The use of technology to provide resources for teaching

Technology has been associated with language teaching:

From chalks and blackboards to digital technological

resouces (videos, recordings, computer, etc), Internet,

the web, online dictionaries, grammar,

has enabled teachers to find authentic written, audio,

and visual texts on most any topic imaginable as resources.

The use of technology as providing enhanced learning experiences

Technology provides greater access to the target language. (Blogs, Social Networking, You Tube, Wiki, Electronic Text Corpus)

. It has the potential to change where and when learning takes place.

It gives us a significant methodological innovation (language pedagogy, new forms of discourse, new ways to create and participate in communities)

With the use of technology students are more likely to have more autonomy in what they focus.

The use of technology to construct authentic social relationships.

Virtual interaction results from the ability to link students through networked computers. Example: e mail, social networks, blogs,etc

Face to face social interaction helps students co-construct their knowledge by building on one another´s experience through teachers guidance. (Feedback, sharing experiences, group discussions, etc.)

Computer technology and the constructivism paradigm

According to constructivism: knowledge is considered to be socially and individually constructed

learning is advanced through interactive and authentic experiences that converge with the interests of the student and through active learning.

So the focus is on the development of a suitable environment for constructing knowledge rather than for its transfer

The use of ICT can trigger constructivist innovation in the classroom contributing to the realization of meaningful authentic, active-reflective and problem-based learning, a method that challenges students to "learn how to learn"

Students seek solutions to real world problems, which, based on an ICT framework, are used to engage their curiosity and initiate learning, leading so to critical and analytical thinking.

The emerging need for teacher education in ICT-enhanced constructivist learning

ICT-enhanced constructivist classroom practices, however, demand that teachers play a new role.

This means that opportunities, like exposure to a number of critical examples and experience in designing ICT-based activities and integrating them in their classroom practice in constructivist ways are of great priority.

The aim is to convince teachers for the potentiality of ICT as constructivist learning tool through their own personal experience.

Conclusions New digital technologies can create new learning environments in which students are engaged learners, able to take greater responsibility for their own learning and constructing their own knowledge.

This methodology is challenging both for the teacher as well as for the learner but eventually the process of self-learning ensures a more rigorous approach and deeper understanding of facts.

Technology seems to be coming down on the side of constructivists; Because computers undermine the didactic, lecture methodology, and, instead promote the student as a self-directed learner.

ICTs are transforming the present isolated, teacher-centered and text-bound classrooms into rich, student-focused, interactive knowledge environments

The focus is more on the process of information acquisition, the critical and analytical thinking involved

in acquiring information from multiple sources, analyzing this information and then designing the

learning outcomes in aesthetic presentations

REFERENCES FREEMAN, Diane&ANDERSON, Marti, «Technics &Principles in Language

Teaching, Oxford Univesity Press, 2011.

WOOLFOLK, Anita, Educational Psychology, Pearson Education, Tenth Edition, 2007.

Teacher Education to Promote Constructivist Use of ICT: Study of a Logo-based Project: http://www.di.unito.it/~barbara/MicRobot/AttiEuroLogo2007/proceedings/P-Alimisis2.pdf

Role of Technology in Constructivist Classrooms: http://www.educationinindia.net/download/mandira-sikdar.pdf

Advantages and disadvantages http://www.slideshare.net/teacher_sofia/icts-advantages-and-disadvantages-in-elt