17 set 2014

by | in Educational Technology, Resources, Technology

In my book Teacher Tools, I open the chapter “Movie Time” with an email I received from a teacher who said that not only him, but “thousands of workmates don’t have time to prepare materials or to follow the recipes that many authors of books and/or presenters of workshops give us.”  I go on to say that if the reader sympathizes 100% with Darcy, the teacher who wrote the message above, using movies in class may not be such a good idea after all:  selecting video material, designing...

13 set 2014

by | in Pronunciation, Resources, Speaking and Spoken Language, Technology, Vocabulary

Olá, pessoal! Depois de uma pausa meio que forçada, estamos de volta para mais um post envolvendo, de certa forma, tecnologia. Desta vez, vou falar de podcasts. Sabem o que é um podcast? É uma espécie de programa de rádio, geralmente editado, e disponibilizado em sites, blogs e assemelhados, sobre os mais variados assuntos, que podem ser ouvidos online ou baixados em formatos como .mp3 para smartphones e outros reprodutores de música. Eu, por exemplo, sou um podcaster, participo junto com meus amigos do ArgCast, sobre quadrinhos, games, cinema,...

01 set 2014

by | in Reflections about Education, Technology

I've decided to address a very controversial issue in my blog post. Well, it seems it is not controversial at all for most of the people, but it is something that has puzzled me for a while. This is not going to be a very long post as I do not have any answers to the questions I would like to raise. We are all online all the time. Most of us have a Facebook profile, post pictures on Instagram, tweet, blog, have a Pinterest account, have a LinkedIn...

01 set 2014

by | in Technology

I’m no futurologist but I have made two apocalyptic predictions in my time, both of which look like they might come true. The first was that I thought it was a very bad idea to try to convince the Chinese that they should adopt a Western lifestyle. Even before we knew what we know now about the effects on the climate made by mankind, it seemed that having one billion Chinese people driving cars and flying round the world was never going to be sustainable and that is...

31 jul 2014

by | in Technology

I am the Digital Publisher for Richmond and it is part of my job to keep abreast of the hot topics and technology trends that are affecting our industry. Right now there is nothing hotter than adaptive learning. Adaptive learning is part of a wider trending topic: big data. The theory seems to be that as we are able to collect and analyse vast amounts of data taken from all the interactions that we have with technology, we will be able to transform the way we approach all sorts...

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...

29 jun 2014

by | in Technology

When you hear the word “wiki”, what do you think of? Wikipedia probably. Wikipedia is indeed the best known example of a wiki, it is so well known in fact that it has pretty much taken over the meaning of the word “wiki”. What makes Wikipedia a wiki is that it is editable. Anyone can register to be an editor and they can add, modify and delete content. Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced venture, which relies on the belief that with enough people collaborating on the project, you will get...

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...

06 jun 2014

by | in Technology

Everyone at Richmond was deliriously excited about getting an ELTon nomination for our Big Picture app. The ELTons are the very prestigious British Council awards that recognise innovation in ELT. Deborah Tricker, our Global Publishing Director, Laura Orchard who works in our Oxford marketing department and is the queen of all things social media and I were the lucky three to get the opportunity to go to the awards ceremony. We prepared our acceptance speech as we had been instructed by the organisers. Deborah and Laura fretted about what to...