Using Technology in the Classroom

When I'm asked how I feel about using technology in the classroom I have to admit that I am pulled in two directions. On the one hand I see the potential for its use. I have so many ideas about using technology as a resource for teaching ESL students. For instance, I could use technology to do video conferencing with English speakers from all over the world to showcase the variety of dialects my students will encounter. I believe that real life situations in the classroom can be used to drastically increase authenticity of curriculum, which I am a fan of. There is also software that can work with students on pronunciation. Another idea I was thinking about is the use of a blog as a resource for my students. I could keep a daily blog about class and what was covered so that my students could choose to self study. I could have links to everything we did in class like power points, worksheets, maybe videos of discussions, so that way students could have the opportunity to stay with the class if they have to be absent.

But on the other hand I think about my students and then I get bummed out because they probably will never get to use anything like that in their classrooms. I teach adult refugees in a non-profit organization. The class fee is $20 bucks I think. Few of my students have access to Internet and so it makes me a bit angry I guess. I feel like they are getting the raw end of the deal always. They don't have it at home and our organization doesn't have a lot of money or resources, so we will not be getting computer labs for student use anytime soon. When do they get the chance to use technology?

Anyways, I will come down off my soap box now and conclude with saying that I do think there is a place for technology use in the classroom. I think that online learning can be effective in well constructed formats. I think if an online class is set up so that students and teacher are in good dialog with each other than it can be really beneficial. I think that teacher feedback helps students really get the process of online learning because it's one thing to have a rubric specifying requirements (which I think is important also) but I also think that in the online learning format, those rubrics need to be followed up quickly by some feedback from the teacher. It's hard to understand exactly what is meant sometimes when you are not face to face and able to interact, so feedback to students would help them understand if they are interpreting the rubric the same. In an interview, author Alfie Kohn agrees, "Positive feedback that is perceived as informative is not in itself destructive and indeed can be quite constructive, educationally speaking"(p.14). Also Alderman states, "Feedback is an outcome of evaluation, but it can act as an incentive as well, depending on the type"(p. 268). They continue quoting Wiggins (1993), "Feedback should provide user friendly information about how students are doing and how they might improve"(p. 268).

Goal setting (My personal example)

For this week in class we have been discussing goal setting and how to help students set appropriate goals. Alderman states that, "Goals are cognitive representations of a future event and, as such influence motivation through five processes. Goals: direct attention and action toward an intended target, mobilize effort in proportion tot he difficulty of the task to be accomplished, promote persistence and effort over time for complex tasks, promote the development of creative plans and strategies to reach them, and provide a reference point that provides information about one's performance"(p. 107).

When I think about setting goals I know that I have long term goals (or distal) as well as short term goals (or proximal). For instance 3.5 years ago I set a goal to obtain a Master's degree in ESL. I set short term goals such as signing up for classes, completing assignments, and getting good grades. Those goals were broken down into smaller more proximal goals but I think you get the idea. And now I will be graduating this summer with a 4.0 (hopefully if this class goes well).

This process is the same for anyone who wants to achieve a goal. First you set a long term goal (getting a masters). Then you break that down into smaller more proximal goals (completing assignments on time). For this step the more specific you can be about your goals the better. Alderman claims that having specific goals will highten performance (p. 116). One must also consider what obstacles may hinder your ability to achieve those proximal goals (possibly friends wanting to take you out drinking instead of studying) so you must have strategies to face these obstacles in order to be successful (turning off my phone and staying in?).

If we can teach our students how to do this process of goal setting we will be doing them an enormous favor. Through setting and planning goals our students will be more successful with achieving their goals and increase their self confidence and self efficacy which could alter their learning process for the better.

Attributions and Motivation

Have you ever given or heard a really good excuse for not doing well at some task? Perhaps a student told you that they didn't have time to study or do homework because their grandparents took them out to dinner? Maybe watching the season finale of Glee was more important than preparing the reports for your boss, but you told him you weren't feeling well last night. These are known in the world of Educational Psychology as attributions. More specifically Timothy Seifert explains attributions in his article, Understanding Student Motivation, as the following, "An attribution refers to the perceived cause of an outcome; it is a person's explanation of why a particular event turned out as it did (e.g. pas or fail a test, win or lose a game). In an academic setting, typical attributions might include effort, skills and knowledge, strategies, ability, luck, the teacher's mood or mistakes by the teacher"(p. 138).

So how do attributions interact with student motivation? Well, the key term in Seifert's definition is perceived. However a student sees the situation in addition to previous success or failure may either strengthen or weaken their motivation. Take for instance a student who is high achieving and does well on a test, they will most likely attribute their success to internal factors such as being smart or good study habits and their expectancy for future performance will stay high. However if this student does poorly they may attribute it to not having time to study, but since they are generally a good student their future expectancy stays high. Next, take a habitual low achieving student. When he or she does well on a test, they may attribute it to external causes such as a tutors help and their future expectations will stay low or they may attribute it to internal causes such as doing homework and their future expectancy will increase. If this same low achieving student does poorly, he or she may attribute internal beliefs like they are not smart, and their future expectancy stays low. (These examples were taken from Motivation for Achievement, by M. Kay Alderman) My next question is, how motivated would you be if you believe you will perform poorly on the next test? Not too motivated right?

So what we as educators need to do is shift our students attributions to something that can be altered such as a study strategy or effort instead of an unchangeable factor such as smart or stupid. This is called attribution retraining. Alderman states, "Many of these change programs involve two stages: (a) students achieve success; and (b) following success, students are taught to attribute success to effort"(p. 55). If we can alter our students' perceptions about success and failure we may help them become more motivated in the face of academic challenges as well as life challenges.

After I read this chapter and article I found myself thinking about the students I have had throughout my career as an educator. I teach English as a foreign or second language and there are definitely times when I see the frustration build in my students because of continued failure and then they stop trying all together. I hear things like, "I am not smart enough to learn English" or, "English is too hard." I have always said that if they practice they will get it eventually. While effort is a key issue to learning languages, these reading made me see that I need to be giving my students better strategies to practice with. I need to be giving them keys to success so that they can attribute learning not only to effort but also productive strategies.

Testing

So as an assignment for a summer class I am in, we are required to blog. I have never blogged before but I guess that any of you all reading this will get to journey alongside myself as I try to blog about motivation based on what I learn through this course.

Thank you for reading and for your patience.

Gina