Hi, dear readers! This time, I’d like to share my teaching experience with the various technologies I use. Those of you who read my previous post might remember the technology I used back in 2006—a cassette player! And it was something special for a small school that lacked many needed but important facilities.
So, after a year of work experience at that local school in Tashkent, my husband and I moved to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. And there I came across an absolutely new experience—a new culture, a new climate, a new teaching approach. I was invited to a local private school called "Hilla School" for Afghanistan refugees. There were students ranging in age from 6 to 45, or probably even above. During the day, I would teach children, and in the evening, I would teach their fathers. Mothers mostly did not learn the language, as in Afghan culture the majority of women do not work. But kids needed the English language without regard to their gender, as in order to be admitted to further studies at local schools, colleges, and universities, English was compulsory. Fathers studied at school to be able to find a job. And, in terms of technology, I was using a projector and a laptop in 2007. The absolute new technology for me was a projector. I was so unfamiliar with it and would be assisted by colleagues or other volunteers in the school to set up the projector for my classes. And I did not really use it a lot, only when we had movie days once a week. At that time, the key tools for me in the classroom were still the whiteboard and markers. (BTW, they also were new to me, as at the school in Tashkent there was a blackboard and chalk, so I found it extremely fancy and convenient to write on the whiteboard with markers. :D)
If we jump to the present, it is hard to imagine my teaching and learning experience now without projectors, computers, and internet access. Of course, I can run a session without the above-mentioned technologies, but once I got used to them and saw how effective they are for the learners and how greatly they save time and even energy, I began to question myself, "Am I ready to stop using them in my classrooms?" Or "Am I ready to start using new technologies like smartboards, Kahoot, Mentimeter, EdPuzzle, and others?". To answer the questions I decided to go through a mapping process and observe in what context I use the Internet. In the article written by David White and Alison Le Cornu (Visitors & Residents – David White (daveowhite.com) web users are divided into two categories digital 'Visitors' and 'Residents' (White, D. and Le Cornu, A. (2011). To put it simply and precisely, digital visitors do not leave track of them using the internet, just obtain needed information and that is. But digital residents leave track of them by commenting, liking, etc.
By looking at my map, it could be seen, that I use the web a lot for personal purposes, and the number of sources deployed as a visitor and as a resident is almost equal for personal use. For example, Facebook, email, messenger, WhatsApp, Yandex map, and GetCourse is used by me as a digital resident and for personal use. Interestingly, Safari, Google Search, Google Docs, Google Photos, Telegram, and Zoom I use as a digital resident and visitor and for personal and institutional aims. How can it be this way? For instance, I notice that in some Telegram chats, I am active and talkative, and in others, I only read the information. Youtube which is deployed by me almost daily appeared in the digital visitor part, and simultaneously it is used for personal and institutional goals. Another large number of sources used by me, but as a visitor is OK (odnoklassniki), OLX, Booking.com, and Wildberries. Finally, there are a few apps and websites, which I use solely for institutional purposes. As a visitor it is LinkedIn and Authenticator, Blog is in between, it is steadily moving from a digital visitor section to a digital resident. And work email is definitely utilized by me as a digital resident and for institutional aims.
Having summarized my usage of the Web assisted me in seeing clearly that the Internet is a very important part of my life, and teaching and learning are heavily reliant on it too.
Now, I would like to draw your attention to some disadvantages of using technologies for teaching and learning purposes. Let me first introduce the drawbacks of advanced technologies from the educators' perspective. Creating PowerPoint slides, or online tasks utilizing, for example, Google Classroom, Canvas and Edpuzzle is really time-consuming and requires much energy and effort. In addition, more detailed instructions should be given as according to Nurmukhamedov "especially for online courses, tasks and activities clearer instructions are needed, and they are important". Training for educators is also a vital element for the successful employment of new technologies. (2023, no page). I fully agree with the ideas given by Dr Nurmukhamedov in his webinar on April 5, 2023, and see the importance of organizing training prior to requesting educators utilise advanced technologies. Most of my colleagues are 'digital immigrants' and might not possess the needed knowledge and skills for being confident users of new technologies.
If I look at the usage of advanced technologies from the learner's perspective, I can state that new technologies might seem confusing, not easy to navigate and not user-friendly. For instance, many of my students told me at the beginning of the academic year that Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT) Learning Board for them was a challenge, and it took them quite a lot of time to adjust to the new technological environment, even though those students were digital natives (Prensky, 2001) they also needed more guidance while utilizing a new type of innovative technologies. Thus, I see the importance of creating informative demo videos, which can assist learners adjustment to the new technological environment for further effective and productive employment of them.
Let me summarize, starting from the blackboard, chalk and cassette player, and finishing with online educational games like Wordwall, Kahoot, as well as other online tools like Learning Board, Pedlet, Edpuzzle, Canvas and Google Classroom, and analyzing their advantages and disadvantages I can emphasize the importance of becoming confident users of advanced technologies as they are inevitably will continue being a part of our future. Even though at the beginning the above-listed platforms and tools might take much time to be familiarized with, their benefits like longevity, availability, mobility, easiness of adjustment and update overweight the disadvantages indicated by me above. So, dear readers, I suggest becoming more open-minded toward advanced technologies and techno-savvy for taking all the advantages of utilizing them!
Hi Kira! It's very interesting to read about how your teaching career evolved/ is evolving with technology:)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got interested :)
DeleteAfter reading the article Visitors and Residents written by David White, I realized the range of technologies I use in my institutional life is a lot more than I thought, and mapping assisted me in visualizing it.