It's time for a role-play:
Student A: turn to page 61
Student B: turn to page 64
It is somehow assumed that in all classrooms, all over the world, wherever there are people learning English that their teachers are teaching to an even number of students, every day.
Amazing, really...
Useful links related to this posting:
Reasons I don't like textbooks (series)
ELTchat: Is using a coursebook such a bad thing?
Best,
Karenne
image credit: Cartoon about Noah's Arc by Gaspirtz
education
I love hearing from you! Please add your thoughts if there's something you would like to question, add or say about this post - got any useful strategies or tips to deal with this dilemma, ones which don't involve making the teacher one of the partners and therefore no longer able to record errors and mistakes for feedback?
Don't worry about perfection in your comment or agreeing with me: it's always a pleasure to hear from you and know your viewpoints.
Pages
▼
On Blog Rolls (EduBlogging)
After setting up a blog and writing the very first post, one of the first things one generally does next is to have a look around at other Edu-blogs for tips on layout and widgets, style and feel, and while traveling through the 'sphere one of the things which tends to stand out on the side bar (or bottom bar as in my own case) is the blog roll...
Some of the first things you may think about when you first notice this are:
a) Which blogs should you list on your blog roll?
Concentrate on
b) How do you get on other people's blog rolls?
So how do you get another blogger's attention?
Reciprocal linking might look very attractive to you when you're starting off - you've listed someone and because you've done this then you want to be listed back (you may even feel you deserve it) but aside from the fact that it is a cheek for you to expect this from people who are essentially strangers to you, doing this sort of thing, willy-nilly, can wind-up jeapordizing that blogger's ranking on Google!
Also those links on the side-bar also don't usually add much to your ranking - they're generally not searchable content and therefore the links which have the most value to you when starting out are those created within someone else's blog post.
Note
So the social-media tip for this Sunday is forget about the blog roll for now and instead work on developing relationships with your fantastic new edu-community.
Useful links
Carnival! (27 bloggers writing on EduBlogging, 2009)
Thoughts on being an Edu-blogger
Blogging, chatting, discussions online: (we're still just writing on cave walls)
IATEFL 2011: The ELT blogosphere symposium
Recorded Presentation on Edublogging at the Reform Symposium July 31st, 2010
The Guest Posts
Glossary of EduBlogging Terms, Mike Harrison's Blog
Glossary of phrases and expresssions based on the word blog, Sue Lyon Jones's blog
The Best Kept Secrets of Highly Successful Edubloggers
Intro Nick Jaworksi's blog
Part 1 Shelly Terrell's blog
Part 2 Janet Bianchini's blog
Part 3 Berni Wall's blog
Part 4 Monika Hardy's blog
Part 5 Anne Hodgson's blog (coming soon)
Best,
Karenne
education
image credit: MikeLicht, NotionsCapital.com
I love hearing from you! Please add your thoughts if you feel like there's something you would like to question, add or say about it - don't worry about perfection or agreeing with me - it's always a pleasure to hear from you and know your own opinions about edublogging and the blog roll. Did I miss anything?
Worried about spamming me? Spam = you haven't read any of the discussion either in the post or by the other comments yet you want to come to my page in order to advertise yourself... (which probably means you won't have read this either :)). Your comment will be removed.
Contribution = you've read the post and the discussion which has been added to it from other educators (or you want to start one off).
Some of the first things you may think about when you first notice this are:
a) who do I list on my own?
b) how do I get on other people's?
a) Which blogs should you list on your blog roll?
- Blogs you feel most comfortable recommending to your readers. That is the primary function of a blog roll - it is there to tell others who to visit next. It says that you have read at least five to ten of their posts and that you are very confident about the content and the intention of the writer. You know that you are not randomly sending your readers on to someone who writes about dump trucks and you know they don't plagiarize other people's content. They are EduBloggers who:
- blog consistently.
- write on similar themes as your own.
- write well (as this is subjective, it your call and this decision may affect your own reputation!).
Concentrate on
- Bloggers who have started around the same time as you have (you can spur each other on and talk to each other about what you're both learning and going through).
- Bloggers who visit your own blog and participate in your conversations, people who are not just focused on their own.
- Bloggers with a sense of community: the ones with blog rolls.
- Bloggers who do more than indulge in "diary" writing. (There's nothing wrong with doing that but is that who you want to send your readers on to?)
- Bloggers who contribute. Their words/tips/lesson plans and ideas consistently help you (and therefore others) to develop as a professional in your field (or they make you laugh-think-feel something).
b) How do you get on other people's blog rolls?
Not by asking.
- Don't do this and in particular, never, ever do this with an already popular blogger - he probably gets hundreds of requests weekly and it is both a major breach of blog-i-quette and a form of spam.
So how do you get another blogger's attention?
- write your own quality content, consistently.
- write on similar themes as the blogs you respect without being a copycat.
- write at a relatively high level of English: use the spell-checker and edit your work before clicking on the Publish Post button.
- Participate in other bloggers' conversations: don't wait for them to come to you.
- Wait. If you are new you have simply not produced a body of work worth recommending yet.
