Business English
* Drama & Literature
* English for Special Purposes
* Examinations, Testing and Assessment
* Immersion / CLIL
* Learning Technologies
* Research
* School Management
* Teacher Development
* Teacher Training
* Teen SIG
* Young Learners
The first highlight was to hear the wondeful news that the Roger Federer Foundation has decided to support this project. This is extremely important news as it means that the support can take new dimensions. It’s the children who are the future of any country, and at the current state the future of Simbabwe looks dismal.
Then at the end the amount of money contributed through the raffle and donations for Matopo School was announced. It was a high figure worthy of the charitable and helpful nature of ETAS and its members.
Several presenters have generously donated their payment to the school. I don’t know many names, but I do know that Peter Travis and Fiona Joseph from flo-joe and splendid speaking websites (see below) were two such people. I would gladly recognize others if I have their names.
You can keep informed by reading the Matopo blog, and please do leave a comment. Comments can be very motivating, especially when the prospects seem particularly bleak and the hurdles high (such as getting materials across the border!) and why not become an official follower? This is very easy to do if you already have a google account. Just click on the follower button in the column on the right and help make the group fo supporters grow!
If you know of other such noble acts, please leave a comment so they can be recognized and thanked!
FIrst of all, a big thanks to Fiona Joseph, who gave us an excellent workshop.
It was the second of two to be given through Skype and with a pre-recorded presentation.
You can find the pre-recorded part below, but you will need Flash installed to ensure it works properly. There are also all the links mentioned during the workshop.
One of the links that we looked at is LibraryThing but there is another social network for books at Shelfari.
We discused how to include literature in the classroom and agreed to share any experiences, problems and ideas as comments to this post. I am looking forward to your input!
ETAS’ very first on-line presenter gave an excellent workshop on skype. Technology went well with everything except the couple of computers that were down. Thank you, Peter Travis!
As ETAS is concerned about the environment and wants to save trees, there were no handouts. However, the presentation (not including live talks) and all the links which were mentioned are included in the website below.
You will need Flash for the presentation to work, but all the other links should by fine.
We would love to hear from you about your experiences with teaching and learning with Skype, so please do leave a comment here if you have had any- good or bad.
If you’ve been reading here, you’ll see that my tweets seem pretty disconnected,but if you begin following others, you will see conversations, information, news, music, and of course, a lot of noise mixed in.
And now, some of the experiences I’ve had with twitter:
While on a trip to the States, I was tweeting for my students. When I mentioned my visit to South Carolina, I got a tweet about the local culture of Gullah, which I naturally shared with my class.
A friend wished me a good time during my trip.
Others welcomed me back home (on twitter??)
I found a great link to a lesson plan about Susan Boyle just as I was contemplating what to do in the next lesson.
And I’ve found many a relevant link about other topics.
Graham Stanley and I negotiated his workshop at the last SIG day.
There was a discussion about the appropriacy of twitter for primary school, and a better tool for this purpose was mentioned (edmodo.com)
I have completed a survey for someone writing a paper, linked and thanked for through twitter.
Last night I went onto Twitter and learned that Farrah Fawcett had died only a couple hours before. Of course, she was an icon in my youth, not just because of Charlie’s Angles. Shortly after, it was on the news, but I’d heard it before!
and I JUST read that Micheal Jackson has also died. That makes 2 icons in 2 days. I don’t know exactly when he did, but I just saw the news on twitter.
So here are just a few ways. You have to get used to the noise, but you do get a feel for what’s going on in the world if you are prepared to listen.
New task if you are on twitter: On the right there is a box that says ‘Direct messages’. Click on it and send me a private message (illyac). Only I’ll be able to see it, so you can see there is room for privacy as well.
Oh, and here’s a song from one of my fellow twitterers – fresh off the press!
In the months of June/July I will spend a bit of time looking at twitter, what can be done with it, and maybe even encourage a couple of you readers to join the club if you haven’t already.
There have been several articles in the newspapers recently which mention twitter and question whether it is the next big thing or just another passing hype. Reason enough to have a closer look!
First, what is it? It is a web-based tool in which you can share up to 140 characters (including spaces) with your followers. And you can follow other people and see what they write. I’ve added my own rss feed on the side and will try to be consciencious and update regularly (also known as to tweet), showing the different ways of use.
How is it used? Well, one of the reasons for all the headshaking as to why it is so popular is that many people use it simply to inform the world of what they are doing at any single moment. It seems to many that this is very voyeuristic and more like a public diary. Probably the most oftenly asked question concerning twitter is :
WHAT’S THE POINT?
I asked this myself and thought this is certainly a bandwagon I’m NOT jumping on. However, curiosity got the better of me and now I too am on twitter.
