EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER LEARNING

RESOURCES
LUCRARE METODICO TIINIFIC
PENTRU OBINEREA
GRADULUI DIDACTIC I

MOTO:

'Teachers will not be replaced by technology, but

teachers who do not use technology will be
replaced by those who do.'

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, co-founder and CEO

of Powerful Learning Practice

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER LEARNING

RESOURCES
The purpose of this paper is

to show that educational technology is much more than improving learning, it is

about transforming learning which means overcoming traditional educational
approaches and replacing them with revolutionary new paradigms of teaching,
learning and schooling;
to provide an overview of modern teaching practices related to the use of
computers and Internet in the language classroom;
to present some useful resources for teachers;
to present a study that shows the importance of integrating modern technology
into the language classroom.

CHAPTER 1
THE USE OF THE INTERNET IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

It relies mainly on the following books: Warschauer and Healey (1998), Motteram
(2013), Warschauer, Shetzer and Meloni (2002), Hubbard (2009), Gamper and
Knapp (2002).
It focuses on the use of the Internet in the English classes and it offers a few glimpses of
how teachers and students can use computers in the process of language learning.
This chapter deals with the field of computer assisted language learning (CALL) and its
stages of development.
It analyzes the relation between the language skills and CALL and the characteristics of
the Internet-based communication as well as future trends of the computer language
classroom.
This chapter also refers to the Internet resources most valuable to teachers of English. It
gives information for our professional development and classroom needs.
It also discusses how English language teachers can use the Internet to communicate
with colleagues and find professional resources focusing on the use of e-mail
communication.

EXAMPLE OF A USEFUL WEBSITE FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

HTTP://WWW.TEACHINGENGLISH.ORG.UK/

CHAPTER 2
COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION AND DISTANCE

EDUCATION VIA COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET

The chapter relies on in Warschauer, Shetzer & Meloni, (2002), Demiray &
Sever, (2009), Barron (1999), Tibi & Tibi (2009) and OLawreces study
(2007).

This chapter focuses on ways in which the Internet is used for communication
and for collaborative projects with students in a single class or across classes in
different parts of the world.

It also deals with the phenomenon of distance education which due to the
growth of the Internet seems to enjoy a great popularity.

EXAMPLE OF AN INTERCLASS PROJECT

SKYPE PROJECT - PRECONCEPTIONS

http://profgabim1.weebly.com

CHAPTER 3
THE IMPACT OF INTEGRATING MODERN TECHNOLOGY ON PARTICIPATING
STUDENTS. CASE STUDY

According to

Gardners Multiple Intelligences and the Constructivism theories

people learn, remember, perform and understand things in different ways therefore teachers
should be able to exploit the variety of ways in which learners learn a material.
The characteristics of the Constructivist Approach to teaching:
1. Provides multiple representations of reality;
2. Represents the natural complexity of the real world;
3. Focuses on knowledge construction;
4. Presents authentic tasks (contextualizing rather than abstracting instruction);
5. Provides real-world, case-based learning environments, rather than predetermined
instructional sequences;
6. Fosters reflective practice;
7. Enables context- and content-dependent knowledge construction;
8. Supports collaborative construction of knowledge through social negotiation.

In Gordons opinion, what is needed in classrooms today is increased autonomy,

more collaborative work, more global connections, richer learning resources, more
inquiry, interdisciplinary, project-based learning.
The Intel Teach Program which we used in the research advocates the same view of
learning and teaching.
The main thesis of this research is to evaluate the impact of the Intel Teach
Program on the selected group (ITP) of students learning in comparison to the
other parallel group (TTM) where traditional teaching methods were used in the
process of learning.
The subsidiary theses attempt to demonstrate the following points:

The ITP improves students computer skills.

The ITP influence students attitude towards the use of technology.

In order to gather information about the impact of the program on students

learning, their attitude towards the use of technology and the computer skills
they gained, the teacher used instruments such as:
assessment activities / summative test
a computer skills questionnaire
an attitude toward the use of technology questionnaire
The Intel Teach Program (ITP) was integrated in one 7th grade class, 3rd year
of English study while with the other parallel class traditional teaching methods
were applied as it resides from the learning plan unit and the lesson plan to
show the efficiency of ITP in the process of learning and find modern methods
which may motivate students to learn and achieve language and computer
skills.

EXAMPLE OF STUDENTS FOLDER

EXAMPLE OF STUDENTS PUBLICATION

EXAMPLE OF STUDENTS APPLICATION

LEARNING GAINED

The results of the summative assessment show clearly that the ITP
students successfully solved the test items and obtained better results
than the TTM students which undoubtedly proves that better
understanding of lessons is acquired when students participate in real
life situations, when they have the opportunity to develop effective
research skills and when they do collaborative work rather than when
students work individually, doing routine and mechanical exercises.

HISTOGRAM REFLECTING THE SUMMATIVE-ASSESSMENT

RESULTS OF THE ITP AND TTM STUDENTS
30

25

20

15

Grades 8-10
Grades 6-7
Grade 5

10

0
ITP students

TTM students

Conclusion

The experiment carried out in this paper demonstrated clearly that teaching
with projects is an enjoyable and motivating method of learning and assessing
students. The study conducted in this chapter intended to make use of
technology so that students should be able to take pleasure in learning foreign
languages in a different manner which proved successful as it adjusted students
to the requirements of the modern society. It offered a model of integrating
modern technologies into the language classroom and enhanced students social
and metacognitive skills, promoting problem-solving, critical thinking and
collaboration skills.