Improving creativity through ICTs

Creativity is a quality teachers should have with or without using ICTs. The reality we as language teachers face every day is that everything is done but nothing is done in language education. When we start exploring the wonderful world of ICTs, we can realize that many sources have been created for us. Everything is there: prezi, slideshare, pearltrees, multiple web sites, facebook, blogs, movie maker, youtube, skype, an uncountable sources we might not have explored. However, this is not the interesting part; the interesting side of all this is the challenge that all those sources present to us, as teachers. Everything is to be done with them.

Being a language teacher in the past required to have a lot of skills: using the board, drawing pictures, imitate, show colorful material to students, find different ways to have them interact with each other, were some of the activities teachers had to do to make their students learn. This does not mean, however, that we do not have to do this nowadays; but the real fact is that we have mutiple ways to explore our creativity by using ICTs now. All the available sources could become useless if we do not use them properly. What does "use them properly" mean? Use them with a clear purpose, no matter what this purpose is.

A clear purpose is paramount. Even if we do not have access to technological resources, we need to have a clear purpose anyway. But if we have access to this "magic" world of ICTs, let's not miss the opportunity to learn from them and improve our creativity differently. This means that we are open minded and willing to learn anything that benefits our students and ourselves.

What does learning imply?

What does learning involve? How long do people take to learn something? We as teachers are learners and have had the role of students many times in our lives, so we should know the answer to this question. However, sometimes we act as if we had no idea about this. We tend to forget that this interpsychological dialogue we have in the first face of the learning process, followed by the intrapsychological dialogue, and finally the exteriorization of that information we have been given, but reorganized as learning, can take a long time; months, years. We do this when we expect too much from our students, when we expect great results without having provided an appropriate input, when we believe that just because we said it or explained it once, they learnt it.

Students usually trust us because we are supposed to be the ones who  "know", the ones who can make their learning posible, then our responsibility is high. If we are clear about what learning implies, we should be the appropiate mediators to make it posible. We should never forget the importance of that third phase in the learning process because when students come to this phase, they have the possibility to show what they have really learned. This means that our students should always know that even if mediation is important, they are the ones who finally structure their knowledge and do something with it. Our duty on the other hand, is to stop thinking that just covering the topics of the syllabus is enough.

The ICTs become very good means, but not the only ones, to perform this third phase. The web 2.0 has made interaction possible, a fundamental process in the appropiation of knowledge. When we have clear intentions or purposes, the means to exteriorize and show knowledge can be very varied. The most important is to focus our interests on learning.

Body and soul

I have been hearing about the necessity to transform education for a long long time. The discourse has always been the same: things are changing, so we need to adapt to these changes and proceed differently. As teachers, we have always had the compromise to move ahead, to keep up with the changes and the current necessities of our society. Nowadays, things are not different. We even have more challenges than ever as the machines seem to be "replacing" us.  Is this really happening? Are we going to let this happen?

One of the great advantages of technology is the interaction it makes possible, a principle that from the socio-cultural perspective is a necessary condition for the construction of knowledge. This interaction mediated by machines is also a strength to encourage respect for diversity; even more, when this interaction is possible with people from around the world. Therefore, our compromise as teachers is to open our minds and see the potential uses and advantages we can get from technology. Additionally, we should keep up with the speed of knowledge influenced by ICTs.

However, we should never forget that despite all the advantages that technology might have, it is just technology; machines are just machines. The education processes involve human beings with body and soul. A real transformation in education would imply not only the acquisition of physical skills to operate the machines, but a real awareness that we have a heart and soul to grow.

What are the benefits of including ICTs in our classrooms?

From the socio-cultural approach we learn that the interaction with others makes learning possible. Social interaction is a key concept in the teaching-learning process because knowledge is constructed and reconstructed through it. Regarding ICTs,  interactivity is a quality we should highlight, despite the difference between interaction which takes place with another human being and this one that is given with a machine. Are there real benefits in including ICTs in our classrooms? I personaly think there are, without any discussion.

The positive side of including technolgy in our EFL classes can go further than improving linguistic features; personal qualities can also be improved. Activities such as podcasting, blogging, producing cell phone videos, creating online learning communities, among others, have the potential to improve linguistic features such as listening comprehension, writing and speaking skills, even learning about other cultures. Additionally, personal aspects such as autonomy, identity formation (through social networking sites), the sense of community (through the creation of online learning communities), and the understanding of other ways to socialize might be enchanced as well.

However, it is not as simple as it may look. All the actors involved in the education field should be well-trained in technical issues, but above all, always keep in mind the human and ethical side of all this scenario. This is key. We need to be committed in our formation and improvement as human beings before undertaking any pedagogical activity. ICT might become a wonderful way to socialize and learn, but without forgetting its wise and sensible use.

Finding the sense of ICTs' role in education

As professionals in the field of education we have huge responsiblities as we work with human beings who usually trust us. With regard to this wonderful and "scaring" world of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), nobody can deny that it brings lots of changes and challenges to all of us. Therefore, we need to be open-minded enough to understand what being in this world implies. Once we understand that we cannot get away and just neglect it, we must start seeing the potential uses of ICTs to take advantage of them. However, we should also be aware of the threatens they might have in order to make right decisions in relation to their use.

This world of ICTs changes our role as teachers and our students' as well. It is important to remember that  the advent of socio-cultural and socio-critical approaches had a purpose. They showed the relevance of changing these roles. It became paramount to move from just being transmissors and recipients of knowledge to be facilitators and active and autonomous learners. So, if we compare the abstract subject of the mass culture with the "active" subject of the media culture, we have to recognize that there is an advantage in the latest. 

The flexibility, interactivity, innovation, diversity and the way relations are established through ICTs can be seen as qualities; then the potential uses cannot be disregarded.  However, as professionals we should be able to take a critical stance in relation to this because ICTs can become a way to be manipulated as well. As a result, we might go back and become the abstract and passive subjects of the mass culture but in a different way. In conclusion, the responsible and conscious use of these technologies is what we have to pursue.

Astrid

Welcome!

Hi, welcome to my blog.
Hope to learn a lot from all of you, as I have so far.
Feel free to make any comment. I will appreciate it.
Astrid