In my second post in this series on online teaching, I explained how I think that the current coronavirus pandemic might speed up the increasing demand for online language lessons. And whether it happens or not, I think it is … Continue reading Getting Ready For Our Digital Future
As I write this, we are in the midst of the coronavirus emergency that is sweeping across the world. I have no idea what the effect of this will be in the long-term but I suspect that one of the … Continue reading Is Online Teaching Going To Go Viral?
Recently, as you’ll be very aware, some teachers around the world have been thrust into teaching online without much training or time to prepare. Kate Knight, the Director of Studies at International House Milan, described this situation in a recent … Continue reading Tips for Teaching Online
It’s amazing how much of a difference two letters can make…
I love technology in my personal life and I’m open to it in the classroom too. It’s part of my principled eclecticism approach to teaching, my own personal grab bag of techniques and concepts that inform what I do in the classroom. Forgive the simplistic examples, but while I love to unplug, at the moment I use a coursebook, I love to be as communicative as possible but I’m not averse to drilling, I love to treat language lexically but sometimes will go into the grammar, and I love technology but spend most of my time getting students to use their notebooks while I use the only the whiteboard. It’s messy but then so is language learning, so its suits me, at least until I decide that I was wrong about something and try a different way, which does happen fairly regularly. Continue reading “Two Little Letters”
To inaugurate their blog, TESOL Greece invited bloggers to answer the following question:
”During an economic crisis, resources (books, budgets, infrastructure) are limited but high standards and qualifications are required so that learners can survive on the job market. Can the use of technology help learners and teachers overcome this problem? If so, how?”
Continue reading “Can Technology Save The Day When Times Are Tough?”
I’m currently reading Kyle Mawer and Graham Stanley’s Digital Play, published by DELTA, for a book review (which I’ll share with you as soon as it’s online). So far it’s a great book, passionately and convincingly arguing for a place for video games in the ELT classroom.
The second part of the book, and the biggest, contains a myriad of activities, including ones that are about video games rather than using video games. I was particularly struck by an activity on page 39 called Game Chatalogue. The essence of the activity is that students use video game catalogues to discuss what they find interesting. Continue reading “Video Games Unplugged”
One of the great things about having an iPad in the classroom is the quick and immediate access it gives you to relevant and authentic content. It’s the perfect tool for a materials light, one to one teacher like me because something interesting can crop up in conversation and I can almost instantaneously bring up a great resource to share with the student. Continue reading “Free iPad Apps for the ELT Classroom”
In May I was lucky enough to attend an amazing event in Barcelona with loads of like-minded, interesting people. I was entertained, enriched and absorbed in a wonderful occasion, and I hope can go back next year. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the IATEFL Teacher Development SIG Unplugged Conference, but the Primavera Sound music festival. Continue reading “Why the music festival should have been unplugged”
…two years which is more or less how long I’ve been involved in the online ELT world (not much I know), and if there’s been one recurring debate in that time, it’s been about the desirability of technology in the classroom. It’s the discussion that just won’t quit. Every now and again it flares up, with the technophobes and the technophiles battling it out. Continue reading “T is for…”
The Teacher James 