2. “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob
our children of tomorrow.”
-John Dewey
3. Learning
Learning is not only happening in the classroom. Students are
actively engaging in learning outside of our classroom. They are
learning through their peers and in ways that we have not yet
integrated into our teaching.
4. Technology and Education
Learning is an active, collaborative, and reflective process.
We must encourage students to use the tools they have as a way to
motivate them in their learning and to foster creativity and
communication amongst themselves.
5. Networking and Virtual
Worlds
The use of social networking and virtual worlds in our
classrooms can help students engage in learning in a
meaningful, challenging, and motivating way.
6. Technology Tools and ESOL
Education
According to Claude Goldenberg, “ all students benefit from clear
goals and learning objectives: meaningful, challenging, and motivating
contexts; a curriculum rich with content; well-designed, clearly
structured, and appropriately paced instruction; active engagement and
participation; opportunities to practice, apply, and transfer new
learning feedback to correct and incorrect responses; periodic review
and practice; frequent assessments to gauge progress, with reteaching
as needed; and opportunities to intact with other students in
motivating and appropriately structured context.” (Goldenberg, 17)
Aside from engaging our ELL students in these practices we must also
provide other opportunities to expand their understanding in
meaningful and engaging ways. These meaningful and engaging ways
can happen through the use of technology tools.
Goldenberg Claude (2008). Teaching English Language Learners: What Research Does – and
Does Not- Say. American Educator.
7. Expanding Student’s Knowledge
ESOL teachers face many challenges when working with ELL
students. ELL students come from distinct backgrounds including
language, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds. Teachers must
embrace their prior knowledge and find ways to expand their
understanding in a way that extends outside of the classroom walls.
8. Virtual Worlds and ESOL
Education
Learning is not only happening in the classroom.
Virtual worlds such as second life are online communities that allow
students to participate in learning in a fun, creative, and engaging way.
Through virtual worlds students to take trips to place they are learning
about, they can create artifacts, engage in dialogue, debate, and
collaborative with other residents.
Virtual worlds can help ELL students to practice their language with
other native English language speakers in the comfort of their home
or classroom. ELL students can practice language in meaningful
settings and in ways that can be applied to real life situations.
Limitations: Virtual worlds is available for adults and teens. They
cannot be easily be integrated with elementary age children.
9. Social Networking
Learning is a social process. Knowledge is constructed by engaging in
dialogue with others.
Social networking tools such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are tools
that students are actively using in their daily lives. These tools can be used
in the classroom setting to extend conversation. Students are encouraged to
express their opinions, thoughts, and emotions through these means of
communication. Students are empower by collaborating with one another
as they receive immediate feedback from their peers. These tools can be
used to inform, persuade, influence, and even to organize collective actions.
ELL student’s can be encouraged to practice their literacy skills by
communicate with their peers through these tools.
10. Protecting Our Students
Before attempting to use these tools in the classroom it is important
that teachers have experience using these tools in their own lives.
Teachers need to show students how to safely use these resources for
learning.
These tools have privacy settings that can be changed when you log
on so that your work is being shared with people you trust.
Set expectations and clear objectives that help students with their
time management while using these tools. These tools are very
engaging and they may at times become a distraction.
It is equally important for the students to learn check for the accuracy
of the information they are receiving online. Encourage critical
thinking.
11. New Literacies and ESOL
Education
These online tools help to expand our definition of learning.
Literacy is about communicating our thoughts, ideas, opinions, and
feelings. These tools make communication possible outside of our
classroom walls.
12. As our ideas of technology and our resources grow our method of
teaching needs to stay current with what is happening in our students
daily lives.
