That Trending Topic Called Technology

           Nowadays we live in the 21st century. As the impact of this, we are not rid of the technology. Technology is commonly used to make our stuffs are easier to do. Take cellphone as one of the example for this. Cellphone make us easier to communicate with other people in distances. It is not an exclusive one which has high price. Students at elementary school even have this tool. The same like cellphone, computer has became common tool used in daily activities. Technology has been helping us in many aspect of our life. Education, business, marketing, communication, entertainment are now using technology.

In this part, we will specifically talk about the role of technology in education. In teaching, digital teachers usually use media as tools to help them impart the knowledge. For instance, in the classroom teacher uses computer and infocus in delivering material to the students. It will be easier and more fun. For the students who are visual learner, using infocus to display the material can attract their attention. For the students who are audio learner, the teacher can provide them listening session. Those only a little a part of using technology in teaching. 

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Moreover, we will talk about language learning that is still part of education. CALL is common terminology used for language learning. CALL stands for Computer Assisted Language Learning. There are three main stages of CALL. The first is Behavior CALL which focus on students’ accuracy. The next is communicative CALL. Its purpose is students’ fluency. The last is integrative CALL. In this stage, students role as the agent of their need. So that students must know what they need for their academic.

As usual, everything has goods and bad. Technology in language learning has some advantages and disadvantages. Economically, using computer is cheaper than having classroom at school. Using computer as media for learning is more fun, and also flexible in term of timing. Students are free to schedule their time to learn. Also, it is good opportunity for students to practice their comprehension by communicating with other people in abroad.

Unfortunately, for those who cannot handle computer well, this technology does not impact for their learning process. For some situation are not expected, such technique problem also become one of the disadvantages of using computer. Economically, having computer is not common for low – budget school and low – income students. They can not afford this for their own. Instead of this, even they are low – income students, but study at high – budget income, they can enjoy this technology.

One thing that is still missing for is motivation. Is that using computer can give motivation or by using computer, students will lose their motivation? In term of there are no teachers give them. So that, motivation is still bias whether it can be advantage or disadvantage.

Technology make learning easier

Posted in: Technology and Language Learning