How can I take adventage of ICT's in my tenth grade class to improve my teaching practice?

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(1)ICT’s in my teaching practice. 1. Facultad de educación Departamento de inglés Action Research. How can I take advantage of ICT’s in my tenth grade class to improve my teaching practice? By Romina Pego Radic This action research was carried out to obtain a university degree as an English teacher.. Santiago, Chile 2016.

(2) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 2. Abstract. This action research project aims at finding ways of taking advantage of ICT’s in my tenth grade class to improve my teaching practice. It was developed in a private school located in Peñalolen. The intervention consisted on the development of a “Blog project” performed by the students. The data was collected through the use of a survey and a journal. Lastly, the results of this action research showed that the teacher and the students took advantage of technologies in their process of teaching and learning. Keywords: ICT’s, technologies, relevant topics, teenagers.. Resumen. La presente investigación-acción tiene como objetivo encontrar formas de tomar ventaja de las Tics en mi Segundo medio para mejorar mi práctica educativa. Este proyecto se desarrolló en una escuela privada de Peñalolen. La intervención consistió en el desarrollo de un blog por parte de los estudiantes. La información fue recolectada a través del uso de una encuesta y un diario reflexivo. Finalmente, los resultados de esta investigación mostraron que la profesora y los estudiantes tomaron ventaja del uso de las tecnologías en el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Palabras clave: Tics, tecnologías, temas relevantes, adolescentes..

(3) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 3. Table of contents. Abstract ......................................................................................................................................2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................5 Context .......................................................................................................................................6 Problem ...................................................................................................................................7 Research Question.......................................................................................................................8 Rationale .....................................................................................................................................9 Literature Review ...................................................................................................................... 10 Research Methodology .............................................................................................................. 15 Action Plan Timeline ................................................................................................................ 16 Intervention Plan and Data Analysis .......................................................................................... 18 Reflection and analysis of intervention ...................................................................................... 24 Conclusions and implications .................................................................................................... 26 References ................................................................................................................................ 28 Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................................... 29 Students’ survey ........................................................................................................................ 29.

(4) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 4. Appendix 2 ............................................................................................................................... 32 Results of students’ survey ........................................................................................................ 32 Figure 1: Chart that illustrates the students’ opinions regarding the blog and the use of ......... 32 technology. ............................................................................................................................ 32 Appendix 3 ............................................................................................................................... 33 Students’ samples of surveys ..................................................................................................... 33.

(5) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 5. Introduction. Nowadays, we live in a globalized world in which the use of ICT’s had became fundamental. It cannot be ignored the fact that different types of technologies invade our daily lives, and instead of being on the margins of them, we should take advantage of ICT’s, especially in important topics such as education. Our world is in constant evolution, and ICT’s offers us different tools to make the most of students’ learning experience. As a matter of fact, learners are at the center of education, in this sense lessons should be inspired by them. Teachers are usually concerned about what is better for students in terms of learning, but they should consider and adapt their teaching in order to be at the vanguard of technological innovation, considering as well students’ needs and interests. The following action research is focused on a tenth grade class in a private school. Due to the problem related to the ineffective use of technologies in the students’ learning process, the main objective is to find ways of taking advantage of ICT’s during the computer laboratory lessons. The main objective is to improve my teaching practice, and consequenctly to enrich the students’ learning experience..

(6) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 6. Context. The context in which this action research will be conducted takes place in a secondary school. It is a private and secular mixed one located in Peñalolen. The school offers courses from kindergarten to twelve grades, but primary and secondary school are in separated buildings. The course that will be studied corresponds to the tenth grade, and it is constituted by 20 students. This class has a total of four pedagogical hours per week, which are distributed on Wednesdays in the classroom and Thursdays in the computer laboratory. Both, the classroom and the computer laboratory are equipped with a data projector and whiteboard. Additionally, it is important to mention that the computer laboratory has enough resources for each student who has access to a personal computer and Wifi connection to surf on the Internet. Generally, this class aims at practicing grammatical exercises related to the topic studied. At the end of the class, students send their answers through a screenshot to the teacher by e-mail. During the weeks in which this class has been observed, it can be infered that the students are committed to the aformentioned activities. Although they have freedom to surf on the internet, most of them work actively in order to deliver the tasks..

