Language materials development in a digital age

This chapter will explore language materials development in a world where digital technologies have mostly replaced their analogue predecessors, where social media dominates our lives, and where large numbers of people play digital games. It is also written in a post-pandemic world and a world where climate change is an ever-present concern. During the pandemic, many teachers and learners discovered digitally supported teaching for the first time and realised how powerful such teaching could be. It will also reflect a world where Generative Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning) is having a significant impact on both teaching and learning, as well as the rest of life. Mobile phones have become available to almost everyone in the world who wants to have one. However, there are still some limitations here including the availability of data to access the Internet, whether school systems allow them to be present in classrooms, and while a family might have a phone, children may not. At the other end of the spectrum, we find that in some classrooms the tablet PC is already the only resource that is available and is carried from home to classroom and back again (see Kern and Malinowski, Chapter 13 this volume). After a short introduction looking at the nature of the digitally aware learner and the ‘classrooms’ they inhabit, and considering how the Covid-19 pandemic might have changed attitudes to technology, this chapter will review some of the literature on materials development and evaluation in language learning, reminding us of the landscape of this domain. It will then turn to looking at the origins and developments in the field of digital courseware design in general and consider current thinking. It will also look at the extensive range of software that is available to modern-day teachers and their learners and make recommendations about how teachers might make choices in this ever-changing world. At the end of the chapter, practical examples will show how a teacher wanting to build courseware might go about the task.