Technology Doesn’T Bite! Show

Technology doesn’t bite! How computers and the internet can help to enhance your teaching & brush up your language skills. Pamela Arrarás FAAPI 2009 – Bahía Blanca

www.PamelaArraras.com.ar/faapi2009 •PowerPoint presentation •Brainstorming sheet •Handout •Proceedings paper •Videos & tutorials •Links

Outline for today  Reflecting on professional development needs of non-native English speaking teachers.  Technology intro: informal PD in the XXI century & reality check video.  The basics of web2.0: from e-mail to blogs and beyond  Using technology to polish our English  An action plan for using technology for professional development: explanation & individual work.  Sharing our plans  Q &A 

About me…

Now it’s your turn! Find somebody you don’t know (Don’t cheat!!!). Introduce yourself, and tell him/her: •1 thing about you as a person. •1 thing about you as a language learner. •1 thing about you as a teacher. •1 aspect of your career/language proficiency you’d like to work on today. • 1 thing you expect to learn in this workshop.

Some ideas behind this workshop “If we teach today as we were taught yesterday we rob our children of tomorrow.” (John Dewey) From Peter Medgyes’ The non-native teacher:  “A fundamental condition for successful teaching is that the teacher should be a permanent learner.”  “The final aim of education is to teach learners how to learn, but this can only be facilitated by teachers who are good examples of learners themselves.”

 “Most of us are doing our best to acquire a bit more Englishness (…) we suffer from an inferiority complex and we are in constant distress as we realize how little we know about the language we’re supposed to teach (…) Most NNESTs are all too aware that they are teachers and learners of the same subject”  “Most of us non-native speaking teachers are aware of our double-faced nature: when we are in class, the learner’s face is hidden; when we are out of class, the teacher’s face is hidden.”

The professional life of a non-native English speaking teacher Teaching Skills Language skills

So how does technology fit in all this? We can use technology to… …improve our language proficiency. (language) …stay up-to-date on methodology. (TEFL) …improve our teaching skills. (teaching) …find tools, sources and materials to teach. (teach)

Is technology really that important for EFL teachers?

Now it’s your turn! Information overload? Take a minute and write down at least three ideas that crossed your mind about the implications that all these facts have on our profession…

Informal Professional Development • Journals Workshops • Books Reference books XX • Encyclopedias Magazines • Conferences Movies Century • Traveling Music • Keeping a journal/log • All of the above plus: • Blogs E-readers • Podcasts Videocasts XXI • Webinars Video streaming Century • E-zines RSS Feeds • E-lists E-mails • Online courses MP3 players • Cell phone apps Networks

Ok, so there’s all these great tools, and I need to learn how to use them… where do I start?

Web 2.0: The basics 1. Get an e-mail account for professional purposes only. 2. Learn how to keep your information private & secure. 3. If you don’t have your own PC (or you share it) get a pen drive to keep your materials. 4. Be ORGANIZED: user names, logins, passwords, files, etc…

Passwords & Privacy settings  Remember to go to the “My account” or “My settings” section on any place you are asked to sign up and complete forms; make sure all your information is private, and check whether they have automatically subscribed you to their newsletters (which they will do!)   If you want to store your passwords on a file, there’s software such as KeePass which will help you organize everything and keep it safe at the same time. It’s open source, and free! http://keepass.info

www.Gmail.com

How to use Google Apps Someone should be paying me for this! 

Google Reader Develop your reading & writing skills: •Organize your reading: subscribe to blogs you like by clicking on the orange square •Share the posts you like the most, write comments on them for other teachers to read. If you know how to use tags, create public tags and set up reading lists for your students. An example has been made for you at www.pamelaarraras .com.ar/faapi2009 on the right sidebar LINK TO FEED

How to subscribe

Google Docs  Create documents that you can keep online, without having to download them anywhere; they can be public or private.  Do collaborative writing with your students or colleagues.  Write articles and publish them online for your students or peers.  Create exercises students can download or print.  Do surveys: students can submit homework to you through Google forms!

Blogger / Blogspot  Design a page where your students can find extra activities, homework, etc.  What can you add in a blog?  Videos  Reading materials  Audio files  Photos for descriptions  Links to your exercises on Google Docs   Have your own professional blog: write about your own professional development. It makes a great impression on potential employers!

Learn more watching video tutorials :  Go to http://pamelaarraras.com.ar/faapi2009/video- tutorials/.You will find the following videos:  Google Docs in Plain English  Google Reader in in Plain English  Blogs in Plain English  Online Photo Sharing in Plain English  Wikis in Plain English  Social Networking in Plain English  Podcasting in Plain English  RSS in Plain English Courtesy of Common Craft, through YouTube

Now it’s your turn! Write down at least three ways you might use the applications we have already mentioned. •1 for personal language learning •1 for developing teaching skills •1 for teaching / using with Sts. Now turn to a person near you and share them!

Using technology to polish our English A skill-based approach

Reading skills http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.librarything.com/

Reading & Listening http://librivox.org/

Listening skills Voice of America Podcasts

Internet Movie Archive PBS Video

Speaking skills WiZiQ Public classes -WEBINARS

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/free-live-web-events/

Pronunciation Podcasts

Language Learning Communities Livemocha Busuu Italki

Audacity – Voice recording

Writing skills Keep your own digital diary: Write a professional blog! “Digifolio” = Digital Portfolio

Writing Guides & Advice

Now it’s your turn! Write down at least one way you might use the applications we have already mentioned, one for each language skill. Now turn to a person near you and share them!

An “Action Plan” for PD 1. Identify your professional development needs. 2. Establish goals: What do you want to accomplish? What are you going to do with the new knowledge/information/skills? 3. Choose activities/tasks that will help you achieve those goals. 4. Pick web tools & sites that will help you organize yourself and carry out the different activities towards those goals.

Step 1 Use the Brainstorming sheet to find topics of interest. It can be found online too by clicking here. Steps 2 & 4 Making Powerpoint presentations to share online www.Slideshare.com

Publishing articles

Writing a professional blog www.edublogs.org

Designing a website on a topic of your choice. www.wordpress.com

Reviewing books http://tesl-ej.org

Designing activities & quizzes for students www.mystudiyo.com http://a4esl.org/t.html.

Steps 3 & 4 Activities or tasks:  Reading about your topic of choice.  Organize your reading through Google Reader or by bookmarking the websites with Diigo or Del.icio.us

 Listen to podcasts through different websites, ITunes or Zencast. Download audio files to your mp3 player or cell phone

 Watch videos and subscribe to interesting channels on YouTube.

 Interact with other teachers on networking communities; participate in chats and webinars:

Now it’s your turn! Go to the brainstorming sheet. Choose an aspect of your profession you’d like to focus on. A. Which goal or final product would be the most suitable for you? B. Which activities & tools do you think you might be able to use? Now turn to a person near you and share them!

Q&A I’m all ears! I appreciate comments and suggestions on the workshop’s website at www.PamelaArraras.com.ar/faapi2009 or e-mail me at pamelaarraras@gmail.com Thanks for coming!

Technology Doesn’T Bite! Show

by Pamela Arraras on Sep 12, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 142

Statistics

Technology Doesn’T Bite! Show — Presentation Transcript