Reciprocal linking might look very attractive to you when you're starting off - you've listed someone and because you've done this then you want to be listed back (you may even feel you deserve it) but aside from the fact that it is a cheek for you to expect this from people who are essentially strangers to you, doing this sort of thing, willy-nilly, can wind-up jeapordizing that blogger's ranking on Google!
Also those links on the side-bar also don't usually add much to your ranking - they're generally not searchable content and therefore the links which have the most value to you when starting out are those created within someone else's blog post.
Note
- Many bloggers don't update their blog rolls frequently so do not take it personally if you aren't listed even after visiting them many times. Be patient, you never know, you might be on next week.
- Many bloggers only list the blogs written by their personal friends (real or virtual) or by their employees/ colleagues or even their mates-from-back-in-the-day so do not take it personally if you aren't listed.
- Many bloggers don't keep blog rolls due to the hassle and spam mails asking to be put on them.
So the social-media tip for this Sunday is forget about the blog roll for now and instead work on developing relationships with your fantastic new edu-community.
Useful links
Carnival! (27 bloggers writing on EduBlogging, 2009)
Thoughts on being an Edu-blogger
Blogging, chatting, discussions online: (we're still just writing on cave walls)
IATEFL 2011: The ELT blogosphere symposium
Recorded Presentation on Edublogging at the Reform Symposium July 31st, 2010
The Guest Posts
Glossary of EduBlogging Terms, Mike Harrison's Blog
Glossary of phrases and expresssions based on the word blog, Sue Lyon Jones's blog
The Best Kept Secrets of Highly Successful Edubloggers
Intro Nick Jaworksi's blog
Part 1 Shelly Terrell's blog
Part 2 Janet Bianchini's blog
Part 3 Berni Wall's blog
Part 4 Monika Hardy's blog
Part 5 Anne Hodgson's blog (coming soon)
Best,
Karenne
education
image credit: MikeLicht, NotionsCapital.com
I love hearing from you! Please add your thoughts if you feel like there's something you would like to question, add or say about it - don't worry about perfection or agreeing with me - it's always a pleasure to hear from you and know your own opinions about edublogging and the blog roll. Did I miss anything?
Worried about spamming me? Spam = you haven't read any of the discussion either in the post or by the other comments yet you want to come to my page in order to advertise yourself... (which probably means you won't have read this either :)). Your comment will be removed.
Contribution = you've read the post and the discussion which has been added to it from other educators (or you want to start one off).
Paradigm Shift, what paradigm shift?
(I am now blogging on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays).
However a little while ago I followed a link from a brand new follower on Twitter, Tilly Harrison, and the link she sent out into her stream defied all my pre-conceptions of the universe.
It blew my mind away. Completely.
It blew my mind away. Completely.
Actually I think I may have woken up on the wrong planet.
Friends, Earth is changing.
The way we learn is changing. The way we communicate is changing. And it's all happening so very, very quickly. No wonder people are afraid or worried. No wonder there's so much resistance to bringing tech into our lessons - today, confession, I too need a strong espresso after watching Lade's Directed transport without net bias in physics and biology... and understanding what he was on about.
So if you happen to know anyone who doubts, for even a minute, that we are not on the very cusp of an entirely different way of doing things in the process of becoming educated and that all of this isn't going to wind up effecting our own special niche areas, then tell them please stop, get your head out of the daisies and pay attention. And if you like, get them to watch this video or in fact any of the other finalists and nominees on 'Dance Your Ph.D.'
Goldenberg's Ph.D. research—at Université du Québec à Montréal and Université Nice Sophia Antipolis—focuses on how people interact with one another through wiki sites. If you've ever witnessed a "flame war," you'll appreciate the violent petulance about halfway through the dance.
The Negotiation Of Contributions in Public Wikis from Anne Goldenberg on Vimeo.
Personally, I fell very deeply in love with the incredible richness of Maartje C. de Jong "The influence of previous experiences on visual awareness" (such poetry) and I was highly amused at my attempt to understand for the first time in my life: the sentence: Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment, I got the copying, I did, in this very fun expression created by Maureen McKeague however the one which impressed me the most is the one I've embedded above and is the one I voted for because she has, in my opinion, successfully captivated not just the wiki experience but actually any online community experience (dogme yahoo!group 2008-late2009, anyone? :-))
What do you think?
What on earth is happening to education?!
How do you feel about all this?
Is everything you've always held to be true (like Ph.Ds are only for boring academic types) being completely blown right apart... did you read what I said... I voted on someone's, some stranger's Ph.D and work of art....(and I can't wait to read it when it's published, if it's published in paper/online format) whoa, like, you know really those mushrooms in the 90's must have been darn good for me to think this is all real: tell me are you feeling challenged or confident?
Useful links related to this posting:
- Sue Lyon Jones: Feel the fear and do it anyway
Best,
Karenne
education
I love hearing from you! Please add your thoughts if you enjoyed this piece and you feel like there's something you want to question, add or say about it - don't worry about perfection or agreeing with me: it's always a pleasure to hear from you and know your opinions.
Worried about spamming me? Spam = you haven't read any of the discussion either in the post or in the comments yet you want to come to my page in order to advertise yourself... (which probably means you won't have read this either :)). Your comment will be removed.
Contribution = you've read the post and the discussion which has been added from other educators and you would like to contribute with your own thoughts, opinions, knowledge and experience. And, of course, if you have already written about this specific subject or a similar one do add your link -I welcome the opportunity to participate in your conversations too!
