My First
Lesson Learned at ABLA 2016
“Living and Learning Online”
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Friday, August 26, 2016
Post 285
Is education keeping up with the new
technologies that are available for us to boost student learning? In spite of
the fact that we are now living in a technology-rich environment, we teachers
constantly ask ourselves whether students are ready to use technology to learn autonomously
or if instructors are also ready for the quantum leap towards the integration
of technology for teaching and learning purposes. My very personal position has
always been that learners are quite good at smartphone use and apps but not necessarily
savvy when technology is used for other purposes than social media. At the ABLA
Convention in Houston I met many other Latin American teachers who agree that
learners are not fundamentally ready to utilize technology to further their
learning.
A Technology-Rich Virtual Environment
Education and technology, especially
in the 21st Century, walk hand in hand to promote and sustain
learning. Our learning and teaching realities imply living in a technology-rich
environment that is here to aid learners in the building of their knowledge and
use of that knowledge to speak a foreign language, to develop skills and
competencies to perform new jobs, and so on. But how is technology used by
teachers and learners nowadays? Experience shows us that entertainment and
communication peak the uses of technology by either group. But how about
learning? It is undeniable that many people do use virtual environments
accessed through smartphones, tablets, or any other portable technology to
learn autonomously. However, a vast majority still uses technology for very
trivial, trifling, and shallow purposes.
Many educators have the pervasive
assumption that students will use technology for learning. As Bernáldez (2016) stressed during her ABLA presentation
abstract, “just because today’s students have grown up in a technology-rich
world does not mean that they know how to effectively and responsibly utilize
technology” for learning. But the same is true about educators who may not know
how to “effectively and responsibly” use technological resources to boost
learning. “It is a common misconception that today’s learners can seamlessly
transition from the routine use of devices for personal reasons to using them
for learning, research, and enhanced productivity” (Bernáldez, 2016) . But it is also a “seamless” assumption
that teachers can also start using devices such as tablets and phones to
potentiate learning.
Prof. Jonathan Acuña in his five minutes of fame during
Bernáldez’s “Living and Learning Online” presentation
A Quantum Leap in Learning: Are We There
Yet?
During Bernáldez’s
presentation, the adience was asked whether they had a Facebook user’s profile.
The answer from the audience in the ballroom was an almost resounding yes. Bernáldez
changed her question and re-stated it by asking the audience who did not have a
Facebook profile, and being there myself, I had to raise my hand to stand tall for
those of us who do not believe in a social media network as Facebook. When I
was asked to share with my peers in the room why I refused to join this kind of
social media, I got immediately reminded of the way people are living their
online lives. “What kind of online imprint are you leaving online,” I asked the
audience. “If your name were typed on Google, what kind of result would we get?
And would you like your students to see that information regarding your
personal life?” were two other questions I asked participants. In this business
of education, it is a better idea to have a professional online imprint that
can speak better of who you are and not of that other imprint that taken out of
context can be interpreted wrongly by learners and contractors.
But more
importantly than what Facebook represents for many people is the lack of self-
and instructor-oriented training that teachers deserve to make learning take
place with technology. What has been done by instructors to use technology “effectively
and responsibly?” Based on what I was able to discuss with many of the ABLA
participants, some instructors have been diligently working on their
development, but this does not apply to all the people who teach in their binational
centers. And what has been done by these institutions? In the cultural center
where I work, we have done a lot, and still we are not satisfied with the
results we are getting. Other binational centers are in the planning phase to
approach personnel who deals with students, learning objectives, and the use of
technology. But still the question that needs to be posed is, “how can our learners
be trained to use the gamut of technology that can be used to foster and boost
learning?”
Some Simple Conclusions
There is no doubt that the potential
that social media has is immense. We need to question ourselves why it is this
boundless amount of technology underused by students and teachers to make it
work for learning. The trifle use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on
will not produce any good learning in our students if their mindset is not changed.
The need for a more in-depth comprehension of online and mobile learning is
needed by binational centers, teaching personnel, and learners as well. If
binational centers such as the one in Uruguay and Chile do use this
technology-rich environment to help their learners improve their English
language skills, one gets to question oneself what “magical solution” they were
able to find to boost autonomous learning in hybrid language programs.
Reference
Bernáldez, B. (2016, August 16 - 19). Living and Learning
Online. 21st
Century Challenges, ABLA 2016 Houston, Texas Convention Program . Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico:
Instituto Mexicano Norteamericano de Relaciones Culturales.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Post a Comment