ICT IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGES PROGRAM AT UNIVERSIDAD DEL

ATLÁNTICO.

In 21th century, the technological tools for education will be relevant at the Foreign
Language Program at the Universidad del Atlántico: the perfect students utopia.
As we are in a very globalised and demanding world, it is vitally needed to have the best
preparation in order to succed. That is the main reason why education and technology play
together the most important role in our society nowadays, in order to be able to face the
new challenges.

The new technologies are changing the way we live, as an example, the changes in
education are very significant. Maybe one of the most relevant changes has been the
integration of technology in the way of teaching and learning, as they are useful not only
to study, to collaborate, communicate, socialise and learn. We can use, as an example,
the inclusion of communication tools between teachers and students, like chats, video
conferences, electronic whiteboards, email and forums, etc.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has an important role in the world
since we are now in the information age era and it is a tool that is really needed by students
of every carrer, especially for students of the Foreign Language program, who could use
ICT not only to increase their knowledge, but also to facilitate their foreign language
learning proccess, by enhancing the effectiveness of learning, or by adding a dimension to
learning that was not previously available.
ICT may also be a very significant motivational factor in students’ learning, and can
support students’ engagement with collaborative learning, as it can allow students to learn
gramar and vocabulary more easily and also provides audio visual and interactive content.
The Foreign Language Program at Universidad del Atlántico does not have enough
ressources in terms of ICT for students to be included in the previously mentioned
mordernized world. As it does not have at least the amount of computers for even the half
of students of this program, there is no free internet acess, just one laboratory, there are no
video projectors in the classrooms, and there are not enough platforms to interact or share
imformation.
It is important to mention that there have been some initiatives taken by the English and
French teachers of this program to encourage students about the use of e-tools, as well as
the use of Edmodo (promotted by the french teachers), or Sicvic (the academic platform
proposed by the Universidad del Atlántico). Nevertheless, those proposes are not applied by
most of the teachers and it seems not to motivatate students to use them, due to the lack of
interactive content or information, and to the poor conditions of the classrooms, which not
allow the good development of activities base on the use of technology.
In conclusión, the Foreign Language Program at Universidad del Atlántico should
understand the relevance of the application of ICT in in the classroom and should also
make a big effort to promote its use. As well as making some investment to increase the
amount of e-tools for the languages teaching and learning, as it will potentialize and
encourage the students performance.