Legality and the Creative Commons Debate

While there are many website creators and bloggers all over the internet who host content that is not their own, or who merely blog solely out of amusement... something to while away the time before they retire, some of us who do create content, do so

a) to develop professionally
b) to create a large body of work i.e. a work of art
c) to share this art with our colleagues, friends and global collaborators

Either way, whatever we produce on our pages, (even if we're already retired and no longer in the classroom/ creative world)... our writing and designs are usually subject to copyright and in most of our cases, subject to creative commons licensing which means that it is free to use but attribution  for the final or even draft product must be given.   

Some of us really don't mind if this work provides others with an income, others of us really do.   I am one of the ones who does.   Some out there think that if we get upset by having work stolen, we shouldn't because, basically,  in their opinion, blogging isn't real work!

I guess, once upon a time, journalism wasn't real work either.  And didn't Van Gogh die penniless - or was he the guy who cut off his ear?  Nevermind.

While albeit, understandably, admittedly for those who blog solely to promote their company's wares or to advertise their upcoming conference presentations it is indeed very difficult for them to see a problem with material being lifted off our, as artists,  pages...  after all, in their cases if their advertisements are shared with others, they're very happy.

Still, not all blogs or bloggers are the same, nor do we all create under the same motivations.  For some of us, when our hours of energy, time and work is copied, it is an infringement, a violation of our rights.

These past few weeks have seen several very interesting cases crop up in our own field  of ELT, in general education and on the outskirts of it.  I know that I personally believe that not only do we need to respect each others' art, we really must fight together against those who would violate it.

What do you think? 

Have you ever had work lifted?  Were you able to deal with the thieves?

Has anyone ever tried to claim ownership over something you created?  How did it make you feel?

Have you ever contributed to a large body of work for a colleague or a boss and then had them casually forget to give you credit or reference your work?  How did this make you feel?

In this techno-age should our students be taught now not to violate copyright?   Or do you believe that the age of owning the right to have your name on your art  is now over?

Is plagiarism ever flattering?

Useful links related to this posting:

• Understanding Creative Commons (previous post on this theme: Uncommonly Creative)
• Get your Creative Commons official license here.
  

• How to find millions of photographs, music and other forms of media which have been licensed under creative commons:  Search Creative Commons

• Simple Wikipedia

• Wikimedia Commons

• Plagiarism.org

• Idioms in English - excellent initiative by the webheads to create a resource for ELT 

Problems with copyright:

• Nick Jaworski and the case of the unethical contract
• Marisa Constantinides and the case of the stolen articles
• Tom Barrett and the case of the lifted google-doc

If you have also written on this issue or are currently struggling with someone on a copyright issue, please don't hesitate to add your url below.

 Best, Karenne education  

I love hearing from you! Please add your thoughts on this issue if you have suffered or been violated or if you are unsure about the legalities of creative commons / would like to share how you work - don't worry about perfection or agreeing with me: it's always a pleasure to hear from you and know what you think.

Do you know of another excellent source for free creative-commons licenced materials and media to share with students?

And p.s. what a week... eh?

There seriously must have been something out there in the universe - moon, stars and planets, and all that... I honestly feel like I've been dealing with crazies all week...

Foxy Voxy: #mlearning meets motivation in language teaching

In a rant, several weeks back I emphasized my thoughts on how I really, simply, can't see how mobile phones and language learning/teaching are ever going to lie in a bed together...  partly because of the size of the tool itself, issues related to internet access on the go, but also, most importantly to be quite frank, my main suspicion is that, like Thornbury's suspicion of products developed for IWBs, is all we're gonna wind up with is a rehash of tired and out-dated methodologies spiced up for diamond-sharp-screen-technologies (gap-fill, random-name-that-photo anyone?) but these materials won't be personalized nor learner-centered, and undoubtedly won't be an interactive learning tool and sure as heck, won't be motivational.

I sure do love being proved wrong.

Folks, it looks like a fox has slipped into the henhouse with something really rather innovative.

At first contact, when they emailed, I scoffed and almost reached for the mark-as-spam button.

Oh, here we go, I thought,  I mean just how many emails do I really have to receive each week with someone wanting to be promoted on my blog?  But this email was very different.   It didn't congratulate me  and tell me how much they just love my blog but instead I got a long, professionallly laid out  list of solid reasons why their product was worth taking a look at.  

I clicked through.

I emailed back.

We Skyped.

I put it to the student-test.

