CHANNELLING TEACHERS AND STUDENTS THROUGH E-PROGRAMS: AN ALTERNATIVE OF MAKING USE OF TECHNOLOGY FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Nur Fatimah
Ahmad Dahlan University of Yogyakarta
nur_fatimah@uad.ac.id
Abstract
The development of science and technology has been resulting in a great effect on English language teaching. Technology plays its roles in such a way that teachers and students must get involved in.
Technology shares benefits with its users including teachers and students learning English at any levels of education. The writer of this paper considers the importance of employing technology in the process of teaching and learning. Through e-programs offered, it supports teachers’ professional development in terms of three different but closely related areas. This paper will discuss the three major topics. The topics cover what, why, and how e-programs can be utilized for teachers’ professional development and classroom activities. Through e-programs, teachers can establish and maintain professional association for different purposes. Students can also get similar benefits. E-programs enrich teaching and learning resources. The activities such as browsing, blogging help teachers and students reach such objectives. Next, e-programs (e.g. e-courses) enable teachers to share their understanding, knowledge and skills with colleagues through the cyber world. This can help the teachers and students as well improve their language competence. In addition, e-programs facilitate teachers and students to extend their networking.
Therefore, this paper will be divided into four main parts. After the introduction, the rationale of employing technology including the advantages of applying e-programs is explained. And the section after this will discuss e-programs in practice. It is to provide a clear idea on the application of e-programs that channel teachers and students around the world. The last will be about conclusion and final remark.
A. INTRODUCTION
The development of technology results in a big impact on language teaching and learning. The use of technology in the process of teaching and learning is inevitable. Technology plays its roles in such a way that teachers and students must get involved in. Teachers and students are now more and more familiar with technology. Almost everyday, many of them keep in touch with technology.
Before discussing further, the writer wants to clarify or limit in some ways, the terms in this paper. E-programs here cover courses or teaching and learning activities using computer, among others, the ones conducted via the Internet. Therefore, technology in the forms of pictures and images, OHP, board, bits and pieces, language laboratory as explained by Harmer (2001: 134 – 144) and in those of audio-tapes players to video are not elaborated. The writer will be flexible in using ‘e-programs.’ This will be used interchangeably with some other terms such as e-learning, distance learning, online learning, or open learning.
B. PEDAGOGICAL BENEFITS
Nowdays the use of computer in language instruction is increasingly important and often in demand. The limited time session inside the classroom and the load of teaching and learning materials make both teachers and students function the computer more frequently and effectively. Students cannot depend much merely on what has been taught or learned in their class. It is reasonable to think and then turn to or keep using the computer for elearning. The facts show that they have to take a national examination and finish successfully their study, the consideration to continue their study to a higher level of education, or the struggle for future life.
The minister of national education, Bambang Sudibyo, gives some statements in relation to elearning. It can change the paradigm in education: learners as the subject, not the object of education. The use of information and communication technology broadens students’ learning perspectives for they can get unlimited access to any learning resources (see http://www.diknas.go.id/headline.php?id=227).
Warschauer and Healey (1998) in Brown (2001: 145) state the importance of including a computer component in language instruction. It includes several points: multimodal practice with feedback, individualization in a large class, pair and small-group work on projects, the fun factor, availability of various reasources and accommodating learning styles, explanatory learning, and computer literacy. Thus, the language teaching and learning process enables both students and teachers to develop their knowledge and skills in English and in how-to-operate the machine (computer) more effectively.
E-programs via the Internet are also beneficial for teachers and students for they offer English which is ALIVE. ALIVE according to Warschauer, Shetzer and Meloni (2002: 7) is the reasons why English teaching is suggested to be related to the Internet. The first is authenticity. Teachers and students can access large amounts of authentic materials on any topic they are interested in and they get opportunities to experience authentic communication and publishing. Literacy, the next reason, is that this activity helps the users to read, write, communicate, research and publish the process and or products of language instruction. Interaction as the third reason enables teachers and students (native and non-native speakers) to get connected, to share and discuss almost without time limitation. And vitality in association with the use of the Internet can relate language learners to real use of language for they can see, write, and respond different texts or language exposure. The last reason is empowerment. Taking roles in the language instruction through the Internet will help the participants to enhance what they have already got-knowledge and skills for their recent and future life. Being literate and skillful in computer and language will be a positive point in this era.
