Pre-Service Teachers/MA Students at University of Gdańsk, Poland, Review Books on Using ICT in Language Teaching (2)
collected by Hanna Kryszewska, Poland
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"Digital Play: Computer games and languge aims" Kyle Mawer and Graham Stanley
"Going Mobile: Teaching with hand-held devices" Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney
"Activities for Interactive Whiteboards" by Daniel Martin
“From Whiteboards to WEB 2.0: Activating language skills with new technologies” by Daniel Martin
Digital Play is a book devoted to those who are interested in the use of
games in language teaching. The authors share their expertise in training
teachers in innovative classroom practice using technology. Digital Play
contains three chapters, each of which, describes the theoretical part,
practice and development.
Part A discusses the role of computer games in society and its role in
language teaching classroom. In the same time, it dismisses stereotypes and
suggests some ideas on how to implement games with language learners. Types
of games and useful websites are also included in a gaming glossary.
Part B offers the ideas on how to use digital play in the classroom
according to the level of accessible technology. It is also a source of
step-by-step activities that may be used during teaching.
Part C explains the teachers how to integrate digital teaching with the
school system and further the expertise beyond the classroom. It suggests
how to manage 'digital classroom' not only in terms of desks arrangement,
but also when there is the absence of digital technology. The chapter ends
with suggestions for teachers concerning personal development and lists
some articles for the further reading.
Magdalena Heiman and Natalia Oborzyńska
The book discusses a very popular subject in our modern culture that is the
use of mobile phones. The first author- Gavin shares his experience on his
personal collection of gadgets and explains how our world has developed in
recent years. The second author- Nicky highlights the significance of
mobile devices in her life as well as in her teaching and training. The aim
of the book is to complete the gap, which still exists in the support
suggested to teachers involving the ways of using these devices in the ELT
classroom.
Part A introduces us to the subject of teaching with hand-held devices. It
also describes some applications that can be used during language teaching
classes. It answers the significant question on how to incorporate
technology across the teaching institutions and lists some challenges the
teachers may encounter. The list of mobile applications and short
descriptions of them is also included.
In Part B we can find plenty of interesting activities ideas. This part
consists of five chapters- from the first, which is analytical and involves
the use of mobile devices, to the staged and sensible exploitation of text,
image, audio and video.
Part C goes further, as according to the author, mobile teaching and
learning should be incorporated systematically and progressively not only
in our classes, but also in our institutions.
Magdalena Heiman and Natalia Oborzyńska
"Going Mobile - teaching with hand-held devices", Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney Colorful cover and good quality paper are a certain attention-grabber for those who cannot decide which book to choose for their classes - especially if they aim to use modern technology. Looking inside, among the contents, we get acquainted with five chapters and three parts (A, B and C), 120 pages in total. The thing that matters the most, however, is the content. What we can find inside are ideas connected with how to teach foreign language with the use of mobile learning - all presented in a coherent and visually encouraging way. Each part focus on something different - "A" - in short - is about teaching with mobile devices, "B" on classroom activities and "C" - "takes us further", outside the classroom to institutions, offering longer activities for more systematical use. As authors themselves further denote, "for several years now, students have been bringing mobile devices (...) into their language classes", however, many teachers still face problems with using modern technology for the purpose of learning. Having that in mind, Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney "aim to provide help (...). Grounded in our (the authors') own experience of teaching and training with mobile devices". Is there anything better than experienced teacher sharing his knowledge with those in need?
Monika Feręc
The book "Activities for Interactive Whiteboards" by Daniel Martin is about how the interactive whiteboards can be used in the classroom. The idea of this book is to balance tradition and innovation and its aim is to help teachers in creating a new interactive learning environment. It is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is devoted to image-based activities and contains 38 creative ideas, that make the lesson more atractive. The second chapter focuses on 27 sound and video-based activities and the last chapter provides 30 text-based activities. Each activity in the book is described step-by-step and they are designed for Elementary to Advanced level students. What is more, these digital activities do not require any special computer skills from the user. Daniel Martin shows us how to use digital technology to enhance the effectiveness of learning. Definitely, it is a very useful resource for teachers who enjoy working with an IWB. The book
Marta Grzenkowicz and Magdalena Grenda
Activities for interactive whiteboards is a practical and resourceful position for teachers to succesfully and effectively adapt information technologies to the classroom. The book abounds with a great number of challenging and engaging activities which aim to integrate both traditional and innovative teaching strategies. All the techniques are divided into separate chapters according to the types of activities as well as subchapters concerning the level of students. Each chapter consists of a proposition of a lesson plan which explains in a clear and comprehensible manner how to apply the interactive whiteboard into the course of the lesson. The book is an extermely useful and exciting resource of ideas for teachers who just begin to introduce technological devices and for those who want to expand their choice of visual and auditory appliances. What is more, the position is attractive and eye-catching thanks to funny cartoons and clear organisation of the text on the pages. I strongly recommend the book for all teachers who are interested in using additional teaching tools and still want to keep the balance between the traditional and innovative teaching.
Paulina Szugalska and Monika Rudaś
The book is divided into four chapters. The first three are theoretical ones, in which the author explains what the key concepts of the book mean and discusses the pros and cons of each of them.
Chapter 4, which are divided into three sections and this chapter is filled with activities connected with using the interactive whiteboard in real-class environment. The group that this book aims at is upper-intermediate or adult learners of English. At the end of the book the author provided the 'Teacher's quick reference guide' which is a table that contains all of the activities included in the book with a division into level of the learners, focus of the exercise and how much time it takes.
Every activity is presented on a separate page with general instructions for teachers and how to perform them in class. At the end one can also find a 'Follow-up' activity and two variations which give some ideas on how to improve the classwork and make it a memorable experience for the students.
Patrycja Warecka and Piotr Szmigiel
Daniel Martin's book entitled From Whiteboards to Web 2.0 is aimed at secondary / higher education as well as adult English teachers, who are interested in working with their learners with the use of technology. In his book, the author provides his readers with detailed information on usefulness of interactive whiteboards and Web 2.0 in foreign languages teaching. Moreover, we will find here a wide range of various activities for all language levels that can be used with a numer of technological devices, such as IWBs, projectors, computers or even mobile phones. In order to make these activities easier for teachers to use, Martin applies three main principles in his book. First of all, the activities do not require much preperation time. Secondly, the suggested Web tools are user-friendly. Finally, the emphasis is placed on interaction in the target language and technology is just one of the elements in the teaching process.
Jędrzej Pawłowski and Wojciech Kądziela
Please check the Methodology & Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Practical Uses of Technology in the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
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