Continuous development with webinars

As teachers we often find ourselves working alone, too tired to even look at the pile of literature stacking up next to our bed.
Keeping on top of the newest development in teaching and keeping a fresh outlook of how to teach requires time and work we often just don’t have.

One way to get around this is to spend time listening to webinars. A webinar is a ‘seminar’ given over the ‘web’- hence the word webinar.

These webinars are being offered more and more often and they are a cheap (free) and interesting way to gain input to keep your teaching lively.   Unfortunately, they are often at times when you may be teaching. However, even this is no problem since they are generally saved for future listening.

Here are a couple of links to webinars for English teachers:

Macmillan has organized some great speakers for their webinars: Macmillan Webinars

The Learning Technologies SIG over at IATEFL has also begun with Nicky Hockly organizing some excellent topics: LTSIG webinars  (you will need to be an IATEFL member and sign in to listen)

The British Council has also just recently started offering webinars: BBC teacher development

And finally, one more I found through Google: webinars teaching english:

Embassy of the USA in Lima! worth looking into: http://lima.usembassy.gov/web-2011.html

So, a final question to ETAS members:

Would you be interested in ETAS offering Webinars? If yes, what topics would interest you? Please leave your answers by using the comments function.

PS: The newest addition to the list of webinars comes from Oxford University Press!  First webinar coming 12. and 14. December, and of course with recordings: OUP webinars

on-line courses

I’ve just finished giving a second on-line course in collaboration with ESSARP Argentina. This time it was dedicated to learning about how to use Web 2.0 tools and add them to wikis.
It was a fruitful, if intensive, 4 weeks of on-line time dedicated to troubleshooting, advising, looking for links, and making tutorials.
This is a tradition I’d definitely like to keep up in ETAS.

The trials of blogging and how to water the plants

Hi Folks
I’ve sadly been neglecting this blog, but hope that once summer is over I can dust it off and be a bit more regular in posting.
But that’s just it, isn’t it. The reason so many blogs fail to take off is the amount of time necessary to keep it updated and the motivation to continue posting . Blogging does require time, and quite often time seems to be scarce for even the very wonderful delights in life, such as family, travel, or relaxation. So it can tend to slip to the end of the priority list. I’m now trying to set it a bit higher.

On the other hand, blogging can be inspiring and a window to other cultures, ways of thoughts and points of views. This, together with the potential I found through blogging for teaching adults, is indeed why I took to it. You blog to be read, to communicate, to shout out the the world, not to recieve and echo, but differences of opinions, another side to the coin, and yes, confirmation.

So now, my dear reader, and I know you are out there by the statistics WordPress kindly reveals to me, I set you a task to keep this blog spiffy and shiny. It doesn’t take a lot of time, nor energy on your part, but it might take a moment of reflection.

(c) Damon Hart-Davis

Click on the “comment” button at the end of this post and say hi. Respond to this post with your own thoughts- be they ever so short. Read the comments before yours and reply to them in addition to or instead of to the post. You will find me joining in the discussion and the blog blossoming with ever more posts in shorter intervals, like a slumbering flower with a bit of water the shine of the sun.

If you want to respond to The Techy Column in the ETAS Journal, then this is also the place to do it. I’m looking forward to reading and responding to your comments!

E-books: a new generation of digitality

Just these past days I’ve been reading link after link of new e-books, written more than not by teachers for their students.

Here are just a couple.

Dead in Dublin by Jeremy Taylor, and here a short exerpt (taken from the website):

Dead in Dublin, a fast moving murder mystery based in modern Dublin. Milan Schwab, a Czech language student dies in his American teacher’s classroom. Daniel, the teacher, tries to piece together how he died – and most importantly, who killed him.

Here are more books by the author: http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/downloads.htm

And here is something for smaller children: Sandcake

And here are books for kids to read along . The stories are read by kids and word for word is highlighted as it is read out loud.

And here is one more for kids with a bit of an extra touch:  Zooburst

These days iphones and other smartphones are becoming more and more popular. Computers are in every classroom, no longer just in the computer labs, and reading material has become extremely accessible on different kinds of media, and smartboards are slowly becoming the new standard.

All this will most certainly have an effect on our learners and how we can help them learn, so it is good to know what materials there are to use on them.

If you happen to have experience in using them in the classroom, please leave a comment and tell us about it.

