New Technologies for New Generation

In my opinion  New Technologies course is one of the most informative courses that I have  taken so far.  As a previous English language teacher in one of Armenian small towns, Etchmiadzin school, I used to teach  based on the curriculum offered by our school methodologists.  That was  fine for me at that time. But now when I look back after getting familiar with so many technological innovations and tools I am  deeply disappointed.  Now it is really unacceptable for me to teach English language without integrating technology. As technology  and its applications in the language classroom has been a "hot topic" in the language teaching world for a number of years (Levy & Stockwell,2006). If I compare my perception of the technological innovations at the beginning of this course and at the end for sure it has changed a lot. Based on readings and class discussions in my previous post I was sharing ideas and experience connected with several technologies such as:

•   Digital children, which surprised me a lot as I was not expected to see such technologically developed kids.
•   Wikis where we created story collaboratively, for sure I will use that during my teaching experience.
•  Podcasts were not so unknown as we used that last year, but it was very interesting to cover that topic once again.
•  Storytelling and video making  was one of the best experiences. Even now I  watched the video created by our group.
• Then we talked about Google Apps and Cloud technology which is completely unknown for me.
• We also talked about video games which in many cases can be harmful for kids, so parents and we as future teachers should be very attentive choosing proper games. Even educational games should be chosen  very carefully.
• The hardest topic was about VLEs /ELMs and PLEs  as it was difficult or me to differentiate those two environments at the beginning. 
• Distance education was also interesting comparing with face to face. So we discussed some other technologies which I have discussed in my previous posts. I strongly believe that I will use all those technologies during my classes. By all means these technologies support teachers and empowers them to be better educators  and walk along with the 21 st century students.It is really impossible to teach  English language without integrating technology .Many Armenian universities do so and I am deeply  disappointed about that. I hope that one that many Armenian teachers  will use technology during classes and do not be frustrated as many times lack of technological knowledge is a problem. 

Link for the 1^st image: http://www.google.com/imgres?start=185&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=5WkDXYAzW2M8ZM:&imgrefurl=http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/the_new_professional.html&docid=eiLNsE7Z4GgYIM&imgurl=http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/assets_c/2012/05/OldProfessionalNewProfessional2-thumb-580x287-1713.jpg&w=580&h=287&ei=dYa_UL2vHKTLmgXyqIGQBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=178&vpy=311&dur=606&hovh=150&hovw=303&tx=217&ty=77&sig=109605187291664981752&page=8&tbnh=145&tbnw=292&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:99,s:100,i:301

Link for the 2^nd image; A&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=727&sig=109605187291664981752&page=1&tbnh=143&tbnw=143&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:0,i:132&tx=61&ty=71

Google Apps for Education and Cloud technologies

 To my mind nowadays teachers should do their best in order to integrate Blogging, Wikis, Google docs or digital storytelling  during classes, as in the 21 st century children become the creators  not just receivers of knowledge (Kuang-wu Lee, 2000). 
 In previous posts I talked about academic and learning  analytics which was also very informative  and new topic for me. Today`s post will be reflected on Google Apps for Education and Cloud technologies again unknown for me before this course. Firstly let`s define Google Apps. According to the Technology Dictionary Google Apps is a relatively new “online computing environment” with applications that can be used in the home or office. Google Apps  operates differently than most of the traditional systems many of us have been taught for decades, and is somehow free to use. So  “Google Apps is an online suite of communication and collaboration tools”. So I will talk  Ggoogle apps like: Google Book Search, Google Maps and Google image.

• Google Book Search allows people  to search the full texts and growing index of books, from popular titles to old, out-of-print and public domain volumes. Most of I like this google apps as  I was able to  find a needed  book, which was  Great Expectations: By Charles Dickens and I wrote a review on that book it was interesting. I am sure the EFL learners  will be very happy using this apps. The advantages of Google Book search also is that it enhances students’ research by allowing them to access information from thousands of books with one quick search.
• Google Image Search is really very useful apps. Here by simply typing the name of needed  image you will find many related pictures and use them. I like this app as by typing you can only see the images related to your search, no other  pictures will appear on the screen.   
• Google Maps  is an intuitive service for navigating global maps information. The main advantage of this apps is that geographical destination is not a problem here. Students from the USA or other countries can study through it. Also Google Maps is an online application, so there's no downloading required. In conclusion I would say that all those apps I a going to use in my future teaching and integrate  them during classes.

Now I will reflect on Cloud computing.

According to Pelletier (2009), Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet). The main advantage of cloud computing is that it is more reliable, more scalable and more secure. It`s one app that everyone shares. Here you do not but hard wares and soft wares you only need to subscribe monthly and pay for what you use. No one system is perfect for every association, so there  are pros and cons to every technology, and the potential cost savings of working in the cloud don't come without their own costs. 

The main benefits of cloud computing are:

•   Flexibility
•  The improvement of  accessibility 
•        Reduce spending on technology infrastructure
•      Minimize licensing new software  and so on.

In conclusion I would say that the usage of different Google apps is really a great idea and I will do that for sure. I really want my students to be multilitarte. 

       

Link for the 1 st image : http://www.flickr.com/photos/adriarichards/3285777403/

Link for the 2 nd image http://www.google.com/imgres?start=107&num=10&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=KFGudmCO1-EwSM:&imgrefurl=http://cloudtp.com/thought-leadership/white-papers&docid=0tZOB4i5XSdITM&imgurl=http://cloudtp.com/system/images/BAhbB1sHOgZmIjQyMDExLzA2LzAyLzEwLzQ2LzI2LzUxNC9DbG91ZEJ1aWxkaW5nQmxvY2tzLmpwZ1sIOgZwOgp0aHVtYiINNDUweDQ1MD4/CloudBuildingBlocks.jpg&w=450&h=353&ei=m9O8ULfsJ43mmAWw4YC4Bw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=248&dur=3101&hovh=199&hovw=254&tx=140&ty=83&sig=109605187291664981752&page=5&tbnh=129&tbnw=192&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:20,s:100,i:64