Read the following extract:
A professor at university, worried about his sudden trip and afraid of not arriving on time for his following class, decided to tape it on video. He informed his assistant about this situation and gave him clear instructions on what to do in case he was not back on time for the class. The assistant promised to take over the situation and show the video to his students.
As predicted, the professor was delayed and arrived late for his class. Anyway, he decided to come around to check that everything was in order and to take over the class at least in the last minutes. While he was walking along the corridors, he felt an awkward silence. It seemed that all the students were concentrated on the video lesson. “Everything has worked well,” he thought. But when he was getting closer to the classroom, the silence around it intrigued him a lot so he decided to open the door. To his utter surprise, he could see that the video was on but there was nobody there; only thirty tape-recorders on the students’ seats.
Now reflect on the following issues:
What would you say are the problem/s that this narration puts forward?
What place does this teacher give to technology in the classroom?
Reflecting on our role as Teachers 
I think that the teacher should work with technology,it’s an important tool but the main problem in this class was that the teacher wasn’t there so the students decided to do the same thing.The teacher must stay with the students while they are watching the video in order to explain it,to discuss.
Good point
I think the teacher is only using technology for education and he/she should use it in an educational way.The teacher used the video only to stand for him but the students enyoy the contact with a real life person and that is very important in order to teach.
This narration puts forward the beliefs of this teacher regarding technology. I think he/she sees his/her pupils as pasive learners that only need to receive information and education through transmission.
Very interesting reflexion, Mónica.
I think technology is a great tool for education,but students are not computers who only receive information,they are active learners who need to interact with the teacher in order to process the information and infer it.In this case,the teacher did not want his students to miss the lesson so he thought the video was a good idea but he forgot the students” needs.
I agree with you.
We can use technology in our lessons. It is a very practical tool. But we can´t give the whole lesson through it.
In this case, the teacher thought that a video could replace him. But that is not enough because the students have to interact with the teacher. They have to express their opinions, their doubts and the teacher has to listen to them and give them an answer. I think that is the idea of a class. Otherwise, we would learn just being in front of a tape-recorder or a computer.
I agree with my partners, I think that technology can help us a lot but we have to know how to use it and we do not have to forget that we are the teachers and we are the responsibles for their education. As Erica said They are humans and we are humans, too so they have to interact with us in order to assimilate and accommodate the new information. When we talk about the learning process we have to take into account that the teacher, the students and the learning are necessary to achieve our goals.
Not always techology is the best we can use in our classroom. Some of us like the classes where students can interact directly( face to face. touching each other, hearing their voices) and not interact with a machine. But I`m in favour of technology in the classroom when we do some written practice, as in most of the net activities sts can correct themselves on the spot or those shy, ask for help without feeling embarrased
I think that we should use technology as a resource, but we have to keep in mind that the main one is the teacher. In this case the students got bored or uninterested because they were just listening and watching a video; they couldn´t ask questions, they couldn´t agree or disagree, they were in the position of receiving what the video said.
Another thing as regards using technology in our classroom is to choose very carefully what we are going to use, what video, movie, computer programme, etc, because most of the times students think they are just going to the ICT classroom to waste time, and we should prove that we can change the environment, learn and most of the times have fun at the same time.
I thing that technology is a very important tool for teachers nowadays,especially to catch students’ attention. But the teacher has to be there for the students, answering and helping them to develop and improve their knowledge.
Again we go back to previous points… What about interaction and communication? This teacher probably dindn’t want his students to miss their class. But watching a video without any purpose is really useless and the students probably felt they were wasting their time. So, I think that, in this case, the teacher was not successful in making a good use of technology.
Technology is a good tool to help learners get involved in different tasks as they give their full attention to what they are seeing and hearing in a relaxed way, but the teacher has an irreplaceable role to play in her students’ development. Unlike a video, the teacher has awareness of how individuals and groups think and feel within the class. Moreover, she/he can help her students develop understanding of and knowledge of the material in use but in this case there is no doubt that if the teacher doesn’t work with the students, interaction is omitted and she/he can’t get information from her students’ feedback and the students can’t find a real purpose in the activity.
