Preservice English Teachers and Technology

Preservice English Teachers and Technology:
A Consideration of Weblogs for the English Classroom
By: Shoffener, M.(2007)

This article focuses on how to prepare preservice English teachers to use technology effectively in class, especially blopg. That is a very important issue as preservice teachers possess the technical skills to use technology like of how to make power points, access a blog or open the white board, but at the same time they may not know how to apply these tools in English classroom.
To give solution of how preservice teachers use technology Mishra&Koehler,2006.P.1045, said “Work with technology in the methods course provides preservice teachers with the opportunity to explore a specific technology’s “relationship to subject matter in authentic contexts”
The author also mention the role of the preservice teachers is to be able to choose the tool that meets the students’ needs and the goals. Then he gave the blog as an effective example of how teachers use it. He does not illustrate how to set up a blog but he focused on the strategy the teachers can follow to reach the goals behind using it. I really like the method he presented using blog through questions and questions to make the teachers ask themselves these questions and find by themselves the answers. That sample can work with any other technology tools.
Despite the usefulness of the article in the advices given to such teachers, It focuses only on the preservice English teachers, as did that as he is an English teacher educator. He put limitations on using weblogs in teaching English only. I see there are many other subject matters’ preservice teachers in need to know how they can use technology in their classrooms. I see, despite he addresses teachers of English, the advices he discusses are beneficial to all subject matter teachers.


References
Doering, A. (2002). PRESERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS ACQUIRING LITERACY PRACTICES THROUGH
http://www.citejournal.org/vol7/iss4/languagearts/article1.cfm

Beach, R., & Myers, J. (2001). Inquiry-based English instruction: Engaging students in life and literature. New York: Teachers College Press