Recently I had the privilege of joining a team of elementary school teachers for a few days to support students in their classrooms. I provided a number of small group reading lessons and helped teachers by assisting with whole class lessons but my most valuable experience was helping a grade 6 boy who had just started attending school in Canada and spoke virtually no English. At first, I wasn't sure what I would do with this student when I was asked to pull him aside and work with him on English speaking skills; he didn't speak any English -- How would I give him instructions? Being forced to think fast, I turned to a good friend for advice, Google. I used Google translate to converse with Angel, he spoke fluent Spanish and thankfully could write well enough that using Google's suggestions, I was able to understand what he wished to tell me. He had come from Honduras and he was sad and lonely because he had no friends here. I told him not to worry because I could tell that from our short time together, he was a smart boy and he would be able to learn English very quickly. I could tell that he was happy and relieved that we could communicate.
I felt that the technology allowed us to connect in a way that would have otherwise been impossible. To me that is Educational Technology.
