Are we ready to go online?

In recent days, one of the main discussions in the publishing business is about ways to face the growing need to move from print materials to digital online content. Different publishers are choosing different options, but one thing is clear: all of them are aware that things have already started to change.

Students don’t like to do their homeworks in black and white workbooks anymore. They say it’s dull. A research I carried out with some big private language schools in South America indicates that homework completion rates increase at about 30% when students are asked to do their tasks online.

But then there’s the question: Is everyone ready for this change? In my opinion, the vast majority of students are already anxiously waiting for this, but there’s still much to be done regarding teacher training.

Most teachers don’t yet feel comfortable about having to work with digital online content. They say their students know more than they do about digital tools and because of that they prefer to stay away from those.

In fact, I don’t have the exact numbers, but I would assume not more than 20% of the teachers who are currently working in the ELT market are what we call the digital natives or at least close to that. This means we still have more than 80% that are the so called digital immigrants (with a lot of digital illiterates amongst them). The elder the teachers are, the more resistance they have.

That’s where the publishers could come in. We all know the future is going to be like that. Less paper, more online content. So it’s high time we worked with teachers, effectively training them to use those new technological gadgets and resources in an effective way, getting the best out of those tools.

Although they know a great deal of things about ELT, experienced teachers still need help understanding the real benefits of using tools they would not even think of when they started their careers. Those teachers will never break this paradigm until someone shows them how they can make their lives much easier by learning to use, for example, an LMS or VLE for assigning homework, tracking their students’ progress and recording their results.

And as future (or current) providers of those services, the publishers will have a growing significant role in effectively doing that. What about you? Are you ready to go online?

New challenges, great expectations!

When I first decided to move to São Paulo to work as an Editor at Richmond, I had no idea of the projects I would be involved with. Now, I have the pleasure of being involved in one of the greatest investments of the company for the next two years.

I am really pleased I can use my experience and knowledge in order to help the company achieve such important and daring goals. And most of all, I am honored to be  here, surrounded by friends and being part of such an amazing group!!

I will never forget the day Sandra, my boss, called me saying the position was mine. This is exactly what I have been looking for. It’s like a dream come true!!

An upgrade in the carreer

Hi everyone, this is just a brief note to let everyone know about the latest and biggest upgrade in my ELT carreer. I have just signed with Richmond Publishing as an Editor. And I have to say it’s a great pleasure!

For quite a long time, that’s something I have been looking for. And now, the same person who, back in the begining of 2002, took me out of the classroom (after ten years of teaching), believed me as a consultant and put me into the publishing business, has given me this amazing chance to find new paths in my carreer.

And I am sure this will be great to the company as well, since, as an Editor, I can certainly profit from my market experience and I’ll do my best to help the company produce best-selling books. That’s my main goal now, in my latest and biggest carreer upgrade.

Book: The newest media revolution

I have recently got an email from a friend with a link to a very interesting video about an “innovative product” called Book. Of course, the video is meant to be fun, but it’s really interesting to see things differently and find so many advantages in a book, in an era of digital readers, as the one we live in.

I have to say the video is not only a lot of fun, but also a very intelligent piece, considering we don’t usually see things that way. You can check it below. Since it is recorded in Spanish, I’m sorry for those who don’t speak the language. Hope you like it.

If you can type, you can make movies

That’s the slogan of one of the most interesting tools I have recently seen for teachers who are willing to increase the use of technology into their instruction. It’s the Xtranormal website.

With this website teachers can easily help their students create their own animated movies, direct scenes and, most importantly for a teacher of English, practice writing.

I have already mentioned in previous posts the DFilm websiste. This is an interesting tool, as well, but it’s not 3D and the characters don’t speak, they appear with speech bubles over their heads.

Now, with Xtranormal, students will type their lines, and the characters will say everything they write with the help of a text recognition feature that enables the characters to reproduce almost everything in a very good pronunciation and intonation.

In addition to that, you can change camera angles, character actions, faces, moods, sounds, pauses, etc. In fact, I have just met the website and am still learning how to use all its features. Here you can check my first experience with Xtranormal.

And you can be sure this tool is gonna be included in my blended learning workshop as I’m confident both teachers and students will simply love it.

Welcome to the jungle

In recent days, experienced teachers and educators are facing a new, and difficult, challenge. Catch up with new technology and use them effectively in their classes.

The problem, for most of the teachers who are more than 50 years old, for example, is that they were not used to use computers until they were around their forties. And besides that, it’s really hard to catch up with new stuff coming up every second.

Teachers often say that, once they think they know what’s going on, there’s always a new gadget, plugin, software or WEB 2.0 platform for them to use. And their students all use them.

In fact, the speed of changes is impressive. For example, the internet has gone effectively public in Brazil by the late nineties. I got my first email account in 1997. And it was a bit fancy at that time. Just a few people would really use it.

But within the last 13 years the tech revolution and the internet have changed the world in a way never seen before. Emails, chat rooms, ICQ, social networks, msn, YouTube, e-bay, google, blogs, flogs, vlogs, podcasts, virtual lives, Twitter, and a lot more.

Welcome to the jungle

So, teachers have been put in a tech jungle full of new stuff, and they are told they have to incorporate modern technologies into their instruction. I totally agree with this, after all, we’re teaching 21st century kids.

We’re preparing them for a future we have no idea (maybe just a rough one) of how it will be like. New jobs are coming up and techology is a constant part of the students’ daily lives. Today kids are what theoriticians call the “digital natives”. Teachers are the “digital immigrants” and have to find their way through.

That’s the idea of the post’s title. In fact, I see a very interesting analogy between the jungle and the internet. Just to stay with one good comparison, both of them are full of resources for those who go in there, but no one needs to use them all in order to survive. It’s a pick and choose task.

Teachers should not, at all, use all tech gadgets and programs available. Instead, they should select, amongst all the options, those they feel more comfortable with.

They should only use those things that would help them motivate and encourage learning, but also that make them comfortable enough to pass on their instruction. That’s how you can implement an effective blended learning program.

This might mean that a teacher could choose not to use Twitter, for example, because the students would already be using a blog in the English classes and the teacher feels it would be, in a way, a bit more of the same, but only shortened.

On the other hand, another teacher could choose to quit using blogs, because Twitter is faster and fits better to begining students who cannot say much in a blog.

In a way, what I’m trying to say is that teachers don’t need to panic about new technology and its uses in the classroom of English. All they have to do is select the thing they prefer and that will help the students most.

Once selected, look for information on how to use the chosen tools. Blogs and devoted websites are very good sources. There are a lot of nice things that could be done, all you have to do is choose.

You can check some hints in my previous posts, where you’ll find a lot of ideas for using some nice websites, blogs, small home made videos, etc.

And finally, as I already mentioned in a recent post, a must-go website for teachers who look for guidance and ideas for using technology, is the Teacher Training Videos website, by Russel Stannard.

Welcome to the jungle, my dear friends!

New Talks and Workshops tab

Just a brief note to let you know I have uploaded to this blog a list of my talks and workshops. It will certainly make things easier as you’ll now be able to choose the title that best suits your institution directly here.

You’ll also find an abstract for most of the talks. Just click on the upper tab named Talks and Workshops. Any further question or request, please, just let me know.