ARCHIVED NOVEMBER 2005

I’m an expert – get me out of here!

Looking back, the questions seem to fit into two categories:
Given what ICT can do, how can we use it?
How can we use ICT to replace what we already do?

The easiest to answer were those that took an area of ICT, and asked about possible uses in MFL teaching. The Internet offers a wealth of authentic resources for reading, listening and cultural awareness. It is also a tool for real communication via email, messages, chat, or sound files. Websites for hotels or railways can turn role-plays into simulations. There are tools available for translating, checking, searching. Computers can take the strain for much of the repetition or correction necessary in pre-communicative work. They also offer multimedia possibilities to make interaction or presentation more attractive to teenagers.

The questions submitted asking how to use ICT to replace or improve current areas of practice were harder to answer. How can we use ICT to assess progress in speaking? How can we use ICT to find examples of the target language in authentic handwriting? How can we digitise existing authentic materials? Where can we find pictures of signs? It was frustrating not to be able to answer with a question: Why?

Gone are the days of collecting plastic bags full of timetables and supermarket fliers. Signs, handwriting, newspaper cuttings are perfectly good non-digital resources, but the Internet offers the opportunity to locate exciting new material, easy to copy into new digital formats and exploit in sophisticated ways.

I wonder about a third category of question: How we would like to teach in an ideal world – what role would ICT play?
As a now ex-expert, I’m looking forward to getting back to the lively debate on the Languages ICT Forum to find out what other people think!

Watch out for future Spotlight events for Languages next year. To access the archive, go to the Becta ICT Advice website and follow the links 'Ask an expert' and 'Archives.'