There is no doubt that having (or not having) excellent technological skills will make a major difference in the lives and futures of our students. Their careers will increasingly rely on the ability to maneuver easily in technological environments, and to learn new technology quickly. Yet there are a number of challenges that educators face when trying to help ELLs get up to speed:
- Language: In order to make the most of instructional technology, ELLs need to have the language skills and vocabulary necessary to understand how to use the technology.
- Limited access: Many ELLs may not have access to a computer or the Internet in their home. They also may not know about the services available through the school or library, or they may be unable to get to the library on a regular basis. This digital divide is explored in a story published by The Washington Post, "Without ready access to computers, students struggle".
- Different levels of experience: In one classroom, a teacher may have a student who learned to use the computer as a toddler, and another who is sitting in front of a computer for the first time. This requires that teachers develop their own ability to differentiate technology instruction for their students. The good news is that technology often can help teachers differentiate instruction, as is the case in Toniann Jeffery's classroom.
- School infrastructure: While many schools around the country have invested heavily in technical infrastructure and equipment, many have not — including numerous schools serving ELLs.
- Keeping up: It's hard for teachers to keep up with new jargon, information overload, and the latest technical tools and trends — not to mention the ways these things all relate to the the classroom!
Despite these challenges, however, there are a number of instructional strategies that teachers (even with limited technical experience) can use to help students' build technical skills and digital literacy. For ELL students learning technology, it is especially important to focus on effective teaching strategies that are commonly used in other content areas, such as academic language development and meaningful interaction with the content.
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