Unanamious votes all round:  they said "cool" "guile" "very cool".    They asked "can we download it in German?"  I told them not yet.  But I hope soon.

The company who've created this incredibly simple concept of sending out a 3 minute SMS/email/app with a lead in in the students' own L1 is called Voxy, headed up by Paul Gollash (who lists in his claim to fame, working within Richard Branson's venture capital wing). 

His killer team includes Manuel Morales - in charge of community outreach; Gregg Carey (co-founder) and Ed Menendez who are developing the product; Laura Martinez (journalist and blogger) their Editorial Director - she currenlty creates the daily streaks.  

Linguist Jane Sedlar and language coordinator Sandra Rubio keep them on andragogical track... and their secret weapon?

Rudy Menendez who comes in with a background in creating addictive games.

  

The language learning tool came out of a simple wish to make language learning more interesting, they ask:

Why is language learning so un-interesting? Languages are, after all, empirically exciting, useful, and empowering to all of us. Does studying it have to suck? We don't think so.

Voxy was first conceived over cold beers at a Yakatori bar in the East Village of New York and the business plan was written shortly afterwards while in San Sebastian, on the northern coast of Spain. It grew out of a fascination for evolving media (including magazines, newspapers, digital and social), and a passion for language learning in an increasingly global community. At Voxy's core is a fervent belief that there is better way to learn a new language.

Voxy raised a seed round of capital from a group of angel investors with experience building successful businesses in the for-profit education space, and a history of creating powerful consumer brands.

Software in the back records what the students are interested in, what stories they tend to click on and flashcard games based on the lexis that the students have chosen themselves goes into a personalized bank.

Voxy is a young company, founded in Feb 2010 but has already been written up in the New York Times,  CNN money and TechCrunch. In the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield (video), Gollash quotes Chomsky saying that 98% of language teaching is just about keeping the students interested and they've met that challenge head on by creating an application which adapts seamlessly into adult life, converting relevant, topical content and turned this into a game.

Voxy uses an incremental approach, important in minimizing cognitive load.  Language is also offered in chunks - no grammar-based curriculum here although there is grammar: highlighted in context. (Hear my gasp!)

New material is presented at a level of difficulty  just beyond the students' current ability.

Students receive points based on how often they log in and play these streaks, the words they accumulate and the games they play.






Want to get involved?

As I mentioned earlier, Voxy is a young company and very eager to get real feedback from teachers and students.  The website is completely free (the i-phone app will cost a dollar) so if you happen to be a teacher reading my blog, based in the US or in Central or South America or Spain - basically anywhere where you have Spanish speaking students learning English then why not head on over to the Voxy website, mess around a bit  and then if you like, show it to your students.

If you'd like to ask questions or send in your thoughts, contact the very friendly Manuel Morales: manuel (at) voxy (dot) com.


Useful resources: 

• Language learners and computer games, Graham Stanley and Kyle Muwer (presentation)
  
• Digital Games Based Learning, Mark Prensky
• Games as learning machines, James Gee
• Assessment of games based learning by Rowin
  Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning, George M. Chinnery
• Using mobile phones in education by Patricia Thornton and Chris Houser
• English language teachers connect to mobile learning by Nik Peachey 
• How students use their mobile phones by David Reed 
• No Future? The English Language Teaching Coursebook in the Digital Age
• Texting: 10 resources by Shelly Terrell 
• Good sources for finding educational iphone / iPad apps by Paul Sweeney
• the #mlearning stream on twitter

and if you thought I was kidding when I said I am mostly suspicious of mobile technologies... do please have a thorough look at David Reed's blog on mobile ESL, he reviews products there and talks about the use of the phone in the classroom.  Well-written posts but as far as I can tell, personally, really can't figure how these apps he reviews are supposedly thinking outside the cage...   watch out ELT.

Best,
Karenne
education

Teaching English Online: Tara Benwell and MyEC

I was just going through some of the great sessions from the Virtual Round Table last week to catch up on what I'd missed and while on over there, saw a posting about one of the sessions I did attend at the time and which, if you're interested in teaching online but aren't sure where to start, would really like to point you towards. 

The session was with Tara Benwell of MyEC who works with English language learners from all over the world: almost 25,000 of them!  

She sets up monthly blog challenges for them to write, administrates their discussions and also helps them develop computer skills and develop learner autonomy.

