Shiv on Learning

I shall be at three educational conferences in March, one online and two in London. I’ll be presenting on moving away form course and class models of learning, work we’ve done with the military and debating if student and staff mobility is still necessary. If your going to be at any of them let me know.

VIRTUAL WORLDS – BEST PRACTICES IN EDUCATION

3RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE – MARCH 12-13 2010, Online

“The Virtual World Best Practices 2010 focus is “Imagination Around the World”.  From the North, East, West and South corners of the physical world what is evident is the collaborate nature of virtual world participants to share knowledge and experience. This 48 hour conference will indeed provide opportunities for sharing and further understanding virtual world technology.”

My Presentation: Date/Time: Block 12: Friday March 12th 2:00 p.m. SLT/PST

GOING GLOBAL 4 (British Council)

24 - 26 March 2010, London

“This year’s conference theme is WORLD POTENTIAL: MAKING EDUCATION MEET THE CHALLENGE.

In the face of the worst recession in decades countries are increasingly becoming isolationist. If so, what are the implications for international education? How is the global mobility of staff and students being affected and what should they do? And how does it impact the sharing of knowledge and ideas worldwide? Is the vision of a truly international education system under threat?”

GAME BASED LEARNING 2010

29 - 30th March 2010, London

“Join your fellow industry and education leaders, designers, innovators, policy makers, publishers and practitioners at this compelling conference to explore how video games, digital and social media are having a positive impact on learning while developing essential skills that learners and the industry require to compete in the 21st century.”

Google, Youtube and a wealth of ELT sites give students access to a wealth of information.  Why does having ready access to information lead to better language practice? Read on to find out….

Access to information online has radically changed the way we find information, analyze and disseminate it.  In the past you had to learn things by rote, remember dates and hold often useless information in your brain.  Now we have access to a world of information from our computer or mobile phone. Therefore, being in a classroom is an artificial environment where traditionally you don’t have those tools – under conventional rules of politeness students shouldn’t use their phone or laptop in an ESL class. When using a virtual world students have access to all those tools and discussions can be stimulating using up to date, personalised information due to the fact they have all the information they need at their fingertips.   They can share music from their country, show pictures and check verbs they are unsure of.  Due to the ready access of information the lesson becomes about using the language and not a memory exercise.

You can catch up on the rest of the series here.

Jessica Driscoll
Education Director, Languagelab.com