Teacher A (Delia)

Delia works in a low resource environment with only one computer in her school. She does not have a computer at home, and her students do not have computers at home either. Although there are Internet cafés in the town, they tend to be too expensive for learners to use regularly. Delia’s learners have very low IT skills and experience. The one computer in the school is frequently being used by other teachers, and the Internet access from this computer is not reliable, with frequent power cuts. The computer is connected to a printer.

Suggestions: Delia will need to use the Internet mainly as a resource with her learners, accessing the Internet to download and print out materials to use offline with her classes. Introducing a rota or booking system for the computer with her colleagues will ensure equal use for all the teachers. Technology-based activities that Delia can do with her learners by printing off materials include:

- using websites for materials
- Internet-based project work – especially WebQuests - offline
- email keypal projects using the teacher’s email account 
- a class blog with learners preparing their contributions on paper and the teacher typing them into the computer 
- using online reference tools such as concordances, on paper
- electronically produced materials, such as Hot Potatoes, printed out for learners

Delia can also join a free online teacher development group, such as the Webheads in Action, a group dedicated to exploring the practical uses of technology in the classroom (www.webheads.info ).

Teacher B (Aleix)

Aleix works in an institution which has one computer room / self-access centre with 10 computers, and a staffroom with 1 computer, all linked to the Internet. He does not have a computer at home, although some of his learners do, and other learners regularly use the town’s Internet cafés. His learners have average IT skills and experience - most of them know how to use the commonest technological tools such as email, the Internet and CD-ROMs. None of Aleix’s students have used the newest tools such as podcasts or wikis, but a few have experience of instant messaging and reading blogs online.

Suggestions: Aleix can use the Internet as a resource in the same way as Delia (Teacher A), but in addition, he can do pair and small group work online, using the computers in the computer room. For his large classes of 30 students or more, he can divide the class into two groups – while one group is doing online computer room work, the other group is doing paper-based work. The two groups then change over. Aleix will be able to implement a range of ICT-based tools and activities, and in addition he can rely on his more tech-savvy learners to lend him a hand if he is new to the technology himself. Technology-based activities that Aleix can do with his learners include:

- all of the off-line activities outlined for Delia (Teacher A) above
- using word processors in class to improve his learners’ writing and ICT skills
- website research and WebQuests, carried out online
- keypal projects with learners using their individual email accounts
- class blogs, and individual or pair student blogs
- wiki projects for collaborative writing
- voice and text chat projects
- podcast projects
- producing electronic materials, and using authoring tools (by both the teacher and/or the learners)

Teacher C (Kati)

Kati teaches ESL (English as a Second Language) in an English-speaking country, to adult learners who are refugees and economic migrants. Many of these learners have very low or non-existent IT skills, and some may be taking additional literacy classes. They come from a wide range of countries and backgrounds. The education ministry of this English-speaking country has as one of its goals that adult refugees and migrants learn not only basic English language skills, but also acquire certain IT skills.

Suggestions: Kati will probably have a mix of IT skills in her classes, from zero to average (or even high) skills. She will need to first find out about her learners’ IT skills and experiences – for example, via a questionnaire - and then start off by using the simplest technologies in the classroom. For learners with zero or very low IT skills, or literacy issues, a good place to start is with simple word processing tasks. Once learners are comfortable with this, basic email or searching the Internet can be introduced to her learners. The Internet can provide very motivating materials for these learners – for example, the teacher can get her class to read blogs written by bloggers who are living in foreign cultures, or are refugees themselves, before getting learners to create their own personal blogs. Learners can access and read newspapers from their own countries in their own language online, and then share one story with classmates in English. Once Kati’s learners have sufficient ICT skills in place, she can move on to implementing collaborative technology-based projects such those outlined for Aleix (Teacher B) above.

Teacher D (Jen)

Jen is on the opposite side of the digital divide to Delia (Teacher A). Jen has access to a fully equipped computer room which has enough computers for learners to work alone (one computer per learner) if necessary. Most of her learners have their own laptops, Internet access at home, and average to high IT skills. The entire institution is wireless networked, so learners can access the Internet from their laptops on the premises. Each classroom is equipped with a computer, a projector (or ‘beamer’), an Interactive Whiteboard, as well as peripherals such as speakers, and a DVD player. This teacher has received some technology training via her institution, although she may not feel 100% confident with all the tools at her disposal.

Suggestions: Jen can implement all of the tools and activities suggested above. In addition, Jen is well placed to experiment with new technologies, to put her learners in contact with other learners from around the world by implementing email, blogs or podcasting projects, or audio/text chat, and then to feed back on her own and her learners’ experiences to the rest of the EFL community, via online teacher development groups such as the Webheads group mentioned earlier (www.webheads.info )