Another post on motivation
In the ELTchat last week, a few tweeters raised the issue of grades being motivating for students...
and I mentioned that I'm not a fan of them myself.
(thankfully I teach adult Business English -
Says it all really...
Useful links related to this posting:
ELT Chat
Best,
Karenne
education
p.s. I love hearing from you!
Please add your thoughts if you feel like there's something you would like to say - don't worry about perfection, It's just nice to hear from you.
Worried about spamming me? What is spam = you haven't read the discussion but yet you want to come to my page to advertise yourself...
Contribution = you've read the post and discussion from various other educators and you would like to add/share your own thoughts and experience. You've written about this subject as well? Do please add your link, I welcome the opportunity to participate in your conversations too!
and I mentioned that I'm not a fan of them myself.
In fact, pretty much, quite passionately, I hate 'em. They've got little place in my classroom today.
(thankfully I teach adult Business English -
don't know what I'd do if I was in a institutional setting...
die?)
Maybe because as a dyslexic with, apparently a high IQ, (whatever that means, yet another test, one could argue) I was consistently either given an A+ one day and an F- the next... The teachers said I was a lazy child, obviously, who couldn't be bothered to work - because, see, the rhyme and the rhythm to all that yo-yoing depended, usually, on whether or not I was able to adequately memorize.
(I used a color system and could learn entire chapters off by heart;
entire Shakespearean plays but life got way more difficult once I hit Higher Ed.)
And the thing was... even by the age of ten I realized that if I used all my attention, gritted my teeth and clenched in my stomach to concentrate and then regurgitated facts in the format required by the teacher I could make it come out like they wanted it... yet doing this never proved whether or not I had made any sense of what I was supposed to be learning.
I knew this at ten, I tell you, sitting on a cushion
with my colour felt-tips memorizing stuff off by heart
so my parents wouldn't get mad at me, again...
So grades?
Pah and double pah to that. Nice for competitive types who need the psychological assurance that they've been in a room doing something but really, very much not for those seeking any kind of deeper learning experience. They're just not that motivating..
Anyway.. don't get your nose out of joint if you're someone who likes them... lots and lots of people do...
This week, Larry Ferlazzo posted up a video of Alfie Kohn's take on motivation and aside from its sheer brilliance and deeper teaching, it made me laugh out loud so I hope it will you too:
This week, Larry Ferlazzo posted up a video of Alfie Kohn's take on motivation and aside from its sheer brilliance and deeper teaching, it made me laugh out loud so I hope it will you too:
Says it all really...
Useful links related to this posting:
- More on motivation by me (links here)
- Joel H Josephson Don't Give Up (as per comments below)
- StrictlyNicky's "Are tests biased against students..?"
- Daniel Pink on Drive & Motivation (RSA animate mentioned by Q.E in comments)
- Joe Bower on abolishing grading: numerous, excellent posts (as mentioned by NJ in comments)
- Have you written something on motivation? Let me know below
ELT Chat
ELTChat is a fantastic global initiative for live discussion on current issues in the TEFL industry and is moderated by Berni Wall in the UK, Jason Renshaw in Australia, Marisa Constantinides in Greece and Olaf Elch in Germany and, of course, masterminded by the brilliant do-everything-be-everywhere Shelly Terrell.
The chats take place every Wednesday: at 3 and 9pm (London) -see world clock for your own time zone. Transcripts/podcasts summarizing the events are posted on their website after each session.
Best,
Karenne
education
p.s. I love hearing from you!
Please add your thoughts if you feel like there's something you would like to say - don't worry about perfection, It's just nice to hear from you.
Worried about spamming me? What is spam = you haven't read the discussion but yet you want to come to my page to advertise yourself...
Contribution = you've read the post and discussion from various other educators and you would like to add/share your own thoughts and experience. You've written about this subject as well? Do please add your link, I welcome the opportunity to participate in your conversations too!
I'm Two
No, this post isn't a reference to my schizophrenic tweeting as kalinagoenglish and BloggerELT. ;-)
Although everyone who should know this, knows that it is social meDIA not social MEdia, bloggers often get a slapped (especially from real writers) for openly sharing their thoughts, opinions, experiences, impressions, annoyances, knowledge etc on the page... and are often critiqued for being the inner-most-seekers of ze eternal belly-button...
When I first came on board there were really actually only a handful of real ELT-bloggers out there in the 'sphere - excellent bloggers like Nik, Alex, Seth, Graham, Elena, Susana, Carla, David, Ronaldo to name a small few but there were a many, many more of the "do-visit-my-blog-so-you-can-envy/laugh/get-angry-at-me-bloggers" - which wasn't doing the sphere any favours and many of these have died off now.
Pretty much, right from the get go, I knew that I very much wanted to do something different to the prolific navel-grazing going on: I wanted to create and participate in a global, educational, community of practice.