(7) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 7. Problem. Although the leaners work and have good scores in the exercises performed online, it has been noticed that some of them start the exercises again in order to obtain better scores. What is more, even though sometimes the students answer the exercises randomly, they assert, and they are lucky to have 80% of the maximum score. However, they do not understand what they have answered. Furthermore, they use the translator in order to understand English sentences when necessary. Since most of the links used of the students to practice English are multiple choice exercises, the students choose random answers when they do not understand the questions. Therefore, it is the concern of this action research to adapt the English lessons in order to take more advantage of the use of technology. This way the students can improve their English skills by; using different learning styles and strategies to learn in a more fruitful way..

(8) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 8. Research Question. The Internet offers a wide range of topics to learn, therefore, the lesson should not be limited to isolated grammar exercises. The main reason to avoid this practice lies on the lack of evidence of students’ learning process. That is to say, that it is difficult to be sure whether students are actually learning or not. Hence, the research question is the following: How can I take advantage of ICT’s in my tenth grade class to improve my teaching practice?.

(9) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 9. Rationale. Due to the fact that we are living in a globalized world, and our needs and interests are constantly changing, people are increasingly requiring the use of technology in their daily lives. Internet provides us with a large amount of information. We receive news from the entire world, almost immediately. For that reason, education cannot remain obsolete. On the contrary, the classes should be evolving so that students have the opportunity of having a better quality of education, especially if resources and equipment are available to them. According to Lugo (2008), the importance of introducing ICT’s in the classroom changes the approach from the traditional education, to a more autonomous and responsible learning, in which the students’role is empowered. Therefore, the teacher is no longer the only source of knowledge. (Lugo, 2008 cited in UNESCO, 2013). Notwithstanding, the classes are not always helpful for the students to learn in the way that Internet might be. The teacher gives them instructions to do and perform exercises during the whole class. Nevertheless, as I said before, no one can assure that they are effectively learning. Having said that, I consider that it is important for me to develop this research because Internet offers teachers and students, the possibility of using several available resources, strategies, styles and tools to learn English. Thereby, there is more freedom and flexibility for students to choose the way they and you consider is more suitable to learn..

(10) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 10. Literature Review. According to Pouts-Lajus (2004) the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT’s) in schools has been a top-down process in which teachers cannot control the use or the implementation of this new way of teaching. Teachers and schools have the pressure of promoting and mandatorily using ICT’s in their teaching practices. (Pouts-Lajus, 2004 cited in Ilomäki, 2008). Supporting these ideas, Lehtinen (2006) states that the approach that technology has in schools is boring and ineffective, and it does not accomplish the objective and the purpose that this tool is presumed to fulfil. The pedagogical practices at schools do not promote critical thinking to improve neither the teachers’ nor students’ work. (Lehtinen, 2006 cited in Ilomäki, (2008). In fact, Ilomäki (2008) shows evidence with a survey in 2006 indicating that a fifth of teachers do not consider that using computers produce any significant learning and it does not benefit students. These teachers believe that the approach should be more meaningful and efficient. This reflection can be connected to what Presnky (2001) says about people who were born before the rise of the internet. Prensky calls them “digital immigrants” because they are starting this new age of technology and do not think that students can learn English by watching TV or by listening to music. Hence, technology is not being used to learn in an advanced way. Moreover, the use of technology could help us change from teacher-centered classes to studentcentered one, as Harris (2002b, p.62) claims:.

(11) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 11. Students are usually not regarded as essential actors in school improvements processes. […] In practice, students are objects of the teaching practices, and their necessary competences and outcomes are discussed and evaluated against the supposed and expected needs of the information society. (Harris, 2002b, p. 62 cited in Ilomäki, 2008). As the students have the possibility of using the resources provided by the school, it is expected for them to develop a sense of responsibility so that they have a more active role in this new pedagogical approach. ICT’s was thought to change the focus of the teachers’ practices, As Warschauer & Healey (2009) say, the computer was regarded mainly as a mechanical tutor which never grew tired or judgmental and allowed students to work at an individual pace”. (Warschauer & Healey, 2009, p. 79-80 cited in Brown, 2015). As Ilomäki (2008) states. “Computers were thought to take the role of the teacher as an instructor. […] computer was thought to be a tireless trainer which could provide individual challenges on the topics to be learned”. (Ilomäki, 2008, p.24) Nevertheless, some of these expectations have not received the appropriate support, and the changes have not appeared yet. A study of Lakkala et al., (2007) evidenced that “the transformation of learning with web-technologies demands change in teachers’ conceptions about learning and knowledge, and in their skills in implementing new practices”. (Lakkala et al, 2007 cited in Ilomäki, 2008). Therefore, in order to implement new practices and approaches, it is necessary that the activities should be taught in a real-life context, so the students can receive a more meaningful.