One of the best things about MyEC - if you're a teacher as well as a learner is that you're welcome to go onto their site and set up your own group - there are many, many other groups to join in as well.    Many of their members frequently write their own blogs so you can quickly offer your services in terms of general feedback or correction (when/if they ask for this).

So basically if you've been hedging on whether or not you'd like to start teaching online, doing an Masters in Edtech/TESOL and you'd really like to have a free space, a kind of 'sandbox' to test out on strangers who are really keen to learn... or you want to work out whether teaching online is for you before diving in with  creating your own site (or even, like me the reverse, you'd like to see how tasks you set with real students work with total strangers)  then you should definitely watch this video and join their site.  

If you have any questions, Tara is super approachable, she tweets at @TEFL and her page on the MyEC page is here, the creator of their site was Josef Essberger.

Good luck!
Karenne

p.s. Let me just share with you a blog post from one of their members (displayed here with permission):

Schooling the world

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if we know what we are doing...

And whether or not, we care...

If our 'way' has to be the only way.

If what makes us happy has to be the thing which makes everyone else in the whole world happy.

I wonder if we're happy.   

Playing with our toys while wanting to have the toys of others...

Schooling The World: The White Man's Last Burden trailer HD from lost people films on Vimeo.


The world, the times they are -a-changing.

But at whose cost?

Thanks, Sir Ken Robinson
Karenne

Paradigm Shift, what paradigm shift?

I had something very different scheduled for today.

(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.   

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: 

• Technology tips for English Language Teachers

• 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!

Google for teaching adults how to describe statistics

Google is just so useful, isn't it?  But did you know that you can get your adult Business English students looking for their own data, specifically relevant to their own interests, projects and responsibilities?

 For fun, drag the yearly scroll bar!

This incredible site, Google Public Data Explorer, offers statistics from the World Bank, Eurostat, OECD and also includes several more country-specific-options as well (Australian Bureau of Statistics, US Bureau of Labour Statistics and much, much more).

Most of the charts are completely customizable and although the fun factor, when messing about on the site trying to decide just how to present the data, is high (you can change years, colours, countries and layouts),  the very real potential for pedagogical application is even higher!

Screenshots can be taken of each data set, printed, turned into jpegs and inserted into PowerPoint/GoogleDoc presentations, however, what I like best is that the charts can be easily embedded directly on to your students' own blogs/pages/ wikis, Nings or any other learning platform you're using to teach with.

For fun, hover over the country names!

What can you encourage your students to do?  

• Give them the link to the site or show in class if you have internet access.
• Ask them to review the options and to personally choose a set of statistics that they are interested in knowing more about or that they need to know about for their own work/study.
• Show them the various options for presenting information: globally vs. the country they're in/ doing business with/ countries they're interested in knowing more about.
• Encourage them to then work in teams (comparing their preferred data sets).
• Tell them to create essays, blog posts or presentations researching and exploring the reasons which explain the data they'd found.

What language could you use this website to practice?

• the langauage of describing statistics
• expressions for trends and changes
• numbers and financial English expressions
• comparatives and superlatives
• range of past structures and present tenses
• predictions for the future
• asking and answering critical questions about the world we live in

Previously on Kalinago English, posts related to this posting:
Why use Google?
More lessons tips for ESP:Financial
More lessons tips for Business English Adults

Useful links
Statistics for a changing world
Search Power
Google Docs presentation on ways to use the Public Data Explorer
Blog about stats (lots of great tips)

Best, Karenne
education

Blogging, Chatting & Discussions Online

One of the luckiest things to ever happen in my life was being taught by Professor Hein at MLS in the US.

It was his boundless energy, creativity, positivity, dynamism and knowledge which probably most influenced me to become a teacher myself but also, it was he who inspired a love of history.  

A passion for the past. 

I am lucky to have this, I think, because unless we as a species are able to look backwards then we are unable to see forwards.

On Saturday, 17 July 2010, we held Stuttgart's first Tech Tools Day - an interactive, hands-on, full day of workshops where teacher participants were encouraged to learn more about the use of web 2.0 tools in the language learning classroom.

Expert colleagues Carl Dowse, Gavin Dudeney, Anne Hodgson, Mike Hogan, Heike Philp, Dr Petra Pointner, Byron Russell, Shelly Terrell and Andi White reviewed speaking, listening, watching, reading, describing, applying, searching, evaluating, analyzing and creating and it was a fantastic day - we all learned so much from each other.

Details of their presentations: level one here, level two here.

