Vicente López-Brea Fernández

From France, near Paris exactly, I am wondering now what is going on in the mind of the ones involved in this mad sequence of street violence. If it is apparently clear that it started to provide a political response to the death of two youngsters, how come it has moved away from the suburbs of Paris to different French and German (???) cities?

Juan Carlos mentions Muslim integration or lack of integration in main European trends. Taking a perspective of Citizenship and putting it in conjuction with religion and the Bible, is it a coincidence that these street violent acts are mostly carried out by Muslims (or so is said by Mr Sarkozy)? Is my previous question coming from a white racist (unknown to me)? Why is it not possible to integrate different cultures and religions? Is this movement really a political movement?

I wish I had a clear concept of the ideology I have. Politically I should say I'm closer to what has been classically called "left" , especially considering the social perspective and consequences of all the activities I'm involved in. I accept the monarchy (though it won't be me who complains if things change, should that be an accepted change) and find democracy the best of possible regimes. In any case I find monarchy convenient being things as they are in Spain. I believe we lack a general common ground. I am skeptical of political parties, but have been tempted to change my perspectives by being an active party member. Any how I find staying outside of the political rat race a much safer world than being a part of it, both for me and for my family, my true ideology.

I refuse to consider this a political ideology, but in these times of change this is as much as I can offer.

I am an English teacher and have been that for 15 years. I was recently appointed Head of the English Department at the Spanish Lycée in Neuilly sur Seine (Paris). Formerly I was a Language and Humanities Consultant at the Teachers' Resource Centre of Alcorcon (Madrid) where I could have some experience in dealing with Teacher training and managing and collaborating in a Comenius 2.1 project (History E-Learning Project). My specialty is and has been Foreign Language Teaching, English to be more precise. As a member of the History E-Learning Project, I was in charge of the English version of the documents generated by the Spanih participating centre and my friend and colleague, Juan Carlos Ocaña. In other aspects my main contribution with my knowledge of English Language Teaching was raising awareness of the main problems that history teaching may have in non-native students.

From my present position at the Spanish Lycée in Neuilly sur Seine (http://exterior.cnice.mecd.es/liceo.espanol/) we develop quite a number of educational projects locally, but are eager to expand our work to international matters. We have a long and fruitful tradition of developing Spanish culture all over Paris and France. Moreover, the resource centre (http://www.sgci.mec.es/fr/site/centro_recursos/centrorec.htm)

which helps, produces, publishes and distributes materials for all the network of Spanish institutions

in France and throughout the world has backed teh project which implies adding a greater dimension to the project. Three languages are developed in our Lycee: Spanish, French and Englis. We offer the open participation of all the language departments together with the Philosophy department, which is the department in charge of that subject (when it finally is included in our curriculum) and the contribution of materials and experiences in all three languages. Definitely we are eager to experience and collaborate in such a relevant project, especially relevant if we notice the varied background of our students..

Let me add that the principal, and the governing body in general back the project. In a nutshell we have all our institution and what it represents behind our active implication and participation in the project.

Sure they shouldn't. But history learning has made me aware that there is little room for this, both inside the coountry and outisde. WIth so many learned minds in this forum, an explanation of the fall of Churchill in the UK after the war, the Kennedy assassination and other examples should be analysed or contrasted with The Iraq invasion.

I find there are different spheres of life in society. While state needs to provide ground for independence and autonomy in society so that individual liberties can be granted... provided this individual liberty is no threat to the society as a whole (police and judges may have a right to decide wheter some individual actions may pose a risk to society as a whole), individual faith (or the lack of it) must have room in a democratic society (should the previous risk be considered). Faith and its manifestations belong to the sphere of the individual. Social laws do not impose behaviours or faith patterns, but are to allow some flexibility in the beliefs of a community.

As stated elsewhere the Spanish resource centre in Paris will be in joint collaboration with us the Spanish Lycee and adds is dissemination capacity.

