When Technology Fails Our Students

This week I read an article which highlights a concern I frequently have when incorporating technology with English Learners.  I often speak with teachers who tell me they are making accommodations for their ELs because they allow them to use translators, or the website or online program they are using has an option for Spanish translation.  Unfortunately, these translator tools are not always accurate and do not benefit the students.  In the article "When ELA Tools Can't Adapt to Students' Native Language," Carmina Mendoza is a bilingual teacher working with fifth graders.  She uses a program that we actually use with some of our Newcomer ELs called DreamBox.  DreamBox covers gaps in math education for our students, and offers the option for Spanish translation.  According to Mendoza, however, the translations are not good.  They are translated word for word, which doesn't often lead to a comprehensible sentence.  Students can't understand the directions, and she often has to reword the sentences for them on the spot.  As a teacher who is not fluent in Spanish, let alone the many other languages my students may speak, I cannot tell if the translations are good or not, and I certainly can't translate for the students myself. 

In addition to the inaccurate translation issues, there is another problem that some of the technology programs don't take into account.  Even if the translation is good, students still may not understand what they are reading.  I was surprised to discover that what is considered a grade 4 level text in English actually becomes a grade 6 level text when translated to Spanish.  The lexile is higher because the translation becomes multi-syllabic.  Mendoza used the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid book as an example.  Not only that, but as she points out, these translations are only effective if students are literate in their native languages, which is not often the case.

For this reason, some tech companies are choosing not to continue offering Spanish translations at all.  i-Ready is one such program.  Instead, they recommend that teachers assign materials that are on the students' current English levels.  They explain, "That’s why i-Ready integrates English-language support 'through strategic scaffolds' designed to mitigate student frustration and build English skills. 'We have visual supports, images that can help them with language acquisition without the need for native language skills,' Salinas says.'We also have an audio feature that allows English learners to hear a text read aloud multiple times, since generally their listening skills are stronger than their reading skills.'

While this seems to make sense, given the limitations of the translation technology, there are still some concerns.  These supports seem to be effective for native English speakers, while still offering only small growth for ELs.

Improving Technlogy and English Instruction in Columbia

This week, I came across an interesting site called EdTechTimes.  It is a news site about the educational technology industry.  The particular post that came across my alerts is actually a SoundCloud clip containing an interview with Ana Maria Ternent de Samper, a foreign language professor at Universidad de La Sabana in Columbia.  It is part of a series of interviews they will be sharing from the TESOL Columbia for TESOL International.  She talked about how the university is working to move into the digital age, and how both the university and Columbia in general are striving to make improvements in English education.  

According to Ana Maria, the university is working to make changes both within itself and in the surrounding community.  Within the in university there has been more interest in adding new technologies for teaching.  They have begun to offer more blended and online classes, including a masters in teaching English.  The goal of this program is to prepare teachers to help students – and themselves – become more autonomous English Language Learners.  Within community, the university is offering extension programs to work with teachers and schools.  Ana Maria admits that this has been very difficult, because teachers feel their jobs are fairly stable, so there is not as much need to transform teaching practices.  In addition, with the fast pace of technological advances, teachers are preparing students for a future may be unknown.  For example, programs are being added at the university that didn’t exist when students were in high school.  For this reason, it is necessary for the teachers to embrace changes.  In addition, they are dealing with both an incredible access to technology, and at the same time, incredible poverty where there is no technology, so teachers need to learn how to balance that and how to get education to those people who need it most.  

Ana Maria says that the focus is on making the switch from trying to solve problems that the students and society in general might have, and instead capitalizing on strengths.  In her words, “instead of a needs based approach, it is more of an assets based approach.”  The goal is to empower people to find their own solutions.

She then goes on to talk a little bit about English learning in Columbia.  There are strong English and foreign language programs in the schools.  In fact, some students come to the university from bilingual high schools, so they do not need much English instruction.  The university is working to improve their offerings for English education, including offering major subjects taught in English.  This is an attempt to counter some of the lack of student motivation in to study English in higher education.  The country of Columbia itself has a goal of working to becoming totally bilingual, and to be most educated country in Latin America.  The Ministry of Education is creating national programs with clear objectives, but at this point these objectives are not being met before the students enroll in the university.  It is an ongoing initiative, and educators are working towards achieving that goal.

Listen to the interview, and follow up with other interviews from TESOL Columbia, by going to “Heard at TESOL Colombia: How Universidad deLa Sabana Is Supporting the Growth of English Language Learning in Colombia”.

In my own experience as an ESL teacher here in the United States, I have had one student from Columbia who moved into my classroom as an eleventh grader.  He already had good English conversational skills, and his academic language was much higher than a traditional newcomer.  I assumed that he was from a well-educated family and possibly in private school, but after hearing this interview I understand more of the importance his native country places on learning English.  It makes sense that he was more advanced than the other students I was getting who were coming from Guatemala and El Salvador.  It seems that Columbia is a strong path of meeting its students’ technological and English learning needs.  I’m hopeful that other countries look to this as a model to make improvements to their educational programs as well. 

The Digital Divide for Teachers

This week, one article stood out from the rest as I looked through my Google Alerts results.  It comes from Education Week's Technology Counts 2017issue.  The article is titled "Poor Students Face Digital Divide in How Teachers Learn to Use Tech".  The author, Benjamin Herold, focuses on two very different school districts in Allegheny County, PA.  The first, South Fayette Intermediate School, is an exemplary model of how a school focused on tech and student focused learning should be run.  The second, Sto-Rox High School, has minimal focus on technology in comparison.  The school is not equipped for students to have easy access to technological tools, and teachers are not trained in how to use technology in their classrooms. 

