There is a common acceptance that online technologies have the capacity to transform
the way we learn. It appears the call for alternative modes of learning and the effective
integration of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) into the regular
classroom is no longer peripheral. There is sound evidence that increasingly teachers and
schools are embracing the technologies available to them. This study examines the
merits, barriers and issues associated with the employment of online technologies in the
teaching and learning of second and foreign languages. Data is sourced from the views
and opinions of five participants from a ‘brick and mortar’ school, three participants
from a virtual school and the perspectives from two outside experts. The findings reveal
participants show an overall satisfaction with the usefulness of online technologies.
Compatible with the literature, the study shows that there are systemic factors
undermining the efforts of individuals to fully utilise the technologies available to them.
The overarching epistemology of this research is congruent with an Ecological model.
This approach allows for a multi-level perspective of the complexity and disambiguation
ICT has thrust upon educators and learners. This paper concludes with a positive view of
the usefulness of online technologies and reaffirms what many researchers are claiming;
most schools are only at the beginning of their ICT journey.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:canterbury.ac.nz/oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/3055 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Dieudonné, Mitchell Louis |
| Publisher | University of Canterbury. College of Education |
| Source Sets | University of Canterbury |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic thesis or dissertation, Text |
| Rights | Copyright Mitchell Louis Dieudonné, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml |
| Relation | NZCU |
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