We have heard nothing from the project in a couple of weeks, but we keep on very interested in it. THe Spanish Lycée in Paris would actively collaborate in a citizenship project, not only because of the obvious fact that we are living such a concept as Citizenship (students mainly come from Spanish and French backgrounds, but we do receive students from all over the world), but also by the support of the Resource Centre in Paris, whose dissemination capacity )both via web and by publications) reaches all France and, as part of the Spanish network of education around the world, reaches all the countries where Spain is present: from Europe, to North and South America and Australia. We are eager to know if the project goes on and if we can in any way collaborate in the drafts of the project.

So very sorry for my delay in participating but due to the changing of buildings of the Spanish Lycee in Paris we have had no access to the internet. From now on I will be able to collaborate actively, should that still be a possibility.

Hi Vicente,

Thanks for your post.

So far it is not decided the definitive list of partners.

There is only one condition: three teachers training institutions must be included.

So far, Andy's and David's institutions meet this requirement.

We may well demand the inclusion of the CAP de Alcorcon, which seems to be a Teacher Training Institution, should that be a possibility.

Dear Citizenship team :

My name is Vicente López-Brea Fernández and to some extent have collaborated with the E-HELP Project. Now transferred to the Spanish Lycée in Paris we are eager to develop a project on European Citizenship. The fact of being at a crossroads in cultural terms (Spanish institution with strong French presence) and the multilingual environment in which our students and members live (Spanish, French and English) may mean an active impkication in the contents that I have been able to read, a product of you Worthing meeting.

Institutionally we would like to be involved and will probably be able to develop our website to include all the aspects dealt with within the project.

If possible I would like to know whether the experience we may contribute will be admitted or the numbers are closed.

Kind regards.

As stated when we were in Toulouse I send the contents of my presentation to the forum, including all the examples of what I considered good practice of ICT in ELT.

1. Start from the simplest: Word processing tools. (Treasure & Scavenger Hunts)

http://www.ub.es/histodidactica/webquests.htm

http://www.historiasiglo20.org/curso/tema9.htm

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women.html

http://www.elrebumbio.org/teacherzone/espa...anion/home2.htm

http://www.carmengomez.com/webquest/nature/nature.htm

2. T’s & Ss’ Presentations.

http://iteslj.org/t/ppt/

http://iteslj.org/t/ppt/usa_geography.ppt

http://www.hillsborough.k12.nj.us/edlinkspowerpoint.htm

3. Other techniques: Mazes, blogs…

http://ciberaulas.blogspot.com/

http://www.terra.es/personal6/jjflorido/ma...t/ghosttown.htm

http://www.stclaresoxfordonline.fsworld.co...mazes-intro.htm

4. Using tools from internet:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

http://www.teachers-pet.org/

5. Specific software: Coursebuilder, Hot Potatoes, Quandary,…

http://www.dyana.info/hotpot/quiz_page.htm

http://www.elrebumbio.org/materialasist/index.htm

6. Finding a didactic aspect of anything available

http://www.elrebumbio.org/lord/lord.htm

http://www.elrebumbio.org/video/about.htm

http://www.isabelperez.com/tesllinks.htm

http://www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/email/email-page.htm

"SUSTAINABLE AND VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE"

I feel that these two adjectives demand a narrow definition. It is not only a question of remaining in time (longer lasting knowledge), applicable (ie with the possibility of transference to other areas), appreciated, accepted and respected by the assessing entity. All these items, no matter how strong they may sound, are to be taken into consideration.

However I believe ICT can do much for the acquisition of these "two adjectives above" (which turned into an extensive number adjectives in the definitions I provided). I do believe there is room for adpatation to a diversity of students (catering for their diversity). ICT makes it easy to provide variety and variation, even simply considering the wide possibilities of "macrofunctions in word processors". The resources available can also be adapted to students with different levels of ability. The procedural "content" which is implicit in information selection or information gathering can easily be transferred to other areas, even by students independently.

I feel there is a need to extend the use of the tools available to such an extent that teachers do feel that an easy thing to do, thus letting technology be a part of their classroom practice.

