The Use of Educational Technology for Professional Development of ESL Teachers (original) (raw)

Web 2.0 technologies to engage and support the professional development of ESL teachers in India

Education India Journal, 2015

This paper seeks to review the affordances of Web 2.0 technologies to support reflective and collaborative professional learning of ESL teachers in India. The review draws on a large corpus of literature and recent research evidence to identify the principal elements and features of teacher professional learning and the underlying affordances of Web 2.0 technologies and applications. It examines how professional learning for English teachers could be supported with Web 2.0 technologies in general, and blogs in particular, through ways that might have significant benefits over traditional face-to-face teacher professional development. The findings indicate that there is potential value in teacher professional learning with Web 2.0 technologies.

Using Web 2.0 tools for teacher professional development: a case study

This paper reports a case study of an online teacher development programme that focused on familiarizing a heterogeneous group of ESL teachers with Web 2.0 tools for language teaching purposes. The study tries to find out how teachers respond to Web 2.0-based professional development programmes and the impact the use of these tools has on the programme. The findings suggest that individual motivation of teachers plays a major role in how they respond to the programme and the employment of web tools contributes to the effect of the programme. The most important pedagogical implication of the study is that Web 2.0-enabled online teacher education holds great potential in ESL contexts like India, but it should be inducted carefully and in consultation with teachers. There should be more research to gauge the effectiveness of such programmes

Professional development for ESL lecturers – a struggle to integrate ICT into teaching

Conhecimento & Diversidade

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) plays a crucial role in our daily life. In fact, students are considered digital citizens and have become accustomed to being always connected to their devices and the Internet. Given the importance ICT plays in our lives, education institutions nowadays have a duty to incorporate ICT into teaching and learning in order to better prepare students for 21st Century skills and careers. Although certain technological equipment may be available in classrooms, there are several external and internal factors that affect the proper implementation of ICT in classrooms. In preparing students to be career-ready, ICT integration is imperative. This paper will discuss factors affecting ESL lecturers' professional development in terms of ICT application in the classroom. A total of 61 lecturers from 12 non-English-majored universities in Vietnam voluntarily completed this quantitative study's survey questionnaire. The findings show that although ESL lecturers are aware of the significance of some factors affecting ICT implementation in classrooms, they are struggling to learn, to adapt, and to integrate ICT into their classrooms.

Using the web 2.0 to enhance the teaching and learning experience in the ESL classroom

Revista Educação, Cultura e Sociedade, 2015

The use of technology in the classroom setting has been used successfully throughout the years. Plenty of English as Second Language (ESL) students had benefitted from this in order to achieve fluency. Nowadays, ESL instructors are integrating the Web 2.0 in to the classroom setting. According to O'Reilly (2005), this type of technology empowers the end user. Based on this, educators use the Web 2.0 and it's core based on blogs, wikis and podcasts with plenty of opportunities for the learner. The Web 2.0 offers the learner with a variety of activities that enhance his learning and at the same time motivates him. Power tools are common in the Web 2.0 and enable the learning process because provide alternatives to the ESL learners to work with technology they know.

Being an E-Teacher: Preparing the ESL Teacher to Teach English with Technology

Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics

In response to the extensive use of technology in the field of education particularly in English language teaching (ELT) context, both the pre-service and in-service ESL teachers are expected to use ICT tools in their teaching and learning environment. It is important to have a closer look at the use of ICT tools and the ease of access to the internet to see the opportunities to harness the technology resources for effective blended learning. Recently, although many studies revealed merely to promote the student’s self-directed learning and the successful of CALL, it is the teacher as a key role to blend such technologies into an effective teaching strategy. This study strives to develop a conceptual framework for teaching English with technology. The framework delineates six perennial aspects of e-teacher development; they are; (1) teacher technology competency, (2) professional use of ICT tools, (3) professional use of the Internet, (4) web-based technology skills, (5) ESL teache...

Empowering ESL Teachers’ Professional Development through Digital Literacy

International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2018

With todays technology, teachers need to have digital literacy. It is a key requirement for teachers' professional growth in order to be functional in today's teaching profession. Thus it is important for teachers to have a digital mindset. Teachers need to be techno savvy and use available online interactive platforms in sharing their teaching practice. Advancement in technology provides opportunities for the learning processes as one is able to access various forms of information as well as share one's ideas through the use of multi-modal communication style. This paper aims to overlook at ICT as not only as a teaching tool but as a platform to exchange knowledge among teachers or instructors. Teachers can then creatively produce and contribute resources to be shared with others online. Raising awareness among teachers of the importance of digital literacy, will foster teachers' continuous and lifelong professional development.

The development of teacher ICT competence and confidence in using Web 2.0 tools in a STEM professional development initiative in Trinidad

2017

Technology use for transforming the teaching-learning environment has been well researched and forms a critical component in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Schools and teachers therein need to be well positioned to embrace curricula change and employ Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for teaching and learning. However, as in-service teachers may not have been exposed to STEM education in their teacher preparation programmes, continuous professional development (PD) is the avenue through which change can be effected. This paper describes the gains in competence and confidence of teachers in four selected Web 2.0 tools (Skype videoconferencing tool, emails, blogs, and wikis) while participating in a STEM ICT PD initiative. A phased approach to ICT PD was used in which an online phase bridged two face-to-face workshop series. Participants were 86 teachers from 25 purposefully selected early childhood, primary and secondary schools in Tri...

A Survey on the Acceptance of E-Learning for Professional Development amongst English as a Second Language (ESL) Teachers in Malaysia

Creative Education, 2021

Recent trends and advances in Education 4.0 have expedited Malaysian ESL teachers harnessing e-learning to facilitate their professional development. This paper investigates the level of Malaysian English as a Second language (ESL) teachers' acceptance of e-learning for PD using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Additionally, the paper examines the plausible relationships amongst perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, behavioural intention to use and actual use of e-learning for professional development. A total of 60 Malaysian ESL teachers who participated in an online professional development course were requested to complete a questionnaire after the course ended. Data collected were analysed via descriptive and inferential statistics. The teachers' responses indicated their levels of technological acceptance. Additionally, significant relationships between the perceived usefulness, behavioural intention toward using e-learning, and actual use of e-learning were noted. However, no significant relationship was observed between the perceived ease of use with behavioural intention to use. This paper hopes to provide input on how training providers could improve e-learning within the context of professional development. The limitations, implications, and recommendations are also provided for future studies.

1 Towards Web 2.0 Schools: Rethinking the Teachers Professional Development

2015

This paper aims at analyzing the Web 2.0 based distance education in the K-12 schools as an emerging phenomenon that catalyzes a new educational reform all over the world. Some pre-Web 2.0 best practice examples are analyzed in order to draw the main findings in the paper. The teacher’s professional qualification designed to meet the new challenges is considered as a key problem for a successful penetration of this phenomenon in the schools. It is emphasized on the importance of designing a life-long teacher training strategy adapted to the new achievements in the technology enhanced learning research and the new learning theories. Building social skills and competencies appropriate to work in a Web 2.0 based learning environment and other global ‘social software ’ is recommended to be included both in the school curricula and the corresponding teacher development curricula. Such skills and competencies should penetrate the curricula of any life-long learning initiative dedicated to...

Teachers Web 2.0 skills for professional development and education in the 21st century

2015

The evolution of society and technology sustains the globalization of today’s society and demands new literacies from citizens. Education in the learning and knowledge society is not dissociable from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), both as a mediating and potentiating element of teaching and learning process. It is crucial that teachers understand ICT and social networking as a powerful way to restructure the teaching and learning environment, as well as to rethink how schools need to work in 21st century. Data retrieved from two distinct doctoral studies revealed that teachers in non-higher education use Web 2.0 tools, including social networking, online office applications and blogs, for professional purposes. Teachers, in general, recognize the educational potential of these Web 2.0 tools and services. Our research showed that teachers are not frequent users of networks and that they prefer the generic ones to those of a more professional nature. Aware of the ri...