Reading Post # 9

Out of all the limitations, caveats and challenges mentioned with regards to computer assisted language learning, the ones that apply to me the most would have to be time and the legal uses of technology use. I'm very lucky to have access to language labs at least twice a week in my school. This means that I need to or want to plan out or create activities for my students to use those days. I want to provide them with meaningful and interactive activities and of course that takes time. For example to create an interactive worksheet or research different websites to find appropriate ones to use for a webquest. I guess the more I work at it, the better and faster I become in creating such activities. Plus I wish I had access to different software at school. For instance, the ones we are learning to use in this class like Kidspiration. The way to overcome that would probably have to be by applying for a grant. I'll take a shot at it next year. The legal uses of technology use also present a challenge in probably all schools I imagine. We have to monitor the students very carefully and provide them and the parents with the appropriate permission slips as well as rules and regulations in regards to computer and online usage.Student safe use and avoiding palgiarism must also be explained explicitly to our students. In my experience teaching high school students, there are many who still don't understand the importance of this. WE also need to make sure that nothing is damaged in our labs every time we use it. Even though we keep records of the lab conditions evry time we use it, we end up with missing or damaged equipment every year.