Using Technology in the Classroom

Vasiliki Mavrothalassiti, Greece

Vasiliki Mavrothalassiti Works as an ELT teacher in GREECE. She is co-founder and co-director of Logos" Foreign Language School in Nafplio, GREECE, a private institution which trains both Young learners and teenagers not only in English but in other languages too. E-mail: vmavroth@yahoo.gr

Three years ago, I helped to set up an English language school in Nafplio, Greece. With my partner we decided to use interactive whiteboards for teaching, and e-books because we strongly believe that technology engages the student more and makes the lesson more enjoyable. For an interactive lesson you need a lap-top, a whiteboard and a projector. Also you need to choose a great book that you are going to use along with the interactive board. E-books with games and quizzes were also used every Friday, not during the lesson, as a kind of revision of what we did during the whole week. Students also had the opportunity to search the web for various projects that were accomplished in our school. In this way we put students, who are mostly teenagers, in touch with the real world and we gave them the opportunity to exploit and do research on their own.

Using technology in the classroom is also a great way to differentiate from other language schools and a great way to advertise ourselves. In 2011 when our language school opened out of 10 language schools that were in Nafplio then, only three of us were using this kind of technology.

After a three year observation project to see how students reacted to this method of teaching a number of interesting results came out. First and most importantly, we found that interactive whiteboards capture student’s interest and encourage student’s participation in the classroom. All the students in every classroom were paying attention to the lesson, they were enthusiastic about what was going to happen next time in the story we were watching and they were arguing between them about who was going to be first to do the exercises on the board. They were even counting how many times each of them stood up and did an exercise. This particularly happened with primary school students.

Interactive whiteboards are great with children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and disruptive behavior. I have seen these kids learning despite their difficulties. It is easy for them to cope with IWBs because they love technology and it seems to them that in this way the lesson is great fun. For the last three years I have a disruptive student at the age of 10 that with my help and persistence to repeat what we did in the previous lesson every time we had a lesson and of course with the help of IWB’s he’s doing really well.

The question that raises now is why don’t all the private and public schools use interactive material in the classroom? Is it expensive? Do all Greek schools afford to get one? Is it necessary? What do teachers believe about using technology in the classroom?

Even though we are in 2014 I can assure you that most of Greek schools don’t have interactive boards neither the language schools because it is expensive and we are still experiencing a great economic crisis. Teacher’s especially young ones, both in the public and in private sectors are enthusiastic about using interactive material in their classroom. Many of them have created electronic platforms with online exercises, tests and plenty of material that helps both students and teachers. There are also older teachers who have no idea of what is going on, they are technophobic and they strongly believe that interactive whiteboards are of no use at all and they waste student’s time and they are not necessary. These people don’t even know how to use a computer and they don’t really care to keep up with the latest technological developments. A good educator despite his/ her age always needs to keep up with the latest developments in the area of technology. If we want to be conscious and help the children in our classroom we have to be always informed about the latest developments in the area of education.

In my opinion using interactive material is easy. It needs of course training and research to decide what kind of material you are going to present to the classroom. Some teachers will need more support and may have to learn to use tools gradually. Teachers also need technical support when things go wrong. But don’t take my word for it, come and use it for yourselves!!

Please check the Teaching Languages Using Technologies course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Using Mobile Technology course at Pilgrims website..