Tag Archives: Technology

The #1 Reason To Use Tech In ELT

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Number One** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1.

                              Differentiation

I have thought about this long and hard. I’m not a big proponent of using “tech for tech’s sake” or just because it is there and students like it. I sympathize with the argument that we should use technology because it is such a ubiquitous part of our life/living (or that of our student’s). However, I still think we need a reason, a rationale for its use.

In general, technology is valuable for what it does to the continuum of space and time. Technology allows us to access knowledge like never before – the library doors are wide open and so many can enter. There is no bottleneck and no 9 to 5 access. So I did consider the #1 reason to use tech as being “time on task” or “connectivity”. Students have more access to language, the distinctions between ESL and EFL are blurring, they can have more contact with language through online immersive experiences and contacts. Still, I’m voting for differentiation when it comes to “teaching”, when it comes to the typical language classroom.

Technology allows students to encounter language in control. It provides levels and support so the language learner won’t be bewildered and overwhelmed. Think of our typical language classrooms and be honest – 70 – 80% of students are usually tuning out after the first 5 minutes because there second language brain just gets too hot and they can’t cope. Technology makes the chaos of authentic language manageable and can provide students with material at their own level and pace. This is, if it is used correctly and in a self directed fashion not just as a one size fits all thing on a screen. Here’s a wonderful example of a school in South Carolina.

No matter how good your placement test, you are going to have so many students with such different levels and knowledge in your language classroom. It is impossible to cope, to find a common space. Technology solves this problem and gives learners the tools to learn what they want, at the right time and moment. This is why I’m working hard and so excited about the video corpus and suite of tech tools for language learning we are creating on EnglishCentral. Learners can acquire language in a safe, controlled environment. They can practice and repeat, review, rewind, rerecord, redo, respeak until they feel ready to speak and test themselves in the town square that is life.

Differentiation – so important in language learning for language is a type of knowledge that is so personal and so close to us.

Reformation not reform

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Last week I watched the “Reinvent Learning” roundtable with Howard Reingold. As I walked and ran on my treadmill (got in a good 14 k), I listened to the pronouncements of all the experts about what is happening or should happen in education right now. Lots of food for thought but two things really got me questioning this leadership and that despite their great ideas – they don’t quite “get it” and live in a little bit of a plastic bubble.

1. Communication. I was struck by their “lingo”. Now, I’m well versed in it but even I had a hard time following each person’s plethora of terms and labels. If you can’t communicate in a simple fashion, what should be done and why – it doesn’t stand a chance of ever getting done. We have to get rid of all this “educationalese” before any substantial reform will happen in the constituency that counts – students, parents, the common man. We as educators have to speak simply, commuicate the essential of what education really is and its importance.

2. Power. There seemed to be a pink elephant in the room that nobody wanted to talk about – namely “who has the right to tell anyone what they need and must learn?” The point was touched on ever briefly but I feel it is central to what is happening in the present learning revolution. Also, who has the right to tell a person, even a child, they must go to school?

We need a real reformation in education, not just reform. Having read my Erasmus, the reformation was all about challenging the powers that be, decentralizing and making it about the people and not pronouncements and power.  The reformation had a profound effect and a reformation in education could have the same. It could take the power to certify, to graduate, to say “who passes Go” out of the hands of the academic watch towers and into the hands of the community and the people actually teaching and learning.  It would give value to learning and not just “doing time”. This to me IS the issue and focus of change these days. Everything revolves around it.  Technologies allow access to knowledge/learning for pennies to all – how we handle this, just like the Reformation eliminating intermediaries between man and god, is what we’ll be judged by. Not whether we are  for or against digital learning etc ….

We need to begin making our schooling our education (to paraphrase and reference Twain’s famous quote). That process begins today with all of us tearing down the walls, the authority, the ivory towers that stand between the student and learning.

Simple Tasks For Teaching

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Recently on the EFL Classroom 2.0 blog, I posted 3 lists of 50 tasks that teachers can use in their teaching – asking students to do them and “practice” language, the skill that is language speaking/reading/writing/listening.

