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

The world of educational technology is experiencing never-ending progress, with new technological opportunities triggering the development of tools for possible implementation in the language teaching and learning process. A look at the profiles of articles from the early years of Teaching English with Technology, which started at the end of the year 2000, shows how much the understanding of technology in foreign language education has become more sophisticated, specialised and focused.

On the one hand, it is interesting to note that even despite that, there are still CALL approaches, techniques and tasks which constantly draw researchers’ attention into new applications. In the present issue, this is the case with the well-known format of WebQuests, formulated by Bernie Dodge and Tom March around 1995 and well-researched ever since. However, even despite extensive literature on WebQuests (as well as their FLT mutation of "Language Quests"), there are still studies displaying novel uses of the activity in various settings. This is exemplified in the article "LanguageQuests in an off-line course management system" by Marta Navarro-Coy and Carlos Perinán-Pascual from Universidad Católica San Antonio, Murcia, Spain. The authors show the integration of the LanguageQuest idea and a custom-made course management system CALL Workbench, to enable more effective learning also in the off-line mode with a greater amount of teacher control.

Similarly, the area of Web-based language teaching, with Internet lesson ideas for face-to-face teaching popular in the early stages of Internet use (see for instance Gitsaki and Taylor's Internet English coursebook, Oxford University Press, 2000), continues to find its relevance in teaching English. This is especially true in case of English for Specific Purposes, with rather marginal target groups without ample provision of teaching materials. Thus, in this movement we already had Internet-based teaching of English to priests (volume 7, issue 2), while in this issue Laura Kozieł from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland, shows the practical activities used in her research into Web-based teaching of students of psychology. The future might well see further specific areas catered in a similar way.

On the other hand, the new developments in the area of Information Technology, and especially the notable shift from Web 1.0 (the Read-Web) to Web 2.0 (the Read-Write Web), culminating in treating the Web and its devices as a global platform of reusable data, stimulates language educators to reflect on possible applications of Web 2.0 tools. Thus, in this issue's "A Word from a Techie", Ferit Kilickaya from Middle East Technical University Ankara, Turkey, provides a tutorial in the use of a wiki, an increasingly popular Web 2.0 publishing tool.

Finally, the search for true gems among the ELT websites on the Web is always welcome, which is what has been undertaken by our co-editor, Christopher Alexander from the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, who has contributed an extensive review of Andy Gillet’s UEfAP.com site (Using English for Academic Purposes — A Guide for Students in Higher Education). UEfAP.com is an immense repository of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) materials that undoubtedly represents years of dedicated work, thus, it is essential to evaluate it according to objectively set criteria.

I wish you good reading!We wish you good reading!