Putting the ‘a’ into tech

Often the question is asked why one should take the time to use technology in the classroom. Is it just one big hype?
Below is a link to a slideshow that answers the question and shows how and why tech can and should be turned into teach.

A Teacher\’s Guide to Web2.0 at school

Impressions from the Learning-tech SIG

ETAS’ first on-line course has been a great success.
During the course of four weeks, nearly 50 participants from ETAS and ESSARP joined forces to explore and create blogs.

For most it was a very steep learning curve to both take their first on-line course and learn to use the technology involved, and so not everyone completed the course.
But for others it was perhaps a first step in giving on-line courses themselves or at least supplying an on-line element to their classroom courses.
The course used a Ning platform (see the ETAS Journal Winter 2009 for an article on Ning), and so the first step was to become acquainted with the course platform while reading up on blogs and how and why they can be used by teachers and learners.

The next step was to set up the blogs.  In the end over 20 new blogs were opened and have supplied a wide range of topics, including even connecting maths and science with EFL, as well as literature blogs for learners.

We also had two live on-line sessions on Wiziq with Karenne Sylvester, who was able to give the participants tips and relate her own experiences of blogs in her classes.

Judging from the feedback, it looks like this won’t be the last on-line course.

If you have any wishes for on-line courses, then please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you would be interested in. Or answer the poll below.

Would you be interested in taking an on-line course through ETAS?
(polls)

What topics would interest you for an on-line course?
(polls)

ETAS first on-line course

For all ETAS members and English teachers in Switzerland, I am proud to announce a first for ETAS.

We will be offering a completely on-line four-week course on how to integrate blogs in your teaching.  Since the internet is the perfect media for connecting with others, it will be a joint venture with teachers in Argentina from the ESSARP, a partner of Cambridge International ESOL.

You can register at the e-tas website directly.

Here are the course details:

This is a four-week completely on-line course starting on May 3rd where you will learn how to integrate blogging and different Web 2.0 tools in your teaching in order to enhance your daily teaching activities using blogs. You follow the course from your own PC – no travel involved.

During the course we want to unite English teachers from different backgrounds and continents and show them the benefits of learning online and collaborating by joining participants from Argentina and Switzerland and encouraging interaction through the blogs.

You will be able to work at your own pace, completing weekly tasks and reflecting on what you have done and learned so far. Live on-line sessions will also be offered – times to be agreed once the course begins.

Basic knowledge of the internet is required, but no previous experience with blogs is assumed.

Upon successful completion of course tasks (80% successful completion of the set tasks), participants will be given a certificate.

This course is sponsored by ESSARP in Argentina and ETAS in Switzerland.

Course moderators

Jennifer Verschoor: ARCALL founder member http://jenverschoor.wordpress.com/

Illya Arnet-Clark: ETAS Learning Technologies SIG coordinator http://etasblog.wordpress.com

Course duration: 03.5.2010 – 31.5.2010

Registration cost: ETAS members: CHF 50.-, Non-members: CHF 75.-

Closed course with limited participant numbers

Registration

Registration is only valid once payment is received.

Feel free to leave a comment with any questions you might have.

Follow-up of ETAS SIG day Reading into writing workshop

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.

Flo-joe for ETAS

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!

Surveymonkey workshop

This is a post for those taking the peanuts for monkeys survey workshop.

We are working with surveymonkey (hence the title of the workshop) and you can easily find surveymonky here.

It’s an extremely easy way of making surveys, and JoAnn and I have set one up for you to take:

Click Here to take survey

You can also feel free to leave comments at the end of this post to let us know how useful you found the workshop and how you intend to use the surveys.

Twitter for SIG day 2009 in Basel

Just right on time for the SIG day on the 12. September ETAS has gone a twitter!

You can follow the Twitter from the ETAStweet in the right hand bar, and if you haven’t signed up for the SIG day yet, then there’s still time, but not a lot.

Why should ETAS be on twitter? You can get up-to-the-minute information  on what is going on, changes, etc, and they can even be sent to your mobile. IF you want to send a tweet (a twitter message) to ETAStweet, simply add  @  before the name, i.e.   @ETAStweet  .

This is the last post about Twitter, but I hope it has given you some incentive to try it out, and you are always welcome to leave a comment.

I hope to see you all in Basel soon!