My own presentations were focused around the use of some of the "simpler" and depending on where you stand, possibly the less flashy of the numerous and fascinating web2.0 tools which are available today, however it was my role to look at written communication.

During the workshops, so I could provide an easy online space & exercise for our trainees to experience  threaded conversations (forums) I created a Prezi which asked "why do we write?"

Blogging, Chatting & Discussions Online on Prezi

To look at this Prezi:
click on the play button to start, continue clicking play 
or select More and set to auto-play

Many great thoughts came up and discussions ranged from whether or not we write for the interaction, to record information; to communicate with others when we aren't within hearing; to keep in touch; to share instructions; to create and collaborate.

Then, continuing on the historical theme, I made a video of our species' development of the tools we  have used to write with in the last 500 years - this  led to the qualities of instantaneous chat, asking them to think of the pedagogical applications and purposes of web2.0 tools in our classrooms.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
song by Sue Lyon Jones

I was very proud to be involved in the creation of a TechToolsDay for ELTAS partly because I enjoy sharing my knowledge, partly because I am afraid that those who are shunning technology will be left behind in ten to fifteen years as unemployable adults (or relegated to only base-level service industries) and partly because I have long felt incredibly irritated by the very, non Socratic, question "But what about the Pedagogy?"  

This, personally, to me is an incredibly foolish and fear-based question.   

The creation of the tool, the actual tool and the reason for using the tool are all different and yet all interlinked. 

A lot of teachers around the world who are resistant to today's developments will spout for you Postman - in some kind of pseudo-intellectual argument for keeping life and learning simple.   They criticize the current development of technology in the classroom as if it were something random, something that is only occurring now, in our time,  in our generation.

If we look backwards we will understand our present and see our future:

62,000 years ago we broke off branches and dipped their rough edges into the juice of berries, added chalk and colored stones to tell the perennial story of love and strife.   When charcoal paintings washed away from the walls of caves we learned how to chisel into rocks so our ideograms would not be lost.  

We fashioned clay tablets when we realized that we could not carry giant rocks, when the seasons forced us to move on to our next destinations.

We developed papyrus when we saw that clay breaks.  

When we ran out of papyrus, in a labor-intensive step, we created vellum from the hides of animals and  then finally, we made paper which 1,200 years later we're still doing because Man has an innate need to transcend his mortality, to communicate across time, to leave messages for colleagues, to share knowledge.   

When we understand this then we are able to understand that the time we are living in today is a mere blip, the so-called paradigm shift we are currently experiencing is actually nothing more than the same resource-issues we have always faced, it is no different from at any of our other junctures and it must be solved  - for today, the felling of trees is responsible for a major part of our massive environmental damage and burden.

Writing has always been done in order to reach others, to reflect and review our own experiences.

Blogs, chats, texts, tweets and our other discussions online are simply one step along this long road of evolution.   

It is nothing more than it has ever been - an attempt to harvest fleeting thoughts, to gather experiences, to warn of pain, to share joy and the experience of being a human.  

To teach.

Through our digital web2.0 tools, we are doing nothing more than painting on cave walls.

imagecredit: man of many languages, by eyesplash on flickr

Useful links related to this posting:

• Prezi: Why do we write? (adapted/downloadable as a student/teacher-training exercise)
• Animoto video: The next 500 years+
• More thoughts on technology in teaching

Best,
Karenne
education

Tweet, Tweet: Learn English on Twitter!

Was just trying to gather up a handful of twitter handles to share with my students next week as a useful way for them to follow people on Twitter and actually found this to be quite a difficult task!

I've managed to find about 15 I thought useful... but I'm sure they are more out there.

So, go on, help me out, would you - if you're  tweeting out with suggestions and references, links to materials, daily tips on Learning English or basically you have a pro account where you tweet hoping that English Language Learners will eventually find your stuff to learn from, then do please add your name and twitter handle below and I'll put together another TweepML list.

And of course, if you're a teacher who knows of others or who's already compiled a list, do please share it with us!


Those on my list already include:

• LearnEnglish_BC
• RealiaEnglish
• MadridTeacher
• SimpleEnglish
• SeanBanville
• FaizaK
• EnglishSpark
• English247
• EnglishCafe
• BBC LearnEnglish
• BBC WorldService
• VOALearnEnglish
• Spiegel in English
• Bild in English (*German gossip rag in English)
• Al Jazeer in English
• Macmillan Dictionary
• Wordpowerskills
• BusinessSpotlight* aimed at German speakers
• Spotlight* aimed at German speakers

What #hashtag are you guys using to help global learners find you? 
#ELL?
#learnenglish?
#something else?