Still, as much as I've tried in the last two years to keep my writing aimed at you, you, you... at what you're interested in reading and learning more about sometimes I too, especially when I witter on about social media, can be a wee bit "me, me, me" and... well, get ready folks, because this post in particular is going to be just that...
because as of 2 days ago,
Kalinago English is celebrating her second birthday (all be it that celebrations are actually taking place with a box of tissue paper parked by the bed: worst head cold in years has gotten me in its deep grips)... but nonetheless, I am super happy to be part of the wonderfully, engaging, dynamic world I write in and want to celebrate that - this place where we hold a conversation between peers: in the democratization and exploration of our knowledge and educational experiences.
From my first hesitant post
I then went on to publish 234 articles - ranging in topics from teaching with technology, to teaching English, to teaching Dogme-style, to talking about issues in our field, to musings and rants about social media.
And somehow from the first six months of only family and friends visiting to amassing a global audience who've now, collectively read over a 104,000 pages, it has really been you who has kept me working - pretty much because you've kept coming 'round to visit me, saying hey and letting me know what you thought of my words/links/tips and when I got nominated for awards, you voted for me.
Thank you so much - you have really kept me busy!
Alex Case has been whittering on about whether or not the ELT blogosphere is dying out... and I'll say nope, not at all. I think, to be honest, yes twitter and facebook have become incredibly distracting and addictive places to hang out but in many respects the ones who were blogging about themselves are now tweeting their updates instead... so it doesn't so much matter that they've gone.
In other cases some of the greats in our 'sphere got bogged down with real life and career commitments but I expect (hope) we'll see them launching back with a vengeance over the next few months.
From observation, though, Alex is right, we aren't commenting, visiting or linking back as much as we used to - I'm not sure if it was due to OneStopEnglish's stock-market that somehow, may have, unintentionally, forced us to look inwards, to stop from paying attention to each other and working on our community...
or if it was just perhaps that we all felt a bit overwhelmed by late 2009 when so many newbies came on board (ten on top of the other, all demanding special attention and back-links to blogrolls before proving their mettle (and dropping out after the first three posts), making many a social-faux pas with "visit my blog please" "do an interview with me please*" requests by the dozen...:) yet really, aside from those, some outstanding newbies have come along to teach us fantastic new things - way too numerous to count or list them but in particular Eva, Ozge, Darren, Marisa, Shelly, Jason, Mike, Nick...
so, perhaps it wasn't that but instead when the edu-VIPs came on the scene and showed us the what-for on the comment front (not great for the ego when you watch someone get 100 comments in a day (who knew there were that many people who had something to say!) while you're averaging 1- 5) lol, still some of these giants have in fact helped us to become sharper thinkers, to hone our posts with care, to cross the t's and dot the i's.
All in all though I think the die-hards amongst us have indeed muddled on through, those of us who're serious about our genre, about sharing our knowledge with our friends and peers and I reckon in the end, that's all that really counts.
Anyway, back to my own lovely jewel-encrusted belly-button... as we speak I've got another 46 articles lying around in draft and I've also sketched out numerous guest-posts to hit the 'sphere with soon, so
I'll see you for my third...
Karenne
"do an interview with me please*" - why this is a serious no-no when you enter the 'sphere, as it seems not to be obvious for many newbies: You write 6 lines of text and then ask someone else to write a reply for who knows, 6 hours, actually answering questions they've answered thousands of times before. You think you have struck gold and found the easy-way-to-blog... but in fact, you look like a lazy chump :-) Sorry, them's the facts. Don't do this.
Although everyone who should know this, knows that it is social meDIA not social MEdia, bloggers often get a slapped (especially from real writers) for openly sharing their thoughts, opinions, experiences, impressions, annoyances, knowledge etc on the page... and are often critiqued for being the inner-most-seekers of ze eternal belly-button...
When I first came on board there were really actually only a handful of real ELT-bloggers out there in the 'sphere - excellent bloggers like Nik, Alex, Seth, Graham, Elena, Susana, Carla, David, Ronaldo to name a small few but there were a many, many more of the "do-visit-my-blog-so-you-can-envy/laugh/get-angry-at-me-bloggers" - which wasn't doing the sphere any favours and many of these have died off now.
Pretty much, right from the get go, I knew that I very much wanted to do something different to the prolific navel-grazing going on: I wanted to create and participate in a global, educational, community of practice.
Still, as much as I've tried in the last two years to keep my writing aimed at you, you, you... at what you're interested in reading and learning more about sometimes I too, especially when I witter on about social media, can be a wee bit "me, me, me" and... well, get ready folks, because this post in particular is going to be just that...
because as of 2 days ago,
Kalinago English is celebrating her second birthday (all be it that celebrations are actually taking place with a box of tissue paper parked by the bed: worst head cold in years has gotten me in its deep grips)... but nonetheless, I am super happy to be part of the wonderfully, engaging, dynamic world I write in and want to celebrate that - this place where we hold a conversation between peers: in the democratization and exploration of our knowledge and educational experiences.
From my first hesitant post
What a crazy bunch of months these have been. Teaching, teacher training, meetings, writing, website developing, foruming, blah! But all that's just an excuse, and a way of avoiding this task in front of me BUT what's the point of starting a blog if I am not actually going to write in it, eh?
I reckon the problem is one of focus or purpose: I mean what should I actually write about? Ha, isn't that a funny quandary for a writer. Developing a website by myself - learning all the tips and tricks, nah. Boring, done.
Teaching with technology,hmm...interesting, teaching speaking skills, teaching in general, writing materials... Hmmm. Yes, I just answered my own question.