Does e-learning enhance student’s motivation for gathering of sustainable and valuable knowledge?

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I think the problem arises at language competence level: can a history teacher teach history with a low English competence? Can a student learn history with a low command of the English language in the four basic skills?

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There's extensive literature on English as an international language and the contending trends of English as an international language and the new Englishes (the geographical varieties of English in the different countries where is the first or second language). I agree with Javier in the fact that what really affects our purpose is the implications of the levels of competence of both teachers and students in the foreign language as cosntraints to the effectiveness of the learning and teaching processes. In my view, there is an initial absolute demand on the teacher, but no less in the student. There is no chance of learning if there is a language barrier on either side of the learning process. For this reason it will be necessary to provide a background support for both teachers and students. School organization needs to be flexible as well. Reducing the number of students per class and maybe streaming them according to their levels is a possibility. Team teaching is another possible alternative. Once again I come to these simple conclusions:

1. There is a need (as far as Spain is concerned, and especially in State schools) of agreement by the members of the different didactic departments so that an adapted curriculum (lin language terms and, to some extent, in geographical or historical contents as well) may be used in the educational institution, reflecting the curricular requirements of the educational administration.

2. There is a need of offering a flexible school timetable or organization of lessons so that the language support for the non-specialist teachers can be guaranteed.

3. It is, finally, necessary that teachers do agree on their predominant role as educators in the classroom. I perceive that there is still a lot to learn and accept regarding class control and developing autonomy.

Another point is about propper methodoloy, What can language teachers tell us about the communicative approach? May it be helpul for a history teacher?

There is a lot to talk about methodology, but I would not dare to introduce the Communicative Approach to History teachers. As I see it there is a strong need of approaches that promote autonomy in every area. On John Simkin's thread "the student as historian: an ICT revolution" we can read:

It seems to me that the majority of teachers spend much of their time using teaching methods which are fairly ineffective. I suspect the main reasons for employing traditional instructional methods are as follows: (1) this was the way that the teachers were taught when they were pupils at school; (2) this was the way that teachers were trained to teach; (3) this is the accepted way of teaching amongst colleagues - i.e. peer group pressure; (4) teachers enjoy being performers; (5) the teacher feels more in control of the situation when traditional instructional methods are used.

The idea that students should play an active role in their learning is not a new idea. In the 1960s educationalists like Jerome Bruner argued that people learn best when they learn in an active rather than a passive manner. He used the example of how we learn language. It is claimed that this is the most difficult thing we have to do in our life, yet we learn it so young and so quickly – so easily in fact, that some experts in this field have argued that language is, to a certain extent, an inherited skill.

Bruner argues that the reason we learn language so quickly is due to the method we use. As we are introduced to words, we use them. We test them out. Words immediately became practical. We can quickly see why it helps us to know these words.

This method is very different from the way most subjects are taught at school. The student is usually a passive receptacle trying to take in information that they will need for some test or examination in the future. To complete this task effectively depends on students employing what sociologists have called deferred gratification. This is something that most young people are not very good at. They want their pleasures now, not in the distant future."

I would recommend that we stick to newer (how "new" is "new"? When does "new" stop being "new"?) ways to teach which aim at developing and fostering creatively autonomy. If you ask me I would propose humanistic ways as an essential element applied to teaching, the idea of the effect that affect has in teaching and learniing is illuminating in my views.

More info:

http://www.seal.org.uk/

http://www.nlpinfo.com/

May I ask in return whether the Spanish (or any other European national) government has compiled similar word lists, in languages other than English, to assist subject teachers? Such lists might help UK foreign language teachers and anybody contemplating teaching a school subject through a language other than English.