A word of web 2.0 advice

Do remember that Twitter is a place of conversation not just a marketplace to yell and sell your wares, so you really should be following your learners in return and a general tip: if you collaborate with each other, rather than simply tweeting out in non-ending streams then your tweets will probably be seen a lot more often by the students you all actually want to reach!

Download for English Language Teachers

• Copy of this page with urls to share with your own students.

Previous Postings you may find interesting

• Guide to Using Twitter for English Language Teachers
• Add your name in the comments if you're an English Language Teacher talking to other ELTers
• More pages to share with language learners

The Lists - one click to follow all the people listed in each separate list

1. Tweeplm list1, 100 Great Educators on Twitter to follow
2. Tweeplm list2, More great English Language Teachers to follow on Twitter
3. Tweeplm list3, Educational tweeters, aimed at English Language Learners

Best, Karenne
imagecredit: twitterbird by xioubin low on Flickr.com
education

Why use Google?

Do you use Google?

Well, of course you do! But how often do you use it in the classroom and/or for setting pre and post-task activities?  

Are you familiar with all the resources they've got freely available to innovate your classroom and motivate your learners?

Here's a slideshow which goes through some of the different apps and tools I've found, plus examples of how I and others have been using the different functions and products in our ELT classes.

Don't hesitate to ask if  you see a slide that you'd like more info on and most of all, I'd really love to learn more from you about what, how and why you've been using Google with adult, teen or young learners, so do please share your thoughts (or links to postings too)!

Best,
Karenne
imagecredit: g-nicole, swiatekj on flickr.com

*click on the small box next to the slide counter to see full-sized

Useful links related to this posting:
Lots of links bookmarked on delicious 
Free 33 page guide to Google from Richard Byrne (General Edu)

 education

Powerpointing My Office

It goes without saying that any good beginner level (and many elementary) coursebook has a picture appropriately labeled to tell the students what everything is.   If it's aimed at general learners, it'll be the kitchen or the bathroom or perhaps all the rooms in a house.  If it's aimed at Business English students or ESP learners, it'll be common instruments they probably come into contact frequently.

But here's the thing... why use someone else's picture when your students actually live in houses, work in offices or manufacture on site?

My tech-tip to bypass the coursebook or rather personalize it, if you wish, is this:

1. Ask students to take photographs of the room they need to describe or refer to in common speech. In the example above, we've used an office.  By the way, these were taken with Torsten's mobile phone.

2. Get your students to load the pictures up into a Powerpoint document.

3. Ask them to now work in groups to share each others best guesses at what things are before checking their dictionaries (online/on the phone/in hard copy).  

If you're working individually, as I am in this case (not many beginner level students in Germany!), talk through the items together, ensuring that the student does most of the work, using words he's already come in contact with before and look up others together, rather than you giving him all the answers.  

4. Ensure that your student(s) do all the labeling themselves.  

5. If you're working on an online platform with students, you can also jpeg the slides and upload them into a common album.

Why is this such an amazing resource?

Aside from the fact it's a very personal photograph and therefore has a real and immediate relationship to the learner and his needs, you can use these pictures/Powerpoint slides, repetitively, to

• practice articles
• practice this and that, these and those
• practice prepositions
• discuss functions of items
• review vocabulary

What other things could you get your own language learners taking pictures of and labeling?  What other language functions can these pictures help practice?

Have you ever tried anything like this?   How did it go?   Do you think that the pfaffing involved is setting something like this up is prohibitory (it took us about 10 minutes to go around the building snapping pictures... about 5 minutes to load the pictures from his phone into Powerpoint but then I needed to teach him how to make boxes and label, that was about another 10 minutes - I'd refused to give the instructions in German) - we did this about a month ago and his feedback was that he knows the words because he 'sees' them whenever he looks at things in the office now.

Useful links related to this posting: 

• Powerpointing me
• Powerpointing grammar
• Powerpoint and metaphors
• Creating Cross Cultural Guides

Best,
Karenne
education

Education has always been political

I bought Mark Pegrum's From Blogs to Bombs the other day, for my own research and deeper reflection into the IATEFL LT-SIG day back in April where he presented via SecondLife.


 Right away, in the first few pages, this sentence of his jumped out at me.