Therefore, the teachers and students’ use of computer and their participation in e-programs allow them to work simultaneously to reach many different purposes. In addition to teachers’ professional development, language instruction in the form of e-programs provides both teachers and students various materials, experiences, and opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills not only in language but also in other fields of life.
C. E-PROGRAMS IN PRACTICE
Various e-programs are offered to teachers and students to develop their skills. Below are some e-programs to select. The Internet provides opportunities for teachers to develop themselves professionally. The programs are made possible by distance education online. Some courses provide certificates or degrees. Below are some of the courses the teachers and or students can join.
Teachers can join take e-programs for different purposes. There are some programs in TESL/TEFL with certificates or some on graduate degree program and some others in the form of e-courses, on line conference or on line workshop, e.g. : http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/seccss.asp? CID=244&DID=1716. Some take advantages for finding texts to equip teaching and learning process and for holding a learning forum.
An example of e-program is e-teacher (http://www.usembassyjakarta.org/relo/e-teacher.htm). The U.S. embassy via RELO offers teachers to participate in e-learning program. The requirement is quite simple. The canditates only need to send their CV and one paragraph telling why they are intersted in joining the program. Having been selected, the grantees will be connected with a university in America to join the course. As an example, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (http://www.umbc.edu) is the university conducting an e-course for teaching English to Young Learners. The writer herself got an opportunity to experience this e-course in 2007.
During the e-course (2 months), the participants must follow the rules. Some of the activities are reading texts, summarizing, discussing with e-colleagues including posting and responding messages from other e-participants. The participants are also made acquainted with some experts in TEFL/TESL and provided sessions to get their lectures and discussion. At the end of the course, after fulfilling all the assignments, the e-participants get a certificate.
To provide a clear description of the e-course, here are some more details on e-course in teaching English to young learners from UMBC.
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Chapter I 
Unit 2: October 5 - October 11
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| Unit 2: October 13 - October 19
You did a tremendous job in Unit 1! I hope everyone feels more comfortable with Blackboard now. Hopefully you have used all the BB functions and are ready for the next unit. | |
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| Lecture Lecture | |
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| Readings Materials in the Classroom with Children Optional readings: | |
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| Unit 2 Assignment 1: Student Profile Note: You will be answering questions, applying theory to practice, and developing a unit plan according to this Student Profile. Teachers should describe their current students. Those who are not currently teaching should describe a student profile they are most interested in developing activities and materials for and that they may have access to. Click on View below to download document for assignment. | |
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| Unit 2 Assignment 2:Journal Please submit this assignment here by October 11th by midnight EST. Click on View below to download assignment template | |
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| Discussion Unit 2 Forums Unit 2 Forum A: Welcome to the Starter and Wrapper for the Unit 2 discussion! They are so brave to be the first ones. Let's follow their questions closely and give them good responses! Thank you, Susana and Ruberval! Unit 2 Forum B: Create a new thread and post the main points from your Journal in your post. Your post should not be longer than one paragraph. | |
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| Checklist Unit 2 Checklist Use the following checklist to make sure that you completed all assignments for Unit 2 1. I have read the lecture notes for Unit 2 2. I have done the required readings for Unit 2. 3. I have written my Student Profile assignment and submitted through Blackboard. (Assignment due Oct 9th) 4. I have written my Unit 2 journal and submitted it through Blackboard. (Assignment due Oct 11th) 5. I have responded to the Starter´s questions and to at least one other person. (Assignment due Monday Oct 8th). 6. I have created a new thread on the Unit 2 Forum B and posted the main points of my Unit 2 journal. My posting was not longer than a paragraph. (Assignment due Oct 11th). | |
Another TESL/TEFL certificate program is a program available on http://www. teflonline.com/services.php#teflonline in America. The course takes about 60 hours to complete, but the participant can negotiate his or her own pace and on time. Depending on the participant learning rate, within one to six weeks an internationally recognized online certificate can be obtained.