Here are some of the ways it can be used:
to find relevant websites that others are tweeting or to share websites with others
to give live summaries (using a cell phone) during conferences or other such events. – this is becoming more and more frequent, even among politicians in meetings or during football games!
to get advice and information. You can send out a call for help and if there are many people following you, the chances are pretty big that someone will be able to help out.
to share bits of information with others. You can make groups and share information within these groups, but more on how to do that later.
to keep in touch with colleagues from all over the city/country/world, forming an occupational network. An example of what a great resource this is can be seen when Susan Boyle was in Britain’s got talent. Within a week there were lesson plans for how the youtube video and her experience could be used for language lessons!
to share what you are doing while you are on holiday. If you have a blog or website, you can add the rss feed (see blogging 101) and your students, friends and family can be informed – a continuous postcard!
to get your students to write. 140 characters aren’t many and a certain amount of skill is needed for language learners to be eable to express themselves clearly in so few words. It can be used for creative writing or for summaries. Obviously, they need to be on twitter too, but you can do twitter virtually (in this case, on paper )
I’m not the only one who has written about twitter. A very good article is on Larry Ferlazzo’s blog. He also goes into depth, and I’m sure there will be quite a bit of overlap, but I’ll also try to give examples in the next couple of posts.
If you’ve decided to join and check it out, feel free to follow me too. I’m illyac. Let me know that you are from ETAS so I don’t end up blocking you, and I’ll gladly follow you too! If there are enough ETAS members on twitter, then I’ll set up a twitter group later on. And remember, the more people you follow, the more useful it will become to you.
LAst year the yearly IATFL conference in Exeter was accompanied by on-line coverage including videos and podcasts (see the according blogposts here). This year the conference will be in Cardiff and the organizers are roaring and ready to go on-line again.
IF you are interested in being part of the fun, read the invitation below and leave a comment. I’ll respond and give you the necessary information:
Have you considered holding a TA Event making use of video sessions and
material from the 2009 Cardiff IATEFL Conference?
We would like to encourage TAs to organise such events so that teacher
associations and their members can take full advantage of the Cardiff Online
project.
As with the 2007 Aberdeen Online project and this year’s Exeter Online
project, we will be providing *free* online coverage of the Cardiff IATEFL
Conference.
Our web coverage will include over 20 sessions which will be webcast from
Cardiff.
We would like to see TAs invite their members to workshops and events which
would feature videos and discussions from the Cardiff IATEFL Conference.
By the way, as of writing, the EVO sessions (see last post) just begun and it is only 3 days away from the ETAS AGM!
I’d like to invite you, dear reader, to an excellent opportunity to expand your technology skills and get new ideas for teaching using technology and blended teaching.
Every year a group of educators called the Webheads offer a number of courses free of charge online between mid-January and mid-February. These experienced people are devoted to passing on their knowledge and helping others come to grips with new technology. It is here that I too have learned so much and made so many contacts around the world.
Have a look around, and I hope to see you there in the new year!
Don’t worry, there is something for everyone and even true beginners in this area. AND you get a chance to meet some of the most wonderful people (next to the ETAS gang, of course )
And here is the official invitation:
The CALL Interest Section of the international TESOL
professional association is pleased to offer the
opportunity to participate in the Electronic Village
Online (EVO) 2009 sessions. This is a professional
development project and virtual extension of the TESOL
2009 Convention in Denver, CO . The intended audience
for this project includes both TESOL 2009 participants
and those who can participate only virtually.
You do not need to be a TESOL member to participate in
a free, six-week, wholly online session of the EVO,
Jan 12 -Feb 22, 2009. Please visit our Announcement
Web page to select one among the various offerings.
http://evosessions.pbwiki.com/Call_for_Participation09
Graham Stanley came to give a talk full of exclamation points – Connect! Communicate! Collaborate! – on social networking. There he presented many ways to connect, including using Facebook to collaborate with other teachers and give additional on-line support to learners, Second Life, where he has an island for young EFL learners, and lots of other fun ideas to enhance our on-line and off-line presence.
Graham was so kind as to open Social Learning Spaces for all to see. Please have a look around and maybe try out something new. I can only recommend connecting!
Here’s a peek into social networking.
I’m just back after an excellent SIG day in Baden.
First, I’d like to give a big round of applause to the organizers of the SIG day. Thank you so much for all you did! I’d also like to thank JoAnn for the great work at organizing, and then everyone else who was involved.
Here is the link to the feedback for the SIG day. Please fill it out, and if you haven’t , or couldn’t fill out the other survey about the SIG day venue, the issue is fixed and we would also appreciate your opinions. YOU make a difference!
Now stay tuned for more fun stuff from the SIG day and Learning technologies.
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