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The amount of tools a teacher has at their disposal has dramatically increased over the past twenty years. Some equipment is just as effective as ever, like a whiteboard, but some things, like a dictionary, have radically changed. If students have access to a smartphone, most of them can carry an English language dictionary with them everywhere they go, which is a major convenience. The internet age has also given us access to freely available content, both authentic and created for learners. However, it's important to be able to use technology fluidly so that it furthers our students' progress instead of hindering it. I remember when I went to a summer music festival in 2007, I played in a masterclass. The teacher giving the masterclass was a big fan of integrating teaching into learning, so he took a picture of my music before the class and projected it on an overhead projector while I played so the audience could follow along. I think that was an effective use of technology. There was another point, though, where he was trying to set up a camera to look at my feet as I was playing so that everyone could see my pedaling, making it easier to talk about. This took quite a few minutes to set up, mostly because of the teacher's unfamiliarity with that particular classroom, and I remember a friend remarking to me after the class that they thought the class was more about the teacher showing off their technological prowess as opposed to teaching me music. I think this is a good point to keep in mind. Interactive white boards, online videos and streaming music are great when used effectively, but sometimes other methods can be more suited to a classroom. Is it better to turn on an overhead projector, open a browser, and do an image search for \"giraffe,\" to pull up a picture, or could the same thing have been done simply by bringing in a photo? As this unit stated, it's important to minimize the time spent fiddling with technology during the class. When students talk, search for a video or pull up a song. Learn where the pause and stop buttons are on your media player. Write some things on the whiteboard beforehand. Let the tools be tools, and let the teacher do the teaching.
