General

Sugata Mitra, ed-tech evangelist

Posted by: 
Blog - hancockmcdonald.com/blog/145

Sugata Mitra argued with evangelical flourish that, given the right resources, children will learn without schooling. He said that the right resource has now come into existence and is potentially available to every child: the internet. To support this argument, Mitra described what have become known as “the hole in the wall” experiments.

Kathleen Graves, teacher's teacher

Posted by: 
Blog - hancockmcdonald.com/blog/145

Kathleen Graves’s title contained the paradox that in teaching, you sometimes have to be less efficient to be more efficient. In a time in which testing and accountability have become paramount, in an attempt to cut out the dead wood in education, we have neglected the learner and a broader vision of what learning is for.

David Graddol, trends analyst

Posted by: 
Blog - hancockmcdonald.com/blog

In this plenary, David Graddol delved into the murky world of the English teaching business, where the imperative is firmly profit over people. He asks, ‘Who benefits from English teaching?’, and answers, ‘Follow the money!’. On that basis, it’s clearly not teachers and learners who benefit.

English UK 2013 teachers' conference

Event date: 
Saturday, November 9, 2013 - 10:00
Conference-Reports - hancockmcdonald.com/taxonomy/term/140/feed

The opening plenary was a presentation by Russell Stannard on the use of screencapture tools as a ´revolutionary´ way of providing feedback to students. Screencapture tools effectively create a video of what´s occurring on a (portion of) computer screen, including highlighting, cursor movements and so on, plus the voice of the user as picked up on the microphone.

A Map of ELT

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, October 5, 2013 - 15:45
Venue: 
English UK North academic conference
Location: 
Leeds, UK
Extra info: 
Includes handouts
 - hancockmcdonald.com/talks/focus/68

What’s your ELT footprint? This is one of the questions we will look into in “A Map of ELT” at the English UK North academic conference in Leeds on Saturday Oct 8th. After looking at the map and how it is organized, we’ll consider how it may be used for teacher reflection, critical awareness and for a ‘bigger picture’ perspective on topical issues in ELT.

The Learner Autonomy SIG: At a glance

Posted by: 
Event date: 
Monday, April 8, 2013 - 10:00
IATEFL-Liverpool - hancockmcdonald.com/taxonomy/term/159/feed

No-one would refute the often-heard general claim that new technologies offer much by way of independent or autonomous learning, and this year’s Learner Autonomy SIG Pre-conference event took this bull by its horns and addressed issues related to Language learner autonomy and today’s technologies: challenges and possibilities.

Rachel Roberts on doing Dogme WITH a coursebook

Posted by: 
IATEFL-Liverpool - hancockmcdonald.com/taxonomy/term/159/feed

Rachel’s was one of several talks at this year’s IATEFL which sought to redress the balance in the coursebooks versus Dogme dichotomy. Others included Hugh Dellar and Herbert Puchta. Her principle claim is that you don’t have to choose between using a coursebook or letting the language ‘emerge’ from interaction in the classroom – you can do both.

Paulo Machado on what advanced learners need

Posted by: 
IATEFL-Liverpool - hancockmcdonald.com/taxonomy/term/159/feed

This was a presentation of some key ideas which emerged from a large teacher development project, from needs analysis through observations to recommendations and workshops, at the Cultura Inglesa in Rio de Janeiro.

Danny Norrington Davies focuses on process before product in learner talk

Posted by: 
IATEFL-Liverpool - hancockmcdonald.com/taxonomy/term/159/feed

Danny, an IH teacher trainer in London, began by suggesting that after classroom speaking activities, many teachers make the mistake of feeding back only on task achievement, rather than getting up close to the processes and strategies by which the learners reached this outcome.

Mike Harrison on exploring to learn

Posted by: 
IATEFL-Liverpool - hancockmcdonald.com/taxonomy/term/159/feed

Mike spoke of the importance of experimental practice (EP) for a teacher’s professional development, and he developed the topic through the metaphor of exploration and travel. He began by showing my (Mark Hancock’s) Map of ELT as an example of this kind of spatial metaphor, but explained that his own presentation would be less analytical.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - General