Why Technologies?

Advantages and disadvantages of learning technologies

Advantages

       Interactive – it can give feedback and evaluation and, unlike a teacher, never tires of giving feedback repeatedly

       Multimedia – it provides a combination of media (text, graphics, sound, and video) in one place

       IT skills acquired – students learn IT skills

       Student paced – students can work through the material at their own speed

       Variety = Fun! – novel and entertaining, and can add variety to courses

       Presentation quality – work on the computer is often neat

       Authentic – content of CD-ROMs and the Internet is often written by native speakers

       Real communication – lots of ‘community’ functions on the Internet such as forums, email etc.

       Storage – you can save work for future access and sharing

       Motivating – for all the above reasons

Disadvantages

       Technical issues – if technical support is not easily available, teachers may need more training, or be confident enough to ask their learners if they know how to solve the problem

       IT skills required – for software and the Internet

       Mixed ability and degrees of comfort with technology – both learners and teachers

       Student objections – students may have had bad learning experiences in the past, they may use computers excessively in other subjects

       Can seduce teachers – “I’ll get a coffee while they get on with it”, “I haven’t had time to plan a lesson – I’ll take them into the computer room” etc. Need to be careful about technology leading pedagogy, and using technology as an easy option

       Integration problems – teachers don’t use the equipment and software available

       Classroom management – teachers may have to change their classroom management techniques

       Accuracy of language and appropriacy of content on the Internet may not always be suitable

       Distraction – many Internet sites have a lot of distracting advertisements, and it’s easy for learners to get lost