As regards to Spanish, the Spanish Ministry of Education passed a law where it established the requirements for the Spanish students outside Spain. This has a compulsory character for these students but it can help teachers of Spanish to what the Ministry considers essential. For the first level the vocabulary would be:

http://wwwn.mec.es/educa/internacional/fil...rup/curvoc1.pdf

For the second level the vocabulary would be

http://wwwn.mec.es/educa/internacional/fil...rup/curvoc2.pdf

To include all the information the curriculum for these students is available at:

http://wwwn.mec.es/educa/internacional/fil...grup/curric.pdf

As stated above coordination is an absolute must. If things are planned and departments collaborate we can start agreeing on the terms of collaboration (creation of -virtual- dictionaries with specific terms either for the class or the subject area, demanding collaboration from in-service training bodies -Teachers' Centres- so that non-specialist teachers may rise their oral standards; collaboration in the planning and design of the different subjects so that they may coincide in some areas of interest;...). It is, in any case, important that we do not lose sight from the specialties of the teachers involved. A History teacher does not have to teach English (ie, grammar), but uses this language as a means. The consideration of grammatical mistakes (orthography, language inadequacy) may be agreed with the help of the English department (If the language cannot be understood it cannot be valued) or simply by using common sense. Students make all kinds of mistakes, even when they write in their own language. History teachers do use assessment criteria to evaluate the performances of their students. These criteria tend to be agreed on by the members of the Department. I go back to the beginning: there is a need of collaboration and a need of discussion before we start teaching. No doubt there are drawbacks, but the possibility of learning a subject matter in a foreign language is in itself a great advantage (I have to admit that I am a language teacher

As stated above coordination is an absolute must. If things are planned and departments collaborate we can start agreeing on the terms of collaboration (creation of -virtual- dictionaries with specific terms either for the class or the subject area, demanding collaboration from in-service training bodies -Teachers' Centres- so that non-specialist teachers may rise their oral standards; collaboration in the planning and design of the different subjects so that they may coincide in some areas of interest;...). It is, in any case, important that we do not lose sight from the specialties of the teachers involved. A History teacher does not have to teach English (ie, grammar), but uses this language as a means. The consideration of grammatical mistakes (orthography, language inadequacy) may be agreed with the help of the English department (If the language cannot be understood it cannot be valued) or simply by using common sense. Students make all kinds of mistakes, even when they write in their own language. History teachers do use assessment criteria to evaluate the performances of their students. These criteria tend to be agreed on by the members of the Department. I go back to the beginning: there is a need of collaboration and a need of discussion before we start teaching. No doubt there are drawbacks, but the possibility of learning a subject matter in a foreign language is in itself a great advantage (I have to admit that I am a language teacher

In my presentation to the Toulouse meeting I mentioned as a requirement the need of contributions of language departments to teacher development

"I do think it is necessary to reinforce the links between the school members, and it is a must the collaboration among the institution departments to carry our common processes. This is particularly relevant in the case of State Secondary Schools in Spain. European projects are a good way to incorporate more and more teachers into collaboration, and bridging departamental gaps."

I do consider it is possible to find a link between different curricular areas. It is possible (in Spain, at least) to create a seminar on these issues (and be granted formative credits for such a task!!), and come to conclusions (this is a wonderful element of GOOD PRACTICE) to publish them or to let others know. If we are to develop intuitive, autonomous and collaborative students in a given field we are asked to come to common trends (respecting different teaching styles, but needing to lead to a convergence of objectives).

Being an newly-qualified teacher myself I find this debate fascinating. When I'm tired - as I have been this half-term I teach in the way which I'm used to, have witnessed others doing, and the way in which I was myself taught. Starters and plenaries often go out the window, pupils have to do things because "I told you so", and there is a ceiling to learning going on in the classroom. I'm not saying I'm a great teacher, but when I'm on top of my game I'm much more sensitive to the needs of the pupils in my charge and there is a much more relaxed, non-threatening and collaborative atmosphere.

