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Technology in the ClassroomNew technology in the classroom can immensely aid the teaching of english as a foreign language. There are so many tools out there that will help students be able to see live videos of people speaking in english, software programs where you can record the students speaking and listen to them at a later time to test their verbal skills, and have the computer ask individualized questions so it does not take your full attention to test the students. There are also software programs that can easily take the place of worksheets and help the teacher gauge if the students are stuck on a particular problem so you can go over that particular problematic question as a class to make the course more efficient. This way the teacher can be giving more useful and effective feedback, spending more one on one time with students that are behind or need help, meanwhile students who are understanding can continue to progress. In a study done by Lavin, Korte, and Davies in 2010 named ?The Impact of Technology in the Classroom on Student Behavior? they compared classrooms with technology with moderate or extensive use of technology and administered various tests to see the impact it had on learning, student satisfaction, participation, and learning in general. The results of the study found that the classes which had extensive technology had a greater positive impact on student perspective and overall satisfaction of the class. They also students were more attentive with technology use, they were more prepared for class, and they took better notes for the course. Overall this study found that as long as the professor was competent with using the technology it did enhance the students experience and satisfaction with their learning in the class. Although this article did several statistical tests and analysis of the survey, there are still problems with using a survey as part of a study. They only studied one school in the mid-west which could lead to bias. If other parts of the country perceive technology differently than the school in the Mid-west, or even in different parts of the world, they would have different study results. Finally only studying students in business courses can limit the results to people who think in a business sort of aspect. Maybe people studying english, or biology would have more or less appreciation for technology than business students do. In conclusion, there are many benefits to using technology to help aid the teaching process. There are many different kinds of learners, and sometimes hearing something from the teachers mouth is not always enough. Sometimes it can be more effective to hear words spoken in a different voice, a different speed, or a different sort of english accent. Students can learn more effectively with technology, watch videos in english, and help the class run more smoothly. Students can look things up faster, and be able to do more research and use the internet to see things as they are actually written rather than on a worksheet. There is nothing more powerful than the student having to plan a vacation themselves, somewhere in the states using all information gathered from an english website. The study proves this point even more, there are always incentives to adding technology into the classroom to help with the students understanding and satisfaction with their learning. Lavin, Angeline, Leon Korte, and Thomas Davies. "The impact of classroom technology on student behavior." Journal of Technology Research 3 (2010): 1-13. The Impact of Classroom Technology on Student Behavior. Web. 25 June 2011.
