Fun, Tech and Teaching Foreign Languages

Butterfly Gemini relates some of her teaching frustrations, in this case with parents and a bit about technology. I guess some of the parents tattled on her (after parent-teacher interviews) for not utilizing the school's language technology lab to make foreign language courses more fun for the kids.

"A few reasons I had told the parents when they asked me about the technology use --or lack thereof, really-- in my foreign language classroom, were that I am new to the building, I have never had access to language lab facilities for teaching foreign language before, and I really do not know what is available to do in there."

This theme turned up over and over in my last course on web-based learning -- my classmates (mostly teachers) all agreed that the technology in a school is irrelevant if the teachers aren't given any help in integrating it effectively. Butterfly also talks about the conflict between curriculum and fun in school. Right now I'm just glad I'm not a teacher.