As teachers of in whatever context, we find ourselves in the position of mediating between on the one hand our learners, their and their needs, and on the other hand, a rapidly changing technological landscape, with tools and resources designed for educational purposes and otherwise, all jostling for our attention. We make choices as to what tools to use in the classroom and what tools to help our learners become better independent users of, and in the process we make choices about what technology to develop our own competence as users.

 

As far as direct use of technology in the classroom is concerned (and avoiding the issue of what constitutes technology!), for me, the main questions I ask myself before using it are:

 

In my opinion, less can be more: We should avoid using technology for the sake of using it and make sure we make principled use of it, with clearly defined purposes in mind. In this way, we can avoid getting knocked off our surfboards by the massive waves of technological innovation and instead harness their power to our advantage.

 

The main focus of this blog post, however, relates to the second of the two quotes I started by sharing. How can technology serve our learners beyond the classroom? How can we help them harness technology to enhance their language acquisition in the many hours they spend not in the classroom? It is here, I believe, that technology can be most powerful.

 

As learning technologies become more and more ubiquitous in our teaching, how can we ensure that pedagogy is at the centre of what we do to increase learning? What tools do you incorporate into your teaching and how do you ensure they help learning?