That's what a blog's for after all, the on-line diary experience, to answer one's own musings so I will write about all the above and, as time whittles on, probably more.
How about I start off with a chat on using video in the classroom? That's a question I get asked loads in my workshops. AND it's MUCH, much, much easier that you think.
Yah. That'll be my next post. Tomorrow.
I then went on to publish 234 articles - ranging in topics from teaching with technology, to teaching English, to teaching Dogme-style, to talking about issues in our field, to musings and rants about social media.
And somehow from the first six months of only family and friends visiting to amassing a global audience who've now, collectively read over a 104,000 pages, it has really been you who has kept me working - pretty much because you've kept coming 'round to visit me, saying hey and letting me know what you thought of my words/links/tips and when I got nominated for awards, you voted for me.
Thank you so much - you have really kept me busy!
Alex Case has been whittering on about whether or not the ELT blogosphere is dying out... and I'll say nope, not at all. I think, to be honest, yes twitter and facebook have become incredibly distracting and addictive places to hang out but in many respects the ones who were blogging about themselves are now tweeting their updates instead... so it doesn't so much matter that they've gone.
In other cases some of the greats in our 'sphere got bogged down with real life and career commitments but I expect (hope) we'll see them launching back with a vengeance over the next few months.
From observation, though, Alex is right, we aren't commenting, visiting or linking back as much as we used to - I'm not sure if it was due to OneStopEnglish's stock-market that somehow, may have, unintentionally, forced us to look inwards, to stop from paying attention to each other and working on our community...
or if it was just perhaps that we all felt a bit overwhelmed by late 2009 when so many newbies came on board (ten on top of the other, all demanding special attention and back-links to blogrolls before proving their mettle (and dropping out after the first three posts), making many a social-faux pas with "visit my blog please" "do an interview with me please*" requests by the dozen...:) yet really, aside from those, some outstanding newbies have come along to teach us fantastic new things - way too numerous to count or list them but in particular Eva, Ozge, Darren, Marisa, Shelly, Jason, Mike, Nick...
so, perhaps it wasn't that but instead when the edu-VIPs came on the scene and showed us the what-for on the comment front (not great for the ego when you watch someone get 100 comments in a day (who knew there were that many people who had something to say!) while you're averaging 1- 5) lol, still some of these giants have in fact helped us to become sharper thinkers, to hone our posts with care, to cross the t's and dot the i's.
All in all though I think the die-hards amongst us have indeed muddled on through, those of us who're serious about our genre, about sharing our knowledge with our friends and peers and I reckon in the end, that's all that really counts.
Anyway, back to my own lovely jewel-encrusted belly-button... as we speak I've got another 46 articles lying around in draft and I've also sketched out numerous guest-posts to hit the 'sphere with soon, so
I'll see you for my third...
Karenne
"do an interview with me please*" - why this is a serious no-no when you enter the 'sphere, as it seems not to be obvious for many newbies: You write 6 lines of text and then ask someone else to write a reply for who knows, 6 hours, actually answering questions they've answered thousands of times before. You think you have struck gold and found the easy-way-to-blog... but in fact, you look like a lazy chump :-) Sorry, them's the facts. Don't do this.
The culture of the DM inbox
For those of you who aren't sure what a DM is, the letters refer to the private messaging service on Twitter, the
For the most part, ever since I've been on the site, it's been mainly used for sending and receiving
The DMs were vaguely bothering me until I realized that actually, it's culture, isn't it... different people and their different identities and their relationships to space and intimacy - so hmmm, while I now get it I have to admit that I'm also a bit culturally challenged to be honest - do I respond with a smart retort saying - um, like, you know, don't spam me...
Or do I say "hey, we don't know each other, not at all and as a general rule, what I do in my private time is hardly any of your business..." but that feels awfully rude...
Do I ignore?
Do I unfollow?
Has this sort of thing happened to you too - how do you feel about the nature of conversations which occur in your DM inbox? Do you have any communicative "borders" you don't like crossed?
What would you do in my shoes?
Useful links related to this posting:
ELT Guide to Twitter
Paid to Tweet
Thnx 4 ur RTs
In the space of 140 characters
Best, Karenne
education
p.s the danger of doing a post like this, as I've learned in the past, is that when you don't name names and you don't give specifics, sometimes people think that you're personally criticizing them ... so, um, if you are one of my darling PLN and we've been friends for a while now or even if you're new and I've written you back/we've had a conversation then do understand please that obviously I'm not talking about you... :-) (but you can DM me to check if you like, LOL)
Direct Message
For the most part, ever since I've been on the site, it's been mainly used for sending and receiving
- Thank yous for RTs
- Thank yous for other stuff :)
- Follow up messages on projects, conferences or activities
- Sending or receiving congratulatory messages when a Twitterer's done something great
- Giving/receiving feedback on typos or on anything that needs feedback
- Arranging to meet-up with friends/working colleagues
- Asking and answering questions related to blogging, tweeting, web2.0
- Sending or receiving links to examples of lessons using edtech
- Personal conversations with people I "know"/ have spent a lot of time with / like on Twitter or in real life
The DMs were vaguely bothering me until I realized that actually, it's culture, isn't it... different people and their different identities and their relationships to space and intimacy - so hmmm, while I now get it I have to admit that I'm also a bit culturally challenged to be honest - do I respond with a smart retort saying - um, like, you know, don't spam me...