Surprised to death at how popular these lists were! I know we all like lists but I guess I touched on a big need with teachers. Short, concise, easy to implement ideas that can easily be done in the classroom. No fuss, no muss teaching. I also think the “materials light / prep light” aspect of these really went over with teachers. We all know how overwhelming it can be when you get a good idea but it is an impossible circus act of 4 pages of instructions and how to dos. Just impossible to put into action in one’s own classroom.

So here are the three lists consolidated in one place. The lists may be downloaded on the original blog post, for the convenience to use offline and share offline. Enjoy and share your own ideas in these veins when you have the chance.

 

50 tasks for the English Language Classroom

 

 

 



 

50 Tech tasks for the English Language Classroom

 

 

 

 

 

50 tasks using only a blank piece of paper.

 

 

50 Holiday Friendly Activities for the classroom.

There is no longer any “normal” – disrupting ELT

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I’m all about ‘disruption” (to borrow Clayton Christensen’s term) and think this is the most potent role that technology plays in our society.

A disrupter thinks small and keeps moving.   Large companies/groups are about sustaining and normalcy – the small can dress up in innovation and act quickly – revel in change.  Technology in the hands of one man can upset the apple card and enable a fresh wind to blow and bring greater efficiencies, better learning and more freedoms.  That’s the revoluton.

There are two parts to disruption that I play. One  part is making things real, trying things and putting things out there – see my previous post about my successes and failures online – Muckin’ About.  That’s only a partial list, I could add many more.

But another vital part of disruption is promoting the creation of products by the lowly individual AND the access to those products by the many.  It is about open resources that allow  us to put money into classrooms and learning and not the coffers of larger profit barons (and we know who they are).  It is disruption through creating connections and access where before none exists.

But it takes time to change mind sets. Teachers will not even blink asking their students to pay large publishers $20, $30, $100.  The pact with the devil is that by using the kings of publishing we are buying authority.  Like Pascal’s quip that “a judge would not have his authority without his wig”, so too many teachers without a Pearson,  Cambridge or Oxford textbook.  But it is an illusion and will one day soon fall. In the meantime, I’m going to keep playing my part and getting others to see the emperor’s wear no clothes (and especially in language teaching where the real world is IT and not a text, where with video we now can bring the real world to our classes and can throw out the textbook).

The last few years I’ve produced many free materials for teachers. Ebooks or “tech”books.   I’m often asked where a teacher might get them all.  I’ve made partial lists but until now, had no definitive collection.  So here it is, a definitive collection, each with a brief description. Enjoy. Download to your hearts content Support my work if you can by becoming an EFL Classroom 2.0 supporter for a one time, lifetime payment of $19.95.  It all gets plowed back into my efforts to give power to the many and keep tipping over apple carts.

I’ll also mention here, though not a book, still pretty damn disruptive – The Free Basic TESOL Certificate course I created. You’ll even get a certificate after you complete it!

GET THE FULL PAGE OF FREE EBOOKS

 

All my “tech”books

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EnglishCentral Basic Business English CoursebookI like the term “tech”books. I’ve been busy the last couple of years creating lots of free books for teachers, books meant to bypass the clutter of the textbook vultures out there. Kind of born of my angst against how textbook culture (and it is a culture, so many are so deep into it, so “hooked”, like culture they can’t even see so), how textbook culture addicts teachers/schools and more seriously, de-trains teachers from actually teaching language in a personal, direct and “human” fashion. Time we all withdraw from this drug and low/no cost techbooks are the answer. Direct, simple and what teachers need – meant to supplement their teaching not suppress their teaching and make teaching into,”exercise 1, exercise 2, now class, turn the page and read”. OMG!

I’ve finally collected all the EnglishCentral techbooks I’ve produced, on one handy page. Take a look and just print and use with students along with the video. You can sign up as a teacher, make a class page of these videos and use the videos there with your students (and get reports, track students).

