Sunday, June 25, 2006

Coming of age

A wonderful team of experts on ICT took their time to write Coming of age…: Terry Freedman, Miles Berry, John Bidder, Mechelle de Craene, Jhon Evans, Peter Ford, Josie Fraser, Steve Lee, Ewan Mcintosh, Alan November, Chris Smith, Dai Thomas, David Warlick and Shawn Wheeler... Coming of Age, a booklet in PDF format, is an introducion to the new world wide web, Web 2.0

Its content is made up of definitions, tools, case studies and articles related to ICT. I think it is worth having it and reading it by those interested in ICT now. Looking still further ahead, I think It will be a must-read booklet by most ELT practitioners and teacher trainees. It’s free and the only thing they ask people to do is: "Please, distribute it and make use of this information in your daily teaching practice! You can download the booklet here: http://www.box.net/public/odt6tuul4r  

Although I haven't finished reading the whole booklet yet, what I have read so far has helped me expand or clarify ICT notions or issues I have thought about or commented in my workshops in public schools and universities in Venezuela (I will comment on this project in a coming blog post). Coming of Age is a well organized document and each contribution is accompanied by links to illustrate or encourage the reader to become part of the Web 2.0.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

ELT: Current challenges and Internet solutions

Recently David Nunan made a presentation about English Language Teaching: Current challenges and Internet solutions which is in tune with the projects we have been developing in connection to ICT in ELT at the British Council Venezuela this year. According to Nunan, these challenges have been taking place in the wake of the emergence of Global English. To face what they bring about, Nunan suggests some Internet solutions. 

To support his claims, Nunan based his presentation on three studies carried out by him and Nunan's colleagues mostly in Asian countries and through a global survey. The studies have shown 3 basic trends: a demand for language training worldwide (Chinese and English), a change in language and language learning philosophies and, as a result, changes in pedagogical practices. The last two have brought about tensions between traditional teaching and modern approaches to pedagogy as well as tensions among ministry of education representatives, policy makers, academics, and classroom practitioners. 

To end up his presentation, Nunan suggests Internet as a possible solution to these challenges. 

To listen to the whole presentation click on this link: http://www.digibridge.net/webheads/davidnunan1118.htm I do widely recommend this speech. It is accompanied by a power presentation and a window media player device for you to rewind or fast-forward Nunan’s presentation. If you want to make any reflection about it, you can click on comments and share your thoughts with us. The link was taken from: http://www.alado.net/webheads. This link was suggested by community updates from Learning Times.
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