As far as I'm concerned, so long as pupils are acting within an accepted framework, they should be given as much leeway as possible. Thinking along straight lines is something I've rebelled against my whole life. In my opinion, the average lesson should include less than 10% whole-class teacher input. The rest should be pupils getting on with learning

Doug

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If we accept the perspective that the teacher's main task is to facilitate "learning" we will set in our aims tha need of providing "elements" to learn (call it contents that develop objectives and are assessed according to pre-set criteria) and "reasons" for learning. It is an accepted standard view that more "teaching" time does not lead to more "learning". I believe ICT, on humanistic grounds (i.e., as a tool to foster guided and/or independent work; as a strategy to help students "face" the multi-faceted aspects of a given topic; as a lead to "unveil" knowledge, BUT considering that the use of ICT is part of a whole where classroom interaction, collaboration and respect for others in their capacities) can help and foster autonomy and can produce a good deal of collaborative work. Our role might be "leading" to the use or in the use of those programs allowing room for creativity, for collaboration and for extra-classroom extension.

Do you just adapt to the language learning abilities of your students or do you take into account their special educational needs as well? I am thinking of autistic learners or students with ADHD or emotional/behavioural difficulties who may be linguistically bright but still require careful handling because of their social problems. Do you have Individual Education Plans listing each student's needs, strategies that work, targets etc?

Is a foreign language study mandatory for all learners of compulsory school age in Spain, including those with SEN? How many years of study are required?

Sorry to ask so many questions, but I want to understand the educational context in which the classroom practice under discussion takes place.

David Wilson

http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/

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Legally speaqking we have to adapt our teaching to the real needs of the student. Technically this may imply, especially in the case of SEN, the need to eliminate aspects which are defined as mandatory for all the students in a given level. This is what we call a "Curricular Adaptation". If this curricular adaptation eliminates "essential contents" it is also called "Meaningful Curricular Adaptation". The Guidance Department has to be informed and so is the head. Other adaptations may include changes of rhythm or materials (and thus not affecting curricular contents). These are called "Non-meaningful" (sorry abou the labels).

Foreign languages are compulsory in the Spanish educational system from the age of 8 to 16 (if they leave the school system) or 18 (though all schools start with English as a Foreign language at 3 or earlier). This is also applicable to SEN, though the law allows room for diminishing the number of hours to this area (and applying this time to Spanish language and Maths, the core subjects).

SEN students are integrated as far as possible into mainstream and different kinds of assistance are offered. However, Foreign Language is not part of their training (I mean the assistant's training), thus one of the problems of the teacher to care for this diversity is to allow time for him/her to be with these students (I mentioned this before when I was taliking about planning). Peer work and assistance, pair and group work are elements of planning that have to be well thought before the lesson begins.

Hope to have answered at least half of the questions.

I have been browsing the different materials and ideas presented on the topic and, while valuable, when I look at them from the context I am in I find a number of items to be considered if we plan to fight language and cultural deprivation.

The initial pre-requisite is, in my view, the need to perceive "the need to differentiate", that we accept as part of our work as teachers, the need to adapt our teaching to the different abilities of our students. The second aspect is to notice that the role of the teacher is to be changed - while keeping control of the class, we have to allow room for students' autonomous development. This requires from us the introduction of techniques rather than contents (or together with contents). Closer to this is the idea of the teacher as "facilitator", a key step which implies the co-control of the products and processes.

As far as I am concerned, the linguistic and cultural issues are of exceptional interest (being an EFL teacher). So I value the use of ICT in my teaching as a way to enhance autonomy and foster independent learning, but also as a tool to get hold of linguisrtic and cultural “challenges”. Let me give you examples:

1. Inclusive lessons:

Planning is essential. Apart from the obvious selction of items and the choice of procedures to be used in the classs, I tend to plan lessons in such a way they permitted time to share with those students who need more form me, either because of their capacities or because of their learning styles. I look at contents, but also to pair or group work times so that I am freed from classroom control. The lessson is then planned for the different members of the class. Most of my initial tasks are aimed at generating a good atmosphere for work. Many ideas came to me from http://www.hltmag.co.uk/

Humanistic language teaching offers acceptable possibilities of managing a more or less liberal and respectful attitude in class while allowing the contents to be developed. The interest for the “effect” that “affect” has in teaching (and learning) is something to be borne in mind, so creating the right atmosphere (and environment) for learning should take some time in planning.