The normal delivery is

1. Ask some video theme specific discussion questions
2. Play the video, repeat as necessary.
3. Play parts, pause and have students repeat.
4. Students role play the video
5. Students complete the techbook vocabulary exercises.
6. Students go to EnglishCentral and study further, speaking the video etc…

But the point is, the teacher is in control. These are low/no cost, there is no huge pressure to use to the nth degree. They are used as will benefit the learners and the teacher.

Listening – UGC (User Generated Content)

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The whole world is the English Language Teacher’s oyster. Nowadays, with the proliferation of technologies and especially the internet – we don’t have to use the staid old materials of “usually” dried up, old white men who write textbooks and run up publisher’s expense accounts. Nosirree. There are great authentic materials everywhere which we can harness, control and use for presenting great classroom material, all with little effort. “Ecrasez l’infame” said Voltaire, “Down with the infamy”. Same applies here, we don’t need experts anymore – the textbook emperors have no clothes.

Here’s one simple example of the power of video that can be brought right to the classroom and used effectively as a language teaching aid. HP Computers – Getting Personal: You On You contest videos. [see all my other players full of great material for the classroom - HERE]

People from all over the world uploaded “headless” videos of themselves. Here’s an example. I have a full player of the best for the classroom HERE.  These videos are absolutely brilliant and I specifically chose one of the worst to highlight how even these are great for teaching.

It’s easy to use these videos. Simple play one a few times and allow students to record the information about the contestant. Use this nice badge/card (made at the wonderful Big Huge Labs). After, play again and take up the info. pausing the video as you go.

Here’s my answer to the example video!

Another great activity is to just let the students watch and then guess which are the top 3. (the first three in the player were the winners :) )

If you really want to do something amazing – get your students to make their own You On You videos. Have your own contest! Getting students to be the authors of their own language learning materials (what I call SCC or Student Created Content) is the be all and end all of language teaching.

Enjoy using these great videos!

Text Messaging Game (Big Screen)

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I’m really proud of some of the creative games I’ve made. One that I really think is stellar is “Transl8it”.

I’ve recently updated it and get it through a now available “Big Screen” version. It is simple as pie to play and students love it. Maybe even get them to make their own games by visiting http://www.transl8it.com and putting in their own text which students can then decode.

[I'll be highlighting EFL Classroom "hidden gems" for the next month. Keep coming back for more!]

My Perfect Classroom

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{ I originally published this in Barbara Sakamoto’s wonderful blog – Teaching Village. I revive it here because I think its message is pertinent and important. }

“The problem with our profession is that there is too much teaching and not enough learning”.

I said this recently during a discussion and I think it is such an important point to understand about “teaching” a language – that we have to get away from delivery systems that are teacher directed and more towards models where students are self-paced, self-motivated and learning independently. The future IS learning not teaching.

English Language Teaching has been progressing towards an understanding of this. CLT (communicative language teaching), PBI (project based instruction), TBI (task based instruction), collaborative learning and other approaches have made big inroads into traditional teaching models. But they’ve been baby steps. The emperor still believes he / she wears clothes and won’t “give up the ghost” and stop swinging the baton. It IS all and too much, about control.

I’m not going to belabor the point nor expound on my own beliefs about why self directed learning is the future of language instruction and learning (given the access to curriculum technology gives us). No. Let me be down to earth and simply describe my “perfect classroom”. This will give you an idea of what I mean by SDL – self directed learning and giving students increasing choice and independence over what and how they will learn.
My Perfect Classroom.   It looks like this.

The class starts without any teacher talk nor any teachn’ and preachn’. Students walk into the classroom, sign in and head towards their assigned computer. They glance at the whiteboard for the assignment of the day.

The students work with a headset to produce language, finish projects, practice vocabulary word banks using quizzes/flashcards. The activities are leveled and self-paced. Low level students work with the right content – higher level students can challenge themselves. They help each other through English only chat or directly in the class. They are the experts.

The teacher sits in the middle, coffee and tea at hand. With a ring of the bell – she calls for a group to come meet. The teacher practices conversation with the students, using the target language and grammar for the week. She tests the students on the language they’ve been learning. He assesses their needs in a small group and gets valuable feedback about the activities. After 5-10 minutes, it is time for the next group.

