1. ICT Applied to English Teaching
Course Final Written Assignment
Student: MARINO Romina
Lecturer: LEDESMA Paula
Course: 4.691
Year: 2010
Deadline: December 10th
Marino Romina
Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico
1

2. CHAPTER XXIII: Internet Technologies and Language Teacher Education
(by Darren Elliott)
Nowadays, we are facing the emergence of a new era that aims to change the way
in which teaching and learning take place. It is the era of technology and information
and although its development has begun a long time ago, it is now clearly seen how it
purports to challenge life and education. In order to be prepared for the new era,
people and teachers must be trained in the use of technology and be as open-minded
as possible to incorporate these new ways of communicating with others around the
world.
Web 2.0 has appeared to revolutionize Internet and provide new kinds of
interaction among people and with the web itself. Even though some individuals may
not be familiar with the term ‘Web 2.0’, they are familiar with some of the applications
to which it refers. “Web 2.0 (is) a platform through which tools can be accessed, a
shared space for collaboration, and (…) a repository of knowledge which can be added
to, manipulated and re-presented.”(Elliot, 2009)
As a consequence, different labels have been designed to refer to the generations
raised: digital natives as opposed, for example, digital immigrants. The former
referring “to someone who grows up using technology, and who thus feel comfortable
and confident with it”(Dudeney & Hockly, 2007) whereas the latter refers to those
“who have come later to the world of technology”(Dudeney & Hockly, 2007) and may
be afraid of it.
In spite of the fact that many teachers feel they are digital immigrants, it would be a
great idea for them to train themselves and manage their own learning through the
use of technology. The author of the chapter here makes a distinction between the
terms ‘teacher education’, ‘teacher training’, and ‘teacher development’. “Teacher
development is often driven by institutions and tends to emphasize career
requirements over personal values. (…)Teacher training (…) can be in a process in which
teachers are developed, rather than one in which they are given the opportunity to
Marino Romina
Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico
2

3. develop.”(Elliot, 2009) The last term, ‘teacher education’ “is designated as an umbrella
term to cover both self-initiated (…) practices, and more formalized training programs
and systems.” (Elliot, 2009)
Together with the advent of new technologies, ‘teacher development’ has proved
to be insufficient. As a consequence, more and more professionals are now seeking
new theories to look for ways in which they can develop themselves. “If technology is
truly transforming learning, then theories of learning need to be transformed too”
(Elliot, 2009). In this sense, social constructivism has been coined as outdated and a
new model of ‘conectivism’ was proposed. It states that “learning is not about internal
processes but rather the access to knowledge based on network communities.” (Elliot,
2009)
The new model is transforming the field of education rapidly, with more and more
people participating in what is called ‘blended learning’: “a language course which
combines a face-to-face classroom component with an appropriate use of technology”
(Sharma & Barret, 2007); or, on the other hand, ‘distance learning’ in which content is
delivered completely via the Internet.
The potential of these ways of interaction is unimaginable and immense.
Collaboration with other people around the world is now possible and easily accessible
through the use of wikis and blogs, for example. “Learners can create a Vygotskian
zone of proximal development within a virtual world and collaborate to learn together”
(Elliot, 2009) through the establishment of complex and realistic task that can promote
cognitive processing. In a near future, we will probably face learners studying solely to
communicate in virtual worlds and teachers trained in the use of them.
Marino Romina
Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico
3

4. THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ELT
“While the teaching profession may not be changing as quickly as we might have
expected, technology is still moving on at an astounding place, and the software and
hardware we use are gradually converging into devices which are more user-friendly
and which integrate a myriad of services in one place.”(Dudeney & Hockly, 2007)
Taking into account the previous quote, we should mention that for this change to
take place, we must also need a change of attitude on the part of teachers, trying to
become acquainted with the use of the Internet and all the different possibilities that
Web 2.0 provides us with.
The new ‘teaching and learning method’ invites teachers and students to work
collaboratively, making their own contributions in a more social way that can reach
people from all over the world.
Blogs, wikis, virtual learning environments, online learning, among others, are the
new ways through which education will be transformed. Gradually, they will be
incorporated in the classroom and change radically the learning-teaching process.
Marino Romina
Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico
4

5. WORKS CITED
• Dudeney, G. & Hockly, N. (2007). How to Teach English with Technology. England:
Pearson Longman.
• Elliott, D. (2009). Internet Technologies and Language Teacher Education. In Thomas, M.,
Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language Learning (pp.342-350). Hersey,
New York: Information Science Reference
• Sharma, P. & Barret, B. (2007). Blended Learning: Using Technology in and beyond the
Language Classroom. Great Britain: Macmillan.
Marino Romina
Universidad Tecnológica Nacional – Instituto Superior del Profesorado Técnico
5