Alex Case has posted an entry titled: Clash of the TEFL heavyweight bloggers where he links to four published authors who also blog; unfortunately the last two are unfamiliar to me.

1. Mario Rinvolucri
David Crystal
2. Lindsay Clanfield
3. Rod Bolitho

Alex then goes on:

So, where does that leave us humble English teachers who blog and are just starting to enjoy being a medium-sized fish in a tiny pond? Is it all over now the big boys are moving in?? Will we have to get a real job and start publishing real books to start getting noticed???

Well I’ve been blogging for 5 years come the End of January so I haven’t exactly just started - however when I did first start there were less than 20 EFL/ESL bloggers that I could find. In that time the ESL/EFL blogging field has grown enormously. At one point for about 2.5 years my blog was the #1 search result in google for a number of terms as well has having a page rank of 7. Unfortunately my ranking at search results have gone down. I blame that on my reduced blogging frequency and the rapid growth of high quality teacher bloggers out there.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jan 1, 2009 at 03:22 PM
Random_Ramblings | Teaching | useful_web_sites | (0) | |

The following is reprinted from KOTESOL’s English Connection Magazine with permission:

What is the problem?

I have university classes of around 25 students each, and see them for about two and a half hours a week, a situation similar to many teachers in Korea. Not much time for learning by any standard. We work hard to create a positive English-focused class community in school driven by more than mere external motivation. I believe that many of us to a large degree achieve it. However, what happens when our students leave the classroom? Simply put: life happens- while students certainly aren’t alone outside of the school, they are largely alone in their language learning. Even with the best of intentions, and the best of in-class communities, a focus on English interaction tends to dissipate in the absence of a framework which naturally integrates English into communication (as is done so in the classroom).
My goal for my own classes is simple: double the amount of time they spend each week in an English community. I turn to technological solutions, but not without some hesitance.

What is often wrong with Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)?

Despite writing a tech column, I can think of nothing worse than tech for tech’s sake. Too often it only serves to confuse and further divide teachers and students- an add-on that is tacked on to the program artificially and no more connects students together than more traditional paper-based solutions. Instead of doing regular homework alone they are doing homework online…and still alone. The question is one of whether we can find ways to use technology to make larger English interaction (beyond that with the homework itself) a natural part of students’ weekly cycle.

What can be done?

One solution, but by no means the only one, is to use the Ning social networking platform (ning.com) to replicate your classes online. What is it? The easiest comparison would be to say that Ning is like Facebook or Cyworld, only owned and controlled by the teacher, all for free- a walled garden vs. an open world approach.

Why does it work?

At its core, Ning works because, like other social networking platforms, recreating human interaction is one of its key functions. That this functionality can also be used to facilitate the same sort of group and pair activities we do in our classes is a grand side-effect. Our role then as the teacher it to figure out how to use the various features (blogs, forums, videos, etc.) to place a snowball at the top of the hill and release- letting it accumulate conversations and feedback as it gathers momentum. When students log in they are never alone. They do their homework but just of of the corner of their eyes they can see others in their class working alongside them. Human curiosity leads to peripheral persuasion; they click to see what others are doing, what they are up to, and even just to say hello. We are taking social networking, an activity most of them already spend hours doing for fun, and embracing its potential for near-peer modeling, student-to-student feedback loops and group collaboration.

What is the result?

On a quantifiable level, in my own classes student feedback has improved across the board. More importantly, the level of student output (writing, speech and feedback generation) has increased dramatically- seeming to indicate that given the proper framework English community can succeed outside the classroom walls. What is not quantifiable is the overall better sense of togetherness my classes are experiencing. They are no longer just seeing each other twice a week in an English environment, but also whenever they log onto the network, and that appears to have lead to a much richer development of their second language personas.

Where can I learn more?

Explaining something like Ning is always better done by showing rather than telling. To aid this I’ve put up a large number of screencasts that will walk you through the various steps of creating a Ning network for your classes at joshuawdavies.com/ning, as well as links to my own Ning networks to use as examples. I hope you’ll join me there, as well as on education.ning.com (a site for educators using Ning) to continue this conversation.

