Thursday 29 April 2010

My first take on IATEFL Harrogate 2010 - Part 2

So here's Part 2 of the highlights for IATEFL Harrogate 2010

Plenary 2: Students´minds and imaginations by Kieran Egan

Kieran shared a novel viewpoint of the process of students´ cognitive development by linking it to imagination and how it can empower language learning to make it more effective. A brilliant session!

Engaging lower primary students through web 2.0 tools by Ozge Karaoglu and Shelly Terrell

Shelly and Ozge conducted such a lively session! Both because they are very dynamic and because they showed actual videos of their 5 year-old students in Turkey and Germany. Those who were there were going “Aaahh!” and “Uuuhhh” when they saw these little angels producing amazing language through technology! The best way to convince anybody!

Web 2.0 tools that make a difference by Russell Stannard

Russell introduced screen capturing tools with a huge success. The reason was his innovative ideas on their use. You could actually hear people’s amazement! Russell has just won the ELTONS for innovation 2010. Check his website for lots of ideas.

The IATEFL 3rd Annual Pecha Kucha Evening

Although I could not attend it, there is no way I can leave it out! Just watch for yourself.

Plenary 3: Socialising students´motivation and autonomy in the English language classroom by Ema Ushioda

Ema reflected successfully on the importance of internal motivation as an essential aspect of successful language learning. She drew from the field of psychology and from current theories of autonomy in language learning to make a clear link between motivation and autonomy.

Breaking down the classroom walls: Web-based tasks with real outcomes by Ann Foreman

Ann focused on using web-based tasks to create a wider audience for students´ work. She shared some web 2.0 tools through examples of students´ productions. Good point!

Making digital sense in the classroom by Shaun Wilden

Shaun’s dynamic presentation addressed the issues of teachers’ attitudes towards technology and digital solutions at hand, including IWB tools, mobile learning and others.

Embedding creative thinking skills training into our EFL practice by Marisa Constantinides

Marisa’s session was serious and fun at the same time. She managed to walk us through the theoretical background and then surprise us with very creative examples. I loved it!!!

Task-based learning in virtual worlds by Shiv Rajendran

I am so sorry I missed this one! But I had to include as I am really interested in what Shiv does. He presented on task-based learning in Second Life by showing examples of a unit on innovations from the book Market Leader being turned into a series of tasks in SL. Worth checking out!

Final plenary: What is a storyteller? by Jan Blake

Again I missed this one because I was taking the train back to Heathrow… Thankfully it was recorded, which is both good for me and for you! Jan is amazing!


So this is the academic summary of the conference. I will soon post something more informal on what I learnt at Harrogate.

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