Tech ELT Blog has moved

Because Blogger is stopping its ftp service on May 1, our Tech ELT Blog has now switched over to WordPress, and will no longer be updated at this address.

(If you currently blog with Blogger, and have a .blogspot.com address you will be unaffected. The change only affects people publishing to their own site as we do to ihes.com.)

Our new address: http://blogs.ihes.com/tech-elt/

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Something else young learners can embed on a blog

Something young learners can embed on a blog

Here's an idea suggested by Joan Rubies [blog] in a Macmillan Teachers' Day session in Girona, for something that you (or your learners!) can embed ("put", that is) on a blog.

It can't be personalised at all, and TVs and TV announcers that look like that will hardly be familiar to them, nor will it give them any speaking practice -- but they'll still enjoy doing it, I think.

There are other fun things at acapela.tv, though your learners would have to share most of them by email (I liked the goldfish, but you can't embed it on a blog).

But, given a choice between producing something like the above or writing me a "composition" on a piece of paper, I think I know which my young learners would prefer...!

Cartoons, animations and presentations

ToonDoo: OK, so it is homework, but at least it's fun!

Below, some of the links I provided in a creative writing workshop I gave recently for Macmillan (and welcome to any of you who came/are coming in Girona, Lleida or Palma!).

Cartoons and animations

• Dfilm MovieMaker
• Toondoo.com
  
• Voki
• Zimmertwins
  

Note that Dfilm MovieMaker is possibly not suitable for young learners.

Presentations

• Animoto.com
  
• Prezi
• Voicethread
  

Personally, I have a preference for using good old Word, or even PowerPoint, or (best) a blog, for creative writing as I think that with some of the above your learners will end up spending more time on the technology and less time on the writing and the interaction in English (with the latter being what we're really trying to obtain in the language classroom)...

But I accept that, especially with younger learners, being able to animate things is probably more exciting, and hence more motivating and engaging and thus as likely as anything to produce learning.

Ideas for exploiting the Oscars

Lots of good ideas landed in my mail box this morning in the developingteachers.com Weekly Teaching Tip, on how to use the Oscars in class.

Among them, I enjoyed (and think my learners will enjoy) the stories about the Oscars in an article in the Independent.

Dogme 1.0 to close? Dogme 2.0!

The Dogme ELT Discussion group is about to close -- or at least that's the idea that has been put forward.

Dogme ELT proposes (or proposed?) that language teaching should "materials-light and conversation-driven" and should focus on emerging language [see also the original Dogme ELT "vows"].

There have been various proposals for a Dogme 2.0, including Scot Thornbury's proposals for Dogme and technology and the Dogme 2.0 for ELT wiki, which has further ideas on the subject.

It is possible, I have suggested, to have a dogme-approach in a technology-light language classroom.

Dogme will survive the possible demise of its Yahoo discussion group, but it would be a great shame to see it go...

Book Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching. Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury (Delta Publishing, 2009).

Short list for Ben Warren Prize

Among titles shortlisted for the annual International House Ben Warren Trust prize is onestopclil.com (now merged, since its nomination, with onestopenglish.com).

OnestopCLIL has some great resources for anyone teaching CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), though it requires registration and subscription for full access to its contents. Its older sibling is one of the best sites on the internet for resources for English language teachers.

The 2,000 GBP Ben Warren prize is awarded to the author or authors of the most outstanding work in the field of language teacher education.

>> Full 2009 shortlist
>> More about CLIL