Integrating Technology in ESL Writing

Our world has slowly been taken over by technology; through the use of technology, everything would seem to turn out better and more interesting. Same goes for teaching, teachers who integrate technology in their teaching will definitely make their lesson much more interesting and effective.

Integrating technology in ESL writing brings many benefits to both students and teachers. Technology, or the Internet to be exact, increases the access to the many resources of teaching. By using different online tools to teach writing, teachers are able to attract the attention of students as technology offers a wide range of ways to teach. Teachers are able to choose from the ample online teaching tools to teach their students. This not only attracts the attention of students; it also allows the teacher to increase their skills in technology. In addition, students are able to understand better when the teachers use suitable tools. For instance, when students are asked to write a narrative essay, videos or pictures can be shown to allow the students to have more understanding on what they have to write about. Visual aids also help to enhance one’s creativity.

An example of integrating technology in ESL writing is by using an electronic portfolio, also known as an e-portfolio. An e-portfolio is a collection of work where one uses the Internet to help him or her organise, archive and display his or her work. This is a great tool as students are able to have their own “space” to express themselves creatively. Teachers are also able to assess the students’ e-portfolio easily. Students will also be able to view their peers’ e-portfolio to exchange ideas and give opinions. Through this, students are able to encourage one another and this is able to increase one’s confidence in writing.

I have to say, having been shown the slides presented by my course mates, I was very fascinated and impressed with all the online tools one’s able to use to teach writing. My group presented on online and offline teaching writing tools; and as we were preparing our presentation, we found many of online tools that we can use to teach. It was then when I realised I did not know as much as I needed to about using technology to teach. There are so many other tools besides Blogger, Facebook and Tumblr, and this has motivated me to search for more useful tools to be used in the future. Integrating technology in ESL writing is definitely a good idea.