T&T: Technology and Teachers

      Our time in this world has encountered with the most initiative technologies that is starting to manage us and will probably run our world. Even though we are at the very beginning of this technology era, we are using technology in our daily lives much more than we did 20 years ago.When I was a child almost no one around me had a smart phone. But by the time I was in the elementary school my sisters and cousins had smart phones. Now not having a smart phone is considered as a very weird thing to some people. Because nowadays most of our jobs are done with technology. So smartphones are the easiest and sustainable ones to use. We can collect and reach an enormous amount of data within just seconds. 

     So what is in there for us, teachers? Well, we are responsible for teaching learners how to learn something. So for instance we, language teachers, teach the learners how to learn to speak, write, listen to and read in another language. Along the way of language teaching process, we have used materials such as flashcards or coursebooks over the years. But with the technological developments, we have start to use technology more and more. As I mentioned before, reaching for data and knowledge has become very easy for us teachers too. Now we develop games, apps or exercises for students so that they can be exposed to the language. 

      In the early 2000s there were language labs. They were used to teach the students listening or speaking, it was basically getting students exposed to the language. In those labs there were computers and headphones so students could do exercises. Since 2008-2009 the Ministry of Education in Türkiye presented some app called DynEd which was alike to language labs. My sisters were in elementary school back then and they had the chance of using DynEd in English classes. Every week they went to the lab and did some exercises. Unfortunately, not every school had that chance or teachers didn't choose to use it. But now, every classroom has a smart board where you can find nearly every app and use them in classrooms. Today's teachers should use the technology and evolve with the technology to teach their students. 

     In order to learn a new language, teachers need to bring the language into the classroom. This way, students can get used to the language and they can start to understand it. So there are a few apps to do this I will recommend to you; first one is VoScreen. It's a listening game where there are a lot of scenes from movies, series, documentaries etc. and you choose your level then start to do the exercises. You get to collect points for every question that you get right and the quicker you answer the more points you get. In my opinion it is a good app students can use to improve their listening skills and with the competition style, students can get motivated. Another app that I'd like to mention about is LingQ. In this app you can find a lot of texts to read and sign the words that you don't know. You will have another section of unknown words so that you can check later. Therefore I believe this app is good to practice reading and learning new words.

Here are the links to reach the apps:

https://www.voscreen.com/

https://www.lingq.com/

   

                                      

       And this was all for today, these are the suggestions I can make so far but I hope they will get more and more by the time. Take care of yourself and don't you forget to use the technology because it's out there waiting for us!!

From Saturn's ring, with love:)