Education has always been political.  At its best, it walks a tightrope between reproducing the status quo and providing open democratic spaces for challenging it.

He goes on to say:

When teaching through digital technologies, educators have a responsibility to help students explore the power of these new tools to craft individual and community stories, but also to help them perceive and compensate for their limitations and dangers...  It's vital that today's students graduate with the creative skills to make the most of digital technologies, as well as the critical skills to evaluate the freedom or lack of freedom to which they may lead.  

I believe, of course, that we shouldn't only be looking at today's youth but at all students  - no matter their ages and at ourselves, as educators - especially, especially those of us, the early adopters who are exploring digital media  and its applications in the classroom.

As passionately as we feel about education  and technology and technology in education, we know enough of the world to know that there are times of great differences in opinions and many generations have lived through the consequences of those beliefs.   

What political statements do we actually make by speaking and what statements do we make by remaining silent?

Recently, passionate twitter exchanges of a political nature were captured and posted on Mark Andrews's blog.   Within his PLN and his connected others with their own PLNs  (including mine) members exist  who are from all the countries involved.   The world has never, ever been changed by silence.

But being globally connected, how does one speak or not speak without causing cultural offense?

We've gone through this when I discussed truth-telling in classes so you can probably guess my thoughts:    no matter which way you flip it, the choice involved in speaking out or deciding not to is simply a flip-side of exactly the same coin and makes a statement.

Both are political decisions to be taken very seriously however  via our newly networked lives these conversations are now no longer limited, no longer private - these conversations we once would have had within families, circles and communities are recorded for the entire, very wide world out there. 

Does this put us in danger?  

What advice do we give to our students if they ask?  How public do we allow their opinions and discussions to be?

The decisions we make today about education, technology, and technology in education must be informed by a consideration of the long-term social, socio-political and ecological consequences: in short, what kinds of stories - individual, local, national and global - they'll enable us to write. 

It's up to us to shape our technologies as much as they shape us.   And given the pace of ongoing technological development, we have to start now.

What divides might we end up creating or enhancing or bridging?   

Best,
Karenne
image credit: Nuclear Bomb by jtdjt on Flickr.com

education

Cartoon Videos in Business and Financial English

With all the hullabaloo going on in Europe, Greece first and now Italy plus wherever's next by the time this post is actually published... because according to my students it was always going to be a W recession and now that the Euro is sinking fast, Friedmann-type prophecies threaten, whispers of deflation scatter, so  thought I'd better get on with posting up this interesting video I've done with my own ESP:Financial adult learners.

My own lesson plan with a Pre-intermediate group was based on taking the vocabulary presented in Ian MacKenzie's book, Financial English, and turning it into something a wee bit more exciting & communicative, ensuring that the vocabulary included some stickiness and of course, making it somewhat easier-to-swallow.

So...
a) we watched the video
b) did the exercise 6.10
c) watched the video again and discussed it for merit and content
d) got them to explain inflation and deflation
e) reviewed the questions on 6.10
d) talked through European periods of inflation and deflation
e) they created their own Powerpoint slides of the vocabulary in 6.10 (in exercise and text)

Would you have done this lesson any differently?

What other ways could this video (or the ones below) be used?

Best,Karenne




More Cartoon Videos for Business English (a playlist)










Useful links related to this posting: 
Business English Cartoons (Youtube link to the ones shown above)
The Dilbert channel on Youtube
Business English Pod
More video websites for Business English 
More Financial English tips

Squeezing the joy out of a thing

Darren Elliot, the blogger behind Lives of Teacher is one of my fave edu-bloggers but he was a complete meanie the other day - he told me, in his comments, that basically it wasn't cool  to keep being cool. 

So while I get the point (and don't think teachers should suck up to their students) I don't entirely agree and actually, fully intend on being über-cool well into my 60's (like our Sensei Jeremy Harmer) but what made Darren's comment worth blogging about, was that interestingly, it occurred just after getting home from class and recognizing that I'd way totally killed the joy out of something for one of my students...  

He's an adult though, so I really do hope not forever.

Sidebar
We blogging teachers do tend to have a habit of only posting up lesson tips and ideas which have worked in our lessons - I mean, that's why we share them, because they worked so they'll probably work for other teachers too.  

But what about the things that don't work?

The things we do that fall flat...

Aren't there lessons worth learning and therefore worth sharing in those things too?  Or do we blogging teachers want everyone in the big old world to think that we're perfect teachers with perfect classes and what we teach is spot-on all the time and the students just love what we do all the time?

