The cost for programs to acquire and maintain technology is high. Equally steep is the cost to train teachers to use computers and the Internet in the classroom. Teachers want to learn about new technologies and how to integrate them into instruction, and that takes resources, time, and money. The suggestion that using computers and the Internet may eliminate the need for a trained teacher does not appear to be true. Computers can facilitate independent learning, but teachers, assistants, and volunteers are needed to clarify, to assist, and to work on the technical problems that will occur.
Language learning is largely a communicative process.
ESOL teachers need to make sure that communicative activities still take place when learners are using computers and the Internet. One way to accomplish this is to ask learners to work in pairs on a computer. Using the Internet in project-based learning is another way to facilitate the development of learners' language skills as well as their teamwork and other communication skills so needed in today's world. This seems particularly true with the higher levels, perhaps because they can work on the Internet at home. At school they want to converse with peers.