Or do I say "hey, we don't know each other, not at all and as a general rule, what I do in my private time is hardly any of your business..." but that feels awfully rude...
Do I ignore?
Do I unfollow?
Has this sort of thing happened to you too - how do you feel about the nature of conversations which occur in your DM inbox? Do you have any communicative "borders" you don't like crossed?
What would you do in my shoes?
Useful links related to this posting:
ELT Guide to Twitter
Paid to Tweet
Thnx 4 ur RTs
In the space of 140 characters
Best, Karenne
education
p.s the danger of doing a post like this, as I've learned in the past, is that when you don't name names and you don't give specifics, sometimes people think that you're personally criticizing them ... so, um, if you are one of my darling PLN and we've been friends for a while now or even if you're new and I've written you back/we've had a conversation then do understand please that obviously I'm not talking about you... :-) (but you can DM me to check if you like, LOL)
Mobile Phones + English Language Learning - ya what?
Today, while waiting for my S-bahn to arrive to take me to classes out of the city centre, I observed a young man sporting a heavy backpack, carrying a cup of coffee in one hand and a small, sleek, black device in the other, running to catch his train.
He didn't make it.
Not because of the coffee, the phone or even the extra weight on his back but because he was wearing jeans which fell halfway down his bum and well, having no hands free... well, you know what I mean, don't you?
I feel the same way about Crocs, the Noughties answer to things which really should never be worn on the feet, at any cost, at all, for any other reason than to garden. They are big, fat, plastic slipper things - yes, indeedy-do, that's exactly what they are.
Perhaps if I had never read Gladwell's Tipping Point, I would have spent the rest of my life in the dark, never quite understanding how the dumbest of concepts ever manage to find their way to becoming popular... but I did read it... and having read Lindstrom's Buyology as well, I can tell ya, for a fact that people do what other people do and that's just what people do.
(It's a survival of the species thing).
Getting to be the first though is the trick to making big money in this world, so if that's your dream, then you'll probably have to design the next pair of Crocs before anyone else in the whole wide world would ever wear them or you'll have to create a music device and then attach dangly, tangly white earphones to them (why on god's green earth hasn't someone invented the no-wire-necessary headphones yet???) or you'll have to convince a Rap Star to put on jeans which come up to just below the waist.
Don't do these things though if you don't want to lose money. Because to be honest, let's face it, not everyone who dreams up smart ideas wins big. Lots try, lots blow out lots of smoke however lots, months later, years later, lots have heads that roll due to lots of losses incurred in lots of research, development, marketing and production.
Don't do these things though if you don't want to lose money. Because to be honest, let's face it, not everyone who dreams up smart ideas wins big. Lots try, lots blow out lots of smoke however lots, months later, years later, lots have heads that roll due to lots of losses incurred in lots of research, development, marketing and production.
Which happens to bring me, really quite nicely, to M-language-learning.
Ya what?
Lots of stuff 'bout that's being bandied about on the 'net recently.
Ya what?
Lots of stuff 'bout that's being bandied about on the 'net recently.
Some back story first though. Being a bit of a tech nerd, I was the proud holder of one of the first SmartPhones, a Windows powered HTC-Qtek, a wonderful Taiwanese machine way before its time - pre-dating the i-phone by quite a number of years. So sometime back in 2005 or 2006, in class with my one of my students ("a CEO" who wanted to increase his vocabulary) we came up with the grand plan of auto-messages delivered daily: Word-of-the-Day by SMS.
The first problem we ran into... in our mind's eye, of course, we didn't actually follow-through because this was all fictional situational language practice for him, was that due to the absolute lack of market saturation of SmartPhones at that time (he had a BlackBerry) it would be impossible to monetize but rather a lot of work to set up.
Then good old Steve Jobs brought out the admittedly gorgeous i-phone and the whole wide world went berserk for all things Apple (I'm not a fan of 'closed' company workings meself). On top of that, Jobs, rather cleverly set the whole thing up so that necessary apps to make the thing cooler would cost.
And the world began to see a shift towards monetization from the internet...
And the first people who got on that particular train made lots and lots of moooooola....
And the first people who got on that particular train made lots and lots of moooooola....
Today, if you watch the ELT twitterverse and read through upcoming conference presentation schedules for the next six months then you'll begin, like me, to notice a bit of a trend forming... mobile phones are suddenly becoming "hot" learning tools - despite the low level saturation amongst teachers themselves - and these devices are being touted about as the very next big thing in language learning...
You'd be forgiven for thinking that probably one of the ELT publishers or one of the big-name institutional chains is busy developing an app, you really would.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that probably one of the ELT publishers or one of the big-name institutional chains is busy developing an app, you really would.
