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.