The last 15 minutes of class, students get the choice to work on a variety of online activities. Games, songs, blogging, chatting, watching videos – all accessible as provided by the teacher.

The class doesn’t really end. The teacher flicks the lights and the students log off and walk out of the class. They can go online anytime and do the same activities and access the same content. The teacher can download a nice handy log with graphs of student progress and especially time spent on task/activity.

The teacher feels refreshed. He gets another cup of coffee. She skips into the staff room among her weary colleagues.

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That’s my perfect classroom. However, it actually did happen and I actually did teach like that! It isn’t pie in the sky. Moreover, it all worked like that described. The trouble-making boys became engrossed learners. The unmotivated high level students became engaged and ignited. I, the teacher, felt invigorated after a day teaching, not weighed down and kaput. It was like Sugata Mitra recently quipped, “When the students are motivated, the learning just happens.”

But we all can do similar things and take steps towards getting to true self directed learning. It isn’t so difficult and in fact it is what YOU as a teacher are doing right now, right this minute.

It can begin with the simple step of deciding it should be so…..

Let’s hear your stories and struggles to be a SDL teacher. We can all learn from them.

Interested in SDL with your students? You might start with these excellent sites – Young Learners: Mingoville Teens/Adults: English Central (sign up as a teacher). Flashcards: EFL Classroom 2.0 Quizlet sets

On Praxis: Making teaching “real”

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“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.”
- Johanne Wolfgang von Goethe

How do we take our teaching to the next step? From mere classroom activity and into the wide, open world?

The world is changing so fast, we don’t even know for what world we are preparing our students who will graduate many years away. Isn’t it imperative that we invoke the “now” and put “purpose” into our classrooms? If not now, when? If we don’t effect change through our students, if we don’t get them changing the world and “doing”, isn’t all our knowledge and teaching but puffery and dross?

Praxis is a word that came up over the last few weeks in my classes. A number of teachers didn’t seem to get it, so I thought I’d write something and clarify my own thoughts about this.

To me, praxis has always been “informed action”. Thought put into action. This is certainly how Paolo Freire, the biggest proponent of “praxis” defined it. He said,

“It is not enough for people to come together in dialogue in order to gain knowledge of their social reality. They must act together upon their environment in order critically to reflect upon their reality and so transform it through further action and critical reflection.”

Crucial to this process is the realization that acting in the world is not an end of thought/knowledge/reflection, rather it is the start of more informed thought/knowledge/reflection. A truly constructivist theory of knowledge that says to all progressive educators – “if you are just being constructivist in the classroom (and your teaching has no purpose, no outside force/life), you are not constructivist, just cardboard.”

The Greeks took praxis as a form of knowledge that could not but lead anywhere but into action and into  ”the practical”.   In a sense, this spirit has shone some light in ELT. We have ESP courses, we have “communicative teaching”, we have “life skills English” etc…  However, I’m not so sure we’ve really done much in terms of praxis – rather just pretended to point outside the classroom rather than go “into the world” and “enact”.

In language teaching, we play the part of “the teacher” so well. We stand and deliver, state rules and exceptions, collect assignments. But isn’t it all kind of a shadow dance, a pantomine? That unless we impact the world and our students use the word in the real world – we are just spinning our wheels and “pretending” (but collecting our paycheck).

This is where technology, the power of connecting people that is available now, steps in. We don’t need to shadow box in our classrooms anymore. Lets bring the world into our classrooms. Let’s take our students out into the streets. Here’s a previous post I have about using “live cams”. I also offer this video of a brave teacher skyping in his parents into his class. Wow! Talk about “praxis”. The Granny Cloud is also an inspiring example.

In addition, two educators I highly value in terms of how they hold up the flag of praxis are Alan November  and Kiernan Egan. Look at both their projects and how they make learning purposeful and relevant to the real world.  Let’s try in our own way to knock down the walls of our classes and schools. However we can. Let’s embrace “Praxis” as part of our teaching philosophy and orientation. Join me…..

