At ELTjam, we mostly write about the intersection between technology and education, which means we’ve got plenty of posts of interest for teachers. Here’s a collection. Plenty more to come when the school year restarts in Autumn!
Our biggest post this year was this excellent list of useful ELT journals available online for free by Senior Lecturer Florentina Taylor.
The digital classroom
Does Paul Driver’s fascinating piece about a school that’s re-imagined its learning spaces to incorporate digital tools fulfill one of the prophesies which Ian Cook made two years ago, comparing the mythical digital classroom to the equally it-didn’t-happen paperless office? The university environment has changed too, according to Phil Wade.
Apps for class
If you’re looking for ideas for mobile learning in the classroom, here’s a guest post by Kat Robb. Or how about Mike Boyle’s idea of getting students to use Siri to improve their pronunciation? For vocabulary, Nina Berler shared some of the tools she uses with her students. For places where there isn’t that much tech readily available, Jo Sayers gave options for tech and non-tech gamified lessons.
Beyond the traditional classroom
So, we’ve had posts were talking about physical classrooms, digitally updated for the modern age, but not so different from the traditional classroom but guest bloggers have also looked at the Flipped Classroom, Blended Learning and the opportunities for the online teacher. These include the teacher of course, but 2014’s most controversial man, Sugata Mitra, sees students teaching themselves with the aid of computers and a floating teacher as facilitator – an idea which led to Hugh Dellar’s post, railing against the threat to teachers.
But maybe the digital age hasn’t actually disrupted the language learning experience that much yet, according to Jonathon Dykes. What do students make of the tech tools available to them? Lindsay Rattray and David Harbinson asked theirs, while our own Laurie Harrison looked at whether online learning can ever really work.
Teachers as digital entrepreneurs
Teachers who think they can add to the range of products and apps currently out there for language learning could think about attending an EdTEch Start Up Weekend. Maybe you’ll win, like educator Marie Goodwyn with her product for helping children with reading difficulties. There are lots of ELT teachers and former teachers branching out into making products, beginning journeys as ELT entrepreneurs.
Teacher development
Cambridge Assessment introduced us to their Five Challenges program for teachers with limited access to CPD. Ian Cook lamented the status of eBooks in professional development and asked why no-one buys them. If you do, maybe you’d like to compile a post about the best ones?
For more collections, see the one for ELT materials writers and ELT publishing people.