Not terribly realistic or truthful, now is it?

Anyhoo, here's my story:

One of my absolute favorite sites is TED.com, the lectures are simply fascinating and very often there are short videos filled with incredibly rich experiences - sometimes I just go in there only to drown in the knowledge of others.  Of course, because the lectures presented  are often by important leaders in the business world, it also is a soucre of authentic content especially if you, like me, teach adult ESP students.

Phillip, the student of the dogme-in-tech-movie fame, has an i-phone so one of my tips for him on developing learner autonomy was that he subscribe to TED.

And he followed through on the advice. SCORE...

He followed through on it so much so that in the last six months he has now watched more videos than I have, shares his favourites not just with me, via email, but also forwards them on to friends and colleagues he knows.

SCORE...

Feeling chuffed to bits that I'd managed to share one of my passions with one of my learners, I said to him, "hey, why don't you write up a blog post of your Ten Top TED videos." (Good so far).  

But then I said:

"Maybe you can include a list of all the new vocabulary you learned."

His face looked a bit incredulous but I continued undaunted.  "Yes," I said, "and maybe you could write about how you see TED as a great learning tool, how you were able to pick up these words from context, how you are then able to transfer that knowledge into the language you need in the workplace."

"Karenne," he replied in a slightly bemused voice, "I just like the videos.  I don't know which words I learn.  I understand some and I don't know what others are.  I don't think about that I watch them on my way to work, they're interesting."

He shrugged.

Oh.

Oh.

OH crap.  I thought to myself - now why'd I have to go and spoil his new hobby?   Now, everytime he looks at his i-phone to watch the latest on TED he's probably going to think about my über enthusiastic  English-teacher-suggestion and instead of  enjoying his videos and soaking up some great  vocabulary subconsciously, he'll now be thinking about what he's "supposed" to be extracting.

A lot of trainers will probably tell you just how important noticing is (including me) but noticing that you're supposed to be noticing - ummm - well, it's probably a distraction and probably hits all the wrong neuro-transmitting-signal-thingies in the brain.

Squoosh!

Best,
Karenne
image credit: diet coke by nesster on flickr.com

p.s. Have you ever gone and accidentally squeezed the joy out of something your students were enjoying doing by making it a way too learning oriented task instead of a simple life-experiential language experience?  Ever brought something into the classroom which completely bombed because it was your passion, not your learners'?  

Useful related links
The video Phillip sent me that launched this conversation. You'll love it :)
My delicious bookmarks: TED videos for Business English
More video sites for Business English classes
If your teach General English: also see Larry Ferlazzo's Best of TED videos.

Interesting articles on failures/successes in the TEFL classroom
Darren Elliot's The importance of failure
Jason Renshaw on Lindsay Clandfield's blog:  Six signs that you are on the right track


(There's a poll going on the Lexiophiles site to determine a list of the best language blogs, see my post about that here and if you haven't yet voted and you don't this it's  tacky of me to ask, do please click and visit the site to let them know you rate my blog :-) thanks muchly).

Twitter: 4 students 2?

Despite the following tweet:

and the amazing responses within an incredibly short time -  the wow! factor from my students who'd never seen anyone tweet before (though the site seems to be referenced on the news a lot these days) -  the fact that I could share the answer to their question as it came back to them in real time....

I still seem to be on the fence when it comes to combining learning and Twitter.

My problem with it is that there is so much "other" going on.  

I mean, who would they follow - teachers?   But the teachers are busy tweeting to their PLNs, wouldn't that become sort of weird and horribly dull after a while?

Well... they could follow other students, develop their own PLNs... but then, hmm... I guess it'd work but how would they know when the answer was the right answer?  How could they organize the information, reference it, keep track of it?

Hashtags set up on the different subjects?   

Thinking about it, I would add a twitter tracker function to my students' Ning if I knew for sure that there was someone moderating a specific hashtag, in my case one aimed at English Language Learners...but what code?  For the most part, #esl and #efl don't really mean anything to our students - wonder what would?

Random thoughts, random.


Yours?

Best,
Karenne





p.s. The Answer (courtesy of the British Council via Mtranslator on Twitter)

p.p.s Many, many thanks to GreatGrammarGurus:

• Marisa 
• Nick
• Seth
• Nergiz
• Bill

Useful links
See Jen Vershoor's blog posting on Twitter in the Classroom

Crowd Wise 1: Introduction to this series

Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, 

but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, 

compassion, love, and understanding.
Louis Gerstner

On Thursday, April 8th 2010,  I'll be hosting a discussion, a share-meet if you will, as my first presentation at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate. 

