We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2023
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter I first discuss the issue of what technology education should cover, before looking at different options for how it can be implemented, with particular reference to the content of language teacher education. Finally I look at issues around how technology is changing teaching practice.
SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS
Technology – used here in its restricted meaning of the (mainly modern) tools used in language education (Foucault’s “technologies of production,” 1988) – plays an ever-growing role in all aspects of our lives and increasingly impacts what happens in the language classroom. The opportunities that technology offers for access to information, for communication, and for greater learner control over the learning process (to name a few), are exciting. In practice, however, the potential comes with serious challenges. Examples abound of unsuccessful and often costly attempts at using computers in education (cf. Hubbard 2003). This book is testament to the fact that one of the key factors in any type of innovation, whether related to technology or not, is the extent to which teachers are comfortable with it and see clear benefits to changes for everyday classroom use. Especially in the area of technology, innovation in teaching contexts can be a slow process, and one that requires a substantial time investment on the part of everyone involved (cf. Stevens et al. 1986). Education in this area is somewhat different from that in other areas as it involves both a pedagogic as well as a practical component in the sense that teachers need to have the technical skills to use the technology before they can discover how to implement it. In addition, technologies have the potential to be disruptive to classroom practice (cf. Godwin-Jones 2005). The teacher educator is thus in the delicate position of explicitly linking the benefits of the innovation to classroom practice.
OVERVIEW
TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHER EDUCATION: WHAT DO WE TEACH?
The field of computer-assisted language learning has been in existence for several decades now. (See Levy 1997 for a good historical overview until that point.) The discussion around the place of technology in teacher education is a more recent one, however.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
