Technological Tools to Empower Teachers in Third-World Countries: Mobile Teacher App

Abstract

Teacher professional development programs are, by and large, offered by international associations such as TESOL. Alternatively, schools might have their programs to help faculties hone their teaching skills. During these programs, language educators are familiarized with the state-of-the-art instructional strategies as well as cutting-edge technologies in language education. A major theme of these sessions contains teaching novel instructional strategies as well as classroom management. These concepts are long- standing topics in professional development sessions. However, language teachers in developing countries or countries under sanctions and travel ban are unable to travel and attend these sessions. More often than not, language teachers from these regions (Asia and Africa) are required to bear the travel costs to America and register in specialized courses and/or workshops to learn novel instruction strategies. In this article then, to bridge the gap, I set the tone to corroborate the need for professional development sessions for language teachers. I introduce the developmental stages of teachers (Rashthi & Khoshnevisan, 2019) and I segue into detailing a software—Mobile Teacher—crafted and developed to help language teachers professionally develop their arsenal of didactic strategies. I then detail the affordances and constraints of Mobile Teacher and how language teachers can contribute to this software. I finally conclude this article with the pedagogical implications related to the utilization of Mobile Teacher.