Response to Discussion #4: Digital Technology for L2 Learning and Teaching

(1) View and comment on the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZokqjjIy77Y
(2) Based on the technology article you have read, do you feel that technology is an asset to teaching foreign languages or do you prefer not to use it? Why? How do you feel about using social networking tools, such as Blog, Wiki, Facebook, Twitter or Skype to supplement and support language teaching? Use examples to justify your answers. 

From an aesthetic standpoint, I thought the video was a good way to use technology to advocate for technology, although in retrospect holding up cards was not very technologically-involved.  But in all seriousness, the video raises a good question – if kids are so involved with technology outside of school, why shouldn’t educators harness that for pedagogical purposes?  If kids are happy when they’re on their iPads or game consoles, why not have them use that to help them learn? 

I think technology is a fantastic tool but that it should be used judiciously in an educational setting.  In the electronic literature class I am taking we are currently learning how electronic poetry is most effective when the technology used to make it enhances the effect of the poem.  If the poem works just as well in print as it does when presented through a software program, then there isn’t much point in drawing in the technology.  I think the same thing goes for technology in the classroom: if the lesson isn’t enhanced by technology and the same effect could be achieved with “old school” methods, then the technology is just a distraction. 

In my freshman year English class at UNH we had to create a Twitter account and tweet comments and links to articles we were reading.  The theme we had to focus on was healthy living at college.  I think some weekends we would have a minimum quota of tweets to complete.  At the time (five years ago), I hated this assignment, in part because at the time I was morally opposed to Twitter as a form of social media (a conviction I have since abandoned), but also because I was unaware of Twitter’s potential for idea sharing and networking.  At the time I thought it was mostly just a platform only for the equivalent of Facebook statuses, which I figured was of no use to anyone.  I guess you could argue that five years ago Twitter hadn’t really caught on like it has today, so many of my classmates felt the same as I did.  Surely we were instructed on how to use hashtags, but I wonder if we had done a little more exploring of the site and became more well-versed in the ins and outs of Twitter if we would have liked it any better…

I think I could write a lot more about this but I will restrict myself to one more example, and that is this blog, where I think technology has been well-integrated so far.  I have had several classes that had blogs or discussion boards, but none were so successful as this one.  I think it’s because we are required to make one post and 3 comments each week.  In other classes it was optional, or there were fewer required posts, and I could easily get away without reading my classmates’ discussion posts.  Because I have to make those 3 comments, I read everyone’s blog entry, and it’s pretty interesting, actually, because although we are all answering the same question, everyone comes up with different things.

What I would like to hear from you guys, though, is how do you think Facebook could be used to enhance teaching?  That is one form of social media that seems particularly social to me and I’m not sure how I would use it in an educational setting and not have it be an invasion of privacy.  Please comment below if you have thoughts.