ICT TEACHING TIPS

The following points should be the final aims of introducing ICT in language teaching:

·      to build a learning environment in which teachers and learners can create contexts for real communication inside and outside   the classroom;

·      to present the English language as a means to learn and communicate about content;

·      to transform the realism of the contexts created in class simulations into reality;

·      to break school isolation;

·      to establish new relationships between school and society;

·      to establish new relationships between school and youth languages.

This is the new frontier that language teachers can explore and creatively exploit in order to offer their students the possibility to use a new language to learn and communicate; as English is the language of online communication, they not only improve their command of the language but also use the language to study subjects that they find interesting from the aspect of the content

“I think the strongest way we can do that is by creating situations within schools where children pursue with their own passion from their hearts. The teacher acts as a counsellor, as a guide. So the teacher has to get used to the idea of respecting the children as learners, of recognising that they create their own knowledge, that the old ambition that many educators have had - that children can learn by doing experientially in a way that's really meaningful for them - can finally be realised. So, this is not about what technology does to learning. It is about old well-established ideas of how we would like children to learn and technology

Role of computer in relation to the different learning theories and instruction models

There is a strict interconnection between use of technologies, learning theories, and teaching models. The role of computers in teaching has changed in time, following the development of the theoretical models of the learning processes, and can be different today in accordance with the learning theory and the method/s a teacher practices. There are three principal learning theories that are relevant to the use of advanced technologies in teaching: Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. The tables below show the characteristics of these three theories, and relate them to the models of instruction that consequently apply, and show how computers can be used.

LEARNING THEORY[1][3]

MODELS[1][4] OF INSTRUCTION

ROLE OF COMPUTER

ACTIVITIES AND SOFTWARE

BEHAVIOURISM[2][5] concerned only in objectively observable behaviours knowledge is considered as given and absolute (objective knowledge) mental activity (unobservable) is explained in terms of habit built up through behavioural conditioning (stimulus-response-reinforcement): behavioural patterns are repeated until they become automatic learners adapt to the environment by responding to its demands; they are passive in the knowledge construction process the teacher's job consists in modifying  the behaviour of the learners by providing the learners with manageable chunks of information, establishing objectives, and measuring the learner's performance based on those objectives

direct instruction transmission teaching

tutor teaching machine

programmed instruction, tutorials, drills, exercises, authoring programs to produce exercises and tests

LEARNING THEORY	MODELS OF INSTRUCTION	ROLE OF COMPUTER	ACTIVITIES AND SOFTWARE
COGNITIVISM[3][6] more concerned in what  goes on inside the brain than in the external behaviours (learner's mental processes during the learning process), in how information is received, assimilated, stored, and retrieved knowledge is stills viewed as given and absolute (objective knowledge) the knowledge construction process is an active mental processing on the part of the learner, which can have unpredictable results the teacher provides the "intellectual scaffolding" (cognitive and metacognitive skills, strategies, competencies) by building on the learner's experience and providing challenging tasks; establishes objectives and measures the learner's performance according to those objectives	discovery learning task based learning	Cognitive tool Personal tool	artificial intelligence, programming languages, BASIC LOGO, etc. application programs, Word processor, graphic programs, simulation programs, etc.
LEARNING THEORY	MODELS OF INSTRUCTION	ROLE OF COMPUTER	ACTIVITIES AND SOFTWARE
CONSTRUCTIVISM[4][7] learners are active in the knowledge construction process the  knowledge construction process is constantly affected by the learner's previous experience/knowledge of the world; learning is a personal interpretation of the world knowledge is constructed by the mediation and  negotiation among learners and teachers working together  the teacher provides authentic tasks in meaningful contexts, real situations, problem solving and case based activities, and not a predetermined set of instructions, so encouraging reflection on experience	cooperative learning whole language reading/writing workshop situated learning anchored instruction authentic instruction	means of communication   cooperative tool	Internet, WWW,  e-mail, chat, newsgroup, mailing list, video conference, forum, discussion group, etc. multimedia communication, networks, hypertext/ hypermedia consulting and building, crosscurricular projects, learning communities,  etc.

Here is a list of some skills and strategies involved in ICT-based language activities:

·      technology skills in the  use of hardware and software

·     navigation skills (search, discrimination, skimming, scanning, evaluation of sources, material, types of texts, style, information)

·     choice of suitable paths inside the hypertext/hypermedia in order to find the desired results

·     definition of the characteristics of the information (origin, quality, relevance, reliability)

·     use of search engines (planning the search, devising the possible key words, choosing different types of search engines according to the purpose of the search)

·     use of the information according the pre-determined objectives and tasks

·     use of the written language as a means of communication (formal / informal) in email and chat exchange

·     use of the oral language as a means of communication in videoconferencing

·     use of the oral language as a means of communication while discussing, reporting, negotiating and mediating inside the class with the teacher and the other students

It is not simply the introduction of new powerful teaching aids in the usual routine in order to allow students to obtain better results. It is a more complex process that changes the perspective of both teachers and students in the way they consider the language and what they can do with it

Teachers have to reconsider:

• role of the language
• role of the language teacher
•  teaching plans/syllabus design
• teaching activities/learning tasks
• learning environment
• rapport (teacher/student, student/student, teacher/teacher)
• relationship between schools
• relationship between school and society

In conclusion it’s not only a question of "using computers". Using computers at school is not an approach at all, nor it is a new methodology, nor it is an innovation in itself, as it is possible to use new tools even inside very traditional frameworks. Technology can become a teaching aid and a teaching/learning project catalyst only if the teachers previously re-define their objectives, their idea of school and teaching, their teaching methodologies

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