Hope and Fears - Thoughts on connectivity and separation

As all of you know, I am very committed to the idea of improving language proficiency through the use of technology. However, that does not mean that I am not worried about the possible "dark side" of things.

I have a lot of thoughts, but you might not be interested or have the time to read pages and pages of what's on my mind, so here is a start in the form of lists:

Hopes:
- engage learners in meaningful communicative events through CMC
- bring authentic and up to date information into the classroom
- read/write/listen to/talk about topics that really matter (incuding investigating issues from multiple perspectives)
- get students motivated to learn a language by building on the pull of technology (the "cool" factor)
- have students create meaningful information for others (this to me engages students in both critical thinking, service learning, and authentic uses of language)
- give students opportunities to learn at their one pace and even in their own space
- connect learners to each other and to fluent/native speakers

Questions/Possible Concerns:
- make I am not wasting my time just because something seems "cool"
- make sure I lessening not deepening the digital divide
- are the tasks I ask students to do meaningful to them?
- what happens when technology does not work?
- am I spending my time in the best possible way?
- am I still responding to each student as an inidividual?
- am I staying focused on what I want to achieve in terms of language teaching?
- Make sure I push the technology to fit my learning objectives and not the other way around


I think if we keep these goals and concerns in mind and not get caught up in using the newest and greatest technology just because we have it, we CAN use technology to connect with each other, with the materials and with native speakers.