Teach English in DawangzhuAng Jiedao - Tianjin

New Technology in the ClassroomSeveral types of new technology are coming together to present teachers of all kinds with novel opportunities in classrooms around the world. These innovations include both new hardware, such as interactive whiteboards and tablet computers, and new types of software. Social networking through sites such Facebook have exploded in popularity in the past few years. Many teachers who participate in such forums face a quandary when current or former students seek to ?friend? them. Administrators and teachers are proceeding cautiously, wary of upsetting parents, wasting money and upsetting taxpayers. In 2010 a school district in Florida became the first to issue guidelines to staff regarding the use of social networking. The district advised teachers not to friend students on social networking sites, claiming that teacher-student communication through this medium is "inappropriate." Recently the state of Missouri passed a law banning the use of any website ?unless it is available to school administrators and the child's legal custodian, physical custodian or legal guardian." This seems to me to be a reasonable safeguard, both for the student and for the teacher, who, it should be remembered, could be a target of false accusation. Educational innovators, however, are concerned that restricting sites such as Facebook ?could hinder the educational process in the future.? ?Closed systems? such as Ed Moto and Saywire may address these concerns while preserving the positive aspects of social networking. These are social media sites operated by schools and are open to all (and only) persons affiliated with the school. Social networking could facilitate communication among parents, teachers and students. It could also enhance learning by enabling students to connect and form virtual communities. Interactive whiteboards, or Smartboards, are becoming more common in technologically advanced classrooms around the world. These boards are large, interactive displays connected to a computer. Smartboards have the potential to engage students by enabling them to create lessons and activities, and then share them on the Smartboard. In this way students have a new way to share their voices and bring their cultural influences into the classroom. Information on the Smartboard can be printed and sent home with students for further work. Smartboards can also be very useful for presenting engaging classroom games. A rich resource of video and audio which can be presented on the Smartboard is Discovery Education Streaming. Tablet computers, such as the iPad, are another rapidly growing area of new technology in classrooms. There are a growing number of applications that could be of use in language classrooms. ?Sonic Pics Lite? and ?Bill Atkinson PhotoCard Lite? allow users to find and download images and then add text and audio. ?QuickVoice? can be used to create audio recordings and then email these to teachers or other students. Researchers at Stanford University have developed software that allows interaction with video streams of lectures. Students can use their tablet displays to zoom in on demonstrations or on certain parts of a blackboard, for instance. The Internet is perhaps no longer considered ?new technology,? but it is constantly evolving. There are thousands of websites that could be useful for language teachers and learners. Among these are Dfilm.com, a site that facilitates making and sharing short animated films, RedKaraoke.com, a companion to using songs for learning english grammar and usage, and Ello.com, the online english listening library. New technology holds great promise for education. However, even where it is available and reliable, it is no panacea. Like every technology, it will create at least as many problems as it solves. It will always remain important to have a good attitude, a good lesson plan, and a low-tech back-up activity ready to go!