4. Why avoid technology? The computers always crash! It’s too difficult/time consuming to plan! The Internet connection disappears! There’s not enough equipment! Room is too small/awkward to teach in! The students know more than I do!
Introduce myself – teaching background, finished DELTA, taken an interest in IT and ELT so merging the two, completed the Consultants-E online course through Moodle and responsible for the technology at BSC – reinstalling, configuring and locking the computers. Today’s session just an overview of some of the uses of technology in the classroom – I will share activities and techniques I use, and perhaps you would like to share experiences you have had. Everything you will see today has been done in a classroom using 3 to 4 year old computers (is not the latest technology) and a broadband internet connection. Most of the software is free. A couple of extra pieces of equipment I have found useful are an iPod and digital camera and speakers – but if you don’t have these, the students probably will! Obviously this area is vast and there are a huge range of activities you can do with technology – in this session, I will run through what I feel are some of the most useful – this isn’t intended to be a hands-on practical session, but more of an overview of the different uses. I am organising smaller, more practical sessions here at BSC for later in the summer and I can give you more information about those at the end if you wish. Feel free to ask questions as we go along, but forgive me if I give short answers as there is a lot I would like to show you.