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I tried to be a little more coherent (although guilty of all three of the above on occasions) and went on the trails of ICT, Dogme and Task-based learning - a mix of personal interest and what seems relevant to our centre.
What follows are some thoughts and favourites as well as some links. Note that many of the talks can be watched at Liverpool Online, .
1. Ipads & Web-based Tools
Apart from my own interest in web-based resources, I'm aware we've just bought a class set of Ipads for the teaching centre so I thought this was an important area to focus on.
i) One of the best talks I went to was by a colleague, Jon Parnham, from the Hong Kong teaching centre called Implementing Ipads In The Classroom. His talk was very relevant to us and I'll pass on more to the management and ICT teams here. During my stint on the BC stand, I got to learn a bit more about the 7 British Council apps - these will all appear on our new Ipads.
ii) Another session I really enjoyed was Nik Peachey's session called 'Evaluating Web-based Tools'. Have a look at this simple site called TodaysMeet, which he had running throughout his talk, inviting participants to comment and ask questions. I used it with my Senior Advanced A class on Friday. In my task the students searched for interesting articles on their mobile phones and posted the links on TodaysMeet - homework is to choose an article and talk about it in the next class.
2. Getting rid of coursebooks?
A number of talks I went to were anti-Dogme, with coursebook writers justifying the way they make a living. I went to one talked entitled Dogme: A Coursebook Writer's response - a summary of which might be 'Dogme has some very valid points and useful ideas but you still need my coursebook'. Another session on this theme is The Decline & Fall of The Coursebook.
In the exhilaration of the conference, I started thinking it would be great to abandon our coursebooks. A more sober reflection is that, whilst that might not be possible or really desirable, we should be questioning the role of the coursebook as the de facto syllabus in our centre. Its place as chief source of material is one thing but shouldn't we be using our own syllubus-based learning outcomes as a starting-point for lesson planning?
3. My favourite talk
The most impressive talk for me was by Jane Willis, who is semi-retired, but one of the early advocates of the task-based approach. Task-based coursebooks never really took off (Cutting Edge was a watered down version) and as a result many of us are not very familiar with this approach. A pity because it's an approach that could revolutionise much of our teaching. I recommend having a look at the slides from her talk From Grammar Point To Task-Based Lesson.
4. Poetry and Linguistic Imperialism
The conference treat was the closing plenary with Roger McGough, one of the 'Liverpool Poets' reading some of his work. Also worth watching was the excellent discussion organised by the British Council on Linguistic Imperialism. The 4-person panel was great but it was the contribution from the floor which really made it, including a question about why the British Council doesn't seem to promote the Welsh language!
If you ever get the chance to go to one of these big conferences, I strongly recommend it. I got to go this year on the strength that accommodation was provided free by family 'over the water'. I'll need a talk next year.
i) One of the best talks I went to was by a colleague, Jon Parnham, from the Hong Kong teaching centre called Implementing Ipads In The Classroom. His talk was very relevant to us and I'll pass on more to the management and ICT teams here. During my stint on the BC stand, I got to learn a bit more about the 7 British Council apps - these will all appear on our new Ipads.
ii) Another session I really enjoyed was Nik Peachey's session called 'Evaluating Web-based Tools'. Have a look at this simple site called TodaysMeet, which he had running throughout his talk, inviting participants to comment and ask questions. I used it with my Senior Advanced A class on Friday. In my task the students searched for interesting articles on their mobile phones and posted the links on TodaysMeet - homework is to choose an article and talk about it in the next class.
2. Getting rid of coursebooks?
A number of talks I went to were anti-Dogme, with coursebook writers justifying the way they make a living. I went to one talked entitled Dogme: A Coursebook Writer's response - a summary of which might be 'Dogme has some very valid points and useful ideas but you still need my coursebook'. Another session on this theme is The Decline & Fall of The Coursebook.
In the exhilaration of the conference, I started thinking it would be great to abandon our coursebooks. A more sober reflection is that, whilst that might not be possible or really desirable, we should be questioning the role of the coursebook as the de facto syllabus in our centre. Its place as chief source of material is one thing but shouldn't we be using our own syllubus-based learning outcomes as a starting-point for lesson planning?
3. My favourite talk
The most impressive talk for me was by Jane Willis, who is semi-retired, but one of the early advocates of the task-based approach. Task-based coursebooks never really took off (Cutting Edge was a watered down version) and as a result many of us are not very familiar with this approach. A pity because it's an approach that could revolutionise much of our teaching. I recommend having a look at the slides from her talk From Grammar Point To Task-Based Lesson.
4. Poetry and Linguistic Imperialism
The conference treat was the closing plenary with Roger McGough, one of the 'Liverpool Poets' reading some of his work. Also worth watching was the excellent discussion organised by the British Council on Linguistic Imperialism. The 4-person panel was great but it was the contribution from the floor which really made it, including a question about why the British Council doesn't seem to promote the Welsh language!
If you ever get the chance to go to one of these big conferences, I strongly recommend it. I got to go this year on the strength that accommodation was provided free by family 'over the water'. I'll need a talk next year.
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