“Plus ça change, ça change tout”: the role of technology in language education in the early 21st century

A significant number of the citations for educational change when conducting a Google search make some kind of reference to technology, even when looking at a narrower search like “managing change in higher education”. The introduction of technology is often expected to cause paradigm shifts, but so often the introduction of technology fails to bring about the change that is anticipated and then we turn to the other factors that play a role; asking what went wrong.However, despite the fact that the literature is replete with studies showing that change is complex, the lessons appear seldom to have been learned. What many teachers understand, but managers and technologists so often do not, is that change in teaching involves a constellation of factors; teaching’s sociocultural reality. * the changing nature of a society like Sweden, the UK, Egypt or Singapore and the role of language in that society, the impact of transnational entities, of globalisation, the current nature of immigration/emigration;* the change of national policy on education (the change of a government)—its interpretation in the institution; * a change in understanding of methodology and the role of the teacher in the classroom;* teachers’ cognitions and their impact on change;* the varied interpretations of what constitutes a classroom and the skill set required to work in one;* the change in our understanding of the English language and the varieties we teach;* the difference in the emphasis on the skills that are needed for a learner in the 21st Century;* and technology itself and its impact on teaching and learning, particularly when it comes to a subject like language.This is the landscape in which teachers are expected to practise and it is not surprising that we find ourselves metaphorically running out of the room screaming. This talk will explore some of these issues, but also the changing nature of technology use in language education and where this might take us.