Teacher training and Development
The future of teaching may well be online, despite the fact that face-to-face teaching has so many benefits. Advantages of online teaching Online teaching poses many challenges to the teacher who is comfortable and used to teaching ‘live’ only, but these are challenges which can be easily overcome, as there are multiple advantages to being…
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<![CDATA[BI=Before Internet Our collective memories get so easily altered with the advent and use of new technologies. It’s so common amongst people to resist new tech and for teachers to insist that what they are used to is ‘good enough’ and ‘didn’t they learn without this new tech just fine’ themselves? Then, somehow, the…
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<![CDATA[ Bringing the glad tidings that my favourite animation tool seems to be coming back! Xtranormal was a hugely popular video making tool with hundreds of teachers making videos for free, choosing characters, scenes, camera angles and really achieving a very professional looking outcome. Until they went bust. Despite its popularity, Xtranormal was not able to…
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<![CDATA[ Giulia Forsythe via Compfight In a recent end-of-course evaluation report, one of our CELTA candidates suggested (complained is perhaps a better word) that her expectations of a higher grade on the CELTA course were not fulfilled because she did not know how to use technology. Had she not been encouraged to use it (by her tutor),…
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<![CDATA[Presenting language in small fragments hoping that they will one day automatically transform into fluent near-native talk may not be enough. My talk at TESOL Greece highlighted some ways in which skilled performers achieve excellence and focused on practical activities promoting holistic language learning using a variety of free online tools. Fragments of knowledge The…
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<![CDATA[ I still remember how much I enjoyed being nominated for some of the awards as a new blogger and tweeter in 2009 and how much this encouraged me to keep blogging and to try to keep getting better. Some people may still think these nominations have no value – well, they do; it’s our…
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<![CDATA[Am taking up Adam Simpson’s challenge, well, not really a challenge, more like an invitation but such a nice way to look back at what I have blogged about this year. Adam said, “Choose the best 11” but I must confess I don’t write as many posts as all that. Some people seem to be able to churn…
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<![CDATA[Dear PLN, Many of you are aware that since earlier this year, I have been involved in an EU funded project – aPLaNet – whose aim is to help Foreign Language Teachers develop and maintain their own PLN in an autonomous way. Creating one’s PLN takes time, effort and commitment, and those of you reading…
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