Using Technology to Get the Little Tykes Off Your Back

The more you think about it, the more you’ll realize that there is an endless supply of technological strategies to employ in the classroom to get the little tykes off your back, and you are really only limited by your imagination.

Many of these activities involve searching or translating or navigating and then reporting back. Many people would shrug and not call this type of work teaching, but I think it’s effective because it disciplines the students into searching for words and promotes the students thinking in the target language more. It also gets the burden off of you and the responsibility of learning back onto the students where it really belongs anyway, at all times. I can’t control anyone. People control themselves.

Already, there are many teachers who are experimenting with virtual reality and game-like programs that teach students how to program and use coding. I don’t see why any of these technologies can’t be incorporated and taught in the English classroom when your job is to teach first and foremost relevant English, and if more and more English is going to be over the internet, and technologized, then teachers should be able to teach this way of interacting with people.

With respect to putting most of the burden of learning back on the students, you can harness the power of programs like Scratch to get the students busy learning to program and code basic computer programs. A lot can also be learned from programs like Passarelles Numerique in Vietnam which trains students in high school to program in C. Many programs exist, both taught in person and through software programs that you can download and use by yourself. If you’re tasked with the responsibility of teaching this technology in an English-teaching setting, you can have the students work on some interactive modules that you created or that were created by some other aspiring English teacher. Many of this, as of 2018, has already been done. When I left South Korea in 2016, the students were using apps to help them amass as many English words as possible onto their phones and to memorize them. As well as using their phones to get famous on Twitch and Instagram. So it all evens out right?

I would waste no time in learning about these technologies and what you can do with them to get the little tykes off your back. The answer you’ll find is overwhelming, which of course is good for you because you’ll never be at a loss for figuring out what to do (and what not to do). Keeping the kids distracted yet learning is a great way to do less work and maybe get a nap.

There are even many teachers who are able to code basic games that test vocabulary and pronunciation, many of whom are posting their achievements on EFL message boards like the now-defunct Waygook.org as well as Github.com. And just because Waygook is gone, by the way, does not mean that another Waygook won’t pop up somewhere else. Just like crack. Which has resurgence after resurgence. So just wait a decade and it will come back. (For more information, see Narconomics by Tom Wainwright).

I would recommend the moment you enter a school and start teaching for the first time that you work technology like your life depended on it, it’s the wave of the present and future.

So many people are just fawning over tech as their salvation. It probably is. If I were to start a business, starting a programming school, to my mind, would be the way to go. Throw in an ad that shows a tech geek driving a Mercedes to his programming-room, with a call to action, and you’ve got it made! They get an education, you get students, an income, and a brand. Win-win for everyone.

There are still some other activities that I would like to recommend. Some of these are actually based on a rather old Cambridge book by the name of The Internet and the Language Classroom. Truthfully, this book is outdated. Super outdated actually because it makes references to things like Netscape and Geocities. The pictures are also quite historical. You might be able to sell them at a brick and mortar auction house. Which would be good for startup money for your programming school!
Actually, you might not even recognize Google.com if you first saw it in this book! However, I will say that there are many activities in this book that are still employable to this day, even with the advancements that have taken place since this particular book’s last publication in the pre-historic era.

One of the interesting ideas explored in The Internet and the Language Classroom is to have the students do a research project and searching for different facts that would help support their ideas. I have tried this a number of times with my debating classes in South Korea, where I have emphasized repeatedly to my students the importance of backing up your claims with stated facts. I have taught my students to use things like Google Scholar and other search engines to find what they are looking for. This is real basic stuff, but you have to remember they were literally born only a few years ago, so some of this stuff is really prescient for them. So this is where your years on this earth comes in handy for guiding them. You’re a teacher right?

If their proficiency is too low, I have the students search for information in their own language and then perform translation work. And by the way, one of the best ways for getting the little tykes off your back is to have them do translation work. 

Use Apps

When I was teaching in South Korea, one of my co-teachers used an app called Voca Repetition to get the student to practice vocabulary that they were responsible for learning which numbered in the hundreds. It was amazing the kind of folio-sized words that they had to learn and which they ultimately condensed into a cellphone the size of a penny. We are living a sci-fi movie right now, help your students make your version of a scifi movie come to life. 

You can take advantage of this actually on a number of fronts.

You can use the same app that the students are using and have them practice their words, perhaps putting the app on a screen for everyone to see and then having the students take turns practicing the different activities that come from the app. Or you can promote more engagement with cell phones by having the students look up words, as mentioned already, or have them use the internet dictionaries for just about any activity or conversation that you have with your students.
You’d be really enhancing your value as an English teacher by learning any of the platforms designed to help you create websites in a matter of seconds. Things like Shopify and WordPress, incorporating its many features into your classroom. 

WordPress itself is a vast reservoir of technological capabilities and although my understanding of all the features is elementary compared to my friend’s and other’s, unlocking many of its features could also unlock your time and ultimately your mental energy. Kind of like the Pandora’s box of the internet but with less dire consequences.

It’s amazing what a little invested time in learning these platforms can do for you. It’s true that technology is developing at a rapid pace and I’m sure by the time this article is published, wearable technology will be more a thing, perhaps more of a household name. 

Certainly I’m begging to get into virtual reality as soon as possible so I can escape the one that I’m in currently. So if you can’t find me, that’s where I’ll be. Stuck in a alternate world which has comsumed me and made me a shell of a person. 

Conclusion

So in sum, there are indeed many ways to get the little tykes off your back with technology.  You can use digital games, like Falling Clouds (another great way to pass the time!), or I’m sure they can tell you what they like to play since most of their life is online now. To get your students engaged in their own little worlds, practice English vocabulary and grammar on these digital apps. If you’re planning on coming to Da Nang, Vietnam, you’ll notice just how crazy this whole app thing gets. Most young people aren’t even in the physical world anymore. They live online or  stuck to their technology.

The notion of “brick-and-mortar,” is as dated as disco and disco is as dated as typewriters. 

Pretty soon, the only brick and mortar establishments we’ll have left are gas, haircuts, and fastfood. And even those will be able to be delivered at some point allowing you to stay home and get anything.

Make sure to also introduce your students to Duolingo.com and Buusu.com, both of which are language communities that are designed to help you get the most practice with romance languages. Yeah, it seems that if you recommend these, you’ll technically be working yourself out of the job. This isn’t true though because you’ll see many of your former students on these digital platforms and you’ll be able to teach them there. No big difference. You just can teach from the comfort of your living room and pajamas.

I have used these sites myself when learning Spanish and can say with certainty that they help a lot if you consistently work with them on a daily basis. This in combination with reading a book like A Mind for Numbers and you’re set. And frankly, I want these students to be working on these sites so that they don’t have to work on me. Which gets me more access to technology from the comfort of home and less human interaction.

Finally, searching-and-sorting activities take a long time and they are very rewarding for the stressed and tired teacher who just needs a break now and then from teaching students day in and day out, teaching draconian hours in one building for an entire day. 

Make use of the digital dictionaries so that you can have students look up words and report to you on important ideas that they would like to communicate. You can also use these dictionaries to have the students translate text that it is in their mother language into English. 

Many of these digital platforms will prove to be an absolute godsend for you in your career as an English teacher. 

And the more you think about it, the more you’ll realize that there is an endless supply of technological strategies to employ in the classroom to get the little tykes off your back, and you are really only limited by your imagination. Many English teachers have already been experimenting and using platforms like this and you can find the fruitful results of their labors on EFL message boards across the web. 

Therefore, if you’re tired, the joke’s on you.