LTSIG SYMPOSIUM

Symposium moderation Marisa Constantinides

Marisa Constantinides is a teacher educator & Director of CELT, a Cambridge CELTA & DELTA centre in Athens and online. A member of IATEFL International, she an active ELT blogger and Twitter user (moderator of #ELTchat) nominated for an ELTons Award in 2012.

Symposium presenters

Angelos Bollas

Using Twitter with EFL Learners

Twitter has certain characteristics that, if utilized appropriately, can make it a fantastic learning tool for English Language students. In this presentation, I will show some ways I have used Twitter with my learners in and out of class and how it enabled them to develop their linguistic performance. I will also show how teachers can adapt these activities for their own teaching context. Participants with no or little experience with Twitter are welcome to attend.

Angelos Bollas (MA in ELT; Cambridge Delta) is an ELT professional based in Greece, the UK, and online. He is interested in online education, CPD, as well as pre- and in-service teacher training and development. In his free time, he blogs, participates in and co-moderates #ELTchat weekly discussions on twitter, and connects with language educators around the world. He is @angelos_bollas on Twitter.

Recording (20min): http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/p4jhg48flkf/

Sylvia Guinan

How The Blogosphere Adds Substance To Professional Development

The blogosphere is a community, a way of working, a way of sharing, and, ultimately, the cream of your social media learning pie. Whether you are sharing action research in the classroom, turning webinars into vlogs, or encouraging your students to use multi-media, the blog is your backdrop to all endeavours, experiments and reflections.

Learn how the blogosphere influences, social media, personal learning networks, student autonomy and creativity.

Sylvia Guinan

Sylvia Guinan is an online English teacher, writer and blogger who facilitates professional development online. She uses brain-friendly techniques to help students and teachers around the world. She designs educational materials and runs teacher training courses. Her work is the result of much research into the psychology of learning, as well as hands-on experience with multi-media technology. She blogs and runs courses online and runs her own website. She is also Joint Web Editor for the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group.

Recording (20min): http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/p9ctjne4i22/

Marisa Constantinides

#ELTchat - hashtagged conversations and CPD through social networking

Every Wednesday at 19:00 p.m. GMT, a great number of ELT teachers from all over the world log into their Twitter account and for one hour they hold an online discussion (chat) on a topic they have selected.

#ELTchat is a hashtag which appears on all tweets in this online conversation, it’s searchable and anyone who ‘searches’ for it and uses it can converse with any other Twitter user following the same hashtag. It’s followed by hundreds of ELT teachers every week.

This short presentation will look at how hashtagged discussions such as #ELTchat can

- create a feeling of community online amongst ELT professionals

- disseminate information, publications and research which would otherwise remain obscure to the average teacher

- engage and inspire teachers by sharing materials and links

- encourage teachers to keep abreast of new publications and new technologies

- help teachers maintain their interest in their profession

- provide support and create important relationships and connections

The result of this is an expanded and strong Personal Learning Network (PLN) which can help teachers personally and professionally and keep them motivated and connected by maintaining their relationship with an ever expanding PLN through other Social Networks such as

• Facebook

• Linked In

• Google+

It can develop dialogues and disseminate blog posts and materials shared – thus becoming a tool tools for Continuous Professional Development which is free, autonomous, and self-directed.

LTSIG SYMPOSIUM

You need to be a member of Virtual Round Table Web Conference to add comments!