Week 2 Assignment 4

To learn how technology can be used to help young learners with literacy development I interviewed Mrs. G. Spiegel, a well-informed educator who teaches 6 and 7-year-old Chinese children how to read, write and speak in the English language. She works for VIPKid which is a company that provides English lessons to kids in China using an online classroom. I was amazed to learn how in today’s digital world there are so many technological tools available for classroom use.

Mrs. Spiegel explained that each of her lesson includes a PowerPoint as a tool to help her students master the new concepts. The PowerPoint is used very much like a SMART board in the classroom. It includes interactive activities, visuals and prompts that help students comprehend the lesson. She made it clear that this in not what the students learn from. She is there to guide them, speaks with them and uses props such as puppets and magnets to motivate her students. The PowerPoint/SMART board is just an amazing tool which allows for so many learning opportunities. It makes the lessons engaging and motivates students to want to learn even more. There is also a feedback system she uses to rate her students and record their progress. Students love to get their feedback and it helps her, as the teacher, keep track of her students’ learning advancements.

Mrs. Spiegel is a big believer in using technological tools to benefit students’ learning. However, she stressed the importance of not overusing technology as it can have negative influences. She explained that in her case, since students are learning through an online tool, lessons are no longer than 30 minutes.

I understood from Mrs. Spiegel that using this program comes with some challenges. The program can stop working for a short while, which then makes it impossible for learning to occur. Disciplining students may also be a lot more difficult. To avoid this problem, she must ensure that her lessons are very motivating and interesting and grab her student’s attention. She does claim however, that students are mostly so excited to learn in this interesting manner and typically behave appropriately. She strongly believes that the visuals and activities on the SMART board, and technology in general, add a whole new turnaround to education. Besides for its learning benefits it motivates students and enhances the learning experience. She strongly advises that educators should take advantage and integrate technology while teaching to facilitate the learning of essential skills such as communicating, reading and writing.