ERIC Number: EJ848010
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Jan
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1094-3501
EISSN: N/A
On the Net: ICT4LT--Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers
LeLoup, Jean W.; Ponterio, Robert
Language Learning & Technology, v8 n1 p3-7 Jan 2004
Foreign language (FL) teachers have long been leaders in the use of technology in the classroom, from short wave radio and newspapers, to film strips, to tape recorders, to records, 16 mm films, video, and now computers, as a means of bringing authentic language and culture to their students. Computer and Internet technologies require significantly more technical training than pressing the play button on an audio cassette player, but the pedagogical skills needed to integrate these materials into a well designed lesson plan are similar in many ways. Because there are FL teachers, and even methods instructors, whose training has not prepared them to use these new tools, it has made sense for specialists to use this technology to provide an introduction to these skills in the form of modules that can be plugged into a methods course or explored by individual teachers to further their professional development. ICT4LT is a very good example of these materials. The ICT4LT project located at http://www.ict4lt.org/, is the result of efforts by five institutions in the United Kingdom, Finland, and Italy, and was created with the aid of public funds, namely the Socrates Programme of the Directorate for Education and Culture at the European Commission (EC). Socrates is an EC program that encourages transnational cooperation in education and offers particular help to projects involving the Least Widely Used and Least Taught (LWULT) languages. The emphasis on LWULTs is reflected in the partnerships with project colleagues in Italy and Finland, who developed the multilingual versions of the Web site. The original target audience was European language teachers vis-a-vis their need for training in technology and its integration into the FL curriculum. The materials were developed and piloted with groups of language teachers and teacher trainers in the UK, Italy, and Finland. Currently, these modules are available online in English, Italian, Finnish and Swedish. In this review the authors examine only the English section
Descriptors: Methods Courses, Teacher Education Curriculum, Foreign Countries, Educational Technology, Internet, Language Teachers, Information Technology, Evaluation, English, Italian, Finno Ugric Languages, Swedish, Technology Integration, Computer Assisted Instruction
University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center. 1859 East-West Road #106, Honolulu, HI 96822. Tel: 808-956-9424; Fax: 808-956-5983; e-mail: llt@hawaii.edu; Web site: http://llt.msu.edu
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia; Belgium; Canada; Finland; Greece; Italy; Netherlands; Spain; United Kingdom; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A