The letters LCD stand for Liquid Crystal Display. LCDs
are electronic overhead transparency foils, about the same dimensions
as the old kind of overhead transparencies but two inches thick
instead of a single sheet. They allow one to project on a large
screen what's going on on a PC screen.
How can a foreign language teacher integrate this technology in
the classroom? Since the teacher can project whatever is on the
screen of the computer there is a solution to those classrooms
that still has only one computer available. Now the teacher is
able to share self-prepared programs, commercial programs, and
even the Internet if the school has access to it. A creative
teacher could also use the scanner to scan some students work
in order to discuss their mistakes with the rest of the class
(making sure that the names of the selected students are erased);
he/she can also use the scanner to later project on the LCD panel
short stories and images that explain it.
When discussing literature the teacher can prepare a literary
analysis, using a friendly program like PowerPoint, and then discuss
it using the LCD panel as the technology to project and transmit
it. If the teacher likes to present a new software and how it
should be used, that presentation can easily be made using the
LCD panel. This technology is basically like the traditional
"show and tell" that any foreign language student would
like when being introduce to a new material.
Usually this technology can be found in the media center. Some training on how to hook it up is necessary in order to avoid problems on the time of the presentation. Once the teacher dominates this technical phase he/she has only to use the imagination to find out ways in which this medium can improve or substitute the way in which the traditional class has been done. As it has been mentioned before, this technology could be used along with other technology, the scanner, in order to make it work to plenitude. This last sentence is a reminder that we are in the technology era and that one technology supports or improve the utilization of other.
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