Face-to-Face CPD

KEY INFORMATION

We offer a series of workshops on how to implement ICT tools in the classroom, aimed at teachers, teacher trainers, directors, and educators in general. Workshops are communicative, hands-on, and based in real classroom practice. Practising teachers leave with clear ideas on how to implement these tools in their own teaching. With a minimum group size of 6, and a maximum of 25, participants are guaranteed a personal service geared towards addressing common problematic areas associated with the implementation of technology in teaching, as well as practical, hands-on work which – when applied – can have an immediate and positive impact on their professional lives. Workshops last between 1 and 3 hours and a combination of workshops can be put together depending on the client’s needs and the total duration of the training.
 

WORKSHOPS

Digital literacies, the technical skills and social practices needed to effectively interact with digital technologies, are key 21st century skills, and are increasingly important in educational curricula. What exactly are these literacies, and where might they have a place in the English language classroom? This workshop looks at some of the theory underpinning digital literacies, and also at practical classroom activities that you can use with your own students in the language classroom. You will leave the workshop with an understanding of what digital literacies are, why they are important, and how to integrate them into your classroom practice.

Mobile learning (mLearning) is increasingly being used in language teaching. But what exactly is it? Although often associated with ‘learning on the move’ and mobile ‘apps’, mLearning is a lot more than that. This workshop provides an overview of this new field, and we examine the principles behind it to assess to what extent you can integrate the use of mobile devices into your own face-to-face teaching. You will leave this workshop with an understanding of what mLearning entails as well as the challenges involved; activities with mobile devices to try out; and a clear idea of how to start to integrate mobile learning into your own teaching context.

Learners are coming to class increasingly wired up: iPods, MP3 players, mobile phones, digital cameras — many of our learners already use these mobile devices in their daily lives. How can the language teacher integrate this day-to-day technology into his or her teaching? How can we get learners using their mobile devices to help them learn English? This workshop looks not only at the wide range of resources that students can access on their mobile devices, but at the video and audio that they themselves can produce in English class, using technology that they already have to hand. We create our own audio and video footage on mobile devices during the session, and look at simple audio and video editing programs to see how these can be put together into projects by teachers and learners. Bring a mobile phone and/or digital camera along with you to the workshop!

Teachers and institutions are increasingly expected to offer part (or all) of their programmes online. Where does one start? What is the ‘right blend’ of f2f (face-to-face) and online learning? What are some of the choices, considerations and challenges you face when moving part of a f2f programmes online? What pedagogical issues do you need to address, and what tools work best for your blend? This workshop looks at these issues in the context of your institution and courses, and ensures that you come away clear on how to integrate a principled blended approach into your teaching.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are big news as well as big business. One can hardly open a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing one or other of these sites mentioned. Clearly they are an integral part of the daily life of millions of people all over the world. But what does this mean for English language teachers? Even if our students are glued to Facebook on a daily basis, should we bring sites like these into our teaching? How exactly does today’s English language teacher position him or herself in the face of Facebook and the like? Should social networks be kept out of ELT? Or is there a place for these and similar sites in our teaching? And if so, where and how?

The Internet provides us with a wealth of images, and many interesting and fun free websites which we can use to manipulate images, and to create visually attractive worksheets and projects with our learners. This workshop examines a number of image manipulation sites, and provides practical examples of classroom projects in which students learn to manipulate images and create visually rich projects, in both word processed documents and in PowerPoint. We also examine the issue of copyright with the use of images.

Do you know your YouTube from your TeacherTube and your Lessonstream from the rest? There are hundreds of video resources on the Net and this workshop looks at the best, with practical ideas on how to locate, evaluate and integrate short video clips in the classroom. We also look at basic video production using free video creation tools.

How safe are your learners online? What are you and your learners allowed and not allowed to upload to the Internet? If you are a teacher of learners under the age of 18, eSafety is a major area of concern. This workshop focuses on how we can best protect our younger learners online, what they (and you) are allowed to do by law, and what to do about issues such as cyber bullying. We also look at wider eSafety areas such as virus protection, and copyright.

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are increasingly used in both online and blended teaching and training, and one of the most ubiquitous of these is Moodle. However, how does one make the most of using Moodle to create coherent and varied online and blended courses? Without a principled use of Moodle’s various functions, solid task design, and effective e-tutoring, online learning can too easily turn into muddle. This workshop looks at using Moodle in online learning. Participants will have hands-on experience of using Moodle, and will consider principles and current best practice in how to set up and run effective online or blended learning courses.

A Wiki is a series of interlinking web pages that can be used collaboratively by groups of learners in order to develop content of almost any type – text, photos, audio files, and video can all be added to a wiki. A wiki lends itself particularly well to collaborative group work, but can also be used by teachers in a variety of more innovative ways, which we will explore in this workshop. You will leave the workshop with a clear idea of what a wiki is, how to use simple free wiki software, and ideas for implementing wiki projects with your own classes regardless of age or level.

This workshop looks at the use of ‘blogs’ (online journals) with language students. Blogs are an example of social software – computer tools which allow people to connect, to communicate and to collaborate online. In this practical workshop we explore: free software for blogs (what it looks like, how it works, where to get it) and real examples of projects which use blogs, set up by English language teachers from around the world. Finally we consider how you can use blogs with your own learners of any age or level.

Electronic portfolios, or ‘ePortfolios’, are increasingly being used to present learners’ work in electronic format, in many disciplines. ePortfolios are more flexible than paper-based portfolios, allowing for a range of digital media to be included (video, audio, blogs, websites etc.). In this workshop we consider how and why ePortfolios can be used to showcase language learners’ (or teacher trainees’) work.

There is a common misconception that only schools in ‘resource-rich’ countries can use technology successfully with learners, and that any use of technology in the classroom requires lots of expensive hardware. This is simply not the case. In this workshop we look at a number of successful English language learning projects carried out in low-resource contexts, and at how challenges are overcome. We look at your particular context and explore what sort of technologies and approaches might be most appropriate for your school, your classroom and your learners, by trying out several activities and ideas.

How have the roles of directors, trainers and teachers changed since access to technology has become more widespread? This workshop looks at how directors, trainers and teachers can integrate technology usage into their working lives – not only for personal and professional development, but as part of a CPD (Continual Professional Development) package for teaching staff, enabling everyone to make the most of ICT (Internet and Communication Technology) in the classroom. Participants will be exposed to a range of current ICT tools, helped to identify their own ICT needs, as well as to outline possible ICT training options for their own staff or trainees, where relevant.

Are you a digital native or a digital immigrant? Or are you a digital resident or a digital visitor? Many of our younger learners are far more tech-savvy than their teachers, and are blogging, texting and Facebooking on a regular basis in their personal lives. In this workshop we consider how to use technology with young learners (aged approx. 11 – 16) in the English language classroom. Issues of appropriate materials, esafety, and classroom management will be addressed, and you will leave the workshop with practical ideas to use with your own young learner classes.

WebQuests are examples of project work which use the Internet as a primary resource. This workshop looks briefly at what WebQuests are, and then more closely at how they can be used in the classroom. We will examine both short-term (e.g one class) and extended WebQuests, their structure, how to plan and design them, and how to put them into practice. Participants will be recommended both short-term and longer-term sample WebQuests to implement with their own classes.

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f2f CPD