If you liked this post – you may enjoy my page of resources/videos on educational thinkers.

The new “way” forward

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Sometimes one is surprised by how life conspires to throw things into your path. In doing so, you just have to trip over them, notice them and come upon a clearer view and vision of “the way” and what is there.

I’ve been training teachers for a number of years. In that training, I’ve always accented two approaches; teaching less to achieve more and the benefits of using technology (properly). Slowly but surely over the years, I’ve sniffed a new “way” in the air and teachers realizing more and more that we need to do things differently or risk irrelevance.

3 things of late have been thrown into my path and clarifying my own view of “the way” forward.

1. Last week presented at RSCon3 on The Flipped Curriculum. Great response and many emails from teachers offering their own versions of “flipped”. Great.

2. Then, listening to the radio yesterday and hearing a teacher comment, “I only teach as little as I have to” – meaning that the accent wasn’t on teaching but the students learning and teaching themselves individually or as a group.

3. Reading the local newspaper today, the North Bay Nugget. Read a sterling column by a local, level headed man, John R. Hunt. I’ll post when it goes online. He tells of a blind girl who failed high school despite how they “cared”. She finally got her degree (and straight As) through independent learning and “less” teaching. A cry for more innovation, more ways for informal learning to be recognized. Spot on.

The times are a changing. We need to harness the passionate minds of our youth. We can only do that if we “teacher less” and let them run more in the field of possibility, now provided by technology. Not a call for teachers to lose their jobs, just for those jobs to be transformed and energized. Let’s start, let’s change.

The Future of the “Tech”book

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digital-textbook-282x300The past few weeks, I’ve been mulling over the future of “the book”. In particular, the textbook and even more precisely the ELT textbook.

Probably been thinking about this because I’m busy every day making books (and I use “make” deliberately – authors these days can “make” books and not just write them). Further prompted by the recent announcement that Korean public schools will be “bookless” by 2015. Also because I’ve always been puzzled by the force of the written word as “a book”. Particularly, in English language teaching where words are free and language doesn’t of necessity have to come wrapped and bounded in a book.

What is the future? What are some possible outcomes for the now tiring “textbook”?

Current Trends

If you survey schools and teachers, you see that most still use the traditional book. It is a force of nature. Yet, there are inklings of change, winds blowing. The trends seem to be;

1. Open source. Textbooks that are much cheaper and current (can be edited easily and are POD (print on demand).

2. Interactive books. Online books with meshed multi media content. A reader clicks a word or a picture and is given more information.

3. eBooks. Basically a book on a computer. May or may not have multimedia embedded but allows students using the device to access other content.

4. Self publishing. Now authors are also publishers and can edit, design and market their books online.

5. Remixing. Online materials are woven together into a complete “set”. Many teachers are experimenting with this but it is the most problematic due to the stranglehold that copyright law has on education (and I’m one who ardently thinks education should get a pass on this).

6. No book. Paperless. Yes, this is a trend. There is a strong movement towards less paper. Further, video is replacing text as a means of communicating knowledge. Schools can now teach solely by designing their own online multi media materials without need of a book. Or skills can be learned through online websites. You pay for access not for a take home book.

I’ve been busy experimenting in a very rudimentary way. This coursebook would be a good example. Or in the sidebar – look at how I made a book of my blog. I’m also making courses without books. Teach | Learn, my own textbook is also a small attempt to open things up and give both teachers and learners more options within the space of the book.

But these are very small steps. The book will always be here with us but the form will change dramatically. My own sniffer tells me that ebooks WON’T be the future and they are the cassette tapes of the present generation. Instead, we’ll have very book looking devices with electronic paper. That’s my guess.

What’s your view of the future of the textbook?

Let’s toss out technology and talk media

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Slide6I’ve been following the various ELT blog posts on technology the past few months. Quite aghast at the level of a) fear about technology b) misconception about what “tech” is c) belief that technology is either good or bad.