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Joshua Davies inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Dec 30, 2008 at 12:46 PM
useful_web_sites | KOTESOL | teaching_application | (0) | |

Google is a very popular search engine, but did you know that it could also serve as a Tutor?

Google is a very popular search engine, but did you know that it could also serve as a Tutor? Click here to download a 5-page guide, or scroll down to preview a few tips from the guide itself. 

Enjoy…

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englishcafe inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Dec 16, 2008 at 04:59 AM
About_Language | Teaching | teaching_application | useful_web_sites | (0) | |

David Deublebeis is now blogging at the EFL Classroom 2.0 blog. I strongly recommend that you subscribe to his feed - I expect great things from this blog.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 at 03:26 PM
Teaching | useful_web_sites | |

My latest article for the Korea Herald is now out and it is on web 2.0 in the classroom. Read it at the Korea Herald site or look in the extended entry.

Hope you find it useful. I know there are many many more sites that could be introduced but due to space constraints I had to limit myself.

My Last Column

This is also my final column for the Korea Herald. I notified my editor when I submited this lasted column. I’m just too busy to continue writing this column. I’ll be watching the Expat Living section to see who my replacement is and I’m sure I’ll be linking to it in the future.

Korea Herald Readers

Welcome. Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this weeks column. If you would like to learn more about me visit my bio page. I have also been blogging at this site for 4 years so there are a lot of entries if you care to look through the archives. Some of my favorite or more popular entries are available on the classic entries page.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Sep 4, 2008 at 08:59 PM
Teaching | KH Column | useful_web_sites | |

I recently had a need to add a couple of powerpoint presentations to another web site I’m working on. I wanted to be able to embed the powerpoint and retain transistions and animations as well as embedded audio or video. A quick search didn’t reveal any definitive answers so I’m going to compare the options I did find. One of the keys with using powerpoint online is to remember that not everyone has powerpoint (but the viewer is free 2003 version & 2007 version and openoffice will also open powerpoint files with some loss in functionality)

I’m going to to look at a number of features across all options including: compatibility with pptx files, ease of use, privacy controls, embed, email, social network links, commenting, registration, downloading of original file, and licensing. To make the comparison equal across all options I’m using the same powerpoint file for all services and embedding it here. This is a powerpoint that I used in spring 2008 and it has several animations, transitions, video, and audio embedded. You can see the original by downloading it - I’ve included the ppt and pptx in the zip file (27.5mb). The options I’m looking at are:

• slideshare | jump link
• authorstream | jump link
• zoho show | jump link
• google docs | jump link
• 280 slides | jump link
• scribd | jump link
• Slideboom | jump link
• iSpring | jump link (free) | jump link (pro)
• slideboom & ispring integrated
• conclusion

Not all slideshow players are showing up in bloglines (and possibly other RSS readers) - visit my site to see everything.

Learn about each of these options in the extended entry.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Aug 10, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Random_Ramblings | useful_web_sites | |

EFL Geek has made the top 100 language blog list. There are a few blogs in the top ten that I’ve never heard of, but will check out shortly. If you’re looking to find some new language & teaching oriented blogs to follow, this is looks to be a good starting point.

You can read about the how and why the list was made as well as vote for your favorite on the list. If 100 isn’t enough to satisfy you, then you can check out the top 250 blogs.

For the record EFL Geek is number 16 - go and vote if you like this blog.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Jul 25, 2008 at 06:52 AM
useful_web_sites | web_site | |

I’ve been clearing out some email and came across another email from a reader with a site for students using real people called Real English - sounds similar to what I posted two days ago - Real ESL.

Real English is produced by Mike in the south of France. The videos head out to the street and stop random people and interview them on a specific point illustrating a language point. I can definitely see this being useful for very low level students. Mike says:

I interview people in the street in order to get original, spontaneous speech on camera. Then I take this very messy spontaneity and organize it into structures and functions for beginners and intermediate students, and then make lessons around these video.

I really like the intro to each video - it’s catchy. Below is the video for lesson six - introducing people, introducing yourself. This video also has participants spell their names.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jul 3, 2008 at 10:37 PM
Teaching | useful_web_sites | Video | |

Real ESL is a video blog by Kim Purcell that answers questions from second language learners and posts them up in a video on YouTube. Kim’s blog also contains a transcript of each video as an aid for learners.

