Week 3 Blending Technologies in ESL Courses

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Based on the article Blending Technologies in ESL courses:A reflexive
enquiry by:Paul Gruba, Cameron Clark, Kellyn Ng and Marisa Wells

Authentic Listening by Podcasts

Something I want to remember from this article is the word ¨authenticity¨ because this is one of the three criteria of well-designed materials for listening like podcasts.  Podcasts provide a high variety of accents, genders, topics, situations and contexts from native speakers. If students use a high variety of authentic materials during learning activities they will noticed the importance and purpose of the task. Also, podcasts boost learner´s motivation because they are innovating. As an example, a student can feel motivate if the can understand a post cast between to native speakers. Podcasts are very common during listening classes because they are recorded listening materials; however, I asked myself what makes different post cast from tapes and CDs? The article answered this particular question I had by the phrase ¨ purpose built¨ to meet learners’ needs and authenticity.

Something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know was that when you teach listening the use must be for “learning to listen” and “listening for learning¨   These two phrases are my favorite ones from all the article.  

What surprised me in this article was how close are the hindrances presented on the article that delayed the use of technology form Salvadorian education. Not all students have access to a computer , podcasts or even a recorder  this is very common in public education. 

Week 2 Developing Autonomous Learning Abilities in CALL

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Based on the article: Effectiveness of the Integration of ICT Tools and Activities to Foster Awareness as the First Stage to Reach Learning Autonomy

ICT as Booster  for Autonomy

 I am going start my log about “Effectiveness of integration of ICT” with a short anecdote. When I downloaded the article of week two and started reading the tittle I was wondering what ICT means. I tried to investigate using internet and I found that ICT stated for information communication technology according to the Cambridge dictionary I will left the link above. Since the moment I used a computer, internet and a website I realized that using technology and a computer I learned something which I didn’t know. In simply words I learned from this previous experience that using technology I can learn something by myself, and the article defined this process as “autonomy”.

The article explained the development of autonomy and metacognition strategies, these two-cognitive processes helped students to have effective learning. A belief of mine that was confirmed in the article because it mentioned that the autonomy and metacognitive strategies have the students to be responsible of their own learning. Besides, the article presented how ITC and metacognition activities such are useful for students to develop their thinking skills

I will have in mind the following activities from the article planning, setting goals, describing procedures, monitoring, controlling performances and solving problems as activities that can be used to promote autonomy because they can be increase the use of ICT in the classroom. All these strategies among ICT encourage students learning development. 

ICT meaning found at https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/ict

Week 1 Computer Assisted Language Learning: An overview

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Based on the article:  Computer and Language Learnig: an overview 

by Mark Warschaer and Deborah Healey

Using Computers in the Language Classroom

The article ¨Computer and Language learning: an overview¨ by Mark Warschaer and Deborah Healey starts with a sentence which called my attention “using computers in the language classroom” Among language teachers use technology such as computer during the learning process has become very popular since computers were created. 
The reading divided in four parts the use of computer; the first overview is the history of a software CALL which has three main stages and somehow the article described the development of the software. Theses stages (behaviouristic, communicative and integrative) have the same goal; they are centered in encounter students to self-learning and individual work. However, something that I reinforced by reading this article was the fundamental role of the teacher as facilitator. 
The article presents some benefits of adding a computer while teaching a second language and the one that call my attention the most was “exploratory learning with large amounts of language data”. A computer with internet can give students access to a high variety of listening, reading and writing material Something I really like about this article is when it mentions that computers and networks will have a fundamental role as authentic tool for language learning and will be part in every second language classroom.  
As a student of a second language I have been surrender by computers during my learning process , when you read these kind of materials you realized thatcomputers help to create your own learning. However as language teaching student , I get a different role as a facilitator and moderator between computers and students´ learning.