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ICTs in language learning environments have many advantages for learners because they help students to improve, nowadays technologies are widespread and accessible almost for everybody.  They offer learners new forms of interaction, with ICTs, students experience  communication and exchange information in a more realistic way, in forms that would be difficult in a non-spoken English culture.

when Teachers start implementing ICTs, they need to learn how to deal with possible technical problems that may occur during the lessons. they also need to know that implementing ICTs will probably be more time consuming and that it will require a great deal of planning and preparation.

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By: Andrés Riaño

It is undeniable the impact that ICT has brought to the education, the way students learn and consequently the way we as teachers carry out our daily practice. Therefore, it is necessary to be updated on this topic and being in a continuous search of

new materials and resources that can be applied through these technological devices.

The foregoing suggests a change in the way we as teachers understand education as a process that cannot be limited to the school but a process that goes beyond the classroom. This change of paradigm may imply getting rid of the different fears towards using technology and also to generate learning spaces in which the teachers can train themselves and share their ideas with their colleagues.

By implementing ICT gradually, teachers might increase the students’ opportunities to use the target language, provide students with more opportunities to communicate and also to help students be exposed to a greater amount of input.

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By Carolina Gomez

We live in changing world, every day there are different challenges we have to face. Using ICTs is not only a challenge but something we can use to improve our teaching practices. This kind of tools offer opportunities to have access to different resources, they allow the teachers to engage learners in their learning process in a way different from the traditional one. However, there are also some circumstances in which the teachers prefer to avoid using ICTs in the first place because they do not know how to use technology, in the second place because they do not like using different resources in their lessons or because it is necessary to plan the lessons thoroughly when employing ICTs. The learning and teaching processes should be based on the students, the school, and pedagogical practices should aim to understand and meet their needs, recreating realities to produce knowledge. In this regard, innovative teaching practices play a key role if they point to everything that students need if they meet the objective of approaching the school and teaching practices to the modern society and at the same time achieving students face up this society in a critical way.

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BY: Jairo Suárez

Dear classmates as a first module host I am very keen on all of your comments because it evidences our commitment with the education of our students. I would like to clarify that after working with technology in my classrooms my students have improved their reading skills and also they seem to be more engaged and motivated with the lessons. However, if as teacher one of our goals is to develop autonomy and self-efficacy, won´t there be a time that the students find in technology what they sometimes don´t find in teachers. Will teacher be replaced by a computer? What do you think?

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What makes teachers feel frustrated when using technology?  

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What makes teachers feel frustrated when using technology?  

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By: Yolima Escobar.

Nowadays we can find that many teachers are reluctant to use technological devices in their educational contexts; from my own experience I have observed that traditional teachers put technology away and avoid using it, they defend the traditional methods since they were taught in that way and they tend to imitate those models, because they found they worked efficiently and they believe it is unnecessary to implement different strategies. Even there are new generations of teachers that are reluctant to include technological tools in their educational contexts because it implies efforts, devoting long hours, exhaustive training and invest some resources. To overcome those misconceptions, educators, researcher and learners need to become aware and start this process now, procrastination makes people leave behind. There are useful strategies to start interacting with technology such as training among peers, exchanging experiences, having instruction by ourselves and varying methodologies. “Forget those obsolete ideas and experience with technology”.

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by Freddy Cadena

I believe that ICT in Colombia is something that needs a lot of attention in order not to waste time and money. At first it is great to read and to hear all the efforts that the government is doing to bring technology for the ones who really need it. However, what really worries me is to think that there are huge resource centers in rural areas but they are not working as they should be. Another issue to keep in mind is the required skills locals should have to handle resources in rural locations in Colombia.

I recently heard about a situation that is currently happening in one rural area in Colombia. What is happening is that they have a huge resource center but the electricity service is cut during the day for long periods of time. The question is the government' good intentions only go until giving them the tools or that entity should ensure the proper function and impact of all this effort? ICT in Colombia for the ones who don’t have easy access to technology is not all the time as romantic and effective as they commonly report.

Secondly, the challenge for locals to get to know how to use and foster the use of technological resources in their contexts. Once again the government’s duty is to ensure the necessary instruction for locals and to keep record of the processes that may take place there.