What I would propose is that a lot of our problem talking about the use of technology in our teaching (in and outside of the classroom) stems from the word itself. It is too much, too all encompassing, too bla and boring. We need something sharper and more cutting – like the word and idea of “media” as coined and used by McCluhan.

See the CBC McCluhan archives

See the CBC McCluhan archives

McCluhan I’ve read and followed and chewed and sucked upon like a lemon drop, for years. He’s a colossus and even more relevant as each day goes by. He used both terms interchangeably but if you read them in context, clearly McCluhan thought of “media” as an extension of man and technology as something static and deterministic. I think in education, we are clearly talking about “media” not technology. We are shaped by our tools as McCluhan suggests – they are more than just a means of determining an outcome.

Slide2So let’s mediate and think of our technology as “media” and something that facilitates communication across time, space and mind. What are the ramifications of a particular media? What makes one thing “good” for teaching and another “bad”? How should we judge whether voice translators are a great tool or just a passing fad?

I think in this respect, we should turn to McCluhan’s 4 laws of media. Laws by which we can judge media at any time. Each media has 4 essential traits, laws by which they operate.  Media can:

Enhance. For example the internet accelerates the speed by which we can retrieve data and obtain information (communicate)

enhance1

Reverse. For example the internet originally was a way to share scientific information and form community over vast distances. Now we see how as it “webs” out, community erodes and we get individuals estranged and alone online amid the noise and abundance.

reverse2

Retrieve. For example the internet brought back “crowd sourcing” and groups of people pooling their labor, knowledge and time to create value. Like the old “barn building bees”. McLuhan was right, we now in many ways live in a village but a village with a big screen to the outside.

retrieve3

Obsolesce. If video killed the radio (kinda), then the internet is pushing aside the library and traditional sources of knowledge (like elders, like teachers).
obsolesce4
The tetrad holds true for any kind of media you evaluate it with. It is a great tool for clearly seeing the place, worth and potential (minus/plus) of a tool / technology. I challenge you – put in something new like a cell phone or computer labs or ebooks or printers. You can tetrad it and come up with a pretty good analysis of the media.

This is not to say that you can ever come to the conclusion that some media is “good” or “white” and another “bad” or “black”. It is all in the nuance and how it is used. The media change us, our view of the world and importance of it – much more than we ever can control.

McCluhan means the world to me. Without him, I don’t think I’d of ever of become interested in how we “mean”, interested in semiotics and signs/symbols. He voiced so much I felt in my heart. I remember spending a whole day reading The Gutenberg Galaxy in a second hand bookstore and missing my bus – having to sleep outside on a bench until 11pm, dreams of his staccato, confusing but clairvoyant sentences dancing in my dizzy head.

Let me end with a few quotes that pertain to technology or media. Some more lemon drops for us to suck upon. If you need more – see this presentation of mine from a few years back…. Also, highly recommend this recent podcast about technology and these 4 laws of media.

“All media are extensions of some human faculty- psychic or physical” (meaning, like most would suggest, the media themselves are neutral but not what they do to the environment).

“The artist (or maybe technology teacher, my italics) is the person who invents the means to bridge between biological inheritance and the environments created by technological innovation.”

“It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.” (why technology now is so disruptive to education and “what is a school?”)

“As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of “do it yourself“.” (for teaching meaning a return to self directed learning).

Slide7

images thanks to http://www.horton.ednet.ns.ca/staff/scottbennett/media/

Kinetic Typography for teaching English

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kinetic-textThe last 3 weeks, when I could spare a moment, I’ve been learning how to make a Kinetic Typography style video.   I think this technology offers great “power” for contextualizing and presenting language for learners.   For a long number of years – I’ve been a karaoke fan, producing thousands of karaoke files for learners/teachers. Not anymore! It’s going to be all KT. The world moves on and I must with it…..

What is it? – in a nutshell, it is “moving type”. However, it is a lot more. It allows one to control the display of text and even insert images.   Here’s an example.  Or try the original and what started it all – The Girl Effect.

How do you make one? – well it ain’t easy! You’ll need Adobe Illustrator and After Effects and a lot of time! This tutorial and also this one – are both good places to start.  However, many have been made already so you don’t need to make one, just borrow one.