(12) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 12. learning and understanding of the use of the English language. Topics should be allied to students’ life experiences and background. Stanley (2013) proposes that to accomplish this pedagogical change, it is important to take into account the activities that teachers should provide to their students. For instance, working on software such as Microsoft PowerPoint can give students the possibility to improve their language skills; as long as students use this tool adequately. This software can be used to write authentic material, such as stories, biographies and so on. Afterwards, it gives students the chance to practice their speaking skills by doing oral presentations about what they have produced. (Stanley, 2013 cited in British Council, 2013). Both, Stanley (2013) and Brown (2015) show in their chapters that one of the approaches to teach English through computers is the application CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning), which involves interactive communication. The tools are known as Web 1.0 in which you can look for information on the web and Web 2.0 which is a tool to interact with people through social networks, such as: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. In that sense, a good way for students to produce material is by publishing a blog and to share it among the students’ classmates. (Stanley, 2013 cited in British Council 2013). When the authors talk about creating authentic material, Brown (2015) proposes providing students with texts, video-clips, online dictionaries and online grammar checkers, including relevant online resources. Nevertheless, teachers must be aware that students are truly working on these virtual platforms, taking advantage of their use and not being distracted by them..

(13) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 13. Furthermore, it is important to take into account the students’ learning styles, considering that learning is enduring process and it changes in each person. Therefore, it will depend on each student to classify the information and organize it in their memories. Hence, when teachers ask students to look for certain information, it is possible that students will arrive to the same result through several and different ways, which allows them to work in a more independent and comfortable way that adapts to their pace. The OECD (2010) gives a concrete example about how students interact with the internet: A student is interested in how the digestive system works so she goes to her laptop, clicks on an entry entitled “The Digestive System” in a multimedia encyclopedia, and receives a 90-second narrated animation on how the human digestive system works. A second student goes to a government health agency site and clicks on an article about digestion, which contains five frames of text and illustrations. Finally, a third student finds a digestion game that involves moving around within a virtual world of the digestive system. These are all examples of learning with technology. (OECD, 2010). Some concrete forms of learning with technology that Graesser, Chipman, and King, (2008); Graesser and King, (2008) are: Computer-based training: lessons, tests and feedback that are presented on a computer screen, usually in a mastery format in which the learner goes on to the next section after passing a test on the current section; Multimedia: instruction that consists of pictures (such as illustrations, photos, animation, or video) and words (such as printed or spoken text); [...] Hypertext and hypermedia: instructional material consisting of clickable links,.

(14) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 14. such as used in web pages; [...]. Inquiry-based information retrieval: such as using Google for web searches; [...]. Serious games: games that are intended to serve an instructional function [...]. (Graesser, Chipman, and King, 2008; Graesser and King, 2008 cited in OECD, 2010). It is important as well to know how students learn with technology. According to Mayer (2008) and Wittrock (1989) this process is divided into three principles, in which the last one seems to be more important. “Active processing: meaningful learning occurs when learners engage in appropriate cognitive processing during learning, such as attending to relevant material, organising it into a coherent representation, and integrating it with relevant prior knowledge”. (Mayer, 2008; Wittrock, 1989 cited in OECD, 2010). Hence, if the pedagogical approach accomplishes these principles, the learning will be more appropriate. To conclude this literature review, it is important to mention that technology is a great method to learn and teach English; although the important fact is that it should be used wisely. As Jewell (2006) sets: “Using technology to enhance language learning allows for increased learner autonomy and control, providing a more student-centered pedagogy with learners at the centre of the learning process and more actively engaged in their learning than in traditional direct instruction methods”. (Jewell, 2006 cited in British Council, 2013).

