More English Language Teachers on Twitter

A few days ago a fellow English teacher wrote to find out if she could be added to the Tweepl list linked in the ELT Guide to Twitter post and early this evening I had two more similar requests.

And suddenly, it hit me... kind of like a comet zooming in from out of the Twitterverse... that I'd created the first list way back in August 2009 and since that time, many, many, many more ELTers have since joined us on Twitter.


And, as Tweepl is such an incredibly easy way to follow a whole bunch of people, in a specific niche, at  a single click, I've decided to start up another list: an open-ended one so if you find that your name isn't on the original one nor on this one but you are an English language teacher and you'd like to connect with others like you, simply do the following:

In the comment box below or via DM on Twitter, write ALL of the following

• your name
• your name on twitter (or @someone else who you know but who's not yet on the lists)
• your twitter id/ url

• Please also confirm that you are in ELT: ESL/EFL/ESOL etc 

as this list isn't a general teachers' list: thanks for understanding!

      *and if you're a blogger, do add your blog url too as I can keep track of your posts for @BloggersELT

e.g.

Karenne 
@kalinagoenglish 
http://twitter.com/kalinagoenglish 
http://kalinago.blogspot.com

I'll then pop on over to twitter to check that the above information is correct and if it is, I'll add you :-)

Best,
Karenne

n.b. Please note that as I will be personally recommending real English Language Teachers to other real English Language Teachers who are on the site in order to develop professional and personal friendships there, no tweeters with corporate brand management identities as their profiles nor those who fill the stream with endless links towards commercial sites will be included within my list.  

Thank you for your understanding on this issue.

If you're on this list and you'd prefer not to be, don't hesitate to DM or email me.

HOW TO

1. Click on the link(s) below
2. Either click to select all or review and personalize.
3. Enter your twitter details within the box provided.

EL teachers on Twitter

2. New Version, February 2010 onwards...

• The ELT guide to Twitter 
• 1. Original Tweepl list version, August 2009

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 3d: Does size play a role? (Group Identity)

Friendship is a plant of slow growth

Mark Twain  

According to popular statements regarding the ideal size of a community, the number 150 pops up frequently, however many, if not most, groups aimed at global teachers exceed this number.  

However, many, if not most, blended-learning communities made up of students fall significantly short of this.

When it comes to the e-communities you run or have joined, which do you prefer?  Why?

What happens when the online community is too big?

What happens when the online community is too small?

Is there a just right?

How about the speed of growth?

When a tribe grows rapidly do you feel ignored, your needs unmet or unnoticed?  Alternatively, have you even been frustrated by communities which seem to be growing slowly?  Why?

Best,
Karenne

Update 15.02.10
Nice link, hat tip @lclandfield: Seth's Blog, Viral Growth trumps lots of faux followers

This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:

http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!

Crowd Wise 3b: Rules, Rules, Rules (Group Identity)

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules
George Bernard Shaw

Some groups have protocols set in place for when one of their members turns into a troll, becomes overly aggressive, spams or generally threatens the community's ecology. 

Yet most of the time the idea of setting and following lots of rules makes us shiver and think of... school or worse:

Many think rules spoil fun.

Others are threatened by chaos - anyone doing whatever it is they'd like to on their site.

In your experience, do you think community members can create and define rules themselves, organically, or should the community leader(s) state these right from the offset/after a specific conflict occurs?  How rigid do these need to be?   What do you do when a rule is broken?   Do you step in each time?  Does there need to be a person with this specific responsibility?  

If you run a site which has avoided setting rules, did you discover unspoken norms somehow setting in over time?   Are your newcomers expected to develop their own sense of how things are done 'round here?

And, 'fess up, have you ever broken a rule or a norm yourself?
What were the consequences?

 

TED Organizer Breaks Rules

Best,
Karenne

This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:
http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!

Crowd Wise 3c: Going Public vs Staying Private (Group Identity)

People have less privacy and are crammed together in cities, 
but in the wide open spaces they secretly keep tabs on each other a lot more.Sara Paretsky

Deciding to make a group accessible to anyone in the world vs taking the decision to restrict membership to only a specific type of educator, people who belong to a teaching association or to your own personal group of students is one of the toughest decisions online community leaders make.