The title:

Crowd Wise

The participants

Anyone running an online community with students, teachers or other educators.

The blurb

A brief presentation of psychological, historical and evolutionary aspects of real-life tribal communities followed by a swap-shop reviewing the key roles of e-participants; discussing group life cycles, net-i-quette issues and conflict resolution; a comparison of web platforms and sharing tips for accessing the wisdom of the crowd.

Anyway, basically, I thought I'd do a swap-shop and open discussion, rather than a workshop or lecture.

Many of us who run e-communities have paths that cross frequently (on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or even in each others communities) however, we very rarely get an opportunity to sit down  face-to-face and say

"Hey, xyz works really well in my community but you know, I tried abc - which I saw mnopq do well, but oddly enough it didn't for us... what about in your group, did you try?   Oh you did fgh instead?  Great concept..."

So, in a series of posts running from now until end March, I thought I'd begin to explore some of the subjects we'll be chatting about, on this blog, and that way I can get  to know more of  your thoughts and access your wisdom; see what's most pressing, what's not such a big deal (limited time there and all that) and then feed these into the session... plus your comments would also help to create the discussion cards!

Topics include:

The 10min Presentation

• Animal/human evolution and the move towards the creation of tribes
• The psychology and historical implications behind forming tribes and creating tribal roles
• The relationship between community positions in Real Life versus roles in our Online Lives.

The 45min Swap-Shop

• Online platforms
• Group identity
• Individual identity 
• Roles
• Collaboration, invention and working together
• Life cycles of Groups
• Differences in working with learners vs educators
• Tribes and cash

In my next postings, I'll be highlighting each of the above as individual postings and I'll link back as I go through each for a more concentrated discussion.

Have I missed any core topics?  Got a question?   Don't hesitate to add your thoughts!

The process

1. Blog posts from today until end March
2. Discussion at IATEFL
3. Summary based on swap-shop
4. Free pdf available: blog posts (selected comments included + notes from conference


Best,
Karenne


updated 13.02.10
The video mentioned by Elizabeth Anne below in the comments is
PBS Frontline, Digital Nation: Life on the virtual frontier

Powerpointing Grammar - EFL Tech Tip #13b

One of my favourite quotes is :

The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.

Mark Van Doren

PowerPoint is one of those tools - really not quite as fancy as the vast majority of web2.0 tools out there at the moment but, nonetheless, still a favorite for achieving the above effectively.

I'm sure you've already done this sort of exercise with your own students - handing over content control - probably using great big A3 sheets of paper and giant markers all throughout your career ;-) so I won't belabor the point but simply head straight on to an example of student work:

The Dark Past


Procedure

• Group a few students together and encourage each group to decide on one particular grammar point or series of points they would like to be in charge of.  This is especially useful close to an exam when they need a review or at the end of a course.  

• Using books or the internet, they should check on their understanding of the explanations and, most importantly, must decide collaboratively how to explain this information in the simplest way within their own presentations.  

• Using Powerpoint (or any similar software) they then create the slides, adding pictures, graphics, sound or videos (or whatever else).
  

• Let them choose who will be the teacher for each group and if you have a beamer (data projector) beam their presentation on the wall, if not, print out.

Sharing

If you're using a Ning or other community based platform either upload the presentation directly into it or upload them into a file-sharing website like Scribd.com or Slideshare.net.

Alternatively, distribute copies via email so that all copies can be revised at home - encourage questions and examples a few days later, after the presentation has finished.

Update June 2010, a simpler student example:

Prepositions of Place 1

Best,
Karenne

Useful links related to this posting:
Powerpointing me, tech tip 13a
Seth Dickens version of Powerpointing me
Using Powerpoint when teaching metaphors in Financial English

Coming soon: 
Powerpointing Lexical Sets 13c
Powerpointing Country Guides 13d

Have you tried this sort of activity with students?  How much error-correction  or other meddling do you do  - what about if you see a strange choice of images or an incorrect explanation?

And, by the way, if you've got another great Powerpoint activity suggestion don't hesitate to share your tricks and tips with us by explaining in the comments or if you've blogged it, do add your url.   (Or consider writing a guest piece for this blog on the subject! :-))