From Daniel Martin

Student Voices on Using New Technologies

Rafael Mendaña, Gemma Miguélez, Toñi Amigo, Jesús Rodicio, Laura Domínguez, Spain

Rafa, Gemma, Toñi, Jesús and Laura, B1 and B2 students of English at Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Astorga (Spain) share their views on interactive whiteboards and wikis and write about how they have benefitted from the integration of these tools in the teaching and learning process. Their contributions have not been edited.

Daniel Martin, English teacher
Author of From Whiteboards to Web 2.0.
E-mail: danielmartin67@yahoo.com

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Interactive whiteboards
Wikis

Interactive whiteboards

Rafael Mendaña: I’ve been taught for years with an interactive whiteboard and I truly think that is an essential tool in modern education.
Behind this gadget there is a huge variety of possibilities, from internet to games or teaching grammar in an interactive way, with both teachers and students sharing the whiteboard and using its tools.
I would like to point out that I personally think that the most remarkable point is without doubt “interactivity”, and how easily you can run it, and make the most of the different options.

Gemma Miguélez: “You speak French like books”. This was told to my French teacher when she arrived for the first time in Paris. Clearly, coming into contact with with a culture and native people is still very important to fix properly a language. However, nowadays things are far different and the interactive whiteboard is a tool which came into the classroom a language with its variety of accents and registers.
Books tend to be dull and monotonous and with the interactive whiteboard teachers have the opportunity to draw material from countless multimedia sources: images, video, music… Students can check the material at home as well, what is a great benefit. Any relevant issue or piece of news can be updated instantly, for instance, the live broadcast of the last Pope election was followed by my English class and an interesting argument cropped up.
In conclusion, the use of interactive whiteboard in class only has advantages for student motivation. I encourage teachers to update with this fabulous tool.

Toñi Amigo: In these days it is almost impossible to imagine a classroom without an interactive whiteboard. It is undeniable that it opens up a world of possibilities to the teacher in their work. But we should also remark the great help that it brings the students. They don’t take a lesson from their teacher with a simple explanation. The resources of interactive whiteboard make their learning process more effective and faster. Thank to videos, images, games,...which are connected to the lesson taught by the teacher. In addition, there is no time for taking their mind off because the class turns out very entertaining and enjoyable.

Wikis

Toñi Amigo. Nowadays, another wonderful tool for education is Wiki. It is often said that to have success in learning a foreign language, you need to stay in touch with it for the longest time possible. For this reason Wiki is a perfect choice. The students like logging on Wiki and finding out new and updated content, information, useful links, comments, ideas,... from the other members of Wiki.Furthermore they decide when and how to participate due to its easy availability. Everything is reviewed by their teacher, in this way, the students never feel alone with their work. Keeping in touch with the class inside and outside the classroom gets better results.

Jesús Rodicio: I studied my Master of Secondary Education on-line so I think including modern and innovative ways of teaching is important to motivate students. Wiki includes some ingredients to do the education more attractive.
Our wiki is a place where we have all kind of information about our lessons, doing more complete the content of the book. We can find there Grammar, Vocabulary, Listenings, Recordings, Writing, Games...and always available.

Laura Domínguez: In my opinion Wiki is a useful tool for doing easier learning a language. This web application allows sharing a lot of information between his users, for example links of different practical things as listening or grammar exercises. Also it gives the opportunity to the students to write their opinion about a matter. It is very interesting because the student must think and write in English and then the teacher corrects the text in the same site. So it is a good way to read in English too because the result is a group of different opinions written correctly and in the same level that you have and you can read all them.

Please check the Methodology & Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Languages Using Technologies course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Using Mobile Technology course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Using Interactive Whiteboards course at Pilgrims website.