If you are your group's moderator what did you decide to do?  Why did you opt for this? 

If you don't run a community yourself however you belong to one (or many), which do you prefer - those with anonymous members or spaces where you can easily read the profiles of the participants, see what they look like, what sort of things they're interested in?

How do you personally feel about sharing your very private details with others?

When running e-communities with students, have you noticed a marked difference in activity on public, google-searchable-sphere groups vs private groups?   Does the culture and country of origin make any difference?

If you have noticed this, why do you think this is?

Best,
Karenne


This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:

http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!

Crowd Wise 3a: Mission's vision (Group Identity)

Data is not information, information is not knowledge, 

knowledge is not understanding, understanding is not wisdom.
Clifford Stoll

Amy Jo Kim refers to online communities as:

A group of people with a shared interest, purpose or goal, who get to know each other over time.

Do you agree?  Should online communities have a specific purpose for gathering?  Is it important to state the mission and/or vision for being together publicly or privately, right up front?   If you run a e-community what was your approach - how did you articulate this ability to meet their unmet needs?

Are any of the groups you belong to made up of people from a specific niche?

Think about some of the groups you belong to versus others, was the function made immediately clear to you or did it look like they were just collecting people?  Can you give any concrete examples?   

 

Knowing how to reach people is not the same as knowing the membership's needs nor is it knowing why they are there with you, nor even if you're providing them with what they want.  

And on a slightly different note but similar theme, how about badges or the various other ways members show their team colors to the world - are these good for developing group identity? 

Best, Karenne

This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:
http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!

Videos for Valentine's Day

I'm sure you've all got your Valentine's Day lessons sorted but just in case you're looking for a nice video to use in class on Friday/Monday as conversation starters...

Here are a few of my favorites plus an old one I made for a friend:



6 Billion Others
This beautiful video actually inspired one of my students to download and mash-up into a new version for his brother's wedding, adding interviews from the rest of his family on what love means.














The Break-up
Satirical look at marketing practices in 2010 - a good one to show to Business students who you perhaps don't want to do something mushier with.

















Valentine's Day, the trailer
Cheese. Pure cheese. Use with teenagers.

















Ah, L'Amour
A short, sweet and engaging film on modern love.

















Plenty of Fish
Um, yea. I made this last year for a friend who got divorced after 15 years of marriage and was my way of cheering her up.  It's actually a poem so if you read it aloud, you'll have more fun with it than just watching! :-)















More videos

• What is love? (series on The Big Think)
• How to Flirt (How stuff works)
• How to find your soul mate (by Guy Kawasaki - yea, the entrepreneur guru)
• Up in the air (movie trailer)
• The JK Wedding Dance  
• Parisan Love, a search story (hat tip Anne Hodgson) 
• I don't like flowers (a video activity, Jamie Keddie)

Each video chosen should be significantly poignant that it will generate conversations, dogme 2.0 style, in your lessons so I've not added any questions of my own, however, here are some useful links:

• Ozge's list of tech tools and tips for Valentine's Day
• Lesson Activities for Valentine's Day  
• Larry Ferlazzo's Best Sites to learn about Valentine's Day
• Breaking News, Valentine's Day Lesson Plan
• ESL handouts, advanced lesson plan
• Free English Lessons Online 
• ESL Handouts (scroll all the way down to download)
• GuardianWeekly: The languages of love
• FoxNews: Beauties and their boy toys

Best,
Karenne

p.s. Did you find or create a material / read or write a blog post for teachers with ideas for Valentine's day?  Don't hesitate to add the link below.

p.p.s. Not to be all bah-humbugie (that was Christmas, right) but ya kno' I, personally, despite having gotten married on Valentine's Day myself, think it's all a bit materialistic and plastic.  What do you think?    In Ecuador, they made the day a celebration of friendship too and I quite liked that!  So... dear readers, Happy Valentine's!

The Carnival of English Language Lessons

Following on from Shelly Terrell's edition of the 15th ESL/EFL Carnival, I'll be responsible for hosting the next and I've decided to do something a little bit different:

It shall have a focus, a theme, which is:

LESSONS

In other words...

