Q#4What do you think are the barriers or limitations of CALL in the classroom?

Andrew

1) Access to technology, both in and out of class (e.g. quality of school facilities, scheduling lab times, access to internet at home) 2) Teacher (and student) familiarity with technology 3) Diversion: It is quite easy to shift the focus of a language class entirely onto the technological elements, leaving language study behind completely.

AfiwaMost of it is all about the internet and to have that you need electricity. If you are teaching in a remote area, you may not have access to electronic resources. However, this all depends on how everyone defines CALL because we learned about teaching theories in the class as well through some articles. There are activities you can do without the internet. For example, if you have students to create a story book using storify.com, they can do the same thing writing and cutting out pictures from magazines for such an activity. Also, technology is changing all the time. Maybe a busy teacher doesn’t necessarily have ample time to follow up with new technologies. There is also the cost of new programs that can be used in the classroom so if resources are limited, stuff from CALL may be outdated for that individual teacher or that school.

Heidi

I mean, there are plenty of populations that are tech-oriented, but many that are not, and we must be aware of this as teachers. I mean, how much is really transferrable? How about with student populations that have never used these tools or are still learning “what” the internet is. Anyways, these classes have also helped me develop an awareness of how much of a learning curve CALL requires in the classroom. Of course, this can incorporate language development with the right scaffolding. I think these are the kinds of themes that should also be explored in CALL, especially if are talking about using these tools not just for our personal uses (portfolio preparation, etc.)

Kamila

First of all, there technology may increase students’ anxiety, that is why some additional scaffolding is needed.Then, creating activities with technology might be rather time consuming for the teacher and requires much preparation.Also, it is challenging to use CALL in low-tech contexts, where there are no computers and no access to the Internet.

Karen

Having CALL in the classroom won’t be cheap so depending on the available resources of the school, CALL might not be possible. I also think that teachers need to have proper training in CALL in order to be able to do it effectively. If the teacher is not implementing CALL effectively, there might be a counter affect on the students in their language learning.

Alicia

Implementing CALL into your classroom is much more than having a computer available in the classroom. Much like owning a pet, computers in the classroom comes with a lot of responsibility and things to think about that may not be always self-evident prior to getting the computer (or the pet!). For instance, teachers need to be properly trained in how to use and/or problem solve with any CALL-related issues. Furthermore, you have to have enough funding to afford any maintenance or repair problems. You also have to have community investment in the technology piece, sharing the responsibility; otherwise student interest in CALL could fade and neglect CALL. I think I am done trying to stretch this CALL-pet comparison!

Angelica

Time-consuming, had to do learner training at the beginning; I have to keep myself up with updating the blog as well, you don’t want to just wait until last minute and do updates right before class.