The technology that influenced education in my particular content area the most during this historical time period is the introduction of the foreign language lab in the 1960’s. With my content area being Italian, I can personally say that the foreign language lab has worked wonders in the instruction of foreign language both from a teacher’s point of view as well as a students and is widely used today in present educational instruction. In the foreign language lab, students are able to engage in a wide variety of exercises ranging from elementary levels to advanced levels that test their listening, comprehension, and writing skills. In my opinion, the language labs are very important assets to foreign language education because they allow students to immerse themselves in the language to the best of their ability without actually being in the country with the target language.
Taking a look at Chap 2 in Rethinking Technology and Schools and the supplementary article called A Social History of Media and Technology in Schools, the technology that I think has had the greatest impact (both in a positive and negative way ) upon formalized schooling in my content area between the years 1820 and 1990 is the advancement of the computer, most specifically in the area of social networking sites. Within the section “ The Casual Acceptance Perspective” of chapter 2, it states “ Young people participate in online social networks ( such as MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, and Flickr) that allow them to create profiles messages and share multimedia content to a larger audience than is imaginable ( Domine 49).” These uses of social media are presented in foreign language instruction in many different ways. Activities that involve interacting with people from different countries in order to practice speaking with native speakers and in order to learn potential international business tactics that can be utilized in many areas of study are examples of this and are crucial aspects to the learning experience.
In the supplementary article that portrays the interview with Grace, she explains how she basically feels that social media causes more harm than good in the classroom when she states; “Yet my district currently bans the use of cell phones in the middle and secondary classrooms and students are not allowed to access their MySpace or Facebook pages from school computers. After one teacher in my district was fired last year over a controversial photo and message on her MySpace page, our district prohibits teachers to maintain any social networking site. So there is this cloud of protectionism and censorship that continually hangs over our heads ( Domine 7)” From this statement, we are able to see how social media sites are automatically targeted to have an overall negative effect in classroom instruction. However, in a content area such as a foreign language where communication is everything and where these sites are widely used, they can be beneficial and have been successful in this through the advances in computers that have been made over the years.Taking a look at Chap 2 in Rethinking Technology and Schools and the supplementary article called A Social History of Media and Technology in Schools, the technology that I think has had the greatest impact (both in a positive and negative way ) upon formalized schooling in my content area between the years 1820 and 1990 is the advancement of the computer, most specifically in the area of social networking sites. Within the section “ The Casual Acceptance Perspective” of chapter 2, it states “ Young people participate in online social networks ( such as MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, and Flickr) that allow them to create profiles messages and share multimedia content to a larger audience than is imaginable ( Domine 49).” These uses of social media are presented in foreign language instruction in many different ways. Activities that involve interacting with people from different countries in order to practice speaking with native speakers and in order to learn potential international business tactics that can be utilized in many areas of study are examples of this and are crucial aspects to the learning experience.
“Language Labs: Uniting the Languages of the world together.”
Danielle, I agree with you on the fact that social networks can actually have a positive role with our content area. using these sites can benefit many students because it can actually allow them to communicate with people who speak the language they are trying to learn. When speaking to a native speaker directly, you are able to pick up on certain things that perhaps you might be saying incorrectly when you speak the language. Also, that person can help you figure out what you need to improve and also give you tips on how to improve your mistakes. Ultimately, speaking to a native speaker is great practice on its own. Using the language on a daily basis multiple times a day is more effective than just learning a few things from your teacher in the classroom for 45 minutes out of the day. it is a way to incorporate the learning process inside the classroom as well as outside of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, interesting photo. Can you help me understand your choice of technology?
ReplyDeleteDanielle,
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine having to learn languages the way that students were forced to learn them in the past. The influential technologies today with Wikis, Wimba, and Rosetta Stone are so influential that students are learning languages of various cultures without having to travel or be privately tutored by an actual human being. The power of language in the human voice has been expanded extremely when considering the use of technology in context to how languages have developed. Language labs perfectly fit into this growth as it has expanded over the years. Students were able to hear languages and practice them without the teacher paying their entire focus on students learning pronunciation, correct grammar, and context. This is an excellent aid for your subject matter. I never had access to such a technology while learning a language in high school, and thinking back, I would have probably benefitted from it immensely. I figure it would be interesting to incorporate trips to the language lab while also providing students with real life scenarios that they would require them to interact with one another. These scenarios would be events that they might encounter had they been in countries that they might speak the language you are teaching. Excellent choice.
Danielle, I like the emphasis that you have placed on the importance of language labs in foreign language education. Without language labs one is not encouraged to practice the language orally and more often than not too much emphasis is put on reading and writing skills instead of speaking and pronunciation. It is terrible to see many foreign language students who can read and write in the target language but find themselves in difficulty when it comes to speaking in real time. Additionally, the issue of pronunciation also comes into the equation because, as you know in Italian, a slight error in pronunciation can alter the word meaning completely.
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