But, um,
but uh-hum,
before we go a bit too hastily into that good night, could we take a deep breath and take a little rational peek into what the greater majority of people in the world who own phones (who can afford these things and the access to the 'net) actually use them for, which is:
General phones
- Talking to friends
- Talking to family
- Talking to colleagues
- Playing games
SmartPhones
- Talking to friends
- Talking to family
- Talking to colleagues
- Playing games
- Talking to friends on social networks
- Talking to family on social networks
- Receiving and answering work
- Receiving and answering personal emails
- Checking calendar and tasks
- Jotting down quick notes (and even recording new ideas for blogs)
- Quickly checking on news headlines
- Find locations on maps quickly
- Checking for random information (secretive fact verifying in pub-quizzes)
- Listening to music
- Catching up on the plethora of podcasts you wish you hadn't downloaded
- Watching short TED videos
where, why, how...how often, what for....
see the thing is, really, the phone is principally a communicative device. I don't know a single person who has learned a language on one or even wants to... I really don't. It's just not... motivational.
see the thing is, really, the phone is principally a communicative device. I don't know a single person who has learned a language on one or even wants to... I really don't. It's just not... motivational.
The phone has successfully made its way into entertainment but as anyone who tried to make the SecondLife or Gaming crossover (or even TV) into real education or language training will tell you the mix between inane, brain-numbing, relaxing entertainment and education for educational sake does not seem to ever reach a tipping point.
Sometimes people actually want to go about their lives: downtime is downtime, travel time is travel time and they don't actually want their devices to take over their entire lives...
Sometimes those who have time on their hands (literally) seem to forget this...
Sometimes people actually want to go about their lives: downtime is downtime, travel time is travel time and they don't actually want their devices to take over their entire lives...
Sometimes those who have time on their hands (literally) seem to forget this...
Sometimes, like my friend with his pants slipping half down his legs, some of us are actually just too much in a rush juggling gazillions of activities and the very last thing on our minds in the conjugation of verbs. The prospect of sitting on a sofa learning a language with it makes zero sense so until someone stands up and says hey! I learned my Maori and Finnish on my phone and this is how I did it... then I'll be a critical thinker and wonder where the dollar bills are and who's looking for them.
So,
yea...
nope...
just another fad...
Am I wrong?
What do you think?
Do you think other than students checking out Wikipedia and their online dictionaries that there's any kind of possibility and real future in Mobile Language Learning?
Tell me why you think this, am looking forward to sharing your thoughts and experiences...
Useful links related to this posting:
Previous posts on using Smartphones in the language classroom
MILLEE: (Indian project)
Text2Teach (Philipines project)
Nokia's program in China
Learning with Apple
Education Apps for the I-phone
Best, Karenne
education
(p.s I downgraded on the Smartphone, last year, by the way - to the LG Prada... and I no longer access the 'net with mine - sometimes life just really has to quiet, filled with inane tasks like watching people catch trains). :)))
p.p.s As I've mentioned elsewhere I do see a future in tablets, net-books and other portable devices just not with small, primarily used to communicate with loved ones, devices that you carry around in your pocket).
29 Top Tweets in #TEFL 2010-Sept-08
Add caption |
It's been a busy summer I tell ya, I've hardly had a spare minute to do the thing I love most... i.e. blogging and hanging out on Social Media. Nevertheless, after a week of spending time with two lovely twitter ladies, Shelly and Marisa, on an island in Greece (photos coming soon, I have to figure out how to get them off the Prada as my digital camera packed up and I was forced to use the camera phone...) am beginning to surface and catch up on the rather long task list... so here are some of the links which have been flying around the rather transient 'verse - the stuff I favourited, visited, enjoyed and recommend to you - the stuff I grabbed while lurking here and there but which I'm hoping you'll enjoy finding again too :-).
Teaching English as a Foreign Language:
*Issues in our industry
Can't wait for part 2! RT @kenwilsonlondon BLOG POST - Motivating the Unmotivated - Part 1 http://bit.ly/bYBxPaFri Aug 27 16:05:05 via webenglish-at-home.com
englishathome
englishathome
***please note URL change: http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/2465/
Sorry to tell you, but if your students are bored, its your fault http://wp.me/ptcfd-6o #education #edchat #publicspeakingThu Aug 19 17:07:48 via webTristan Verboven
Aminhotep
Aminhotep
