Educational Technology and ICT

Technology , the century term by excellence , is becoming increasingly crucial in both our professional and personnal lives . It has facilitated our life to the point that we become very much dependent on its use in our daily acitivities . We will not talk about technology in its broadest scope but we will instead narrow it down to a particular field called Educational Technology (ET ) and ICT ( Information Communication Technology ) as it is straightforwardly related to our profession as teachers and educators .

The question here is ; why educational technology and ICT ? The answer is very simple , our learners and students use technology more and more while a very large portion of teachers are lagging behind . Unfortunately , there are many teachers now that are far less skilled and knowledgeable than their students when it comes to using current technology .This situation is even worse in Africa and the Arab world in general . Being myself part of theis geographical location , I know exactly how needed teachers and educators are to this wealth of technological innovations without which our teaching and professional development have no meaning . This blog , therefore , is a simple and modest try from my part to help in this this gap by providing non technical descriptions of new technological tools and by demonstrating how teachers can use these tools in the classroom . In brief , we will be talking about the practical applications of technology to teaching especially TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign language ) and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language ) .

This work is primarily meant for teachers with little or no experience of ICT tools and how to use them in the classroom and also for those who are already ICT knowledgeable but still lack in some fresh ideas about its effective use as well as links to new development in this field . Please not here that any proprietal software programs and operating systems that will be listed through the whole posts DO NOT mean in any way that we are endorsing these products but are included just for the sake of simplifying and concretising instances of tools that teachers can use in their classrooms .

Web2.0 in Education

Finally , we would very much welcome any kind of feedback from you and if you are working now on a certain ICT project or are implementing any other application or tool with your students then share the knowledge here and let others benefit . Our aim is to develop foreign language teaching through technology .

Sendspace : a free file sharing service

Sendspace is one of the best online file sharing service.It is completely free and does not necessetate registration . As teachers and educators, I think the use of this web2.0 application is indispensable withing our schools and institutions and with our students and learners.It is really a great software that provide a large storage capacity to host your files and share them with others . Click on read more to learn how to use this tool .
Sendspace is one of the greates web2.0 application and one of the featured ICT tool inside classrooms and schools .It is a free service and doesnt call for any registration but if you decidce to open an account there ( which i would highly recommend )it is also free to do so .
Why do you need to regsiter ?
As i said before you can benifit from Sendspace without even being a registered member ; but if you want to get the most of this service then you need open an account . It is free , easy and quick , all it takes is a couple of minutes .Once you are registered you can benifit from a bunch of extra features such as :

• Monitor and edit files
• Recover downloaded links
• Delete files
• Use the wizard tool
• Create email groups to send links to
• Automatic receipt of upload confirmation
• Free of spam space and no third parties acces to you email address

These are just some of the services you can get from being a registered member . However , there are several other extra services that Sendspace provide for Pro or Max members but these are paid services .

How long does a file remain available ?

Files can be hosted in Sendspace for unlimited period of time until they become inactive only then they are deleted from your account .A file becomes inactive if it has not been uploaded for about 30 days .File deletion is not an issue with Pro and Max members .
Can i group my files in an online folder ?
Yes sure .Once you are registered you can organise all your files into a folder in the "My files " tab . Folders are private by default but you can change their setting in the "folder options" and generate a folder URL to share with others .
To learn more about Sendspace you can either :

• Visit thier FAQ page or
• Download Sendspace step by step pdf guide .

How can i use Sendspace ?

To start using Sendspace follow these steps :

1. Unregsitered members

go to sendspace and fill in the spaces and click upload . Look at this screenshot as example

To register click on sing up for free in sendspace homepage and provide your info . . Look at this screen shot for illustration :

When you click on register you will then get an email with an activation link . Open your inbox and and confirm your address and complete the registration process .

How can we use Sendspace with students ?

There are several ways we can use Sendspace with our learners :

• an extra resource of materials where students can download files .
• Create email groups of students and share files with them to help them with their learning especially the slow learners .
• Assign tasks and projects to students and tell them to use Sendspace to share files between each other and with you too for a later verification and correction .
  

That’s it for now . I hope you like this web2.0 application and I would like to hear about your experience when using it with your students .

Please leave a comment if you like this article , if you do not like it I would also welcome your reaction , but if you do not want to leave your feed then just SMILE .