1.

Does this resource align with learning objectives? and 2. Can I use this resource to enhance my

students learning through input, vocabulary building, or content-based learning? In designing

activities for my students, I have used many authentic resources in the form of songs,

infographics, news articles, and Youtube videos. In my experience teaching beginner language

courses, Spanish I and Spanish II, I tend to use teacher-determined and teacher-led activities, but

believe in the use of learner-determined activities in intermediate to advanced classes as well.

Guth and Helm (2011) discuss how technology can take this one step further, into

incorporating culture through CALL through being able to communicate and collaborate with

speakers from the target culture. Guth and Helm cite a study done by Meguro and Bryant (2010)

between Japanese and U.S. students that showed participation in Skype exchanges was

successful in motivating students and increasing their interest in culture. Although technology

gives us many access and produce resources, which are resources that can be accessed or

produced by regular internet users such as myself, according to Guth and Helm (2011), I feel that

using technology to communicate and collaborate is where we should be aiming as educators.

Technology gives students the opportunity to connect instantly with people around the world

using programs such as Skype or Google Hangout. In my district, for example, we use CALL to

organize Google Hangout sessions between our Spanish students and students in Spain.
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Although it has been a tedious process of figuring out how to bridge the six hour time difference,

create Google accounts for the students in Spain, and match them up together cohesively, the

benefit is seeing how motivating it is for students as continue to learn the language. The difficult

part is implementing this between two schools in countries where technology is not at the same

level. For instance, when doing this, the Spain schools internet is not as fast, leading to some

issues with connectivity. It has also been a process to get them enough laptops to be able to have

fifteen different students in video hangouts at once. While this is challenging for educators to do

now, I believe within the next ten to twenty years as technology is growing at such a rapid pace,

this exchange will become more achievable in language classrooms across the world.

Finally, I have learned how CALL can be implemented to reach all students through

designing tasks by principles of Game-Based Learning. Something unique about video games is

that they have the ability to motivate students to learn complex skills and persevere through

tough challenges to reach a final goal. James Gee (2005) discusses that games motivate learners

by designing activities that fall under three categories: Empowered Learners, Problem Solving,

and Understanding. He argues that education should empower learners as good games do by

allowing students to be co-designers, or active agents, in their own learning by allowing them

choice and customization in tasks. In my own teaching I have begun to allow more choice and

options for students when completing tasks, and especially when creating a final product. For

example, recently after completing a book, I gave my students a list of options for a final

product: create and record an interview, create an online comic, create a movie trailer, write two

additional chapters, in addition to several other options. We as educators can utilize technology

to allow more options and choice in a way of executing a task.

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Under Problem Solving principles, Gee (2005) discusses that good games include

well-ordered problems, are pleasantly frustrating, and support the cycle of expertise by giving

sufficient practice to master a skill. Using technology can help teachers scaffold activities and

give options at the learners level. For example, a website that I use in the classroom,

NewsELA.com, provides leveled news articles at various learner levels in Spanish, so students

can choose between a second grade version or up depending on their own proficiency level and

desire for challenge. Another example is using EdPuzzle for a listening task: this helps make a

listening activity pleasantly frustrating by meeting the student at their level, as students can

re-play a section if they need to hear it again, or move on if they understood a section. In this

way, technology helps make activities more tailored to a students needs rather than the standard

teacher practice of playing a clip three time for students in class. In addition, technology can help

provide sufficient practice and individualized feedback when practicing vocabulary or grammar

through programs like Quizlet or Quia, both of which I use for designing practice activities in my

lessons.

Gee further discusses that good games should act as a sandbox and a fish tank, allowing

students to learn in an environment of a few variables at once, and an environment that simulates

the real world, allowing students to try out new tasks, but in a safe way without penalty that

could make them completely fail or start over from scratch. In addition, getting students to

understand the system that they are in is critical, as is creating experiences that use their skills in

a real life setting (Gee, 2005). I believe that well-designed tasks in problem-based learning help

design a task as a sandbox and fish tank, and that incorporating technology is part of designing

an effective problem-based learning task that applies experiences to a real life setting. For
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example, in one CALL task that I created, which was a problem-based learning task, technology

played a role in all parts, from students gathering their information, to creation with technology

in executing a final product as a solution to the problem.

In closing, I believe CALL offers great benefit for educators in the classroom today, and

these opportunities for use in the classroom are only growing as technology becomes more

advanced and accessible around the world. From an authentic language perspective, technology

gives both teachers and students unlimited access to resources online for language learning and

exploring purposes. Although still in the earlier implementation stages, CALL is showing great

potential to connect students with speakers from around the world in real-time for interpersonal

communication and cultural learning. The cultural-exchange set up at my school is proof that this

can be accomplished in a way that is beneficial to students, although there are still some

roadblocks as the process is being perfected. Finally, perhaps the most beneficial reasons to use

technology is to design CALL tasks with game-based principles in mind to help us reach all

students, which is still one of the biggest challenges to educators today. By following

game-based principles and taking into consideration differentiation practices, educators can

motivate students to learn difficult, complex tasks and complex learning by using technology to

design tasks that empower learners, follow principles of problem-based learning, and that have

application in the real world as real life experiences. As a modern-day educator, I am excited to

see the possibilities for technology to allow me to create interactive, individualized,

differentiated, and motivating tasks as technology continues to grow and expand!

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References

Brandl, K. (2002). Integrating internet-based reading materials into the foreign language

curriculum: From teacher- to student-centered approaches. Language Learning &

Technology 6 (3), 87-107.

Ducate, L. & Arnold, N. (2011). Technology, CALL, and the Net Generation: Where are We

Headed from Here? Present and future promises of CALL: From theory and research to

new directions in language teaching 5(2), 1-22.

Gee, J. P. (2005). Learning by Design: good video games as learning machines. E-Learning and

Digital Media, 2(1), 5-16.

Guth S., & Helm, F. (2011). Teaching culture through CALL. Present and future promises of

CALL: From theory and research to new directions in language teaching. CALICO Book

Series: 5(2), 211-256.

Meguro, A., & Bryant, T. (2010). Finding language partners in unexpected places: Skype and

social networking for USA-Japan telecollaboration. Telecollaboration 2.0: Languages,

literacies and intercultural learning in the 21st century, 1(1), 453-464.

United States Department of Commerce, US Census Bureau. (2012). Reported Internet usage for

individuals 3 years and older, by selected characteristics: 2012 (Data file). Retrieved

from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2012/demo/computer-internet/computer-use-20

12.html

Youngs, B. L., Ducate, L., & Arnold, N. (2011). Linking Second Language Acquisition, CALL,

and Language Pedagogy. In Present and Future Promises of CALL: From Theory and

Research to New Directions in Language Teaching 5(2), 23-60.