I enjoyed the opportunity to become familiar with the different kinds of applications and one interpretation of their meaning in education and thereby overcome the "this-is-not-really-my-topic-and-don't-really-have-time-for-it" which I know is pretty much a cover for "I-know-I-should-learn-about-this-but-I-feel-I-ll-never-understand-it-fully-and-will-feel-stupid". So, discovering that I did understand most of it and even enjoyed it felt good. No in terms of the actual content and more general views and "doings" behind the recount and appraisal, as I already told you in class, I was quite impressed by the authors' underlying thought that the more we use (sit in front of) computers (or computer like devices) the better. I'm very interested in how IT might be revolutionizing view of learning and teaching and I am extremely itnerested in understanding the principles behind the good learning and teaching some IT applications seem to promote and generate, but I would not want to become a prisoner of this medium to participate in and hopefully enable good, healthy and meaningful learning.
Another concern that came up, as I also hinted at in in class, was to find a way to keep IT users (and particularly our students) from "naturalizing" computer-mediated representations of the world we live in (for example through Augmented Reality apps). Images and stories can't be more powerful, for me in particular, but as far as I look around for most people too. Yet images and stories are part of the vast, diverse and fascinating network of Discourses and Conversations (in Gee's and many more other Discours Analysis scholars) and agendas for the distribution of social goods and services, which as wee know include and exclude. My concern is too at least stay aware of what these Conversations are, what sides there are and where we all position ourselves (surely in more than one side).
How does this concern translates into our attitude and concrete work with IT-mediated L2 teaching?
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