(15) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 15. Research Methodology. With the purpose of going through with the action research, there are two data collection methods that will be used: a survey and a journal. Survey: As Anne Burns (2010) says questionnaires are very effective tools to be applied in a context in which you do not have enough time to interview each person (Burns, 2010, p. 81). Despite of the fact that they are 20 students, the students’ English level is not good enough to apply an interview or an open-ended item. These students are sometimes reluctant to write or to speak in English. Moreover, it is better to apply a survey, since the intervention will be held in the computer laboratory. For this reason, the students could take advantage of the computers to fill the survey in the class. *See appendix 1. Journal: Anne Burns (2010) states that “they are extremely useful though as a way of capturing significant reflections and events in an ongoing way” (Burns, 2010, p.89). Journals are helpful to leave register about the students’ behaviour towards the class and the activities that they have to perform. As this is a class with only two pedagogical hours in the laboratory, there is no time to apply another kind of methodology. The time should be utilized to do the activities that the action plan proposes..

(16) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 16. Action Plan Timeline. This action plan will be applied in a period of three weeks by writing a blog about themselves. It includes the students’ biographies, music videos with lyrics in English, in which they would have to explain why they do like that song and an interpretation of the lyrics. The can also talk about their favourite music band or singer. The students have to include also a review from a movie, writing at least 100 words. The students can add their favourite actor biography and pictures. The idea of this project is to give the students the possibility to write about themselves and the topics that they are really interested in, creating a more meaningful and realistic learning. Furthermore, the students will be able to produce authentic material, avoiding somehow, that the students copy and paste from the internet. At the beginning of the process, the students will be introduced to the topic of blogs and to ask them if they have ever visited one. The first week, the students will receive the instructions of the project, and they will see some examples to have an idea about what they will be asked to do. The students will have three classes of 90 minutes each to write their blogs, time period in which they will receive guidance and help by the teacher to solve doubts and questions. On October the 13th students will receive the instructions for the task. The students start creating an account on Wordpress.com. In this session, the students will start designing their blog, writing.

(17) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 17. their biography and posting a song that they like, including the lyrics. In this part, the students are asked to write their own interpretation of the song. The second week (October, 20th) students will post their favourite band, writing relevant information about it. Moreover, they will add a review of a movie. They can also show a trailer of it and write their opinion about it. In this session, the students will have to include their favourite actor’s biography. The last session will be done on October, 27th. In this session, they can add any information that they would like to include in their blogs, giving the students the possibility to express themselves. If students do not know what to write in this part, they would have to write an anecdote or a piece of news..

(18) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 18. Intervention Plan and Data Analysis. As it was stated previously in this action research, the lessons that the students used to perform in the computer laboratory were mainly focused on doing grammar exercises in web pages. The students were asked to fill in the gaps, learning structures and tenses. Afterwards, they had to send the results to the teacher by taking screenshots of their outcomes. Despite of the fact that most of the students accomplished the exercises, it was noticed that they used to fix the mistakes by doing the exercises again when they were wrong. Consequently, they were not accepting their mistakes, which did not allow the teacher to give an appropriate feedback. Furthermore, the exercises that are delivered in web pages are isolated sentences without any context. Therefore, the students did not have an accurate use of the language which is supposed to be used in their daily speech when they communicate in English. For that reason, this research aimed at giving the students the possibility to learn English by teaching it meaningfully. Moreover, it was noticed that they did not like the expositive classes in which the methodology turned mechanic. There was a journal register in which a student said: “I hate having English classes. It is always the same. I do not think I am learning anything new, or doing something that really interests me”. Having that kind of opinion from the students, means that the lessons for the computer laboratory must be planned to take advantage of the large resources that internet provides to be used as: a tool to get information, to listen to music and read the lyrics, to watch videos and to research on topics of their interest..