Where do I “borrow” one? Do a search on video sites. But I’ve really done the curation work and have two pages of what I consider the “best” out there.  Go HERE or HERE on EFL Classroom 2.0. Or just search some examples with materials in our video player.  You can even download these examples for use offline (through our supporters A/V player - click the arrow).

How do I teach with this? Well, many of the KT made videos are songs (see my fav. example below with foldem lyric sheet). So use them as you would any song.  Lastonestanding is a great game. As a listening activity (cloze). Etc …..  Also, many of the pre-made KT videos are movie clips. Dialogues from movies. Students could try to reproduce the dialogue and use it as a script to learn the intonation/pause/voicing of the speech.  Give separate videos to different groups and have them perform the dialogue.

Vocabulary/Grammar: Find a video that highlights a grammar point or vocabulary set you are teaching. Use it to illustrate the usage, “in situ”, in action.

For the most part, KT videos will be used as “engagement”. Meaning, at the beginning of a lesson to prime the students minds about a topic and grab their attention.  They work wonders this way – introducing a lesson topic/focus.

This example is over the top! What’s your favorite KT style video?

Ok its alright with me – Eric Hutchinson lyric sheet.


Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

Technologic IT

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I love Daft Punk! See some really innovative stuff done by teachers using their music. This one will be no exception.

I already got creative with it. It teaches verbs connected to technology so well! (and verbs are the flypaper of language – have a lot of verbs and lots of language will stick). See the lesson idea/material below. Pretty basic – students link up the verbs with technology nouns. You can probably even get into the song and have the students chanting, each group taking one part. That’d be fun!
Technology vocabulary

Technology vocabulary
View more documents from David Deubelbeiss

Using Technology to teach Speaking

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I recorded my talk at the recent KOTESOL National Conference – Getting Students Speaking: Harnessing the Power of New Technologies.

It’s a pretty comprehensive overview of online tools and technologies. Here’s the presentation of only the websites (click the images to go to that website).

Thanks to Aaron and all the hard working Kotesol organizers for really pushing the envelope by skyping me in and starting to use this type of professional development!

The “Flipped” Classroom

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This video opens the door into the actual practice of the flipped instructional model. (not a language classroom but think of what it would mean for one). A very interesting way to think of “teaching”. Basically, it means for ELT that the heavy lifting, the explanation and focusing on form is consigned to the language lab, to self directed learning, to homework (videos of the teacher/a teacher teaching stand and deliver style). The classroom becomes a place where time is spent using the language socially, testing, risking, trying …… This is a little different than the Flipped Model for content subjects.

I see the new nature of learning as following not just a blended model but a “Flipped” model. David Truss has written a real nice summary of this. Classrooms become laboratories and places of practice. Content delivery is outside the classroom in an either formal or informal environment. Teachers no longer teach in the classroom. They teach in the sense of arranging content,  mixing/blending and then delivering it for student consumption outside of class. In class, students practice what was “digested”.

For ELT this means that classroom instruction just skips the “Prepare” and “Practice” stages (or “Engage” / “Study”.). The old instructional delivery models are wiped away and the classroom is about students coming together to practice and perform tasks based on their learning outside the classroom. The teacher deals with emergent language “in situ” and corrects/remediates as needed, on the spot.

The flipped classroom is perfect for those teachers already familiar with task and performance based curriculum. Much like “station” teaching also. However, more unstructured and when students come to the classroom – they are making the choices about what they will practice.

For many teachers though – it will entail a lot of “letting go”.  Read this Ira Socol piece and wonder about your own classroom “design”.  So too for publishers, who will have to provide books and online materials not tailored to the question 1,2,3 Speak / Grammar / Practice / Pronounce / Read / Write models they use.

I’ve a lot more to say about the specifics of “The Flipped Classroom”. Hope to share more in the coming weeks/months. See my directory of Flipped Classroom links/resources for lots more reading!

