How computers and the internet can help

to enhance your teaching & brush up your

language skills.

Pamela Arrarás

FAAPI 2009 – Bahía Blanca

Technology doesn’t bite!

•PowerPoint presentation

•Brainstorming sheet

•Handout

•Proceedings paper

•Videos & tutorials

•Links

www.PamelaArraras.com.ar/faapi2009

Outline for today

Reflecting on professional development needs of non-native

English speaking teachers.

Technology intro: informal PD in the XXI century & reality

check video.

The basics of web2.0: from e-mail to blogs and beyond

Using technology to polish our English

An action plan for using technology for professional

development: explanation & individual work.

Sharing our plans

Q & A

About me…

Now it’s your turn!

Find somebody you don’t know (Don’t cheat!!!).

Introduce yourself, and tell him/her:

•1 thing about you as a person.

•1 thing about you as a language learner.

•1 thing about you as a teacher.

•1 aspect of your career/language

proficiency you’d like to work on today.

• 1 thing you expect to learn in this

workshop.

Some ideas behind this workshop

“If we teach today as we were taught yesterday we rob our

children of tomorrow.” (John Dewey)

From Peter Medgyes’ The non-native teacher:

“A fundamental condition for successful teaching is that

the teacher should be a permanent learner.”

“The final aim of education is to teach learners how to

learn, but this can only be facilitated by teachers who are

good examples of learners themselves.”

“Most of us are doing our best to acquire a bit more

Englishness (…) we suffer from an inferiority complex and

we are in constant distress as we realize how little we know

about the language we’re supposed to teach (…) Most

NNESTs are all too aware that they are teachers and learners

of the same subject”

“Most of us non-native speaking teachers are aware of our

double-faced nature: when we are in class, the learner’s face

is hidden; when we are out of class, the teacher’s face is

hidden.”

Language skills

Teaching Skills

The professional

life of a non-native

English speaking

teacher

So how does technology fit

in all this?

We can use technology to……improve our language proficiency.

(language)

…stay up-to-date on methodology.(TEFL)

…improve our teaching skills.(teaching)

…find tools, sources and materials to teach. (teach)

Is technology really that important

for EFL teachers?

Now it’s your turn!

Information overload?

Take a minute and write down at least three

ideas that crossed your mind about the

implications that all these facts have on our

profession…

• Journals Workshops

• Books Reference books

• Encyclopedias Magazines

• Conferences Movies

• Traveling Music

• Keeping a journal/log

XX Century

• All of the above plus:

• Blogs E-readers

• Podcasts Videocasts

• Webinars Video streaming

• E-zines RSS Feeds

• E-lists E-mails

• Online courses MP3 players

• Cell phone apps Networks

XXI Century

Informal Professional Development

Ok, so there’s all these

great tools, and I need to

learn how to use them…

where do I start?

Web 2.0: The basics

1. Get an e-mail account for professionalpurposes only.

2. Learn how to keep your information private & secure.

3. If you don’t have your own PC (or you share it) get a pen drive to keep your materials.

4. Be ORGANIZED: user names, logins, passwords, files, etc…

Passwords & Privacy settings

Remember to go to the “My account” or “My settings”section on any place you are asked to sign up and completeforms; make sure all your information is private, and checkwhether they have automatically subscribed you to theirnewsletters (which they will do!)

If you want to store your passwords on a file, there’s software such as KeePass which will help you organize everything and keep it safe at the same time. It’s open source, and free!

http://keepass.info

www.Gmail.com

How to use Google Apps

Someone should be paying me for this!

Google Reader

Develop your reading & writing skills:

•Organize your reading: subscribe to blogs you like by clicking on the orange square

•Share the posts you like the most, write comments on them for other teachers to read.

If you know how to

use tags, create

public tags and set

up reading lists for

your students. An

example has been

made for you at

www.pamelaarraras

.com.ar/faapi2009

on the right sidebar

LINK TO FEED

How to subscribe

Google Docs Create documents that you

can keep online, withouthaving to download themanywhere; they can be publicor private.

Do collaborative writing withyour students or colleagues.

Write articles and publishthem online for your studentsor peers.

Create exercises students candownload or print.

Do surveys: students cansubmit homework to youthrough Google forms!

Blogger / Blogspot Design a page where your

students can find extra activities, homework, etc.

What can you add in a blog? Videos Reading materials Audio files Photos for descriptions Links to your exercises on

Google Docs

Have your own professional blog: write about your own professional development. It makes a great impression on potential employers!

Learn more watching video tutorials :

Go to http://pamelaarraras.com.ar/faapi2009/video-tutorials/. You will find the following videos:

Google Docs in Plain English

Google Reader in in Plain English

Blogs in Plain English

Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

Wikis in Plain English

Social Networking in Plain English

Podcasting in Plain English

RSS in Plain English

Courtesy of Common Craft, through YouTube

Now it’s your turn!

Write down at least three ways

you might use the applications

we have already mentioned.

•1 for personal language

learning

•1 for developing teaching skills

•1 for teaching / using with Sts.

Now turn to a person near you

and share them!

Using technology to polish our English

A skill-based approach

Reading skills

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.librarything.com/

Reading & Listening

http://librivox.org/

Listening skills

Voice of America Podcasts

Internet

Movie Archive

PBS Video

Speaking skills

WiZiQ Public classes -WEBINARS

http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/free-live-web-events/

Pronunciation Podcasts

Language Learning

Communities

Livemocha

Busuu

Italki

Audacity – Voice recording

Writing skills

Keep your own digital diary: Write a professional blog!

“Digifolio” = Digital Portfolio

Writing

Guides &

Advice

Now it’s your turn!

Write down at least one way you

might use the applications we

have already mentioned, one for

each language skill.

Now turn to a person near you

and share them!

An “Action Plan” for PD

1. Identify your professional development needs.

2. Establish goals: What do you want to accomplish? What are you going to do with the new knowledge/information/skills?

3. Choose activities/tasks that will help you achieve those goals.

4. Pick web tools & sites that will help you organize yourself and carry out the different activities towards those goals.

Step 1

Use the Brainstorming sheet to find topics of interest. It can be

found online too by clicking here.

Steps 2 & 4

Making Powerpoint

presentations to

share online

www.Slideshare.com

Publishing articles

Writing a professional blog

www.edublogs.org

Designing a website on a topic of your

choice.

www.wordpress.com

Reviewing books

http://tesl-ej.org

Designing activities & quizzes for students

www.mystudiyo.com http://a4esl.org/t.html.

Steps 3 & 4

Activities or tasks:

Reading about your topic of choice.

Organize your reading through Google Reader or by

bookmarking the websites with Diigo or Del.icio.us

Listen to podcasts through different websites, ITunes or Zencast.

Download audio files to your mp3 player or cell phone

Watch videos and subscribe to interesting channels on YouTube.

Interact with other teachers on networking communities;

participate in chats and webinars:

Now it’s your turn!

Go to the brainstorming sheet.

Choose an aspect of your

profession you’d like to focus on.

A. Which goal or final product

would be the most suitable for

you?

B. Which activities & tools do

you think you might be able to

use?

Now turn to a person near you

and share them!

Q & A

I’m all ears!

I appreciate comments and suggestions on the workshop’s website at

www.PamelaArraras.com.ar/faapi2009

or e-mail me at pamelaarraras@gmail.com

Thanks for coming!