Hear no evil

Spanish newspaper El País has a major story today on seven reasons why mobile phones should be switched on and not off in classrooms. The article points out that the days are far behind when teachers lived in awe of the technological abilities their students displayed: we now all live in the digital world and many of today’s teachers were actually born into it.

Nevertheless, as we know, use of technology in classrooms very often starts with “switch off your mobile phones please” rather than the opposite. Very often resources have been spent on technology in classrooms but the next step is to develop the notion of a digital curriculum in more detail and how the teaching profession understands and works with this concept.

It is a slow process. The challenge is not just how to use technology effectively in teaching, rather how to use technology in the best way in order to improve the overall quality of the education being offered.

Original article here:

Ironically, the weekend before El País published a major article on censorship and the internet across the world: are teachers the best censors?

 

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Christmas confusions

Do we know it’s Christmas? Do we believe in Santa and the Three Wise Men (if you live in Spain)? Those of us who have worked with technology and education always have our doubts!

Here is my Christmas message to you: two conflicting (or maybe not) thoughts on technology in education.

Firstly a video on why it never really works.

And now an article on why we should stop learning our maths tables given that we all have a calculator on hand.

Allow students Google their exams.

And a very happy Christmas to ye all.

Spelling out the maths

Hey, I am now over 300 posts on this blog. And things have changed since I started! What was originally a support for talks I gave has become a space for reflection on language teaching in a much more general way. That’s what technology does maybe: change how we function in subtle and unpredicable ways.

I have considered closing this blog: at best it needs a spring cleaning given that most of the blog list on the right are now closed with the exception of the wonderful David Crystal.

Meanwhile, while over Christmas pudding and various Ryanair flights I will ponder what to do next, here is a summary of where technology and language teaching may stand at the moment. Gavin Dudeney and his company have always been at the forefront of training when it comes to using technology in EFL. They have also been very realistic which for me is the key.

Have a look at this video.

Just LOLing about

I can’t spy on my daughter because I can’t decipher the abbreviations she uses. I am probably better off not knowing what they mean. But here is a brief documentary and accompanying atricle explaining why technology enriches languages and that texting does not mean we are losing the ability to write. I have seen David Crystal talk about this before and he is one of the people interviewed. Have a look if you have ever worried about falling standards of language use due to the impact of the internet.

Original post here:

Testing times

I am currently preparing a talk on Teaching and Testing and how to find the correct mix of both in our classes. Here is an interesting video overview of the history of testing from Ancient China (where it was fundamental to building the concept of trained civil servants and in turn a “modern” state) to modern language testing.

Barry O’Sullivan on language testing

Preparing my talk however, I decided I needed to include a third item into the title: creativity. In the environment I am working at the moment, here in Spain it appears that nowadays nobody wants to learn a language anymore, they just want a certificate for B1, B2 or C1: the piece of paper is all they need, the language is irrelevant. The Common European Framework, with its initial goals of fostering life long learning has, for the moment, in Southern Spain at least, created an atmosphere and expectations which are completely exam focused. The danger is that our classes do the same and are reduced to this short term goal rather the longer term objective of learning and using languages proficiently.

That is why I introduced a spark of creativity into the session: we can’t just teach and test. We don’t have to be doing drama or dance in our classes but we do have to listen to students needs and interests, use them and not remain 100% constrained by coursebooks, upcoming exams etc. to the expense of genuine interaction and learning.

Sir Ken Robinson, as always, has a lot to say on this: if you haven’t seen it before this TED talk really does make you think about how limited we, as teachers, are in terms of the preparation we give students for a future none of us can predict let alone imagine.

 

Will or going to?

Predicting the future is essentially pointless but probably essential. We can never make the future happen the way we want to but if we ignore our ability to shape it, we may well lose opportunities that will never be repeated.

Enough of philosophy.

The Economist has a recent  article on how predictions of the impact of IT and the internet never worked out: the paperless office doesn’t exist; the internet is now ruled by big companies rather than putting them in their place; privacy on the internet doesn’t exist. At the same time it has and is transforming the world we live in. And that of course applies to education also.

I have long been an advocate of the use of Internet in EFL but I have to say my overall experience is disappointing. In class, it is seldom more than a diversion on the IWB. Out of class, students rarely have the time and often the knowledge necessary to use it in interesting and effective ways and as teachers, we don’t always have the skills or time to devote to changing this situation.

Personally I have returned to a more Dogme approach in my teaching, less material, more input; less IT, more direct interaction with my students and their needs.

The Economist article finished with another philosophical quote: “There is a world of difference between disruption and destruction.” In terms of education that is the decision the teacher has to make. Not an easy one. That is the secret: technology, despite all its promises, hype and sales promotion, never offers simple solutions, only complicated opportunities that can only be fully explored and effectively developed in the hands of professional teachers.

Good luck 🙂

 

I have read War and Peace: flying to and back from Hawaii. In The End of Absence Michael Harris reflects on how hard it is nowadays to find time to concentrate on something that scale. Constant interruptions, the need to check emails and messages just to prove you are loved and wanted and maybe even important keep us from devoting time to larger projects, from being absent in a digital world. It is a thoughtful insight into the demands on our attention the modern world holds.

 

And I think it has lessons for the classroom also. Do we over fuel our students? Spice them up and push themselves and us until there is no respite? Would they learn from our absence? What I mean is letting them get on with it rather than teachers (and often nowadays technology) being the focus of attention. Teachers obviously are responsible for organizing their classes but I do wonder if we take this too far: if our need to fill every minute with an “interesting” and “motivating” activity actually blocks out real participation and hampers our ability to stand back and observe what is happening in our classes and how students are reacting to our lesson plans.

 

Many years ago in the Sudan friends arrived at their house to find written on the wall outside by the door: “we came and met your absence”. My students pay too much money to find my absence, physically; but they might learn a lot more if I step back and allow them to take a more dominant role. It really is War and Peace all over again.