My experience as an ICT coordinator PART ONE

At present I am working as ICT coordinator. I am supposed to help teachers using Web 2.0 tools in their ESL (English as a Second Language) classes and it is not an easy task! I have to deal with two problems:

1- Students are already motivated to use digital technologies because they belong to the "thumb" or "digital" generation, but they think they are only going to play intereactive games at the computing lab. In Argentina, Digital natives associate Internet with having fun: chatting with friends and playing interactive games since the school has not incorporated computers and the Internet as a learning tool, so I have to make them realise that we are going to work and practise the Second Language (SL) - English in this case- using computers.

2-On the other hand, teachers are still "digital immigrants" and they are , in a way, reluctant to include computing and Internet in their classes. :-( Some of them are completely technophobes and others are a bit interested but they do not have a clear idea how to use Web 2.0 tools and are "tied" to ready made material Cd-ROM.

I am facing two different situations, let's see how I will cope with them. If you read this article, please leave a comment about the situation in your place.

P.S. Don´t miss the comments made to this post by experts from different countries!

II Session at Profesorado ISFD 97

Yesterday the II Session about ICT organized by Prof. Patricia Guzmán took place at Profesorado ISFD 97 in La Plata (57St between 8 and 9). This time most of the participants (mostly students) have certain knowlege of the Internet and its tools, so there was more interaction between the audience and me - more questions- since they are already using some Web 2.0 tools.

This time I spoke about Collaborative Learning and gave ideas about how to use Google docs ( documents, spread sheets and presentations) and blogs in our professional life and classes.

We had the pleasure of having Ticiana Neder, Pearson Education S.A. Representative SGBA among the audience. She brought interesting educational material and fantastic presents for the audience. One of the books Ticiana gave to participants was How to Teach English with Technology by Gavin Dudeney which I do recommend for all those who want to learn about the topic. I was given a Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture! Thanks , Ticiana and Pearson for your presence and the valuable gifts you gave us.

Unfortunatelly I did not take my camera to take pictures of the event and upload them in this post. I will next time Wed June 24th : The topics will be Social Networking, Twitter, Facebook, Ning and bookmarking.

Recommended BLOG: http://isfd97ingles.blogspot.com/

The Thumb Generation

Teenagers are called the thumb generation. Guess why? because they are typing text messages on their mobile phones most of their time.
Multitasking is nother characteristic of digital natives. Do you want to read more about this?
Read this interesting article by clicking on : http://ow.ly/aOuQ

Guide to Setting Up an Ergonomic Computer Station

Have a look at this link if you are planning to set up your computer station properly.
http://ergonomics.about.com/od/office/ss/computer_setup.htm