Kim sent me an email introducing her site, which I had stumbled across before. I was checking it out in more detail this time when my wife (Korean) commented on her voice saying that she spoke very clearly - good for students.  Kim has over 10 years of teaching experience in Mexico, Korea, and L.A. - from her bio.

Below you can see a video from this entry. Watch the video and then check out her blog, it’s been running solid for several months now.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jul 1, 2008 at 08:40 PM
useful_web_sites | Readers_Questions | Video | |

Teaching Tips has published a list of the 100 Best Resources for Teachers. The list is divided into nine sections:

1. Lesson Plans and Handouts
2. Teaching Tips
3. Specifically for Techers
4. Activities
5. Specifically for teaching children
6. Specifically for teaching adults
7. Videos and Podcasts
8. Newsletters and Blogs
9. High Tech Teaching

This blog is featured in the Newsletters and Blogs section - go check out the list, I’m sure you’ll find something useful.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Jun 27, 2008 at 01:08 PM
useful_web_sites | web_site | |

David Deubelbeiss guest authored my column this week at my request. He runs a very large and successful ning site, EFL Classroom 2.0 - I feel that ning is a great resource for teachers but I didn’t have the time to explore it and write about it properly so I was pleased when David agreed to write the column. You can read it here, in the extended entry, or at the Korea Herald.

Korea Herald Readers
Welcome. Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this weeks column. If you would like to learn more about me visit my bio page. I have also been blogging at this site for 4 years so there are a lot of entries if you care to look through the archives. Some of my favorite or more popular entries are available on the classic entries page.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Jun 25, 2008 at 09:55 AM
useful_web_sites | KH Column | |

Hat tip to CotterHue on twitter - Hospital English has a lot of resources for teachers and learners in EAP. I don’t need it, but I’m sure many teachers could use this resource.

HospitalEnglish.com contains FREE resources for medical professionals studying English and medical printables for teachers.  I host medical vocabulary builders, patient counseling activities, disease state directors, healthcare professional articles, medical flashcards, hospital lesson plans, ESP worksheets and more to come.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Jun 25, 2008 at 09:20 AM
useful_web_sites | Materials | |

Many teachers either give presentations to faculty, at conferences or teach a presentations skills class - I know I’ve done all of the above. Make a Presentation like Al Gore is a good resource for a summary of what needs to be done.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Jun 20, 2008 at 04:18 PM
useful_web_sites | teaching_application | |

This week I had a student who has been absent several times explain his situation and ask how he could make up the classes. Being in a good mood and liking this student I decided to have him create three comic strips using BitStrips.

I included the one below as a sample when I emailed the assignment to him. Click for full-size.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Jun 6, 2008 at 07:07 AM
Teaching | useful_web_sites | |

Zunal

zWebquest is a web-based software for creating WebQuests in a short time. When you use zWebquest, you will not need any of writing HTML code or using any web editor software. zWebquest creates all the necessary files and puts them on the server automatically. Hosting is FREE!

Hat tip to Nellie Muller via twitter.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday May 31, 2008 at 08:29 PM
useful_web_sites | |

The 31 day comment challenge is something that I’ve been meaning to write about and participate in since it started but I’m already 7 days behind. I first heard about it from Langwitches where there are already numerous posts about the activity.

The challenge is to essentially widen the range of comments and discussion in the edublogger arena - one of the keys to keeping your posts known is to tag them for technocrati with comment08 or include a link to that feed in your entry. There is also a list of participants on the wiki which will be a great source to find new blogs to follow - I’ll be adding my blog there and trying to participate as much as possible.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday May 7, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | useful_web_sites | |

UK teacher posts about how twitter has helped him with his classroom. Not as a classroom application but to help him connect with teachers around the world.

Jonathon writes:

After working pretty much alone for the last three years online, the chance to get an idea of what is going on in MFL classrooms around the world, especially in the UK has been wonderful. Twitter has allowed me this chance by being able to see what interests other people. It’s something like staff-room eavesdropping but hey, we all know how useful that can be.

