28 jul 2014

by | in Educational Technology

by @KUUNSTKUULTUR , at Flickr, Creative Commons After an exciting and reinvigorating presentation of my co-workers in our 10th CTJ TEFL Seminar in which they inspired teachers to use art in different ways to foster communication and critical thinking, as well as to develop visual literacy, I felt inspired to start my semester using a simple, but effective icebreaker with my adult group. I showed my students some images  of famous painters (feel free to use the slideshow and remix it) and asked them to answer the following question,...

22 jul 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Reflections about Education, Teacher Development, Technology

This post was inspired by a question sent to me by a friend, who is a very talented teacher and would like to start an online course. In her message, she mentions not being able to find a good video tutorial which could help her get started and asks my opinion about the best platform.  As I read my friend's message, I thought of a way to answer it. In my opinion, a video tutorial showing us how to create an online course in simple steps would be a...

13 jul 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Games, Grammar, Lesson Ideas, Technology

Olá, pessoal! Lá, no agora distante, primeiro post que fiz para este blog, prometi que iria falar de alguns aplicativos para dispositivos móveis, os famosos apps.  Pois bem, como sou bem pragmático, vamos direto ao assunto: seguem, abaixo, algumas dicas de programas que podem ser baixados, gratuitamente, para qualquer dispositivo que suporte iOS, o sistema operacional da Apple (iPod, iPad, iPhone). Peço desculpas aos usuários de Android: como não sou um usuário desse sistema, nem todas as dicas são para vocês. Mas prometo que vou trazer mais coisas para este...

22 jun 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Reflections about Education, Resources, Technology

Why do we make lists? Jillian Steinhauer  in a 2012 blog post  says "We are a society of listers." In other words, we could all be called "glazomaniacs" according to Dictionary.com which defines "glazomania" as a passion for list-making. We seem to enjoy lists: to-do lists, grocery lists, best-sellers lists, new year resolution lists and blog posts such as "10 BYOD apps for ELT". But why? Umberto Eco in a very interesting interview to Der Spiegel talks about the place of lists in society. He says: "The list is...

28 maio 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Technology

The discussion revolving around the use of mobile devices in the classroom is still strong. Some teachers have embraced the gadgets, feeling that they are powerful learning tools. Others, due to insecurity or strong beliefs argue that cell phones and tablets are a poor replacement for traditional teaching, just substituting what is already done well without them. For those teachers, the place of mobile devices in the classroom is in silent mode in the backpacks. There are others who say that students will be browsing through their social...

22 maio 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Reflections about Education, Technology

In a previous post, I discussed about the importance of technology invisibility in the classroom. According to Lehman (2010), technology should be : Ubiquitous = available all the time. Necessary = used when necessary. Invisible = a natural procedure. Another author who thinks likewise is Bax (2011). The author coined the term "normalisation" to address the issue of technology in language education. He states that technology should be normalised to serve its real purpose in education. But, what is normalisation? I'll give an example: have you ever heard technophobes saying "No,...

28 abr 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Teacher Development

[caption id="attachment_1010" align="aligncenter" width="640"] https://mkhmarketing.wordpress.com[/caption] I still haven´t convinced you to try out Twitter even with Twitter for Professional Development and Try Twitter Before Ignoring It? Here are two additional reasons for you to join the educational crowd on Twitter. This week, the international education conference, Transformar, A Educação Está em Evolução, is happening in São Paulo, and you can follow along where?! You know where. TWITTER. Many of the participants are backchanneling, which means they are broadcasting via Twitter the interesting things they hear and pointing to resources, as...

22 abr 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Reflections about Education, Technology

Should we adopt a BYOD model where students bring their own devices to class or a 1:1 program where the school provides each student with one tablet? Before making the investment in technology, I believe there are some important points to consider. I start our reflection with a quote by Chris Lehman (2010), where he says: "Technology should be like oxygen: ubiquitous, necessary and invisible." And what does he mean by that? We can't see oxygen, but it's everywhere. We breathe in and out and don't even notice it....

15 abr 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Teacher Development, Technology

  In my last post, I focused on giving Twitter a chance. Before saying No, try a resounding YES! And if I haven´t convinced you last time, how about considering Twitter as your daily professional development hub? For most ELT conferences, there are great tweets coming from the backchannel. Educators who share the resources of the presentations they are attending, ideas, thoughts, quotes. If nothing appeals to you, PD in microdoses might convince you. Here´s a list of the conference hashtags I´ve been following lately and also sharing. If you couldn´t be...

31 mar 2014

by | in Educational Technology

This month I’ll be continuing the theme of technology in education and thinking about the impact of technology on young people – our learners and future learners! In 2010 there was an article in the New York Times Magazine called Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction.  The title of the article gives you a clue as to the content – in it the writer contends (with the help of a teacher called Ms Blondel and a young student called Vishal) that “… computers and cellphones, and the constant stream...