The goal of any ESL (English as a Second Language) classroom is to provide language instruction to students who need to learn English for a specific purpose, viz. academic English. Current research and trends suggest, however, that the traditional classroom is somewhat on the way out. This led me to start looking at how the ESL classroom would be constructed in a digital or online format. Sadly, there is little to no research at all about the transition from traditional to online, in terms of ESL. So the first step in my objective plan is to learn how the teacher, not the students, will have to shift their pedagogical strategies and teacher identities in order to successfully engage students whose native language is not English.
This is where technology and distance education come into play, and not just Learning Management Systems and other various WebTools. Learning how emerging technology is being integrated into the traditional classroom will play a vital role in what we can expect these same tools to do for the digital classroom. The rationale for this is that just because the interaction is no longer face-to-face, does not mean students should not be engaged with emerging technology. So the guiding question that is the backbone of this portfolio is: How can the digital ESL classroom utilize emergent technology without the immediate presence of an educator? Step one to answer this question, as was touched upon earlier, is learning how emergent technology works.
This is where technology and distance education come into play, and not just Learning Management Systems and other various WebTools. Learning how emerging technology is being integrated into the traditional classroom will play a vital role in what we can expect these same tools to do for the digital classroom. The rationale for this is that just because the interaction is no longer face-to-face, does not mean students should not be engaged with emerging technology. So the guiding question that is the backbone of this portfolio is: How can the digital ESL classroom utilize emergent technology without the immediate presence of an educator? Step one to answer this question, as was touched upon earlier, is learning how emergent technology works.