Conferences on Technology and Education

http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_unplugged.html
Is the link to a Bill Gates' conference on Education. "How do you make a teacher great?" is the question he tries to answer. He talks about statistics showing an increasing level of drop outs at elementary and high school levels in the USA. Lower income is closely related to lower chances to have college education and higher possibilites of going to jail at some point. This leads to a problem: how you make education better? and what they have found is that having great teachers is the key to solve the problem. Knowing the answer, it is necessary to find the ingredients to make a teacher "great". Gates mentions that it was thought that seniority (years of experience) or a master's degree made the difference, but statistics show that neither one improves the performance levels in the students.
On the other hand, a group of teachers working with the poorest schools have had a strong effect on the performance of their students. They are constantly told about it and therefore, they are always worried about how their way of teaching is being reflected in their students' results. Keeping people engaged and having every one involved have proved to make a difference.
He also mentions that putting cameras in public schools is a way to promote great teaching by having teachers meet to discuss on good and poor performance to improve themselves and give each other advice on how to handle some student acting out. Also, good courses on any subject, can be recorded on DVDs so any student can have access to them.
A good attitude is also very important in this process.
accountcenter.digitalsamba.com/join.php?id=c5af7c9436df2eecc7729f3e0fd97b9b&afid=&pw=&r=c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b is the link to the video conference in which J.J. Wilson, Jill Hadfield and Jeremy Harmer give their insights about the use of technology in the teaching process (the audio isn't great at all but it is worth listening).
First of all J.J. Wilson (author of "How to teach Listening") has divided internet resources in two categories: esl sites and authentic sites.
ESL sites like www.esl-lab.com/ are FREE and easy to use because it provides a pedagogical framework that allows students to work on their own.
Authentic sites like www.youtube.com provide a variety of videos which students will enjoy but it is important that the teacher provides a task so they have a purpose to watch them, not just entertainment, for example, ask them to fill in charts with information taken from the video, will give them a purpose. If they are going to work on their own, students should be given some listening strategies, such as:

• not wasting time with unknown words, try to guess from the context.
• listen selectively trying to focus on relevant information only.
• look for transition phrases like therefore, then, although to find when an idea has been completed, contrasted, defined, etc.

He also suggests an activity where each student has to find a video or clip and presents it to the rest of the class. They have to write a comment on it so they have to listen critically and then have time to discuss and share opinions.

Jill Hadfield worked at very poor communities in Madagascar where there weren't books and she had to find ways to help teachers be able to work without any resources. She found that the value of the relationship between the teacher and the students can't be replaced by any technology. In New Zealand she has experienced the transition from low resources to high technology, where smart boards are available and therefore all kinds to tools can be brought into the classroom. Links can be set to wikis, youtube videos etc. She has found that many teachers are not used to technology but thinks that anybody can do it and once you learn it, it has very positive benefits. For example asking yourself in what ways a 'wiki' is better than a traditional assignment -dominant students won't dominate- shy students will be able to participate, ask questions, answer without feeling threatened, it can help to improve the relationship with all the students.

Jeremy Harmer is considered as a "technophile", however he mentions he was reluctant to use power point, but after watching other people's presentations, he started willing to use it and considers it is a very powerfull tool. You discover that you can do the same things but much better, however, you must have something interesting to say so it makes sense using it. Getting involved in technology for him is a way of keeping up with life, making it interesting, exciting and being constantly engaged.
His worst technology experience has been when technology doesn't work and you have to go back to do things in the old way.
One of his best experiences has been teaching on-line discussions because it gives you the possibility to work with people from different places, sharing opinions, providing ideas, etc. Also, he is very fond of twitter which for him is a great device and which requires a good level of self expression, it forces you to summarize, etc.

So don't be scared at technology, let it seduce you!!