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E-Learning (article)

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How To Use E-Learning Technologies To Improve Educational Quality Of Language Teaching

E-Learning or technology in learning has become a buzz in the education industry and today it caters to the needs of modern-day learners. Infusing technologies in classroom learning have added to stimulus and enhanced learner's interaction within the classroom. E-Learning has a vast presence in almost every field. Language teaching is one such field where technology has taken over and improved the ways of learning.

Take for example, the English language. Teachers today use different techniques like movie-clippings, advertisements, commentaries, dramatics and more. Not only it makes the session much more interesting than the old book style teaching but also keeps the learner attentive during the class. E-learning has also changed the perspective of distance learning. The modernization lets the students be equally interactive like someone present physically.

The Teaching Style Then (Past Trends)

Language teaching has evolved over the centuries. Earlier the language was taught as a subject rather than developing a skill. The methods used then ignored the development of oral proficiency of the learners. To name a few of the methods that were a part of learning processes in the past include:

Grammar-Translation Method

Bilingual Method

Direct Method

Audio-Lingual Method

Structural Approach

Communicative Language Training

Teachers have been in constant search of more effective and better ways of teaching language.

Getting to Know the Current Trends in Language Teaching

Teachers today have realized that the old concept of teachers reigning a class with passive students. Today considering the need of the hour, language teachers today organize a number of conferences and seminars to create a platform where they can keep themselves updated about upcoming ideologies in the language teaching techniques and technologies, keeping themselves professionally updated and equipped with the current trends.

Current trends include a proper blend of edification and e-learning tools.

E-Learning Tools and their Use in Language Teaching

A diverse range of technological tools that can be used by capable teachers to enhance learning and teaching situations. These tools make learning more interesting, interactive, meaningful and stimulating for the students. These tools are powerful as they are capable of bringing a change and reform traditional forms of learning.

Internet, YouTube, Skype, Twitter, Smart-boards, Blogs and Podcasting are some of the successful tools that have changed the way language is taught.

The Teaching Job Sector; How E-Learning has benefited the teaching jobs?

Teaching is considered one of the best jobs and with the development in technology, these have also become one of the most interesting jobs. Online teaching jobs today are gaining fame and people with an added advantage of e-courses certification are an edge above the rest. Also, if you are willing to teach, but have a regular job you can enroll yourself for an online teaching program where you will be required to give classes once or twice a week.

E-learning has let no geographical barriers take away the will to teach or learn. In this era, to grab an e-learning teaching job, you should have an expertise in subject matter and networking.

Analyzing the job market in this industry, today there are a number of jobs that require the knowledge of e-learning. Distance education universities, even corporates and offices conduct e-learning modules to train their employees.

On the Concluding Note

The efforts of teachers and technology combined to improve the quality of education and learning attempts to emphasize a number of advantages. Though the use of e-learning is growing in language teaching, there are still certain drawbacks attached to it. Advancement in E-learning extends further possibilities of learning going beyond traditional way of teaching.

Easy access to materials, flexible space, time and pace of study and immediate feedback are some of the advantages that make language learning a fun thing to go.

Also, introduction to online teaching adds to the enrichment of learning a foreign language. Overall the advantages are numerous. But talking about the other side, there are some drawbacks that can keep the traditional method at an edge. The creation, preparation and uploading of the material is time-consuming and requires the teachers to put in a little extra effort that is required in the traditional methods of teaching.

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Using eLearning Technologies To Improve Educational Quality Of Language Teaching - eLearning Industry

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E-Learning or technology in learning has become a buzz in the education industry and today it caters to the needs of modern-day learners. Infusing technologies in classroom learning have added to stimulus and enhanced learner's interaction within the classroom. E-Learning has a vast presence in almost every field.

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Children & Tech III

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Infancia y Tecnología, 3: No todos los gatos son pardos (ni todos los videojuegos son buenos)

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En este capítulo aprenden que no todos los videojuegos son iguales, y que ni todos son buenos ni tampoco todos malos. Saber seleccionarlos es fundamental para disfrutar de lo que bueno que pueden ofrecernos.