2. Generating useful materials:

Hot Potatoes has proved to be effective for my teaching (http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/) especially the jcloze and jmix exercises. Average and high level students learned to use these two programs to generate exercises (to be used on and off line) that were a good way to revise for them, and an incredible reource from all my students. The exposition to language increased for all types of students.

3. ICT as a resource:

Ever since I discovered the resourcefulness of the internet I have found my tasks to be easier. I am not too keen (sorry!) on creating web pages or learning new tricks from new software, but do try to keep update with these new resources. My favourite help (quite adapted to the interests of Spanish students) is www.isabelperez.com, a site where I have all kinds of exercises and programs. I have found wonderful resources for ELT which help me in the process of planning my lessons. I particularly like webquests (some examples of webquest generators are to be found there) and recently blogs to enhance writing (wonderful examples there, too).

There is not many ways in which one can ask many more questions in less space. I did some writing (unfortunately in Spanish), but most of it was providing a "framework" for the legal aspects of SEN students in ordinary classrooms, as required by some legislation in my country. SEN is definitely one of my leading challenges, and will come back to the forum with examples of activities to adapt MFL to SEN (to some kinds of impairment). Any how I will look through the webpage you included.

SEN

If there is a field where technologies have to provide resources is in Special Educational Needs. This is also the area of prime interest for me. I think there is a vast amount of material, mostly in English, though most materials developed in websites require the adaptation to the specific needs of the real students that we have.

The use of ICT to meet modern foreign language (MFL) learners' special educational needs (SEN) is a teaching and research interest of mine. There are over 100 references to ICT usage with such students at:

http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/mfl/biblio.doc

What kind of adaptations do you make when you use ICT to differentiate your MFL delivery to accommodate your MFL learners with SEN? Have you written any papers about your work with these students? Despite exhaustive web searches, I have found very little literature about the teaching of MFL to those with SEN in Spain. Is there a Spanish book about MFL for SEN? There have been three such publications in recent years in Britain.

David Wilson

http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com

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But essentially, are we doing anything different from what others did 2000 years ago? I was shocked by John Simkin’s words when “he thought he was debating this issue with himself” and stated “the structure of what is going on in the classroom has not changed (in fact it has remained the same for over 2000 years)”. Shocked, as I guess expected by the author of such opinion, I experienced a feeling of panic: Are we moving? Or it is just introducing new gadgets to preserve the isolated mastery of knowledge and let others out of the race? Is there a 1st world learning, sophisticate, technology-oriented,

The main aim of my presentation is on the improvement brought about by ICT. I am no expert, but I am convinced that tools are helpful if we are able to provide a reason for use and a safe atmosphere to use them. In this sense I consider that ICT provide for the language teacher (sorry, this is my field/limitation) a relatively safe environment (provided the teacher "feels" confident with the media), but also a strongly realistic use of language, thus providing a reason to learn. There is little doubt that we, language teachers, need to focus on the use of language, and ICT make it easy for us to do so. Bringing a sense of reality also contributes to facilitate learners be less dependent, fostering their autonomy.

Still what I may foresee for the future is, in the context of Spain and Madrid specifically, is an extension of relationships among the different curricular areas, in which language teachers contribute to the linguistic development of both teachers of other sub-jects and students. The uses of ICT will enable to facilitate the intercommunication of teachers and students, and I think there will be an extension of communities of users hooked to wider thematic areas. This is what I have in mind.

IMPROVEMENT ICT BRINGS TO TEACHING

Professional background to justify my views:

Language teacher (English):

I am no expert, but I am convinced that tools are helpful if we are able to provide a reason for use and a safe atmosphere to use them. As stated I am a language teacher, an English lan-guage teacher. So the main idea I have always had is that it is my duty to use a foreign language and help others become reasonably good users of this foreign language. I have used all kinds of approaches and elements to make my subject close to students’ experiences and relatively safe for my personal self. Computers came to me as one of these gadgets for which I was not fully prepared (still do not know a terrible lot), but was intrigued enough to investigate how to use them. In this sense I consider that ICT provide for the language teacher a relatively safe environment (provided the teacher "feels" con-fident with the media), but also a strongly realistic use of language, thus providing a reason to learn. There is little doubt that we, language teachers, need to focus on the use of lan-guage, and ICT make it easy for us to do so.