Furthermore, The University of Leicester offers individuals who want to teach language an MA in linguistics (TESOL), distance-learning mode. http://www.le.ac.uk/pgprospectus/courses/ distance/education/appliedlinguistics.html The participants who are teachers or others working in ELT with certain requirements get a series of core modules.
Sumantri (2007: 116-117) explains the project sponsored by the US Department of State for high school students around the world. It is to produce web projects that teach others about the importance of international affairs and diplomacy. ‘Door to Diplomacy’ is a collaborative project. For the project there are small teams consisting of two to four student members and up to two adult ‘coaches.’ Research can be both online and offline, and the results of the study is assembled to produce an educational web project.
In a more casual way, students and teachers can get connected with others learners of English as a foreign language through an English forum. One of the websites that facilitates this program is http://kangguruforum.digitaldevelopment.com/. Through this forum, each can read and or leave various messages. The topics included are general matters, learning English with Kang GURU Indonesia, KGI’s English teachers corner, PenPals, Different Pond Different Fish. Before joining the forum, each participant has to post his or her profile. The participants will get neither certificates nor degrees.
Some more common ways are conducting language instruction through e-group discussion. Teachers and or students can set a miling list or a discussion list to include all class members. The activities in such a gorup enable the participants to do some features like asynchronous computer - mediated communication (e-mail), synchronous computer mediated-communication (chatting, video conferencing) and hypertext (world wide web) to share certain subject matters. More information and technical procedures of realizing them can be seen in Jasmadi (2004) and Gonglewski, Meloni, and Brant (2004) and Kitao and Kitao on http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~kkitao/online/internet/art-prof.htm.
Some institutions combine elearning with face-to-face instruction. The elearning is conducted for administration stuff in the form of displaying the syllabus or materials, managing discussion forum . These activities get along with the conventional in – class sessions (see http://elearning.uad.ac.id/course/category.php?id=26). The writer herself in a simple easy way has been making use of emails to communicate professionally and pedagogically with colleagues and students.
Recently, technology is also applied by many committees to conduct seminars and conferences. Because of the technology, the input, process and output of the events can be widely spread. They can be national, regional and international level. Also, the information in certain fields of study can be made broader and or deeper. All prove that technology channels learners, teachers, experts, practitioners for various benefits.
D. CONCLUSION AND FINAL REMARK
Technology, in particular, the use of computer in language instruction can facilitate teachers and students to develop themselves. In addition to supporting teachers’ professional development, the technology help both teachers and students can get connected through activities, develop their knowledge, language skills and their networking. They can interact almost without any time limit to get access to a great bulk of information including kinds of teaching and learning materials, various e-programs, different forums and connection with other teachers, learners, experts around the world. Through true or modified e-programs teachers and students can work simultaneously to improve their language competence and life-skills as well.
REFERENCES
Brown, H.D. 2001. Teaching by Principles:an Integrative Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Dudeney, G. and N. Hockly. 2007. How to Teach English with Technology. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Gonglewski, M., Meloni, C., and Brant, J. 2001. Using E-mail in Foreign Language Teaching: Rationale and Suggesstion retrieved on October 5, 2006, from The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. 7, No.3, http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Meloni-Email.html
Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Jasmadi. 2004. Panduan Praktis Menggunakan Fasilitas Internet. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Andi Offset.
Sumantri, Nurdin. 2007. “Improving English Competence through Problem-based Learning Approach in ICT-based Class of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Yogyakarta Indonesia”. A paper presented in the Proceeding of the 4th International JETA Conference and Workshop “Current Trends in ELT and EFL Teachers Development” in Yogyakarta: Jogja English Teachers Association.
Warschauer, M., Shetzer H., and Meloni, C. 2002. Internet for English Teaching. Washington: the U.S. Department of State.
http://www.diknas.go.id/headline.php?id=227
http://www.usembassyjakarta.org/relo/e-teacher.htm
http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~kkitao/online/internet/art-prof.htm
http://elearning.uad.ac.id/course/category.php?id=26
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