|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
hdeth
Joined: 20 Jan 2015
Posts: 583
|
 Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 3:41 am Post subject: |
 |
|
I see a strong possibility that English continues to be a dominant international language because it's such a common second language and there's already a system in place to teach it in many countries. If wages continue to stagnate in America I can see FTs continue in China at least as qualified Chinese people seek jobs in more lucrative fields and employ cheap American labor for teaching English.
Education is one of the last fields to adopt new technology. I'm not sure how different things will be in 50 years. Plus some of the high tech stuff tjey ise at my school is worthless or poorly implemented. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
MuscatGary
Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 1364
Location: Flying around the ME...
|
| Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 4:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
| hdeth wrote: |
| Education is one of the last fields to adopt new technology. I'm not sure how different things will be in 50 years. Plus some of the high tech stuff tjey ise at my school is worthless or poorly implemented. |
I have always found teachers to be receptive to technology when the benefits and usage are explained. Word for example has features that not everybody knows how to use; track changes and the reading difficulty calculator to name just two. With a little training people can be persuaded to use it IF it saves them time and/or makes their job easier. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
hdeth
Joined: 20 Jan 2015
Posts: 583
|
| Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 5:58 am Post subject: |
|
|
| MuscatGary wrote: |
| hdeth wrote: |
| Education is one of the last fields to adopt new technology. I'm not sure how different things will be in 50 years. Plus some of the high tech stuff tjey ise at my school is worthless or poorly implemented. |
I have always found teachers to be receptive to technology when the benefits and usage are explained. Word for example has features that not everybody knows how to use; track changes and the reading difficulty calculator to name just two. With a little training people can be persuaded to use it IF it saves them time and/or makes their job easier. |
I know a lot of teachers who say they are receptive to new technology, or even clamor for it, but that's often where it ends. I watched a demo class in the highest tech classroom I've ever seen, supposedly to learn how to integrate the students' Ipads and the smart screens into a lecture. It was basically a lecture class where the class used their ipads for 1 minute or so to see an interactive demonstration that could have been shown just as well with a video clip.
Every classroom here has a projector and/or a smartboard but every time I come into class I see loads written on the whiteboard. I'm not saying I never use the whiteboard or that it doesn't serve a purpose, but to have the meat of the lesson on it when there's a projector readily available seems kind of backward.
One of my professors used the features of word you are talking about and I've used them ever since, however, most teachers here hardly make any corrections to papers. Further, if they do, doing a thorough commenting process takes wayyy more time than underlining some words and writing some short-hand corrections. To do a thorough job it takes me at least half an hour on a 5-page paper, usually closer to an hour, depending on how bad it is. I've seen the feedback from their other teachers and it's a couple sentences of comments scribbled on the last page and a few marks on the really bad grammar mistakes. They would not be willing to take the time to really make use of those Word features.
I work at an "international" high school in China that has some of the most advanced education technology in the world. Rarely see it utilized or implemented well, and most of the teachers here are younger and tech-savvy enough where it's no problem for them to figure out how to use stuff. We also have quite a few mandatory training sessions.
Then there's lots of problems with implementation. For example, I was excited to get my Blackboard login (after 3 months of asking for one) and then found out that you can't use it on android phones unless they have a flash update, which is not available in China. So most of my students, who use their android phone as their primary device (since there aren't enough outlets for laptops), can't access it except late at night in their dorms.
And it makes me laugh sometimes...they have this profram (airserver I think?) where you can hook your Ipad up to the class computer if you want to show videos or something. I'm just sitting there thinking "why wouldn't you just put it on a USB drive and use the computer directly?" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