• Warmers and Icebreakers
• Projects and Real-life Tasks
• Free practice and Controlled Gapfillers
• Role-plays and Case-studies
• Games for kids
• Team building exercises for teens
• Discussions for adult learners

• And lots, lots more!

So send in your creativity, knowledge, experience...  in short, the links to your very best lessons!



Use this form:

YOUR LESSON DETAILS

Deadline:  March 21st, 2010
Publish date: April 1st, 2010

Questions?

Don't hesitate to ask!

Karenne

p.s. Mary Ann Zehr at Learning the Language will host the Carnival on June 1st. You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.     What is a blog carnival?





WHAT TO DO IF YOU USED THE STANDARD BLOG-CARNIVAL FORM ALREADY?

• I will be in touch with you shortly. For this Carnival, you will need to use the google-form, as linked above.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BLOG BUT YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE:

• Fill in the form by March 1st, 2010.
  
• I will try to match you with a blogger who blogs in your lesson's genre.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE A BLOGGER WHO WOULD BE INTERESTED IN HOSTING GUEST-PIECES BY TEACHERS WHO DON'T HAVE BLOGS

• Write me a note below in the comment box. 
• Post a call-out on your own blogs for guest lessons written by your readers.

Getting Students Learning English through YouTube, H2LE (2)

This is the 2nd part of a the H-2-L-E series which contains a sheet you'll be able to share with your adult English language students so they can become more autonomous learners.

Did you know that there are some absolutely fabulous channels on YouTube which students can use to practice English?

In this sheet I will focus on some of the ones geared specifically at Adult English Language Learners.

Here is a quick preview of the ones that I often share with my own students:


Jennifer ESL:  http://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL

Viewed over 1 million times, Jennifer's 144 videos range from teaching grammar to common expressions, phrasal verbs, American slang.  She offers help with pronunciation and even basic grammar and understanding prepositions.

Mister Duncan  http://www.youtube.com/user/duncaninchina

This slightly nutty professor has made over 50 videos viewed 750,000 times and topics range from small talk topics, talking about cars or technology and general life issues like discussing health.  Some are serious reports, some are just plain odd!

Soxo Exchange http://www.youtube.com/user/sozoexchange
An extraordinary channel consisting of people simply pronouncing common words and phrases slowly and carefully, showing learners how to do it themselves.














Learn English with Steve Ford  http://www.youtube.com/user/PrivateEnglishPortal
Quirky Teaching English series of linked stories- soap opera style... however interjected with serious lessons and good clear explanations.













Business English Videos for ESL   http://www.youtube.com/user/bizpod

Wide ranging videos perfect for Business English learners.  They cover diverse topics including grammar, business letter writing, email tune-ups and more.   The channel also includes specialized topics e.g IT and Computing, Legal and Financial vocabulary.

Do you know of any other good Youtube channels aimed at teaching English?  Share the information with us if they are sites which you and your students really enjoy learning from.


Miscellaneous extras:
In the spirit of not being judgmental... this, *blush* site is not at all for everyone but as some guys might have fun passing on the link to males they teach, I'll turn in the other direction while I give it to you -  no... I'll say oh heck, it's tacky but good and she is teaching vocabulary... it's just her way of sharing knowledge!
Um... 278 million views.
http://www.youtube.com/user/hotforwords  ((Not listed on the master sheet though)).

Finally, if you teach kids or your students have them, this is a lovely site of very simple songs.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperSimpleSongs

Best,
Karenne

Learning English through YouTube

p.s. if you found this post useful, you might also like

• Best videos for teaching Business and ESP English
• Jamie Keddie's blog  (youtube clips + lessons)
• Jamie Keddie's site (lesson plans to take into classes with you)
• Claudio Azevedo's blog (movie clips + warm/follow ups)
• Pronunciation Site at the University of Iowa, see Neil Barker's blog for details.

image credit: www.norcalblogs.com/watts/images/youtube_tv.jpg

Crowd Wise 2: Online Community Platforms

 I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool 

we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, 

and they can be shaped by their user.Bill Gates

 Do you run, co-moderate or belong to a community of like-minded educators or learners online? 