ICT in Colombia is not only for the ones who have an easy access to technology but also for the ones who live apart from the principal cities. People who live in rural areas need technology more today than any other time. Otherwise, all the investment and efforts to make ICT in Colombia a dream come true will not get to its end.

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Difficulties to the
integration of ICT in education:

By: Lucia Velez

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Difficulties to the
integration of ICT in education:

By: Lucia Velez

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Although teachers are accepting the challenge of using new technologies in our classrooms and convince students is not a difficult task, there are some prejudices that still must be broken. I have seen countless efforts of different educational institutions to promote the use of ICT in schools. However, in some schools still remains the idea that young children are not allowed to access to the computer rooms and work directly with computers since they can damage them. It completely contradicts the wishes expressed by the directives of the Ministry of National Education, because teach only about artifacts by arming and disarming them do not allow the real interaction of learners with the ICT. It is necessary that the children can take a mouse in their hands and can click on links or any other screen part that show in practice how a computer works to discover new possibilities in front of a screen.

In the case of public schools, some children only have access to such tools in school but if the interaction with the real environment is limited, and they received only theory. Then their practice is limited.This added to the fact that they do not even receive formal training hours in the subject. I have seen teachers trying to explain their children with old part of computers they often take from home. While this kind of limitation continues we will lose the opportunity to train them appropriately. (Something similar happens with the English teaching)

In my case, I support the English learning process of my son allowing him the interaction with the computers at home and this has helped me to identify specific problems in his spelling and pronunciation. So I always think of how many skills we as society are stopping in our children because of the limitation schools have to interact with technology.

I consider that the policies of the government are nice, but the budgets and implements are not good enough to face the necessities of a growing learning population on ICT’s. Therefore, as teachers we have to create in our learners the awareness of their use in order to improve the abilities they have and overcome some difficulties learning English using ICT tools.

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 Technology, education & family. By:  Laura Liliana Roncancio

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 Technology, education & family. By:  Laura Liliana Roncancio

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Many of us have reflected upon the impact and contributions of thechnology in the field of education, but have we thought about the role of the family to optimize or hinder the students' abilities to use it?. Perhaps, many teachers have done their best to implement new technologies in their classrooms but in some cases these efforts are fruitless due to the parents' concerns about allowing their children to be involved in blended methods that imply the use of internet, websites, virtual platforms or social networks. It is well known that the media has not only brought new challenges, but also new dangers for teenagers or young children and parents with no or little experience feel permanently threatened and are not ready to face this phenomenon, so they demosntrate two different stances, one restrictive and afraid and the other too permisive.

It is important that schools devote some time to educate families to make them uderstand the use of technology with academic purposes and the impact it will have for the current generations to perform sucessfully in any area of knowledge. in addition, teachers must involve parents in the learning process by giving them some instructions, asking them for consent before starting any project and explaining the importance of supporting and accompanying their children, no matter if parents are aimed enough to use technology.

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Technology:
the new age, the new worry!  

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Technology:
the new age, the new worry!  

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By Alvaro Bastidas

Learning through technologies has been the new challenge for the current generation of teachers. Most of us are conscious of the advantage of teaching using gadgets, websites, social networking and others useful tools. However, it is still in the air the idea that our students can use them for other purposes. As a teacher, I have found some parents who are worried about the negative impact that technologies have had on their sons. For instance, teens have got a kind of technology addiction. They spend more time “online” that “on live” real world, and this without including the spending time browsing dangerous information. As a consequence, the teachers’ new challenge is going further than just using technologies for teaching purposes, it is necessary to guide new learners’ generation on the responsible utilization of these. Even when parents must keep a strict control at home, it is also our responsibility to teach them the advantage of technology in a society which requires digital solvers, not only digital users.

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Traditional learning or Digital learning? 

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Traditional learning or Digital learning? 

