TECHNOLOGIES IN MY CLASSROOM

As digital  natives, today's students have instigated a transformation of the learning process. The Internet and immersive user-generated online worlds are changing the way that students gather and process information in all aspects of their lives

In this new era the link between higher education and 21^st century skills as collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, autonomous learning and social interaction are essential. However, we see a huge gap between these two.  In formal education the characteristics of the ‘’digital natives’’ generation are not taken into consideration. The significance of networks and collaboration, the working environment and the development of information technology takes place at a speed that has no match in history. Digital natives are required to have new types of skills to be successful in the evolving knowledge society working environment. 

From the teachers’ perspective, they need to acquire the competences needed in 21^st century knowledge work and be technically prepared and aware to work with digital native learners. So we, as TEFL professionals, must be a change in wherever we would teach. We as a new generation of teachers are in a key role in building 21^st century formal education. So stepping into the world of the digital natives will empower us to find new perspectives to teaching and learning in the knowledge society.

Having first-hand experience with technology and becoming aware of the variety of the type of technologies make me think differently and look at the teaching and learning process from different perspectives. So we, as TEFL professionals, should introduce, raise students awareness of the type of technologies they can use and provide opportunities for the learners to become active learners, to be motivated and engaged in the learning process, an environment where students can interact, socialize with each other, create, explore, experiment and think critically.

It is really difficult for me to distinguish and name only some types of technologies. However, teachers in Armenia face a lot of challenges related to the freedom of choosing our own curriculum with much emphasis on the usage of technology. Also, we have to keep in mind the lack of computers and internet connection students may have problems with. So, keeping all the challenges and opportunities of Armenia in mind, we should more focus on using those types of technologies that are doable in Armenian context.

I will definitely use blogging in future teaching. Another types used will be podcasting, digital storytelling, Open Educational Resource, Google education applications, edmodo, etc. So, we should not fix on one type of technology. We should always be in a quest for the best ones in terms of features and ease of using for students. Having a pedagogical problem we should find a solution searching and surfing one that is more appropriate for the students and meets the pedagogical problems.