Technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) is changing the way students learn and the way educators teach. However, much work is still needed in this area, specifically providing educators an opportunity to develop techno-pedagogical knowledge through professional development. This presentation will address three major hurdles in this area.
Technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) is changing the way students learn and the way educators teach. Every day we continue to see growth in computer-assisted and mobile-assisted programs, providing opportunities for ubiquitous learning (Pimmer, Mateescu, & Gröhbiel, 2016). However, much work is still needed in this area, specifically providing educators an opportunity to develop techno-pedagogical knowledge through professional development (Guichon & Hauck, 2011). In particular, three major hurdles will be addressed in this presentation: (1) disseminating information on effective teaching with technology (Godwin-Jones, 2015; Kessler & Hubbard, 2017), (2) keeping track of emerging technologies (Egbert, Akasha, Huff, & Lee, 2011), and (3) availability of technology in certain contexts (Ortega, 2017; Sharma, 2012). In an effort to address the gap between the availability of new technologies and the lack of teacher preparation, Iowa State University developed a U.S. Department of State-funded Global Online Course, Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom. This course is aimed at providing instruction for the effective use of educational technology in the English language classroom. It has seen participants from over 40 countries and four continents, all of whom are English language professionals. In this presentation, we will present an overview of the course content. We will also broadly cover a comparative case study that is currently in progress pertaining to the course. We have collected data from over 70 English professionals from around the world as they complete the course. This data includes surveys, discussion forums, quizzes, and post-course interviews. Using experiences from teaching the course along with the data from the study, we will explore how English professionals from around the world are incorporating technology into their classrooms, what their students’ perceptions are about the use of educational technology, and what teaching and technological constraints they face in their local context.
