TLL Week 2: Technology from the Viewpoint of Mine

This session was very exciting. We did a debate about the usage of computer lab and language lab. It was pretty fun because we still can’t decide which one is better. Indeed, deciding the technology to be applied at school is hard thing to do. There are many reasons, for instance, technology itself needs high budget and not all people can use it appropriately. However, like what Pa Teguh said, technology is only a tool. How far it’s useful depends on whose use it. For me, if we want to apply technology at school we should train the teacher first ─the one who teaches it. If teachers already be a master of technology, I think any kind of technology can be applied at school and will be an effective learning aid to students. As you recall, last week we also tried to explain about some cool sites whether can be applied to language class, such as: Facebook, YouTube, and blog. Amazingly, those sites that we think only for fun turn out to be useful media to learn language.

In this session also I learn about the terms, digital native and digital immigrant. People who were born after 1990 are called digital native. I don’t think so. I recall that around the beginning of millennium age, my father bought a mobile phone and computer. Thus, I could use computer around my age of nine. If we compare it to people in America, mostly already can use more sophisticated technology around 1990, the term of digital native is not really suitable for some of us in Indonesia. Many people here even were born after 1990 but if they can feel the technology in their adolescent or even more, it’s the same as they’re digital immigrant. And yet, indisputable, there also many people here who since kid born with technology. They’re the real digital native. As a teacher to be, we should be ready to teach them using technology which is wider and more sophisticated.