Wednesday, June 22, 2011

More Online Teacher-training opportunities

In addition to the eduMOOC2011 (Massive Open Online Course) starting June 27 and recently blogged ("Online Learning Today... and Tomorrow") on Computers, Language, Writing:

via Emerging Education Technology by K. Walsh on 6/19/11

Interested? Which of these topics and time-frames would you prefer? I'd like to offer a free online workshop for teachers (and anyone else who is interested) this summer. I'm planning on...
[Please click on the post title to continue reading the full post]

Note: most of the materials in both courses can be accessed asynchronously and without a high speed connects. EduMOOC2011 audio files and asynchronous live sessions will be archived for later listening/viewing

Monday, June 20, 2011

eduMOOC: Online Learning Today... and Tomorrow

Highly Recommended: take this course as an overlap with / followup to StudyCom's Online Teacher Training Course. Also tagged for and bundled with ELT Online. If you've never taken a MOOC or Massive Open Online Course, you are in for a surprise a treat and/or a real eye-opener... an educational experience to say the least. Watching the two (linked and on the page) videos , What is a MOOC? and What is 'success' in a MOOC? will help prepare you for the actual course.


"The Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at the University of Illinois Springfield welcomes you to a Massive Open Online Class (MOOC) on “Online Learning Today...and Tomorrow.” It will begin June 27, 2011 and run for eight weeks. It is totally open, free, and collaborative. It can be totally asynchronous, or those attending can join in weekly panel discussions with experts in various aspects of the topic. This is an active and growing resource and networking center on the topic of 'Online Learning Today, and Tomorrow.' You will have the opportunity to meet many people around the world who share your interest in this topic."

Weeks 1-8:


Sunday, June 19, 2011

another experiment - learning to teach

... but related to the CLW purpose (see sidebar). StudyCom (David Winet) is offering a Teacher Training Course. The focus is teaching ESL but, not unexpectedly, with the primary emphasis on real time applications using technology requiring a high speed connection: conferencing, Second Life, etc.  Here's the course description:
If you are an ESL teacher or planning to become an ESL teacher, join our new teacher training course Saturdays at 3 pm GMT in Classroom One.
Enrollment is limited to bona fide ESL teachers, TEFL/TESL graduate students or students enrolled in TEFL/TESL certificate programs. The course will deal with all aspects of ESL teaching, with an emphasis on online teaching, including mobile.
The course will be free but enrolees must attend regularly and do assigned homework and tests.
I'm in the process of trying to tease a syllabus out of the above plus a few notes. Basically, the course focuses on the famous (or would that be notorious?) four skills: understanding, speaking, reading, writing. The structure suggests that writing and perhaps reading could get shorted.


Bridging the Digital Divide

I couldn't resist replying, questioning the total absence of accommodating those of us on the other side of the Digital Divide. Then (presumably) a StudyCom group member) wrote me asking about training for teachers who did not have high speed connections. So (cutting further DD discussion and thus to the chase) here I am. I rejected the "offer" to teach a "low bandwidth" version (after having asked for audio files and transcripts of live sessions such as those provided at recent MOOCs) but allowed I would moderate a group if one were set up; curate, organize, archive materials; answer questions (and maybe post a few).

As for the Digital Divide (or Digital Inclusion), the subject is too important to dismiss with a brief mention, so I'll come back to it. Low tech, obviously, would be a chalk or white board (or even a vinyl shower curtain on a school room wall). I'm aiming for a middle ground: let's call it mid-tech (in between high and low tech. Free and easy to access on lower bandwidths.

What would that include? Quite a lot really: email, email groups, bulletin boards, blogs, wikis, web pages, interactive exercises with minimal flash, social media. Non internet technology might include radio; audio tape or CD player; projector; TV; VCR or DVD player.


What do teachers learning to teach need to think about? Everyone should make his or her own list. Here are some points I've come up with. What would you add?

Age and level of students, their learning styles, your own teaching style, class size, previous learning experience, strong and weak areas, what students are expected to learn, what tests or specialized training they are preparing for, any conditions that would interfere with learning, setting (classroom, computer, mixed online and face to face), facilities, connectivity and computer access, teaching materials, workarounds. This last is when you have to make do, work around not having optimum teaching conditions or resources: make do with what you have.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

PD: Education Webinars from Learn Central

Live Interactive Webinars: Public & Free ~ free professional development online ~ DIY
Network Email
Charting the Course of Teaching and Learning in a Networked World

A message to all members of The Future of Education

Below are this week's public, free, and interactive Webinars through LearnCentral.org, the social learning network for education that I work on for Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate).

The time of the events below will show up automatically in your own time zone when you are registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile, or you can check the new event time converter on the event page. Event recordings are posted and available after the events if you aren't able to attend them live. If you are looking for an easy calendar import / RSS feed for these events, you'll now find a link on your calendar page or the calendar page of specific groups!

We hope you will consider hosting your own public webinars using the free LearnCentral public room--instructions are available by joining the 'Host Your Own Webinar' group on the main announcement tab (http://www.learncentral.org/group/3432/host-your-own-webinars).

Thanks for your attention, and see you online!

Steve Hargadon
http://www.stevehargadon.com
http://www.twitter.com/stevehargadon


ECN Weekly, 6.5.2011

~ excerpted... an online community and excellent resource for English teachers: join and subscribe to the newsletter online 

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Where English teachers go to help each other

YA Lit and the WSJ
An article in this week's Wall Street Journal (WSJ) titled "Darkness Too Visible," has inspired a heated discussion on the ECNing and beyond.  To which several, including the Goddess of YA herself Teri Lesesne and YA author Jackie Morse Kessler responded with incredible blogs. Paul Hankins got a conversation going on the ECN, which you can read by clicking here. The WSJ article is a relative of a now relatively well-known essay some years ago by Francine Prose titled "I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read," which appeared in Harpers. You can read that essay by clicking here

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