RSCON2013: Diversity and Disability

- My thoughts and reflections are based upon my experience at a public university in Venezuela- Miguel Mendoza

 
It has been a week already! I delivered my presentation Diversity and Disability: Are teachers up for social change outside the classroom? in RSCON#4. After this, I have been wondering what’s ahead for our role as agent of social change when it comes down to providing support to students with disabilities inside or/and outside the classroom. You will be amazed by how many teachers think they have no responsibility whatsoever for helping these students. Some of them verbalize it; some others go with their actions. Now this might have its reasons. What talks or shows, in my opinion, is the lack of training and the fear of not knowing what to do when a student with disability is in their classroom. What talks or shows, in my opinion, is this construct of “normalcy” we have of a “person”, a “human being”, a student. What talks or shows, in my opinion, is the programming  we have been subjected to since childhood about people with disabilities. Being different is off; being like everybody else rocks. As a result, stereotypes and the lack of proper training win. These students are, then, marginalized.  They become invisible in the classroom. Fortunately, there are some other teachers who think otherwise.  In my presentation, I reflected in a loud voice about my experience with students with disabilities outside the classroom as part of a support group created back in 2004 in the School of Librarianship. This is one of 10 schools in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at Universidad Central de Venezuela. I started off by acknowledging the initiatives I have noticed over the last couple of years about diversity and minorities groups like the LBGT community and people with disabilities. For the latter group, a very good example is the work done by the Disabled Access Friendly or posts like the ones written in the iTDi blog on Special Needs or the one written by Patrick Jackson, Hey, teacher! What are YOU for? And what about the amazing work people from Northern Arizona University are doing with their Disability Awareness Week! That definitely brings hope. But there’s still a lot to do. Also, during my talk, I shared my experience as part of CAEDEBA (a committee that offers support to students with disabilities from the School of Librarianship). It focuses on academic support and raising awareness activities. It has been on the road for 9 solid years. Towards the end of the presentation, I asked participants if they believe teachers were ready to bring about social change to help guarantee integration and inclusion of students with disabilities inside and outside the learning environment. Also, I told them what I believe are the benefits of providing support to students with disabilities outside the classroom and sketched out what they have to take into account if they would like to create a similar support group. I ended up the session showing them it is not that easy to identify when a student has a disability. Perhaps, this  happens because we generally tend to focus on the disability and not the PERSON.

RSCON# 4 was the perfect platform to talk about this. This year, most sessions and keynotes in RSCON were focused on technology. But it was interesting to see some of them were not (Cecilia Lemus, Leo Selivan, Gallit Zvi, Tamas Lorincz, Malu Sciamarelli, Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto , Chuck Sandy among others).

As far as I know, all four RSCONs have focused its attention on the future of education. "Diversity" and learning to teach and deal with students with disabilities inside and outside the classroom are part of that future. I see a more inclusive classroom with inclusive and accessible teachers and classmates as well as all the members of this educational community (school, high school, university). A place where we will focus on the person and not on “the lacking of…” Disability in education should not equal to “dumb”, “limited”, “slow”. This only shows a narrow concept of what a PERSON is. It only shows we do not acknowledge the differences or do not know what to do with them.   I am not talking about special treatment (medical model), but equal opportunities (social model). I am not talking about pitying (medical model), but adapting content (social model) . Provide them with opportunities and they will success or not just like any other student (social or functional diversity model). It is true we have to consider the potential learning and the type of disability the student has before they are granted a place at the university. This information will be important for both: the students and the university he is applying for. In our country, most of them can get a place from a government modality without having a thorough evaluation (skills, competency and disability) or a counseling session (Why he she chose this or that career?) creating sometimes false expectations in the students and his/her parents. Now this responsibility falls into those who provide access to students with disabilities at the university. Anyway, If they get a place at the university, we should find the way to help guarantee equal opportunities.

On the other hand, universities or institutions training teachers should include in their curriculum a subject or course related to diversity and disability. Also, all universities public or private should consider in their curricula a subject or course related to disabilities to train or sensitize undergraduates students about it. As graduates, they may have to deal with people with disabilities at some point at work.

As language teachers, I do believe our responsibility goes beyond the perfect lesson or

choosing the right method, approach, or methodology. If there’s a student with Asperger's syndrome in our class and we would like to use / explore this DOGME methodology, do we know it is very likely he/she could start to feel really anxious if they are not provided a structure to respond positively to this metholody? How can we adopt this methodology to include this student and guarantee he will get the most of it as the rest of the students?

Without this RCON session, I think I wouldn’t have sat to reflect and even talked about this to ESL/EFL teachers. Something I believe I should have done a long time ago. I will finish this post by sharing a snippet from Patrick’s article: “...education is not just about acquiring skills and knowledge but that it also embraces social improvement. Teachers are in a unique position to impact on the future through their teaching of well being, fairness, equality and truth.”

