Burcu Akyol's Blog

October 17, 2011
by admin
5 Comments

Einstein Would Have Loved an iPad!

Einstein, who was never able to recall his own phone number, was famous for not memorizing anything that could be quickly and easily looked up in a standard reference volume. “Never memorize what you can look up in books,” he said.
(Source: Life Magazine)

He said this probably in 1920s when books and newspapers were the only sources of information, and at the time it was probably an odd way of thinking for many people. But he was so right, because he needed the capacity of his brain to identify problems, find solutions and new ways of seeing things rather than store millions of not-so-necessary information.

Can you imagine how much he would have loved an iPad?

Here I use iPad as a symbol for the other available technologies that make reaching information easy and I want to thank Steve Jobs for changing the way we work, the way we create and the way we communicate.

Rest in peace Steve Jobs.

Well… From 1920s to 2000s, although the school systems haven’t changed significantly, the way we live and learn has changed enormously.

In today’s global world, in order to be successful, we should be able to think critically and creatively. Therefore we don’t need not-so-necessary information in our brains either.

What we need to do is to identify the best channels through which we can reach information. As educators we have twice as much responsibility. First, for ourselves, to develop professionally; second, for our students, to guide them towards appropriate learning resources. Besides we need to accept the fact that today’s learners need information to use it, not to memorize it. Therefore we should set them meaningful tasks, give them real reasons to learn and create learning environments where they can use what they learn in class. While doing this, we can benefit from available technologies, technologies that offer us useful tools to make learning easier, more interesting and more fun.

I think it is necessary to reconsider our role in students’ learning experiences. We are no longer ‘teachers’. We are guides, facilitators and sources of inspiration. And most importantly, we are lifelong learners.

Wishing you a week full of joy and laughter!

October 11, 2011
by admin
4 Comments

Sharks Have To Keep Moving To Stay Alive? What About Blogs?

In my sessions about blogs, I use a metaphor that is inspired by Presentation Zen:

“Blogs are like sharks. Sharks have to keep moving…or they die. A blog has to keep moving, keep progressing, be consistently updated…or it will die.”

The problem is I haven’t written a blog post for five months… It was a very long break.

By the way, look what I’ve found about sharks:

“Can sharks stop swimming and live?

It is definitely not true for every shark species.

In fact, those species of sharks that live near the bottom of the ocean, can be seen unmoving, often within caves or other shelters, while they rest (it’s hard to say if they “sleep” like us, but they’re certainly resting and unresponsive).”

Good news is my blog is still alive…it was just resting:)

To warm up for my next blog post…

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

Henry Ford

Have a good week:)

May 9, 2011
by admin
7 Comments

After ISTEK ELT and IATEFL 2011

It’s been a year since I wrote a post with the same title, about the two events that changed my professional life, goals and vision, the two events that taught me a lot about being a better organizer and presenter.

Some of my colleagues wrote wonderful blog posts about ISTEK ELT and our blog is full of great videos and entries thanks to our roving reporter Mark Andrews who did a fantastic job during the conference.

Having been an event which inspired me to think bigger and more creatively as an organizer, the IATEFL conference, once again, was full of wonderful sessions and social events. I’m already looking forward to the next conference.

In this post, I want to share the three things that I’ve learned from these two events both as a presenter and organizer. I find it interesting that the things I’ve learned apply very well to both roles of mine.

Always think big & Success is a matter of attitude.

I’ve learned that almost nothing is impossible if you have clear aims and if you always think positively about what life can bring to you. I believe in the Law of Attraction though I am not a person who reads books full of lists and strategies that claim to help you become a more successful person. I simply believe that if your mind has positive thoughts, you will attract positive things. The same belief applies vice-versa (if you think negative thoughts, you will attract negative things).

Having good communication skills is much more important than lots of other things in professional life.

In both events, I witnessed several problems and different attitudes towards problems (technology problems or different occasions in which either a presenter or a participant is discontented about something). And I saw different cases where problems were solved smoothly or became something bigger. This was because of either the attitude of the problem owner or the problem solver. No matter how great one’s educational background or field knowledge is, if they lack communication skills they have very little chance to be liked by others and be successful in life…but it is never late to work on it:-)

Live every moment to the fullest.

If you concentrate too much on the stressful part of your job, it is certain that you will miss the best part of it. If you are presenting something, it means that you are sharing something that you think is worth sharing and this also must be an event that you celebrate yourself. So try to develop strategies to make this happen. As an organizer I can’t say that I can live every moment of the conference to the fullest but I try to do my best. As a presenter, I am doing much better than I used to do at the beginning but, of course, I have lots more to learn.

I hope I can get comments from experienced organizers and presenters about the strategies they use:-)

***

I also would like to tell you about one of the highlights of the IATEFL. Actually, the anecdote took place on my way back home, up above the clouds. I sat next to an English teacher, Nevin Adalar, who is a senior lecturer at Eastern Mediterranean University. She presented at the IATEFL, as well, but we didn’t have the chance to meet there, on the ground:-). We had a very nice chat and talked about conferences, teaching, technology and lots of other stuff. I even managed to do my presentation to her at 20.000 feet:-) She turned out to be the aunt of one of our students in Kindergarten whose teacher is running a class blog. She kindly accepted to be filmed about what she thinks about blogging from an auntie’s perspective:-) Here is the video: