FROM THE EDITOR
by Jarek Krajka
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University,
Lublin, Poland
jarek.krajka(at)wp(dot)pl

The eighth year of existence of Teaching English with Technology commences in the times of substantial changes in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) by language practitioners all over the world. The remarkable shift in the approach towards the Internet, commonly known as “Web 2.0”, makes new openings for computer-assisted instruction. Its new compact definition formulated by O’Reilly (2006) reads as follows: “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform”. In a more general sense, Downes (nd.) claims that the Web was transformed from what was called "the Read Web" to the "Read-Write Web," changing from “a medium, in which information was transmitted and consumed, into being a platform, in which content was created, shared, remixed, repurposed, and passed along.” The widespread use of such features as social networking software, microcontent (focusing on individual blog posts, atoms of information and meaning, rather than entire pages), openness ensuring the flow of microcontent between domains, servers, and machines, as well as folksonomic organisation of information, allows redefinition of the way the Internet and computer technology enhances the teaching and learning process. It seems that shortly this transformation of the Web from a library of interlinked pages to an information ecosystem, with data constantly processed, analyzed, repackaged, digested, and passed on, will be reflected in the publications in subsequent issues of the Journal.

The current issue features a summary of the main directions of how Internet-based language instruction proceeded along the recent years. On the one hand, “Investigating teachers’ use of computers in teaching English: a case study” by Saadiyah Darus and Ho Wai Luin from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia reports the examination of teachers’ use of computers, their attitudes, the challenges that they faced in using computers in teaching English, and their suggestions in order to overcome these challenges.

Another contribution in the Language Lab section, “Humanising management software” by Christopher Alexander from the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, deals with the issues involved in self-study language learning in a computer lab. The contribution covers the increasingly sophisticated range of functions of management software that appear to have been designed to improve certain aspects of traditional classroom language teaching. Thus, the teachers involved in organising self-access learning will be provided with a great deal of useful software functionalities.

The area of Internet-based face-to-face teaching finds its reflection in the set of Internet lesson plans designed by the humble speaker. The blend of face-to-face and computer work, both human-human and human-computer interaction, structured in the familiar pre-, while- and post-Web procedure, should help teachers achieve greater impact of language instruction by employing authentic interactive materials.

Finally, distance learning, and specifically the issues involved in multimedia authoring for Virtual Learning Environments such as Moodle, are addressed in the paper “Guidelines for Interactive Homework” by Sylvia Maciaszczyk from Warsaw School of Social Psychology, Poland. The author gives a detailed description of the procedure and the tips and tricks of designing Moodle-based materials, based on the example of a sample module from the online course designed.

We wish you good reading!

References

Downes, S. (nd.). E-learning 2.0. eLearn Magazine. Retrieved November 16, 2007, from http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1.

O'Reilly, T. (2006). Web 2.0 compact definition: trying again. Retrieved January 19, 2008, from http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/12/web_20_compact.html.