Here's my presentation and the recording. October 12th, 2013. 2 p.m. Venezuela time.

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"You all laugh because I'm different...I laugh because you're ALL the same." Jonathan Davis

All images: Miguel Mendoza by Miguel Mendoza is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License - See more at: http://miguelmendozaefl.blogspot.com/#sthash.yFUyJxlD.dpuf

All images: Miguel Mendoza by Miguel Mendoza is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License - See more at: http://miguelmendozaefl.blogspot.com/#sthash.yFUyJxlD.dpuf

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These images Miguel Mendoza by Miguel Mendoza is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial No Derivs 3.0 Unported License

RSCON#4: Social change, disability and diversity

This is the second time I participate in the Reform Symposium. The first time, in 2011, I participated with Flip cams see; smart phones and digital cameras do. This time I will not be talking about learning technologies, but diversity and disability. 

I have been part of a committee (CAEDEBA) for about 9 years providing support to students with disabilities from the School of Librarianship at Universidad Central de Venezuela. My session will be a sort of reflection in a loud voice about my experience in CAEDEBA and the role , I believe , teachers should have to help integrate and include students with disabilities in the classroom. A place where they are getting more and more opportunities to study and become part of their communities (integration). However, our responsibility to guarantee equal opportunities (inclusion) to them is even greater.

If you want to learn more about this presentation click on this image. Here you will find the link to access my session on October 12th.

Keep on reading and embark yourself on a free, three-day professional development journey starting October 11th. Do not miss it!

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In a few days, thousands of educators from various different countries are expected to attend a free 3 day virtual conference, The Reform Symposium, #RSCON4.  RSCON will be held October 11th to 13th in conjunction with Connected Educator Month. The entire conference will be held online using the Blackboard Collaborate webinar platform. Participants can attend this online conference from the comfort of their homes or anywhere that has Internet access. This amazing conference provides educators new or currently active on social networks the opportunity to connect with educators and professionals in the field of education worldwide.

Useful links (click on any item for more information):

·         Opening plenary- Sugata Mitra, 2013 Ted prize winner and instigator of the Hole-in-the-Wall experiment, will speak about The Future of Learning.

·         Musical guest- Steve Bingham, the internationally renowned electric violinist, will conduct a live performance.

·         10+ international keynotes

·         4 panel discussions featuring distinguished experts

·         100+ presentations by educators around the world

·         5 EdInspire Award Recipients- nominate an inspiring educator here

·         Get your RSCON I'm Attending blog badge here

We would like to thank the incredible organizers- Shelly Sanchez Terrell, Steve Hargadon, Clive Elsmore, Chiew Pang, Kelly Tenkely, Chris Rogers, Paula White, Bruno Andrade, Cecilia Lemos, Greta Sandler, Peggy George, Marcia Lima, Jo Hart, Phil Hart, Dinah Hunt, Marisa Constantinides, Nancy Blair, Mark Barnes and Sara Hunter

We hope you can join us for this incredible professional development experience!

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.

XXIV Ventesol Annual Convention and ICT

I recently attended the XXIV Ventesol Annual Convention held at the Eurobuiding hotel in Caracas (May 19th to May 221st). This event was called Daring to lead the ELT challenge. Among the challenges, we had those related to ICT. During this event, I attended 3 CALL presentations. One of them was related to blogs and writing. A second one, Internet and speaking and the last one, software and listening comprehension. I will briefly describe them and let you know what EFL teachers are doing in connection to ICTs in Venezuela.  

ICT: Weblogs and writing practice 

Nahir Aparicio (Professor at UPEL-Caracas) The main objective of this presentation was to show the use of weblogs or blogs as a tool for developing writing skills. One of the things I like from this presentation was the sea of examples given by Nahir when describing blogs and its types. Blogging, as Nahir said, can become an excellent tool to promote authentic written communication. Besides, she stressed the written blog entry is also the result of processes, like outlining, drafting, reviewing, editing, etc. Nahir’s presentation showed once again how important it is the integration of ICTs into the curriculum to motivate students to learn meaningfully by doing authentic tasks in the the lab, the cyber or the students’ own PC!. Two thumbs up, Nahir!  

Using Internet for EFL teaching at the UPEL Maracay 

Mayra Rondón ( Head of the English Department at UPEL, Maracay) Manuel Arrioja (Professor at UPEL, Maracay) This ongoing research showed how the use of Internet can help students develop oral and written communication. By following some instructions from a web-based lesson students can practice oral production. For example, they can agree on where to eat out by visiting a site about restaurants, choose a place to eat, invite a friend and accept or refuse such invitation. Mimicking what most people would currently do in real life on-line. They also showed the value of blogs for developing writing skills. One of the preliminary results of their research is that it seems to enhance motivation and increase students' participation leading to a more meaningful learning process. The ICT activities used in their research were adapted from a workshop given by the British Council in Maracay this year. What pleased more was to see how they “rendered” the printed lesson plan and external material shown in this workshop into a nice on-line electronic version. Since they were 2 presenters, four thumbs up!!! 
 
