Use of technology in the classroom

Last Monday August 3 was my first class in the use of technologies for teaching English. Our instructor, Erik, presented a video of a speech given by Bill Gates on Education in which he posts an interesting question about what it takes to be a great teacher. The video is available at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjgefzz5t2M

By the way, I suggest you also visited the site: www.ted.com where you can access talks about different topics such as technology, science, culture, etc., a good resource for teachers.

A video conference with the participation of Jeremy Harmer, J.J. Wilson and Jill Hadfield was also presented in the class. These experts talked about the use of technology in the classroom.
Valuable insight was provided by these people. Jeremy Harmer talks about how useful it is to film teachers for different reasons, I think it is a great source for self evaluation and techniques improvement. There is a video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuG6jUTeQlw&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLA2FA1EEE51FF9C72

We also had an "ice-breaker" activity which I loved and I think is very easy to use in any classroom. Although we had access to personal computers and word processor, it can be done using paper and pencil. Participants just write their first name at the top of the page, then leave some space and list five words or phrases which are meaningful to them. When it is done, participants go around others' pages and write why they think that person wrote that word signing his or her name. Each participant goes back to his/her place and reads others' comments. Finally, each student shares with the class the reason for writing the words in the list.

To close this entry, I would like to share another video link which has interesting ideas about what being a good teacher is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jh9qkTK52w

By the way, did you see the film "Dead Poets Society", I think is an excellent film that reflects much of a teacher's essence!

Cheers!