Views on Language learning:

It is not very easy to define the key question “how students learn”. In my view (which is “a”, but not “the” view) I believe that students learn by using the language and by reflecting af-ter their language use. My main task is then providing opportunities for meaningful language use, and building up a sense of community between the students and myself, so that we generate a relaxing environment. A second aspect to be taken into consideration is the issues that may come in a classroom as a consequence of a different role demanded for teachers and students: a more open, flexible class structure may defy certain educational institutions or administrators. The ac-cepted role of the teacher as “controller” in a language classroom, in what Jeremy Harmer calls “lockstep” (teacher ex-plaining everything, providing all the contents and students assimilating the information received), is severely defied. So we, and our institutions, are to adopt more flexible patterns of classroom distribution and clearly redefine the patterns of be-haviour. One last aspect to be borne in mind would be, especially in the institutions I have had the opportunity to teach, State Schools in Spain, is the difference between attendants (and even those who do not wish to be where they are when they are in a classroom) and students, which also raises classroom issues. Again flexible patterns of class organization and an accepted code of behaviour have to be established as a pre-requisite for language learning.

Eagerness for new perspectives applied to teaching a FL.

To sum all the views, I believe we must agree on the necessity to show an eagerness for new trends, so long as they are in-clusive (for all students, regardless their abilities) and adapt-able to the varied reality in which we work.

Benefits of ICT

Real life learning: reality of virtuality.

Language appropriacy. There is little doubt that we, language teachers, need to focus on the use of language, and ICT make it easy for us to do so, especially after the use of internet as a didactic tool. Bringing a sense of reality also contributes to facilitate learners be less dependent, fostering their autonomy. Of course this has created an intense demand on the teacher to be selective (to tell the trees from the forest) and to adapt the wide variety of resources at hand to the variety of students.

Meaningful learning

It is clear that the concept of meaningfulness has two main sides: meaningfulness in terms of teachers’ curricular demands/aspirations and the obvious second would be students’ interests and expectations. The presence of a virtual environ-ment proves to be attractive. The main goal is to make it last beyond the mere visual impact, in other words, make it memorable so that the contents and abilities may remain. For such a purpose we still need a great deal of careful planning.

Teachers’ roles: redefinition of literacy

It is not easy to be up-to-date, and this is a social requirement, if not a demand. In many cases these new virtual environments are not so teacher friendly as they are required to be, but this is no excuse to prevent teachers from using these resources. I believe that we cannot be stopped by technological challenges. Again, teachers’ attitude may allow a role of a teacher as an average user, not a master. Probably this simple lack of reliability in a role of teacher not holding the strings of knowledge in a class is the single most outstanding obstacle to the extension of ICT in teaching, at least in language teaching.

Language learning and CALL

Initial programs tended to adopt a role similar to that of a “traditions” teacher, providing acceptable/unacceptable responses. CALL tends to be good for reinforcing structures and acquiring vocabulary. Not so much for creativity. New applications are developed that intend to provide resources for teachers to generate their own materials (Hot Potatoes, for example), websites provide free software or support to generate or adapt existing materials.

SEN

If there is a field where technologies have to provide resources is in Special Educational Needs. This is also the area of prime interest for me. I think there is a vast amount of material, mostly in English, though most materials developed in websites require the adaptation to the specific needs of the real students that we have.

Textbook writing?

I must admit I am not a great materials creator. I have always been keener on adapting what others had done (mostly better than I would dream to ever do) than generating my own mate-rials from scratch. I do feel an urge for my students generating materials and using those materials with other students (effort-outcome balance of a reasonable quality. Reading John Simkin’s information about textbook writing I am also concerned about 1st world market demands, but I am still unable to come to grips to a solution to the problem posed.

Requirements

Computer literacy.