The students responded to the professor in the same way as he behaved with them: they were absent when he arrived. They were not in the classroom because he was not there and the video only gave to them an image to keep up this disgusting situation. I am not against technology but I think that teachers must take part in the classroom as a kind of TEAM MEMBER, the teacher who plans the lessons and participates while children are watching the videos, images, or other activities on the web. It can also be important for students to work with interesting activities so as to create a lively atmosphere for teaching and learning. What about the netbooks which have been recently provided to public schools? Students find these ones quite motivating to learn. So I think that it is essential to concentrate on this issue… how can we, as teachers, use this technology to teach a second language bearing in mind that we must use these machines didactically? Do not forget that OUR role is to teach so we must work hard.
Yes, the point is, as Eliana has said, to use technology didactically; I think that the article also shows that if you continue teaching in the same way, although you implement the use of ICT, the lessons would still be meaningless and uninteresting for the students.
THE PROBLEM THIS NARRATION PUTS FORWARD IS THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE ESL CLASSROOM. NOWADAYS WE, AS TEACHERS, KNOW THAT WE HAVE TO ADAPT OURSELVES TO THE NEW TOOLS AND RESOURCES WE HAVE AT HAND AND SHOULD INCLUDE THEM INTO THE CLASSROOM AS CHANGES GO FAST. ALTHOUGH TECHNOLOGY OFFERS MANY POSSIBILITIES FOR L2 LEARNERS, THE INTERACTION AND COMMUNICATION WITH THE TEACHERS IS STILL THE BEST WAY OF LEARNING. WHAT THE TEACHER OF THE NARRATION DIDN´T THINK ABOUT WAS THE FACT THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REPLACE A HUMAN BEING BY A MACHINE. WE NEED TO SOCIALIZE TO GROW UP, TO MAKE PROGRESS, OTHERWISE WE WOULD BE CREATING A VIRTUAL LIFE IN WHICH WE WOULD GET STUCK AND FAR FROM REALITY.
I agree with you on that.
I THINK THAT THIS TEACHER SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE CLASSROOM WHILE THE STUDENTS WERE WATCHING THE VIDEO. HE DIDN´T SHOW INTEREST AT ALL AND THE STUDENTS ´RESPONSES WERE THE SAME.THEY LEFT THE CLASSROOM BECAUSE MOTIVATION WAS NOT PRESENT.
I think that technology is considered as one of the main characteristics of this new century. We have to be flexible and we have to adapt ourselves to it. I believe that education is a process in which we can include this NEW tool as a helpful way of improving our classes. But there are certain aspects that will never be changed: The students need a real teacher in front of the classroom to fulfill the real process of education through interaction and communication. So, i think that this teacher may have forgotten about this point of being in front of the classroom to give feedback to his students apart from using technology.
I think this teacher used technology not to teach but to record a monologue. Using technology in that way, there is no chance of interaction. And I think that teaching has to do with communication and feedback between the teacher and the students.
In this narration the problem is that the video has no a purpose. He used this resource to fill a period to not lose a class, and I think the students thought the same.
Movies, series and documentals are resourceful materials for teaching. The problem in this narration is that the teacher was not there to guide and monitor the video session in order to fulfil the students’ needs.
To expect that students remain sit watching a video, without having the opportunity to ask questions and clear their doubts, or even show their own point of view, not only to the contents themself but also to the way in which the class was going to be delivered, is simply selfish and reckless.
Teachers need technology, this is an undeniable fact. But its usage should inflect a benefit for both teacher and students. Contents are available everywhere, that is another crucial earning that technology provides nowadays. Therefore, students can easily reach the same content that teacher was transmitting through the video, by searching on the internet, for instance. And the tricky consequence on that is that, maybe, students (same as the shcool authorities) could think that the teacher is easily replaceable. Of course this is not the message that the teacher wanted to send to his students. But, could we blame them for understanding so?
While it is true that technology is very important when we teach, we must know how to use it properly. The teacher thought it was appropriate to “give his lesson” through a video, he believed that students would be interested in it only because they would be dealing with technology. However, he failed. It is indisputable that teachers are extremely necessary into the classroom, they are necessary to accompany and guide their students, to create an environment where everyone can express themselves and resolve their doubts. Technology is useful, yes, but it will never replace the role of a teacher.
From my point of view, one of the big problems here is that the teacher used the video as a way to give students a monologue without any interaction at all. If the video was not appealing and interesting, students got bored quickly and that is why they left the room.
It is great to use and incorporate technology, but we need teachers to interact with, to ask questions and to have and exchange of information. which we can not have by just watching a video.