Which platform(s) do you use?

Yahoo!Group, Moodle, Ning, Drupal, Elgg, Wiki, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Jamendo, Slideshare, LinkedIn, Xing, Flickr, Diigo..?

Which do you think is the best one?

How'd you rate it for things like the

- ease of use
- cost
- ability to find and communicate with other participants
- ability to share documents
- ability to share photos, media
- ability to gather opinions
- ability to collaborate on projects
- keep track of and follow threaded conversations

And
- things which really irritate you
- things you really miss from a different platform
- anything else?

Best,
Karenne

This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:
http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!

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

ELT Blogosphere and Twitterverse, Summary January 2010

Stuff I wrote and stuff I really enjoyed reading this month....

Teaching English and other ELT Related Issues
from Kalinago English

• Melanie Butler on Glass Ceilings in ELT
• Monkey See, Monkey do 2 (mirror neurons in language learning)
• Online Teaching: how to get started

• L1 in the classroom?
  

from the Blogosphere

• Shaun Wilden:  IH DOS conference (+ links to filmed teacher training presentations)
• Nick Jaworski:    Against Translation
• Scott Thornbury: R is for Reticence
  
• Jason Renshaw:  The Nightmare stalking young learner education
• Paula Swenson:  Why I mentor (via AlexCase)
• David Deubel:  It's the small things that count (via Barbara Sakamoto)
• Catherine Carbiness: Crossing the physical and linguistic divide (via Barbara Sakamoto)
• Berni Wall: Should the current system of grading be outlawed?
• Little Miss Bossy:  2 kinds of teachers
  

from the Twitterverse

• hat tip @paulmaglione: Nokia, Pearson set up digital education joint venture in China
• hat tip @ddeubel: Teachers pay teachers (lessons on demand)
• hat tip @bcinfrance: The Lexical Syllabus (Dave Willis: e-book, free download)
• hat tip @harmerj:  Ten Top Moderator Skills for online educators

Lessons, Tips & Ideas for the classroom
from Kalinago English

• Powerpointing Grammar
• Getting language students reading language learning blogs
  

from the Blogosphere

• Chiew N Pang Water for Life
• Sean Banville: Creating a Glogster (introduction /first day activity) 
• Claudio Azevedo: Crop Circles

from the Twitterverse

• hat tip: @englishteach8  Haiti, words in the news
• hat tip: @GiseldaSantos Learning Vocabulary Games

Technology Related Issues and Tips
from Kalinago English

• 8 radical technological changes which rocked education
  

 
from the Blogosphere

• Anne Hodgson: Teaching the Generations
• Hall Houston: Sound Sequences
  
• Ana Maria Menezes: Creating Quizzes with Photopeach

from the Twitterverse

• hat tip @helenstrong: Intro to the Semantic Web
• hat tip @dudeneyge: Zoodles: An Age Appropriate web Browser for Kids aimed at Learning
• hat tip @SeanBanville: Safe search for muslims
• hat tip @NikPeachey: Authentic conversations by authentic people
• hat tip: @ij64: Download free political documentaries

Social Media
from Kalinago English

•  Face on / Face Off (regarding Facebook profiles)
• Getting language students reading language learning blogs
  

from the Blogosphere

• Anne Mirtshin: 20 reasons why students should blog
  
• Darren Elliott Death by PLN
  
• Janet Bianchini:  Riding the wave (google wave) 

from the Twitterverse

• hat tip @vale24: A special report on social networking from the Economist
• hat tip @annapires: Twitter in Real Life
• hat tip @dudeneyge: Cyberbullying and the cry of the dolphins
• hat tip @Irek: 3 ways Educators are embracing social media

New!!! ELT-Bloggers to check out

• Weighin' in (2 new heavyweights in the blogosphere)
• Eisensei:  Two questions about dogme that dog me
• Ian James: Don't ask me, ask the world

•  Notes from Palestine (hat tip @adhockley:)

Useful links related to this posting:
Lives of Teachers, Weekly Twitter Updates
Teacher Reboot Camp, What did they Tweet

Best,
Karenne