What do I think of when I hear the word "technology"? I think of MRI machines, robotic arms building cars, those green computer chip things, and some hazy mess of Star Wars and Star Trek gadgets (like the new hand Luke gets in Star Wars V!). What I don't immediately think of: my laptop, Facebook, powerpoint, smartphones. I think this is because "technology" seems like such a fancy word, yet "technology" has become so ingrained in everyday life that I don't really even think of it as "technology" anymore. I guess this attitude will be helpful in 504. If I think of my tech stuff as "ordinary day stuff that helps me out with stuff" instead of fancy, aloof, haughty "Technology", the concepts in this class will be more like comfy friends instead of scary strangers.
The use of technology in the classroom is really exciting for me. As a future foreign language teacher, I think it's awesome how languages, cultures, and ideas mingle online, just like people do. We can learn more about a distant country in 2 days with the internet than our ancestors could have done without it in 500 years. Additionally, as I hinted toward in my first post, technology is making linguistic changes happen super fast. "Bloggen" and "Downloaden" are perfectly acceptable now in German, even though perfectly good German-er phrases for the same thing already exist ("ein Online-Tagebuch schreiben" and "herunterladen").
Not only is the mixing, mashing, and trading that's rampant between languages online a really cool thing to watch, but the internet is now full of ways for kids to be exposed to other languages and cultures in a convenient, fast way. Gone are the days (at least they will be in my classroom) where children learn German from a 1994 clip-art laden textbook riddled with rote-memorization exercises. Instead, now we can watch the German news on youtube, skype and chat online with native speakers, and listen to the latest Rammstein tune while touring Berlin on Google street view...well, maybe not Rammstein in a high school classroom. Regardless, technology is going to be great for opening up the doors of the classroom and exploring the world outside.
I think one of the more interesting things that I've come away with after the first class is actually thinking of what technology means. I assume that most of us entered the class with a certain idea of what technology means especially in the context of classroom learning (or not! your blog post actually reminds me that maybe we didn't all have the same idea of what technology is!). But apart from questioning the role of technology in education, we can even question how we define technology.
ReplyDeletePS-Tech language in Spanish--and in Chinese--is also full of English words. While one could say correo electrónico, email is perfectly acceptable and even more common, etc.
I'm also super excited about using multimedia resources to teach German! There's this video called "ich bin ein Gummibär" whose lyrics are as follows:
ReplyDeleteich bin ein Gummibär
ich bin ein Gummibär
ich bin ein kleiner süßer bunter lecker Gummibär
oh yeah!
Perfect for an adjective lesson yes?
I love that video! So catchy.
ReplyDeleteI think it will be very fun and interesting to integrate technology that students already use every day into the classroom! Can you imagine Facebook, cell phones, iPods, etc. being used in effective and beneficial ways that lead to meaningful learning? As a future English teacher, it seems like the possibilities are limitless as far as how different types of technology can encourage student learning. There's so many things students could do, like creating a Facebook page for a famous author or renact scenes from a book and film it. I can't wait to learn more!
ReplyDeleteI REALLY appreciate your perspective, Caroline. I have been so concerned about how I am going to use technology in my Latin classes, and worried that I won't be able to do it and will make myself and my subject (which is already struggling with the misnomer of a 'dead language') even more detached and irrelevant to my students. SO it's great to read your enthusiasm and ideas about how to incorporate technology into a foreign language classroom.
ReplyDeleteCaroline, please excuse my tardiness to your comment page, I’m still trying to get my head around all this new info and output. Attempting a bit of catch-up now but see that I’m already two blogs behind not to mention Twitter telling me I’m only following “1” person despite spending the last twenty minutes clicking a whole host of “follow” buttons. What gives 'round here??
ReplyDeleteBut I must admit you brought up a fascinating and telling point about how much learning ground we can cover today as opposed to 500 years ago, heck even just 20 years ago. All these new techno beats have seriously altered the dance but I’m with you, I’d like to stay in step as best I can. You really brought it home when talking about the changes in play for foreign language learning. I recall my 10th grade Spanish class experience paralleling what I imagined a prison sentence to be like so I am all for letting technology lead the way to reform there.
Thanks for the excellent reflections Caroline, but hey…who’s this Rammstein fellow??