...just in time, Trtistan's post is, while we all gear up for classes and the conference season begins :)))
"Most of our classrooms were built under the assumption that info is scarce ..." http://bit.ly/bdG3EG #edreform #edtech gr8 post by @EnglishFri Sep 03 09:08:52 via RSSFlashgShelly S Terrell
ShellTerrell
ShellTerrell
RT @FlyontheCWall: good common sense regarding classroom control http://ow.ly/2A6O2Mon Sep 06 15:35:40 via TweetDeckSean Banville
SeanBanville
SeanBanville
*Teaching English Tips
Great series of interviews on Innovations in Teaching http://bit.ly/96iHGr - podcasts include @Harmerj and @thornburyscottSun Sep 05 07:50:29 via TweetDeckCELT Athens
CELT_Athens
CELT_Athens
RT @m_yam: RT @NikPeachey: useful Q & A of English grammar http://bit.ly/9uf8t3 #tefl #ELT #esl #tesol #esolWed Aug 25 15:39:11 via TweetDeckArjana Blazic
abfromz
abfromz
RT @kalinagoenglish: via @PrestwickHouse How to Spell http://bit.ly/cTZViG -> Loved it. Thanx! :-)Thu Aug 26 11:55:02 via TweetDeckCecilia Coelho
cecilialcoelho
cecilialcoelho
General English
RT @ddeubel: Reasons to use current events in the class. God bless Dewey! http://bit.ly/cYFvbbMon Aug 16 12:50:46 via TweetDeckJason Renshaw
englishraven
englishraven
The TEFL Times » Teaching factual writing: purpose and structure http://bit.ly/8YgJgTThu Aug 26 10:31:30 via webAdam Simpson
yearinthelifeof
yearinthelifeof
Alternatives to writing book reports after reading http://bit.ly/cZZyY5Thu Aug 26 09:04:25 via TweetDeckJez Uden
JezUden
JezUden
Business English/ ESP
Do u have European Business English ss who need 2 practice listening 2 Indian Accents = http://www.ndtv.com/video #besigFri Sep 03 09:44:05 via webKarenne Sylvester
kalinagoenglish
kalinagoenglish
The TEFL Times » Who qualifies to monitor an ESP course: a content teacher or a language teacher? http://bit.ly/dgKBEhThu Aug 26 10:33:08 via webAdam Simpson
yearinthelifeof
yearinthelifeof
Tech Tools + Teaching
RT @gcouros: So helpful: New Teacher Tech Survival List http://bit.ly/blRVnXFri Sep 03 03:15:57 via TweetDeckHenrick Oprea
hoprea
hoprea
...excellent tips! One to bookmark for sure, thanks Rick
Google Brings Voice Calling to Gmail http://bit.ly/9mtpiY via @mashableWed Aug 25 17:08:18 via twitterfeedAniya
TheEngTeacher
TheEngTeacher
RT @NikPeachey: 39 web based resources for vocab development http://bit.ly/b43amF #efl #elt #edtech #esol #tesol #eslSun Sep 05 15:59:40 via TweetDeckRussell Stannard
russell1955
russell1955
Podcast directory for educators, schools and colleges http://goo.gl/JJUk #podcast #edtech #ntchatWed Aug 25 16:19:48 via webAlexandra Francisco
alexgfrancisco
alexgfrancisco
RT wow!!! Interactive GRAMMAR games http://goo.gl/bfV9 by @anamariacult #edtech #iwb #elt #eslSun Aug 22 09:22:02 via TweetDeckMarina Petrovic
Educo11
Educo11
MYBLOG Webtools to enhance LISTENING: This afternoon, I presented a session about sites to help students improve t... http://bit.ly/aa3RjcFri Aug 20 22:26:33 via twitterfeedanamariacult
anamariacult
anamariacult
Mainstream Educational Links of Interest
Damage to language teaching 'irreparable' - Education News, Education - The Independent http://bit.ly/a2fUuXThu Aug 26 07:45:03 via TweetMemeInma Alcázar
inma_a
inma_a
RT @englishraven: Larger class sizes can result in better education http://bit.ly/aCsASP #jalt #eflThu Aug 26 01:12:01 via TweetDeckBarbara Sakamoto
barbsaka
barbsaka
RT @ShellTerrell: RT @gcouros: Elizabeth Gilbert on nurt. creativity | Video http://bit.ly/bmbNXo #edchat #edreform - Lovd it! Thnx Shelly!Mon Sep 06 05:19:30 via TweetDeckCecilia Coelho
cecilialcoelho
cecilialcoelho
Digital Storytelling in Plain English. Using them as a digital explanation. Found on @wfryer 's blog http://goo.gl/aoPAFri Sep 03 18:07:41 via ShareaholicCory Plough
mrplough07
mrplough07
Just commented. The post is worth your read >> The Impact of Awards (via @gcouros) http://bit.ly/aZvkpY #edchat #cpchat #educationTue Aug 24 22:07:22 via HootSuiteJeremy Macdonald
MrMacnology
MrMacnology
Frowns, Smiles + Laughs
RT @theteachershub: Article from BBC News - Is multi-tasking a myth? http://ow.ly/2ulHsWed Aug 25 16:02:00 via TweetDeckMiguel Mendoza
mike08
mike08
More shock-horror from the NY Times: "Attention spans evolve and shorten": http://nyti.ms/aTDvaFSun Aug 22 08:29:49 via TweetDeckScott Thornbury
thornburyscott
thornburyscott
RT @cbsiskin: @dudeneyge @daisybundle Why can't they tweet and chat over a pint at the same time?? - Cos NOBODY can multitask, remember?Thu Sep 02 19:56:44 via TweetDeckGavin Dudeney
dudeneyge
dudeneyge
If historical events had Facebook statuses (absolutely hilarious!) http://ow.ly/2uY73 via @researchgoddess and @lisibo | Big LOL =)Thu Aug 26 08:21:08 via TweetDeckMike Harrison
harrisonmike
harrisonmike
Wow! What a great day! After 18 months a teacher has finally asked me how to set up a blog. Is this the thin end of the wedge? #successFri Sep 03 08:57:23 via TweetDeckOlaf Elch
olafelch
olafelch
You may also like:
- ELT Guide to Twitter
- New TEFL teachers on Twitter
- More blog posts on "Life in the Twitterverse"
- The Best of the ELT Blogosphere
- Tweets saved by Shelly Terrell
- Tweets saved by Larry Ferlazzo
Best,
Karenne