(Not) Happy Birthday, Google

Google is nine years old today... Although there were search engines before Google came along, it's still incredible to think that it's been around less than a decade.

I won't say "Happy Birthday" because I don't actually think it's cause for celebration. It's taken under ten years for it to become an Evil Empire. It's perhaps not that Google itself is Evil but -- in its self-proclaimed bid to "organize the world's information" -- it has become so important to business, that the latter will stop at nothing to appear "first in Google", with the result that the Internet is being swamped with c..p, written for that purpose [example].

Google is also bad for English teachers and their learners. Instead of doing and creating things, you just Google them, and then steal them off of someone else.

When I was at university, we used to say that the definition of a lecture was "the process by which the lecturer's notes become the student's notes without passing through the minds of either".

The danger is that Googling your lesson plans, your images (etc) starts a similar process, if you ask me...

Creativity in the language classroom

The excellent TeachingEnglish.org.uk website has started a new series today, the first of which is Creativity in the language classroom.

Among other questions the first article raises is why creativity is important in your classroom, including:

• The fact that "some people cannot learn at all if they are not allowed to be creative. They do not understand the point in doing a language activity for its own sake, for only practising the language without a real content, purpose, outcome or even a product"
• "(...) most people become more motivated, inspired or challenged if they can create something of value"

Apart from creativity, another thing which is important for teachers is that we continue to question what we are doing, and don't just settle into a routine. "Am I creative?" the article asks us, "Are my students ever creative in my classroom?"

It looks like an interesting series...

Updates

>> Article 2, Features of creativity
>> Article 3, The essence of creativity
>> Article 4, Creative Environment

Single digital image, plus text

Here's one from my CELTA session September 18th...

My suggestion was that getting the learners to produce a single digital image, plus accompanying text, would make a great project, for example on a blog.

My example was to take a picture of an object of personal value to the person concerned -- hence the shoes in the picture at the top of this post, which were brand new. You wouldn't of course have to limit pictures to that.

None of those of you who attend the session seemed terribly impressed by the idea. However, personally, I think it's a good one. Getting your learners to create, not merely consume -- that's what makes for good use of technology in the classroom. It gets them involved, it gets them caring, it gets them creating; they are active, not merely passive consumers of photocopies.

Still not convinced...? Here are two great examples, one by students learning Spanish here at IH Barcelona, the second the Portraits of Learning project on techlearning.com.

Now you too can steal images off other people's blogs

Not sure if I've understood this correctly (surely they don't mean that!), but now Google-is-Evil is offering you a nifty little tool [FAQs] that enables you -- automatically -- to steal and display images at random from other people's blogs, without their permission, or any possibility of them being able to opt out if yours is a public blog.

If it's public, steal it -- which is just what Google Images does...

Ungoogle your cats!

Titi the Cat...

Someone asked me the other day whether or not an image of a cat found on Google (not that shown above) was going to print out well for use in class -- on the black-and-white printer they had access to.

As the contrast in the picture was low, I said I thought not and suggested looking for a different one.

And to enlarge it? Possibly the best way to enlarge is by using the photocopier to do it for you.

It was actually for use in a class on our young learners extension course and so I suggested that, rather than using Google, that the young learners themselves should draw the pictures -- and would then be able to describe their cats.

I've got no idea how the lesson eventually went, but I later happened to be in the actual classroom used and noticed the drawings of cats on the walls (see one example above) -- and like to imagine that the lesson meant much more to the kids, that they learnt more because they participated and were more involved in it.

Ungoogle!
I thought I'd just invented the word "ungoogle", but Google itself currently finds around 34,000 results for it.

But, because I think Google-is-Evil, and perhaps sometimes has an adverse effect on the lessons we take into our classrooms, it's one I think teachers should adopt.

There are better places to search than Google, there are better places to find images...

German kids set up own school

Here's one I spotted thanks to the fact that I'd set Ananova.com's Quirkies section as one of the default start pages that comes up every time I log on to the Internet:

In Germany, kids frustrated by "the way they were being taught" have set up their own school, believing that it will improve their chances of decent A level grades.

It was the headline -- "Pupils set up own school" -- that caught my eye. I wanted to read it, and I think the effect on my learners would be similar. Anything that makes kids want to read has got to be a good thing.

It also looks like a decent basis for a lesson, with a text giving me fairly obvious "before, during and after" reading activities, the "after" (and possibly also the "before") being whether or not my learners think the idea would work. They could plan (or even write about) the sort of school they'd set up...

Is your default start page one that is actually useful to you...? Do your learners have default start pages that help them learn some English...?

BBC Learning English

Another one that came to me via my RSS feeds [explanation]. I was going to start looking for a text on which to base a lesson, and there was one about the Edinburgh Festival, sitting there waiting for me, from the BBC's Learning English section.

The section has lots of things you can recommend to your learners (the Words in the News section, for example, for reading and listening practice) and stuff for you too, including lesson plans.

Writing a decent CV

Among the many useful things waiting for me in my RSS feeds when I got back from holiday, there was a link to a post on Lifehacker explaining how to Avoid These 10 Resume Annoyances. You want to get the job, write a decent resume (aka curriculum vitae).

They are actually refering to an article on AOL which explains 10 Ways Your Resume Irks Hiring Managers:

#1 Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors

In another life, I was a "hiring manager" myself, employing people to work as English teachers. You spelled "English" without a capital letter on the CV you sent me? I trashed it immediately.

#10 A lack of professionalism [including] childish e-mail addresses

That's one I see a lot in my current occupation -- ie. e-mail address that were probably funny when you were at college, but aren't going to impress the Director of Studies (DoS) in the average language school, like cuteblonde@wherever.com or mrbig@whatever, for example. You've got one like that? Get yourself a new one!

Include a good photo
One thing I strongly disagree with in the AOL article: I think you definitely should include a (decent) photograph of yourself. If you get as far as an interview, don't expect a job offer on the spot. In a fortnight's time, the DoS is not going to remember everyone on his/her shortlist. That's what the photo is for!

Don't look like a mad axeman/woman!

See also:

>> Revamp your resume (Lifehacker.com)
>> Writing a good CV (celta-course.com)