Well, I may be in dreich and rainy Shetland. I may not be
rubbing shoulders with the great and good of the ELT world. And I will not be going home with a
collection of free Macmillan pens and OUP mouse mats. But hey, I do have this lovely IATEFL badge
with which to adorn my blog! And,
through the wonders of modern technology, I am able to tune into the conference
from the comfort of my own kitchen table.
Therefore, I plan to drop in at least once a day this week, and record
my own personal highlights.
Today’s highlight was an interview with Nik Peachey. As I have recently (well, it’s never too
late!) gotten into all things techie, I was interested in what Nik had to say
about incorporating IT into language teaching. And it was no surprise to hear
him say that we teachers should be incorporating (and being trained to
incorporate it) it a heck of a lot more.
Less than a year ago I would probably have turned up my nose
at the thought of encouraging learners to use social network sites in the
classroom. I was (and still am) suspicious
of Facebook and bemused by Twitter. I had just discovered Dogme (yes, late again!) and was keen to teach lessons that were
truly “unplugged.”
However, like it or not, it looks like social networking is
here to stay. It will never replace face to face communication in my classroom.
But listening to Nik tonight I started to see the possibilities for creating
exciting social networking lessons which empower learners and create a real
life communicative need and a desire to collaborate with others.
Having said all this, I realise how lucky my learners and I
are to have internet access and a fast broadband connection, I also know that
many teachers and classes around the world are not so fortunate. While it is important to embrace all that technology
offers us, we should also keep in touch with creative and learner centred ways
of teaching English which do not rely on wealth and material resources.