This video – The 21st Century Learner is a must watch for any teacher trying to understand the direction and implications of new “disruptive” technologies. The classroom no longer has 4 walls and learning is taking place outside the classroom (informally) through social media and “connected” learning.


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If you liked this post, you might like: Learning as a self organizing principle or More About Getting Out Of The Way

Mucking About

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I’ve been reflecting a lot on my own “creativity” regarding ELT and education in general. Probably because I’m starting into a new project and direction (stay tuned).

Over the last 5-6 years, I’ve dived into many projects. I’ve reveled in the possibility that a little bit of tech knowledge gives. Just trying and seeing what happens, following the 37 signals principle of just “getting it live” and going from there.

So many things I’ve tried. Most have failed. Yes, sadly true but I’ve reconciled myself to this. It is part of the process.

See a list below. I’ve been very harsh about a passing grade. Some projects that “failed” are still awaiting a new person or possibility to get them going again (like TEFList). Some fell victim to a lot of passion but just bad timing in the marketplace. Some, just never had the time to really devote to it past getting it made. Others, just didn’t take for reasons I can’t divine. Such is life.

I’m proud of what did pass. These sites continue to help thousands of teachers every day. Free and represent an expression of my own will and contribution to the world of education. Some I do wish had had even more success (like Project Peace) but that’s life. It had its time and will have its time again, god willing.

We should all have the ability to muck about – I love that the internet allows us such.

One final comment. The internet is changing very fast. It is now very hard to start a community, to get traction with a website. For many reasons I won’t get into but things have changed. If you want to muck about online, do so for the mere joy of doing it, seeing it be built and be “alive”. Don’t do it expecting to be a success in the larger sense of the word – you’ll be in for a lot of heavy heartbreak.


PASS FAIL
EFL Classroom 2.0 TEFList
ELT and Tech Teacher’s TV
Project Peace English Q and A
Teaching Recipes Video Conference Rooms
Diigo Group Bookmarks Classifieds
Teacher Talk Blog English Q and A
Quizlet Flashcards ebooks: POD
Random ELT Blog Generator TED Talks player
Chatterbot Ad Free Youtube
EnglishCentral EnglishTutor chatterbot
Karaoke ELT Interviews
Mediafire Resources Books4Teachers
Voicethreads for ELT Amazon Book store
LinkedIn: ELT Professionals Connecting Classrooms
ELT Twitter Chat page eFront LMS
Podcast Library RSS to PDF Maker


The Future of Learning II

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The future of teaching is learning.

This is an addendum to my last post - The future of learning.

Just watched this now 3 year old presentation – A Manifesto for Learning. I think it appropriate, given what the last 3 years have presented to us (better access to technology, more profusion of web 2.0, better audio/video tools for learning) to post this up again and I hope others will comment…..

Full Screen

manifesto

Make 3 wishes….

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three_wishesI really believe in the power of faith. Long ago, I remember reading C.S. Lewis’ poignant, “The Problem with Pain” and noting his wonderful philosophy of simply acting as if something were true. That if we pretend the world is so, it might just become so….

So since this is the new year, I’d like to share my faith with you – by making 3 wishes for English language teaching. 3 things I wish would happen in the new year or even right away.  After mine – it’s your turn. Make your own blog post or share in some way, your own 3 wishes for the future of ELT.

[ and here is my own gift - my recipe for the 3 wishes game. Students love it and can play the genie and produce lots of language! Download the 3 Wishes Game files]

My 3 wishes.

1.  That teachers give over more control to students. More control over the learning process and the content/curriculum.  The answers are easy to get – we just have to let them off the leash. Truly.

2.  That ELT become less provincial and truly adopt and borrow more from the regular world of educational research and theory. This has been called for again and again but has yet to happen. We need to move towards a focus on delivery and instruction and away from methods and applied lingo (oops, linguistics).

3.  That more teachers begin to come online WITH their students. Why the divide? If you can be together in a classroom, why not online? Let’s bring the learning to this fantastic freeway (and if I had a 4th wish – it would be to keep that freeway FREE).

And since we are talking about wishes…… why not visit Akinator! Your students won’t ever get enough of him.