1. ICT provides a rich and flexible learner-centred environment in which students can experiment and take risks when developing new understanding.
At the beginning of the block round, I thought having access to laptops, an interactive whiteboard and data projector was pretty cool but I had no idea how much I would come to depend on them. I actually couldn’t survive without them in my ESL class. My students are at level SL (very low literacy) so I need to model every task that I set very explicitly because they don’t yet have the language to understand oral and written instruction.
It took me a while to figure out how to use the IWB but since then I have used it in every lesson. It is such an effective way to engage the students, especially low literacy ones like mine, as visuals are something that they can understand without having to explain in much depth. For example, during reading time, one of the students asked me what a ‘jetty’ was, so I tried drawing it on the board with absolutely no success… the blank expression on the students’ faces said it all and looking at what I’d drawn even confused the hell out of me. So I turned to my best friend, the internet, to help me find a proper picture of a jetty to project on to the IWB.
I have found after incorporating the IWB and laptops into my lessons that ICT can be used in so many ways to create a student-centred environment. It enables the students to experiment with and use the language innovatively. It is a common issue in the language classroom for students to feel apprehensive about speaking in front of their peers for fear of making mistakes. The use of ICT engages the students so fully that they forget all about their anxieties and are able to take risks. At the moment we’re doing a unit on animals and today I played a game with them using my laptop + projector + IWB which involved the students coming up to the board to match the sounds of the animals to the pictures. They were so enthusiastic and excited the whole time that they didn’t even realise they were communicating in English.
Incorporating ICT in my lessons has shown me a great way to engage my learners so that they can interact with the language meaningfully with ease and enjoyment. However, I have only used technology in my ESL classes to link the visuals to the written words…so on a very basic level. I can appreciate that when one is using ICT in classes where the students are quite able to learn effectively through other means, then the teacher needs to ask themselves the question: will the use of ICT improve the students leaning?
