A+-+Introduction

TECHNO PUZZLE!!!

This is one teacher's story in her attempts to use technology to enhance teaching and learning:

**We are always encouraged to be more techno savvy in T&L, to be more updated with current teaching practices & methods, but at the same time were asked to make do with whatever facilities available (which is not that much). However**, despite this 'encouragement' given by administrators, educators are expected to deliver in the sense of students' achievement a.k.a grade/scores. in order to achieve that, the syllabus needs to be covered fully in a particular semester/term so that students can answer exam questions (questions must be based on the syllabus). Thus, leaving not that much time for exploratory teaching and learning using technology. For example if students were asked to surf and get the information needed for a certain topic,teachers will be seen as not doing their job (teaching=imparting information: malaysian perception on what teaching/educating means). But if we were to give out the info/notes to students, we are not encoraging critical thinking and at the same time administrators want to see our teaching notes documented. If we were to use chalk & talk, we were seen as 'lazy' and outdated so we need to use technology but to use technology (lcd, laptop,internet access etc)may proved to be more of a hassle than what can really be achieved as setting up takes class time and insufficient facilities (not counting fighting of collegues who want to use them as well, these things are limited see). Having said that, the preparation also will takes up time which teachers (me) do not really have in abundance (meeting, co-curicullum, admin work etc.) and requires some skills on the part of the teacher (i have some but need more i think). Still, a lesson that employs technology will be a lot more interesting than chalk and talk but it sometimes come with a price (not being able to catch up with schedule, being bogged down by the preparation, not able to deliver results that certain parties demande to see etc).
 * I have to say using technology in T&L is like trying to solve a riddle.** It feels as though you are in a maze, sometimes it seems as though you found your way out but then u come face to face with a dead end, you have to backtrack a lot and there will be a lot of dangerous creatures along the way. But you still need to find a way out, and no worries,there is a way out, only you have to make tons of errors first. And that is going to take a lot of time and effort on the teachers' part.

- Norhamidah, teaches TESL at a university in Malaysia. She has been teaching for 3 years.