(19) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 19. The first intervention was designed for the students to write about themselves. It was explained that they had to write a brief biography, adding facts about their backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, hobbies, and all the information they wanted to share. This entry was planned to know more about the students, using the language in real context and relevant topics for them. Moreover, the idea of doing this personal entry has to do with inviting the students to be part of the learning process, using their own life as a reference to write in English. In addition, this entry gave the students the opportunity to write in English, without the pressure of thinking of the grammatical rules as they used to do, feeling nervous of making any mistake. The first time they were exposed to this activity, the students seemed willing and motivated to do it. All of them started to design their blogs and writing about themselves. At the end of the lesson, when the researcher did the closure of the class, the students said that they really like writing about themselves. On the one hand, it was something related to them and not about isolated topics. On the other hand, the students felt pleased doing a new activity such as creating a personal blog. The second entry of the blog was about posting their favourite movie, band, and actor. This entry was thought for them to express their likes regarding these topics. As these students are teenagers, music and movies are trending topics in conversations among peers. The result of this post was as well interesting for the students, especially for the learners that do not usually work properly in the previous classes before the blog; they posted videos, photos and all the stuff related to the topic that the researcher asked for. These students did a.

(20) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 20. very well done job. They were committed to the activity; the students worked along the whole class, without being distracted by doing something else as they used to do. Before the intervention, there was a group of students that was quite disruptive along the class. They used to watch videos, listen to music, chat, and play with their mobile phones or bothering other classmates. Nevertheless, when the intervention started, these “disruptive” students started working concentrated and quiet. The interpretation of this fact could be that, in this entry, as they have the possibility, to watch videos in YouTube, they did not get distracted by listening to music. In this case the students had to open YouTube to look for videos related to the class. If there is another more positive reason, perhaps the students focused on the task, because the students like listening to music. Therefore, they feel more motivated to work on something related to what they like when they have classes in the English laboratory. In the third and last intervention the students were required to write about a free topic. The students wrote about their hobbies, their favourite sports, clothes and food, taking advantage of the several tools that internet provides. Despite of the fact that in internet there are articles about these topics that are already done, they were told that they could not copy and paste. The students had to make an effort to write about these topics using their own words. After implementing the last intervention, the students were asked to answer a survey which contains five questions that are written in Spanish to be as clear as possible, avoiding any kind of misunderstanding. Notwithstanding, in the second part of the survey, the students had to justify their answers in English in order to evidence the problem that these students have got with the writing skills. (*See appendix 3) Even though the focus was not related to writing itself, it.

(21) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 21. means that despite of the fact that these students have been exposed to grammar lessons, they have issues with this skill still. This survey is a rating scale in which the criterions are: “strongly disagree”, “disagree”, “neutral”, “agree” and “strongly agree”. The students had to mark with a cross the most appropriate criterion according to them. *See appendix 2. In the last intervention 11 students attended the class, therefore it represents less than half of the students of this class, whose are 25 students. Notwithstanding, the students that answered the survey were the most reluctant to participate regularly in classes. The first question says: ¿Consideras que escribir un blog sobre información que te interesa te motiva a aprender inglés? 36.36% of the students agreed on this statement. In the second statement which says: ¿Fue más significativo para ti trabajar en este tipo de actividades que en clases expositivas? 45.45% of the students answered “neutral”, which could mean that there is still something to do or to fix in the implementation of the lesson in order to make it more meaningful. The third question says: ¿Consideras que el laboratorio de computación es útil para aprender inglés? 45.45% of the students agree with that question. The forth question says: ¿Fueron los posts requeridos por la profesora, relevantes para ti? 63.63% of the students chose a neutral alternative, which could mean that perhaps they would have liked to choose another topic. Notwithstanding, in the third entry the students had the possibility to write about a topic of their interest. Therefore, their response addresses to the learning process, in which they do not consider that the topics that the teacher chose to post in the blog were relevant to learn English itself. In the fifth and last question which is: ¿Consideras que de esta manera se puede sacar.

