Shaun Wilden

Picture taken from http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2011/

Well it’s almost a week since IATEFL and I think I’ve just about recovered. So what did I learn this year, apart from don’t drink so much wine during karaoke evenings? Here’s a few things I’ve been reflecting on

1. IWBS can aid a lesson

My conference started at the LT SIG event on interactive whiteboards. As an IWB sceptic (despite my love of tech in education), I went along to this wanting to be convinced as to their use.  While this didn’t happen I do think I can see their benefits more now. There are one or two things they can do (i.e. save an instant record of the board) that you simply can’t do with a data projector and a computer.

What I did learn was some wonderfully simple yet effective uses of the whiteboard tools to enhance learning from Connie Güntelberg’s opening talk – just using pre-planned colour and erase tools to create gapfill exercises.

Also Luke Meddings led a discussion on dogme and technology. From that I have a better understanding of how these two areas of teaching (often seen to be at ‘war’ with one and other) can work together. The IWB can certainly help with the note-taking aspect of dogme.

2. Pushchairs are the wrong way round

Of the plenary talks I saw, the one I enjoyed the most was ‘Toxic Childhood’ by Sue Palmer.   While I don’t agree with everything she said, at times I felt despite her reassurances that she loved technology, she was a little too against its use. However she did highlight the need for children to interact and be interacted with if they are to develop literacy and the ability to communicate.  Modern life, using the dvd as baby sitter, not letting kids play outside and the fact that pushchairs face outwards not at the person pushing, all being contributing factors to falling literacy rates.

3. Chinese Whispers can be done on a blog

Being interested in technology, it’s no surprise that most of the sessions I went to were in this area.  It was good to get reassurance from speakers saying similar things to my beliefs or recommend tools that I use and like.  The thing I learnt most was how ‘traditional classroom activities’ can be done using the web. Ok this is something I did sort of know but it really helped consolidate my belief that technology is just another tool. In particular Tara Benwell’s presentation, during the blog symposium, really showed how blogging can be an effective tool – not just from a writing sense but by doing activities such as ‘Twenty questions’, ‘Chain stories’ and then using embedding with sites such as fotobabble to play tag.  Likewise, I love the idea from Nik Peachey’s session of using screen recording to play ‘Chinese whispers’.

4. Old is new and old needs to be revisited or even remixed?

As you might expect in this so-called post method world, anything goes. Hugh Dellar’s talk on memory reminded the audience of how practice makes perfect and that we need to ensure our students revise.  Two things he said stick in my mind “understanding English is easy, remembering it is very hard” and “learning by heart / memorization have become almost taboo concepts in ELT”. While Hugh was reminding us of some basic skills that we may have forgotten, Jim Scrivener was challenging us to reassess reading skills, looking at the ways things such as hyperlinks may be altering the ways we read and that our traditional approach to reading skills lessons might need to readdressed.

5.  Don’t forget the pedagogy

A note on what I didn’t learn….if one thing disappointed me amongst all the excellent presentations I saw (and I am talking generally here), it was sometimes a lack of concrete purpose for using some of the web tools. One of the constant arguments we learning technology types get thrown at us is ‘why should I use this?’. While I can see why using X site might be a great thing, I hope that next year talks will draw more on pedagogical purpose for using something and not just presenting it. If there is one thing I have learned is that no matter how much we know about something, there is always at least one person who needs to be convinced and shown explicitly…

6 New Words

They say technology is one of the biggest contributors of new words to the English language and thanks to talks at IATEFL I’ve been introduced to Snipitisation and Gamification

7. And finally

I thought last year I knew a lot of people but thanks to the growth of social media especially #eltchat on twitter, I‘ve learned that the world really is a small place. IATEFL gave me the chance to meet not just a lot of my old friends but many more I’ve meet online over the last year. It was a pleasure to meet so many of them face to face.  Proof if proof was needed that social media does work.

See you all in Glasgow.