March 20, 2013 - Evening: Plenary/Technology

Occasionally, the TESOL planners surprise us by giving us a plenary speaker outside of our field, but with a major message to consider. That was absolutely the case with John Hunter, whose fame has been growing in public education circles ever since he gave his popular TED talk on his World Peace Game. He is now a celebrated speaker throughout the U.S.

See:  http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game.html

Although Hunter's primary teaching area is elementary school, his game for getting learners to think about how nations can collaborate for peaceful ends, despite lots of temptations to do otherwise, his lessons would be valuable for adult ESL learners as well.  But turning his ideas into an SEC or workshop for ELS may have to wait: one must take a Master Teacher's class to learn the specifics of his game.  In the meantime, his parting words at the plenary session were memorable: "Never forget that whoever we are - whatever classes we teach - we can all make an impact. We can all make a difference."

TECHNOLOGY NOTES

So much was available by way of educational technology this year that it's impossible to summarize all the exciting key ideas here. A few from the Electronic Village and Electronic Showcase are listed below. Also, Tammy Cameron from Toronto found lots of great ideas, especially those that involved photos for learning, at a session on Mobile English by two Brazilian presenters. Information:
http://mthatlearning.blogspot.com;  http://iftheshipsinks.blogspot.com   Major sessions on classroom tools are below.

--Effective Vocabulary Building with Quizlet and Flashcards Deluxe, James Broadbridge, Oberlin University. jrb@obirin.ac.jp
--Creating Authentic Listening Activities By Using Authentic Listening Materials. U. Bumandalai, BYU, b.udambor@gmail.com
--Academic Blogfolio: The role of Technological Literacy in IEP Students' Academic Success. IUP. ananym6@gmail.com
--Technology and Culture Integration Models for Improving Listening/Speaking Skills. SNHU. Lyra Riabov.  l.riabov@snhu.edu
--How Prezi Promotes Student Reading Comprehension. SungAe Kim, OCU, skim@my.okcu.edu
--Glogster: A Creative and Dynamic Web Tool for Interactive Posters. Mabel Ortiz. Universidad Catolica. mortiz@ucsc.cl
--Corpus Based Tools in the ESL/EFL Classroom. Magdi Kandil, ASU, mkandil@astate.edu
--Sharing a Way to Combat Plagiarism in an ESL Class. Christine Sabieh. Notre Dame University.  sabieh@hotmail.com

Using Technology in the Classroom, submitted by Jessica Mckay
Your takeway: "Change is only hard the first time you do it"--your students might love these waves of the future!

The most beneficial presentation that I attended was, “Mobile Devices and Language Learning”. In this session, two presenters worked together to demonstrate the usefulness of mobile devices in today’s classroom. They specifically mentioned engaging students with technology. The presenters said that instead of “fighting” cell phones and other devices used by students, we should harness their abilities and use them to our advantage. The presentation itself was very engaging because we were asked to use our own cellphones to participate while the presenter demonstrated using her own Ipad. I found the presentation both interesting and useful. Although there may initially be some resistance, I cannot wait to try the following ideas:

· “Poll Everywhere “ is a website that can be used in class. Teachers create a poll online. Then, in class students can text their answers to various questions. The website shows results in real time, so the teacher knows how many students are actually participating and how many of them get the answer correct

· Create QR codes for worksheets or activities –students can scan the QR code to gain access and then save the information.

· Use cell phones to go on “Photo Hunts” - Students can take pictures that represent vocabulary words and then present their findings to the class.

· For any class, students can create short video clips and present them to the class-this can be less daunting than speaking in front of the class.

· For grammar/content teaching, students can type answers into google documents – this way they create their own answer, read others’ answers, and potentially learn from their own/others’ mistakes

· “Popplet” and “Lino” can be used to make notes more interactive and helpful – students’ teachers can add comments to what others have created

· “Evernote” and “DropBox” can be used to curate information individually or as a class

· “Research Races” in which students can use the internet, dictionaries, etc to find the answer to various questions

· Students/Teachers can create their own apps, games, etc.

· Voice Recognition/Text to Type can be used to practice pronunciation and speaking.

· Etc, etc, etc, - there were a multitude of interesting ideas!

Although change can be uncomfortable, it is often necessary. In today’s world, we cannot escape technology. Although mobile devices are a distraction, they are also beneficial. I plan to attempt a few of these interactivities in my own classroom because, as the presenter mentioned, “The more ways students access their brain, the more they learn.”