(22) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 22. provecho del uso de la tecnología para aprender inglés? 45.45% of the students strongly agreed with the question. Taking into account this result, it can be said that the students agreed that the use of technology is fundamental or at least a good tool to learn English if they use it properly. Accordingly, the use of technology is a good tool as long as it is used appropriately, taking into account meaningful topics and integrating implicit grammar. The reason why these lessons did not contain any grammar content was because the students have got two hours per week of English in a regular class, and 90 minutes of classes in the English laboratory. Consequently, if the students have not had classes in their “normal” classroom they cannot be exposed to any new content in the English laboratory according to my guide teacher. Several events occurred during the second term in which the students did not have regular classes. In order to have concrete evidence for this analysis, the students had to justify their answers in English. The following answers will be shown in pictures and transcribed with the students’ mistakes to be as authentic as possible. Although there are grammar mistakes, there is no interference in the understanding of the main ideas. Three samples have been chosen to be analyzed to have a varied range of opinions about the intervention. For instance there is a good, a neutral and a bad opinion about the project. (See appendix 2). Most of the students agreed that internet is a good tool to learn English. The students think that the blog was a funny and original idea, for the reason that they wrote about topics that are relevant for them. A student said: “Me gusta hacer el blog porque puedo investigar y aprender inglés a través de temas que me interesan. A lo mejor me va a servir cuando quiera.

(23) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 23. hablar con alguien, por ejemplo como para hablar de mi o como decir la música o las películas que me gustan con mis amigos”. Besides giving the students the possibility to learn English in a more meaningful and contextualized way, in which they could take advantage of their previous knowledge to apply it to the required posts. Nevertheless, it would have been more fruitful if the interventions have included implicit use of grammar and specific content to each topic. Unfortunately, these contents could not be applied because the students lost many regular classes. Therefore, not having the possibility or the permission to introduce any particular content or grammar in the lessons, takes away the chance to assess the students with a clear and tangible objective. The students’ answers revealed that they agreed on the assertion that Internet is a good tool to learn English, as long as it is used with a particular content in which it can be reflected and clearly represented if the students are actually learning and accomplishing the learning objective of each lesson. Moreover, some of the students did not know how to express it, saying that the lessons were boring; both the former and the blog lessons. Nevertheless, these particular students do not have great difficulties with English, which means that perhaps they were waiting for doing something more challenging, such as giving them a degree of complexity to each blog entry. For this reason, it cannot be denied that the computer laboratory is a good facility to give the students the possibility to learn English in a more didactic way and at their own pace, since they can research every time they need, as long as every lesson has a concrete target to be reached at the end of each class in order to give students factual learning..

(24) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 24. Reflection and analysis of intervention. After the application of the intervention, I can assert that the main objective of using ICT’s in my classes was accomplished. Taking advantage of ICT’s allowed my students to be in contact with new technologies, as well as learning English in a different and more innovative way. The main benefits that I can identify from the development of my intervention are related to students’ role and the students’ independence from the teacher. On the one hand, asked them to create their own blogs helped them to be more empowered in their role as learners. Furthermore, the fact that they were able to work individually by using their own computers, allows them to gain some sort of independe from the teacher, which contributes to shape their autonomy. On the other hand, another positive aspect of this project was that it allowed the learners to work at their pace. That is to say, they did not have any pressure regarding deadlines and grades. Indeed, as the school is flexible regarding this matter, the students felt pretty comfortable while they work for their own on the intervention. Nevertheless, I think that the use of ICT’s cannot be implemented in isolation. That is to say, we, teachers, cannot just ask the students to use technologies, but we should be also concerned of what type of activities and tasks we asked them to perform. For instance, I realized that with the first entry of the blog, the students were pretty motivated not only because they were using ICT’s, but also because the topic of the activity was interesting for them. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the topics that they like, as I did by paying attention to the web-.

(25) ICT’s in my teaching practice. pages that they usually visited. This would permit us to make connections between ICT’s and who the students are.. 25.

(26) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 26. Conclusions and implications. After the development of this action research I have realized that ICT’s offerrs us, teachers, a wide range of possibilities to teach students in a meaningful way. Nonetheless, technologies must be used with responsability, since it is not enough allowing learners to use the computer. As educators it is our job to give them directions and to guide their learning process. Moreover, we must take into account their interests and learning styles, so that having access to ICT’s will be a fruitful experience, taking advantage of the multiple resources that the internet offers us. On the other hand, I would like to mention some of the limitations that influenced the development of my project. Firstly, I consider that I should have applied another instrument to have more evidence on the results of using ICT’s. I think I should have used photographs of the students’ blog projects to show that they actually performed this task by using technologies. Furthermore, although students took advantage of the use of ICT’s in the computer laboratory, I would have liked to establish a clearer learning objective so as to assess students in a more concrete way, such as: teaching a target content or vocabulary implicitly, Moreover, after I realized about the importance of taking into account the students’ interests, I should have liked asking my students about it before the intervention. Therefore, in order to be acquainted with the topics that can motivate my students, I would have liked using a pre-survey to delve into their interests and likes. Finally, I would like to say that this action research was pretty meaningful to me since I could realized about the importance of using ICT’s in my lessons. But also I could help my.

