Chapter 7 Reflection

Chapter 7 deals with Web 2.0 and especially its influence and contributions to English language learners.  Beyond the more direct benefits of having more visual and graphical aspects with web 2.0 options lie the access to it in extracurricular times giving students better chances of exposure.  Further, it can improve verbal acquisition of the language from interactions with blogs and so forth.  The author promotes the concept that the key to using the technology is to focus on teaching critical consumption of information by the students.  The author takes the guidelines and goals of TESOL and gives examples of how Web 2.0 techniques can achieve the desired effect.  Finally, the author talks about maintaining proper safety protocols for web technology in schools.  For the most it is something decided upon by each school to get the best practice for their style.  Recommendations include limiting access to some sites or teaching students how to navigate sites to avoid inappropriate material.  Further, safety concerns of personal information are briefly discussed.
This is a hard one to connect to my personal experiences.  I have not done much with Web 2.0 materials nor ELL students.  I was aware of the benefits of the more graphical and interactive portions of Web material for ELL, but had not fully considered the boosts it could provide with English language assimilation.  Thus far we have erred on the side of anonymity for any students involved with our programs for safety concerns.  It is nice to see the additional information on the negative effects of technopanics as well.