a discussion about some teaching tools

One of the selective courses I have chosen in term one is new technology used in language teaching. In this course, I am learning a number of great new technologies which could be used in the classroom.

There are various beneficial tools such as padlet.com, voki.com, mailvu.com, podcast, prezi.com, glogster.edu and other useful websites. Those websites used in teaching could enhance the students’ learning to some extent. I would like to discuss some pros and cons of some of the technologies used in teaching activities.

Firstly, padlet.com is a multi-functioned website which could be posted pictures, videos and words on it and the positions are flexible. What is more, students also can write their questions or opinions on it, so that teachers and other students could discuss about the questions. I use this page to play audioes and recordings for students during the class. Furthermore, they could review what they have learnt and practice the pronunciation via the website and preview what is going to be taught next lesson.

However, padlet has its disadvantages. Though teachers could post as many pictures or videos as they can, the page would go as long as it could. Therefore, when students try to find out the updated knowledge, they have to drag the bar to the end of the page and it costs time which in turns could distract the concentration of students. The solutions of that problem are two:

1. Save the resources separately from each lesson and put the link of the new padlet page onto the original webpage;
2. Note the date of each lesson on top of the materials on the page.

The two solutions could provide a clearer page view for students to locate and search for the resources they want.

The second technology tool I want to discuss is the Prezi. It works similar as Power Point, yet it has a more dynamic view when changing the pages. The design of Prezi is easier for teachers to insert pictures and videos or other teaching materials onto the pages. Since the searching bar is on the right side of the page which could efficiently improve the quality of preparation. However, there are some disadvantages such as the language setting only include English, Japanese, Korean, French and other four languages, which means the teachers of other languages could not choose this tool using for teaching.

Thirdly, there are the websites such mailvu.com or voki.com could provide the platform for communication in persons. Teachers might adopt these tools to communicate with students from long distance to answer their questions and monitor the progress students make. The disadvantages are that some websites charge money from users and the design of the characters’ look is not that satisfied which may decrease the interest of the students of using the websites.

The way of using technology is to enhance the effect of teaching and learning. However, the design of technology should be based on the students’ needs and the teaching planning. Teachers ought to avoid of decreasing the interactive between students. Technology is not the main topic in class, it should be combined effectively with teaching activities.