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Children & Tech II

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Infancia y Tecnología, 2: Con mucho tacto (Cuando las tecnologías son una gran ayuda)

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Children & Tech I

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Infancia y Tecnología, 1: Ventanas (Una aventura real en un mundo virtual)

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Esta animación explica cómo disfrutar de Internet sin caer en la Red y desarrolla habilidades para su uso seguro. Guía didáctica disponible en http://www.infanciaytecnologia.com/ Primer vídeo de la serie creada por PantallasAmigas e impulsada por el Foro Generaciones Interactivas, para niños y niñas de 6 a 11 años.

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BENEFITS (español)

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Beneficios de la tecnología en la educación

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Este video analiza los medios tecnológicos aplicables en la educación

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BENEFITS

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Gary Motteram, editor of the British Council publication Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching, explains how the arrival of digital technologies in the classroom has helped learning.
Technology is very much part of language learning throughout the world at all different levels. We are as likely to find it in the primary sector as much as in adult education.

I no longer need to make the case for computers to be provided in education, because computers are there in abundance in all their modern forms.We may see traditional computers in labs, teachers and students walking around with laptops or tablet PCs, and many people will have a mobile phone in their pocket that is capable of doing rather more than the mainframe computers that started computer-assisted language learning in the 1960s. I do recognise that there are many kinds of digital divide, and that this is not true everywhere.
What can put teachers off using technology
What is still sometimes an issue is the reliability of these technologies for classroom use. This can discourage teachers from making use of technology as often as they would want to. It's compounded by the fact that, if these teachers are working in schools, they are faced with classes of learners who may, on the surface at least, appear to be more digitally competent than their teachers are. Learners can therefore challenge their teachers, in ways that put the latter off using the technologies that could potentially make such a difference to what happens in the classroom.
How technology can help learners test their skills
In my recent book for the British Council, Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching, I argue that digital technologies are ideally placed to help teachers working with learners, and learners working independently, to do the necessary 'languaging' ( M. Swain) that makes their language development possible. We are talking here about doing things with language rather than just learning about language. Swain argues that learners can't simply develop based on input. We must engage with other people using that language, and try to make meaning together. Whenever I speak or write something, if I don't produce language with someone else in mind, I have no way of knowing whether others can understand what I say or write. Of course, I need to read and listen as well, but unless I progress to this further stage, I can't complete the process.

If we take writing as a starting point, technology in the form of word processors (and the many other ways we now have of producing text) allows us to work at the language. We go through a process of creating and re-creating text until it is fully comprehensible to others and is accurate. We can create a draft, show it to others and, based on feedback, can make changes to improve the text. The tools can also help us by showing that our spelling or grammar needs work, too. Technology makes this much easier, and makes it more likely that learners will engage with the editing process to produce the highest-quality text that they can. This writing can then be displayed for others to look at and comment on.

Trying to find ways for people to do meaningful spoken language practice in a class can be very challenging, particularly if, as a teacher, you lack confidence in your own spoken language skills. Linking your class to other classes around the world, using tools such as video conferencing, can give a reason for a learner to ask a question and then try to understand the response. It might also provide support for the teacher, too. The technology mediates the process, getting language out there and giving feedback that shows whether someone has or hasn't understood what you have said.
The benefits of technology in language learning that is integrated with project work
Another area that technology supports very effectively is project work. We have always tried to encourage learners to learn about things through language. Getting learners to do work about topics that are of interest to them, or topics that are taught in other parts of the curriculum (sometimes called Content and Language Integrated Learning or CLIL) is a great way to improve their skills. Technology makes this possible wherever you are in the world. Teachers and learners can go online to read or listen to material about different areas of interest, and can then write or speak about what they have discovered, telling others in the class or other classes elsewhere in the world.

In the book, there are plenty of examples of case studies of teachers doing these kinds of activities, so you can see how technology can be effectively used to support the language development process.
The publication Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching was presented at a British Council seminar for English language teachers in the UK yesterday. Book your seat at our next seminar in the UK.

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The benefits of new technology in language learning

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Gary Motteram, editor of the British Council publication Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching, explains how the arrival of digital technologies in the classroom has helped learning. Technology is very much part of language learning throughout the world at all different levels.