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By Ricardo Calderón

Laptops, smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, Internet, Social Media. Nobody can deny that our educational field has changed a lot . And it is fundamental that the teacher takes part of those changes. It is the time to enhance the long life learning and admit that the technology is our ally and not our enemy. We have the opportunity to change the way we teach: videos, music, songs, podcasts, photographs, web sites, apps and a lot more of resources are there to help us. We can not wait that the government gives us all, we have to add our experience and leadership to give our students the opportunity to be more autonomous and organized in their life. The government goals are well defined but they can not force us to be updated. For this reason, we have to collaborate and participate of those strategies and read more about, be updated and improve every day our knowledge. Would you like to know some advantages of ICT? Read this:

http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/article-87408.html

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"Ministerio
de TIC´s” promoting ICT in Education

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"Ministerio
de TIC´s” promoting ICT in Education

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By: Nelly Avila

One of the main goals for the Ministerio de TIC´s from Colombia is to promote the use of ICT in education. For this reason, in the “Plan Nacional de TIC 2008- 2019”, it

has invested in technological resources to be implemented in public education of our country. Although this positive fact must be recognized since almost all the public schools has been equipped with technology to provide students with the opportunity to learn in a different context. The policies have not been as successful as they should be. This event is due to the lack of teachers´training to use it in the classroom. Therefore, these technological tools are not used to improve the students´ learning but to keep as museum pieces that can be used.

Although to be honest I think this is not only government task. Teachers’ concern should be regarding to be prepared to use it for their own benefit and their students´one.

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Impacto de las TIC en la educación colombiana

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Carlos Lugo Silva, Jefe de Innovación Educativa en Colombia revela de qué forma, el uso y apropiación de las TIC puede beneficiar a instituciones, docentes y estudiantes. Consulte más en http://bit.ly/1O9XrmF

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By: Claudia Benjumea.

Of course, we have to give our students the opportunity to become better learners but we also need to learn how to use ICT and how to implement the ICT effectively in our classrooms , and it is the big challenge .... to face that now we have available a variety of resources and new materials that allow us to become more organized and more creative. Using ICT could help us for sure to improve our teaching practice and even more to engage our students to learn in a very different way. In that sense there are not reasons to refuse to use it the idea is to try and try , and to accept that this new world uses technology everyday and we can not stay behind.

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By: Bibiana Velandia.

Looking at the image below, we can think about the great changes that technology has brought to our lives. We have been witnesses of the ways through which technology has simplified many things and how we have faced the challenge of keeping up with those changes. In Educational contexts, and as teachers, it is our duty to decide on how to use it if we are interested in adding variety to our teaching practice, and even more if we want to engage students, parents, colleagues throughout a meaningful learning experience. Maybe a great doses of creativity, effort, skills, courage, among others, could be helpful to be effective when using technology as a multifaceted tool to keep growing and improving as human beings in a more competitive society.

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The learners are familiar to ICT as personal use devices to communicate one another and to make they feel on fashion. Most of the learners have access to all tools and social nets. However, the real challenge for the teachers is to cross the bridge between ICT for entertainment and their use for learning. Perhaps it is because of the way in which education has been seen as an imposition from parents and the government or the wrong concept that mass media transmit. To face technology, devices and nets within the school context might sound odd for the learners.  Beyond of changing teachers’ methodology, it is necessary to confront all the diverse and rewarding possibilities that technology offers to the XXI century world. Thus, all of them: parents, learners, and teachers will have a better attitude to take advantage of ICT in new forms. By Diana Torres

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Convincing students to use technology might be an easy task, given that they are offered to work using the latest social networks or you, as a teacher, show eagerness to be part of what they love, games. Teachers can take advantage of resources such as Facebook, to encourage students to do something in favor of language learning. Another different and big effort is to convince parents to allow them to use internet, for instance. At state schools, that is something outrageous for parents, due to the cost it implies. We could always make use of what is at hand: the systems classroom, students' cellphones, a laptop etc. to make a class as motivating for learning that they would ask you for more

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While ICTs have gained a vast advantage and acceptance among educators, there are still reluctant people (not only educators but also learners, parents and/or administratives). As a module host, I would like to ask you a question for you to post here some ideas: How do you convince peers, parents, learners and/or administatives about the advantages (If you see any) of ICTs in teaching and learning?

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While watching a video

"Technology Integrated Across All Subjects Engages High School Students", I thought how different students are learning nowadays if compared with the way I learned in the past. Why not to give learners an opportunity to become better learners?

CLAUDIA ACERO

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Technology Integrated Across All Subjects Engages High School Students

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Using technology, students monitor their own musical and athletic activities and analyze the data and feedback to improve their performance. Be sure and click "like" if you enjoyed this video!