Thanks to Twitter’s users (in particular Jose Picardo) I came across Animoto which is a great site allowing users to submit music with images to create video. Animoto then does the rest for you, turning it into a half-decent slideshow.

I’m also unfamiliar with animoto, but you can learn more about what Jonathon did with it by reading his post. I’ve also been using twitter for a very short time and have found several interesting resources from the people I follow. About half of the people I follow are EFL teachers and the other half are in web design. Twitter is interesting, but also potentially a waste of time - filter what you read and write is my motto. Anyhow go check out Jonathons post for more information.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday May 2, 2008 at 12:31 PM
Teaching | teaching_application | useful_web_sites | |

Secrets of Those that Do the TEFL Hiring is both a thread on the ELT World forums and a post on the ELT World blog summarizing the thread. This is an informative read with perspectives from various people involved in hiring from around the globe.

I’ve been going to ELT World for a while now. The forums have a good mix of people from various countries and it doesn’t seem to be quite so vitriolic as Dave’s Cafe. There is also a little more professional talk, though that is not all - there’s still the chatty threads and fun things that one would expect from a message board.

The downside is that there are not enough regular posters. there are 3-5 new posts/threads a day in the busiest forums, but other forums haven’t seen a post since I started there. I really think that this forum has potential to be an excellent community and for ELT instructors world wide. However the admin has tried to copy Dave’s cafe by have forums for each specific country or region when there isn’t the user base to support this. If there were only 2-3 forums to start the users that are there would be more concentrated resulting in more new threads in the area of high traffic. This would draw in more users and eventually there would be a large enough user base to diversify and add more forums.

Despite the lack of focus, I am an active member there and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. If you are looking for a community with potential for growth and that is not over moderated and filled with negativity like Dave’s Cafe then I suggest you head over to the ELT World Forums and give them a boost. Also check out the affiliated blog.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Apr 5, 2008 at 08:35 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | Teaching | useful_web_sites | |

For the past few months I haven’t been commenting on or linking to other blogs very much. I’m not sure why, but instead of saving posts in order to comment/link to them later I’m going to try and get on it right away.

First off, Larry Ferlazzo has been doing some serious high quality ELT blogging for some time now and there are so many posts that i have failed to comment on or link to it’s a shame. Be sure to check out his archives. I submitted an entry to the Fourth ELL/ESL/EFL Carnival that Larry posted including this comment EFL Geek from Korea, who might be the “dean” of ESL/EFL bloggers. I don’t know about that, but I like the sound of it. Thanks Larry. Another recent entry is The Best Websites for Learning English Pronunciation

The Marmot (47 comments and counting) also links to an op/ed piece in the Korea times - Foreign Teachers need to be given a Stake in the System. I agree with the basic premise that foreign instructors need to be given a stake in the system, but the author shoots himself in the foot when he writes:

Candidates should be selected from the top 50 universities of English-speaking nations with a demonstrated ability to deliver knowledge in a confident, meticulous, and courteous manner.

The author has a B.A. in Sociology and an M.A. in Asian Studies, how does that qualify one to be a language teacher? Sure it meets the visa qualifications, but I would take a teacher with education and linguistics degree from an unknown university over a teacher with an unrelated degree from Harvard.

The Marmot (9 comments and counting) also links to an article stating that SMOE will send foreign instructors to a 2 month training program.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Apr 2, 2008 at 01:43 PM
Public_Service_Announcement | useful_web_sites | ESL_in_the_News | |

Nanogong is a third party add-in for moodle that allows students to do audio homework directly inside moodle. If I can get some time this weekend I’ll install this and see if I can use it with my students.

Students can submit their voice and/or text message using a NanoGong recorder and the HTML editor as shown on the right. Once the message is submitted it can be changed or deleted later, provided that the message has not been locked by a teacher or an administrator.

A locked message means it cannot be changed or deleted by the student. The NanoGong activity only allows teachers and administrators to lock a message. For example a teacher may not want the student to change his/her message after the message is graded. Students can revisit the activity to check his grade and comments anytime.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Mar 21, 2008 at 04:21 PM
useful_web_sites | Moodle | |