In my view, as I stated before, I believe it is more a question of attitude than a question of knowledge. There is little doubt that a certain level of computer skills is more and more a necessity, but it is also true, at least in the environment I work (a Teachers’ Support Centre) more and more resources are devoted to implement teachers’ knowledge of ICT.

Attitudinal requirements

What I said before, eagerness for change, but also a perspective of the roles of the teacher and the student in a classroom.

* Technological Equipment availability

* Class control.

* I will not insit on this idea of agreements for classroom behaviour. I sincerely consider it is a must.

The future to come

Communities:

It seems to me that one of the many uses that internet may bring for contributions of language departments to teacher development.

I do think it is necessary to reinforce the links between the school members, and it is a must the collaboration among the institution de-partments to carry our common processes. This is particularly relevant in the case of State Secondary Schools in Spain. European pro-jects are a good way to incorporate more and more teachers into collaboration, and bridging departamental gaps.

Technological gadgets:

No one (at least, not me) can tell what the latest craze is about to be. The tendency that I notice goes towards easy-to-use, reasonably-priced youngish compressed “walkable” items. I know of language teachers who bring their MP3s or iPods to the class to have the choice of support music for the lessons (used as background to the class, to encourage oral practice, or in many other ways, such as for intensive or extensive listening). That availability and the capacity of storage have made their life easier. Still and all, I have met too few a teacher who do so.

Problems/challenges

Reliable technology and teacher friendly software:

Not everything seems to be valid for classroom work. Technology needs to develop items who are adaptable to classroom environments. The same can be applied to the software to be used. As I have been able to read through the very many posts on the subject, I find the HELP project has many talented members who may well develop tools to help teachers.

1st World 3rd World teaching: differences matter.

We are part of a whole. We teach in responsible institutions (grin!) where a variety of school cultures exist. We are placed under pressure by the different community sectors. In the end it is our students who tell of our teaching and how big the impact is in their future (professional and personal life). Our students are, then, members of a community where what they know is essential for the social texture. Hopefully they are armed with “the necessary skills to function as citizens of the country”. And society demands that the students we teach have a high technological proficiency, the difference that may allow them to be active members of a specialised labour market. Yet, I still wonder if we are contributing or not to widening the gap be-tween worlds. (?)

Humanity

But essentially, are we doing anything different from what others did 2000 years ago? I was shocked by John Simkin’s words when “he thought he was debating this issue with himself” and stated “the structure of what is going on in the classroom has not changed (in fact it has remained the same for over 2000 years)”. Shocked, as I guess expected by the author of such opinion, I experienced a feeling of panic: Are we moving? Or it is just introducing new gadgets to preserve the isolated mastery of knowledge and let others out of the race? Is there a 1st world learning, sophisticate, technology-oriented,

I still consider that the act of learning, if we consider that an act of apprehension of content in a memorable and independent way, is always affected by those who participate in the process (Teacher and Student). Still my idea of a teacher is more that of a facilitator than that of an content instiller, by that meaning that a teacher needs to lead to knowledge, create ways in which this content is graspable by the students (in their diversity) and LET THEM LEARN by using. As the English saying goes “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. In my view what I intend to do is making my students (was tempted to continue with horses, but resisted temptation – I am closer to sanctity now!) as thirsty (of using the language, that is, of needing to express their ideas regarding a particular field) as possible so that they do want to participate, do want to join in, and consequently discover that “the water” that satiates their eagerness to participate is the knowledge they have acquired by using the lan-guage object of study. The image is clear to me: the water (the content) flows from their inside (their use of the content). Not a bad metaphor after all.

Spanish. BA graduate of the Complutense University of Madrid in English Philology (English Studies). Taught English in Spanish Public schools between 1989 and 2004. At the same time from 1997-2001 I was appointed Chief of Studies and from 2001-2004 I was Head of the English Department. From September 2004 in cur-rent position. Main fields of interest as an English teacher are the use of IT to enhance autonomy and providing a humanistic approach to teaching, where affect is part of the whole project (Effective Affective learning)