(27) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 27. students to have a new learning experience by using technologies. So they benefited from it. As teenagers they were already familiarized with ICT’s, especially because they were born in the digital era; however, this project might have contributed for them to realize that they can also use technologies for the sake of their education. Furthermore, I feel that this research I realized that we, teachers, really have to focus on helping students to learn, and that we should be more flexible in searching new and diverse ways of teaching,.

(28) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 28. References. Brown, H. D. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman.. Burns, A. (2010). Doing action research in English language teaching: A guide for practitioners. New York: Routledge.. Dumont, H., Istance, D., & Benavides, F. (2010). Nature of learning: Using research to inspire practice. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.. Enfoques estratégicos sobre las TICS en educación en América Latina y el Caribe. (2013). Santiago de Chile: UNESCO, Oficina Regional de Educación para América Latina y el Caribe.. Ilomäki, L. (2008). The effects of ICT on school: Teachers' and students' perspectives. Turku: University of Turku.. Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching. (2013): The British Council. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Place: Marc Prensky..

(29) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 29. Appendix 1 Students’ survey. ●. Survey for the students to answer after the implementation of the plan of action.. The survey will be asked in Spanish in order to be clear and have reliable answers, without any kind of misunderstanding due to the language. Nevertheless, the students are required to justify each answer in English to have evidence of their low level of English. (The English version is in the following page). Contesta las siguientes preguntas, poniendo una X en el criterio que te parezca. El nombre es optativo. Preguntas ¿Consideras que escribir un blog sobre información que te interesa, te motiva a aprender inglés? ¿Fue más significativo para ti trabajar en este tipo de actividades que en clases expositivas? ¿Consideras que el laboratorio de. Muy en desacuerdo. Desacuerdo. Neutral. De acuerdo. Muy de acuerdo.

(30) ICT’s in my teaching practice. computación es útil para aprender inglés? ¿Fueron los posts, requeridos por la profesora, relevantes para ti? ¿Consideras que de esta manera se puede sacar más provecho del uso de la tecnología para aprender Inglés? Questions Do you think that writing a blog about information that interests you, motivates you to learn English? Was it more meaningful for you to work in this type of activity rather than in lectures? Do you think the computer laboratory is. Strongly disagree. 30. Disagree. Neutral. Agree. Strongly agree.

(31) ICT’s in my teaching practice. useful for learning English? Were the posts, required by the teacher, relevant to you? Do you think that this way you can take more advantage of using technology to learn English?. Justify your answers (in English) 1) ____________________________________________________ 2) ____________________________________________________ 3) ____________________________________________________ 4) ____________________________________________________ 5) ____________________________________________________. 31.

(32) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 32. Appendix 2 Results of students’ survey. Figure 1: Chart that illustrates the students’ opinions regarding the blog and the use of technology..

(33) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 33. Appendix 3 Students’ samples of surveys. 1) “By so I can use technology in a subject that makes me hard”. 2) “If that is not write or speak in English”. 3) “Of course I have learned new words” 4) “You could say that but I do not know English”. 5) “Of course, it is easier and fun”..

(34) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 1) “Because I do not like doing useless work, things I do not like”. 2) “If because it is something not always do and I like it because we can learn to decide for ourselves”. 3) “Yes because it is the most used tool for the youth of today”. 4) “Because they are things that interest me”. 5) “Because have internet to find things”.. 34.

(35) ICT’s in my teaching practice. 1) “It’s the same thing like all the classes”. 2) “I like the expositive classes but I get a little (a lot) nervous”. 3) “Yes its really useful”. 4) “Not really its boring”. 5) “Yes and no use the internet to write a blog its not something in my interesting”.. 35.

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