I believe that either teachers embrace the new language learning technologies and integrate them in a new pedagogy or the will not only deprive themselves of the enormous benefits afforded by computer-assisted language learning (CALL), computer-mediated communication  (CMC), distance learning, social networking, and language games, but they will be increasingly out of touch with their own students, who are by now wired, networked and computer-savvy.

 

However, technology is not a panacea in itself. It urgently needs the teacher to harness it properly if it is to help learners achieve the ultimate goal of foreign language learning: becoming bilingual. Research has continuously shown how digital medium wisely can fulfill the implications of second language acquisition, that is, facilitate interaction, foster negotiation of meaning, help the autonomous search for knowledge, and help in the solving of communicative tasks. In addition, the digital medium can help implement the goals of intercultural competence, change the classroom from a teacher-centered to a learning-directed environment, and provide a leaning context that encounters students’ everyday routine.

 

Ultimately, incorporating digital media to instruction and curriculum is a way to change aspirations of future generations of students who are aching for more autonomy, agency, collaborative learning and distributed creativity.

 

The computer has ushered in not just a new technology but new ways of viewing knowledge, and the very relation between teachers and the students themselves.