Learning English with songs: a CALL approach 

Víctor Ojeda (Colegio Emil Friedman and professor in the school of librarianship at Universidad de Venezuela) Juan Pino Silva (Professor at Universidad Simón Bolívar) Through software developed by Prof. Víctor Ojeda, students from Colegio Emil Friedman are exposed to numerous songs mirroring a bit what they are actually doing with MP3 players and iPods. This presentation aimed at describing students’ reactions to the activities designed for this software. The lists of benefits reported were impressive. What I found attractive and I’m sure any teen would do is that songs are chosen by the student himself/herself. Also, students get feed back individually. By the way, the program’s data based can be used for research purposes and since it is designed by teachers it can be edited and improved following sound pedagogical views of language and learning. Under Prof. Juan Pino's guidance, this young friend and colleague has shown how important it is to keep abreast of technological changes and what to do to replicate, to a certain extent, the way students are learning outside the classroom which is not exactly the traditional, linear way we are still using in ELT. Keep up the good work, Vic.

What's it all about?

This blog is for teachers who are willing to start exploring ICT (Information and Communications Technology)and are interested in integrating it into the language classroom. Suggestions will be welcome! I hope you can get the most of it and realize that using ICT in ELT (English Language Teaching) is more than a "cool" thing to do. It is a tool that can enhance our teaching practice and as a result the learning of our students. You will find here:  

1) Sites for ICT activities

2) Articles related to ICT

3) Tutorials 

4) ICT events 

If it's your first time into ICT, it might be a bit confusing - You know, a sea of terms and tools (most of them alike), a lot of clicking here and there, downloads , uploads, googling, moodling, skyping, podcasting, e-mailing...Don't get scared!...Once you've given it a try and you sort of become an "expert" , at least, in one of them, understanding the rest might become a whole lot easier...Yes, it will be a bit chaotic at first but rewarding at the end...And, I truly believe that "...knowing is better than wondering..." (Benjamin Franklin)

SEMINAR: ICT in ELT: putting the 'Learning' back into 'E-Learning' (2006)

Photograph by Meer Sild from Estonia

ICT in ELT: Putting the "Learning" back into the "E-learning" was held in the Manchester Conference Center from Feb. 12th to Feb. 17th. It was a high quality seminar. Facilitators, like Gavin Dudeney (event director), were not only excellent presenters but handled the content of the seminar professionally. 

This seminar served not only to expand my knowledge on certain ICTs I knew but to get to know new ones. Also concepts like COPs (Communities of practice) improve my understanding of ICT's and its role in ELT. The presentations, hands-on activities and case studies helped us understand:  

1) Tools and approaches to build COPs like Yahoo groups, PpBB (Web based discussion), Moodle (Virtual learning environment), Skype (synchronous online meetings), Windows netmeeting (synchronous meetings) and blogs. These tools were nicely presented by Eric Baber (Online Course Designer for Royal Holloway University of London) 
  
2) Communities of practice in action like Webheads;  

3) Platforms for virtual learning (Moodle); 

4) Pedagogical approaches and material design.The facilitators were two teachers from Manchester University, Gary Motteram (language teacher educator at the University of Manchester) and Diane Slaouti (Programme Director of the University of Manchester ) ;  

5) Teacher Development (computer literacy; learning about online tutoring; identifying potentials and challenges of ICTs) presented by Nicky Hockly (Director of the Consultants-e) and some case studies by Gary and Diane. 

There was also this live panel discussion that in some way helps us think about the different situations we have got in our countries in connection to ICT and language learning. In the case of Venezuela, I believe, we should focus on: 

1. suggesting IPC teachers from the Department of Modern Languages to design and implement courses where ICT's for language teaching and learning are taught. It's easier to teach these new generations of teachers familiar with computers, video games, text messaging; and even web design than older generations like mine. That is, even though we start training teachers at public primary and high schools (Básica), some of them will not be that willing to learn (computer phobia; lack of computer skills, etc) or may not find it necessary since kids can learn (anyhow) without using Ict's in the classroom (teachers who have been working from more than 20 years, for example) or some of them are about to retired (the why-bother attitude).  

2. suggesting the setting up of Cops to IPC and public school language teachers to encourage them to share knowledge and experience in ELT.  

3. thinking of teacher development courses on line to reach as many teachers as we can in Venezuela (Moodle platform could be great for this)  

4. keeping a blog where Venezuelan teachers ( and teachers from other countries) get updated on what's new in connection to ICT's providing tutorials and samples for them to follow. The easier the ICT tool, the better for teacher training! I almost forgot to mention that the British Council made an interesting presentation on the different web sites like Learn English, Teach English and ELTECS. It is worth visiting them. They can be an interesting and educational source for teaching and learning on-line.  

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Manchester Conference Center (2006)

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