Let's Begin! 🌟🤩

Hi Joyers! It's very exciting to have you here! :D

    Joyers. Yes, that's a name I give to all my readers including you who are reading this blog right now. I chose that name because I fancy the word "joy" so much. Then, I hope that you are joyful to read my blogs. Now, let's begin!😁

First of all, let me introduce myself. 😆

    I’m Vanessa Angela Sugianto, a 5^th-semester student in English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) of WMSCU (Widya Mandala Surabaya Catholic University). You can just call me Vanessa. Moreover, in this new semester, I’m taking Information Technology (IT) in Language Education, and in this course, I get the chance to creatively make some blogs related to it. In each writing, you’ll find me sharing my experience using tools, such as applications or websites, to support one’s teaching, especially English Language Teaching (ELT). 

    I’ll be so glad to share what I got in this class as I also want to help my readers, especially teachers, to enhance their use of IT in language education. It is very important since we know that we are now living in a modern era full of digital technologies, and students are already using technology in their daily lives such as playing games from their PC or smartphone. Therefore, I believe that teachers also need to have a high level of digital literacy so they will be able to create suitable meaningful learning for these digital-native students. Thus, teachers should apply technology while teaching, and they should also be able to implement a balanced TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) in their teachings which is also matched with students’ needs, levels, and environment. Shortly, for teachers to have good digital literacy is very necessary as they will be able to use IT not only to teach but also to evaluate the students’ performance and create lesson plans easily. 

    That's all I can say about myself, and right now, I wanna give a background of my past experience of using IT in ELT. I think for me to share this thing is very important, so that you all know that we may have similar experiences related to IT use in education. Or maybe if you are a teacher, and you feel related to my sharing, you'll always be able to reflect on what I share and improve your lessons based on the things you find here. 

So here is the thing ….

    I remember it clearly when I was in 11^th grade of senior high school, my friends and I had a very unique and exciting experience using IT in our English lesson. We used our smartphones, and we were separated into 3-person teams to play Scrabble, a game to order alphabets to create meaningful words in a limited time. Our critical and fast thinking abilities were tested by having that game, as the points which were gotten from it would be added to our task score. The game was really stressful, but it was fun in a way as it was unique since usually we only use paper and pen tasks. Thinking about this experience, I really deem that it is a good example of using IT in an English lesson; however, there is so much room to improve it. 

    Thus, if I were the English teacher, I would create and add more technology use in my class as the warming up or opening lesson part, or the main activity, until the closing. For instance, I might use Kahoot! in the beginning of the class to help my students review the last lesson. Then, for the main lesson, I’d integrate my students with technology by permitting them to use their laptops, or any popular technology we have. For exact, maybe when we were in a narrative writing lesson, I would give them a chance to use ChatGPT for brainstorming ideas or to check/pinpoint their writings after they had finished it. So, hopefully, teachers could integrate more technology in their lessons, but of course in a thoughtful way, such as they need to check every video or website they give to their students as the materials. 

    That's all I can share today. I'm also looking forward to receiving some comments from you. Have a great day! God bless you! ♥️