The big difference?  South Fayette is in a predominately white, low-poverty area, whereas Sto-Rox is faced with 77% of its students living in poverty.  Not only that, but Sto-Rox is losing 20% of its budget each year, and most likely its more promising students, to area charter schools as students have left looking for better options.  In South Fayette, it is easier to make technology a priority as things like school safety sit higher on the priority list at Sto-Rox.

It is easy to see that there is a digital divide in the opportunities students have to access and learn with technology in these schools.  However, Herold found that lack of teacher training is an issue across the board.  The administration at South Fayette is working to change that and has hired a STEAM teacher to work with students and teachers to provide more technology based lessons and activities.  In Sto-Rox, administration is more focused on working with the local police department and trying to prepare students for the working class jobs most will be headed for after graduation. 

This is not to say that there is not hope, although the divide is large and hasn't seemed to be closing much in recent years.  Some teachers at Sto-Rox have been working with Pittsburgh based foundations and organizations to receive grants for resources and training to try to provide more opportunities for their students.  While they have a bigger challenge to face than teachers in other more affluent districts, they are proving that there are ways to try to make technology-based learning accessible to all students. 

My take-away from the article is this - many teachers of English Language Learners are probably facing similar situations to the Sto-Rox teachers.  The majority of our students are low-income, and priority is probably on other things.  Even if we are not hearing the message from administration, we should be taking the initiative to find grants, foundations, and supporters to help us get technology into the hands of our students as well as advocate for more training for ourselves. 

Larry's Tips for Technlogy and ELLs

Unfortunately, my Google Alerts did not come up with any good results for me this week, so I had to do a little adapting and digging.  I came up with a blog post on Animoto featuring tips from Larry Ferlazzo, who is well known for supporting teachers who are looking for ways to help their English Language Learners (ELLs).  He is one of the first people I stumbled upon when I began my journey into the world of ESL teaching 9 years ago. This post, written by Moira West, is titled Tips for Using Technology with ELL Students.

According to the blog post, Mr. Ferlazzo teaches English and Social Studies to blog ELLs and native speakers, and has for 12 years.  This post focuses specifically on his tips for using technology to teacher ELL students.  He always uses some form of technology in his classes for ELLs because of the audio/visual nature that helps support language development.  While it can be overwhelming to try to determine tools are best to use, Larry recommends five tips for finding technology tools for the ELL classroom.

        1. Make sure it is relevant - Don't just use a tool because it seems like a cool one.  Determine
              what you want to teach, and then find a tool to fit that.
        2. Keep it simple - use tools that are easy for both students and teachers to learn
        3. Look for cheap or free options - not only does this help our meager school budgets, but it  
              also allows students the option to practice at home without worrying about paying for a
              subscription.
        4. Consider mobile options - While many students do not have computers at home, more and
               more have access to Smartphones.  There are several websites that also have mobile apps
               that students can use to practice.
        5. Have students produce something - Having a final product for students to work on provides
               motivation and is a great piece to use to assess learning.

Some of the tools recommended in this blog post are the Simple English Wikipedia, Lingohut, Duolingo, and the Animoto app.  I would also highly recommend following Larry's edublog, Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day.  He shares a wealth of websites to help in teaching ELLs, and this has definitely been linked to my delicious site!

FluentU

Exploring my Google Alerts this week led me to a blog post from a site called FluentU.  FluentU is actually a language immersion website which offers both individual and school/group subscriptions.  The site offers language learning in a variety of languages, including English, through the use of real world videos.  It seems like a fun and engaging site for language learning.  In addition, there are several free blogs that provide information about language learning and teaching.  The blog post from my Google Alert is titled "How to Use Technology to Effectively Transform Your ESL Classroom."  

This article focuses on technology integration in schools, and how this can be used to the advantage of English learners in our classrooms.  The author lists and describes six benefits of technology integration in English education.  These benefits are:
                1. Increases student engagement and motivation
                2. Offers mobility
                3. Teaches students valuable tools for the future
                4. Can be a time saver for teachers
                5. Promotes learner independence
                6. Provides students access to target culture
These all seem like great reasons for teachers to add more technology into their classrooms.

The post then goes on to highlight some useful technology tools for the classroom.  Of course, the FluentU site is highlighted, but the blog post is not only promoting its own product.  It also describes Marvel.com's Comic Maker, Current Events resources, Presentation Tools, Teacher Tools, and Virtual Field Trips.  

Finally, the author offers certain things to consider for technology integration.  It is important to acknowledge that technology can be misused, even in the classroom.  Teachers should be sure that students are clear on the school's acceptable use policy, and this should be given to them in their native language.  Parents and family members should also be included in this information.  The author also doesn't shy away from the fact that sometimes limited access to technology prevents classroom use.  Instead, ways to work around this situation are offered.

While I admit to being initially hesitant about this blog, because it is obviously attached to a product, I'm glad I gave it a chance.  I haven't taken the time to read any of the other posts yet, but with titles like "How to Teach 100 ESL Vocabulary Words in One Lesson", "What the Flip is a Flipped ESL Classroom?", and "6 Fun ESL Games for Your Shyest Students", I believe this is a valuable blog to follow.  I have added it to my Delicious social bookmarking page to refer to in the future.