There are, of course, many obvious reasons for creating your own ELT materials. Coursebooks don’t have enough materials in them (or not enough of the ones you really need), some things may need more extensive practice or explanation, and sometimes there is no material whatsoever! With your own materials, you get to do things more YOUR way, and there is always that nice fuzzy feeling that you get knowing that the class is progressing and doing well with something based on your ideas and activities rather than someone else’s.

However, here are some other reasons for writing your own materials which you may not have given (much) thought to yet.

1. Adjusting the distance between course materials and learner contexts

Generally speaking, the more “global” course materials are, the more distant they tend to become from specific contexts, their needs, and their preferred learning styles. The “one size fits all” approach (often the holy grail of major international publishers) can’t possibly address all of the interests and learning needs of the students in your particular country – but the supplements or complete course materials you develop yourself (possibly) can. Your materials can involve the local country’s people, geography, history, and current events. They can also make the most of the learners’ predictable learning difficulties and preferences, and cater to the local testing arena. Learners are likely to feel closer to, more familiar and more comfortable with these sorts of materials.

However (and before the localized publishers out there throw their arms in the air and claim a brilliant victory for their capacity to deliver exactly what local learners and teachers “need”!), locally published course materials often run the risk of featuring singularly narrow approaches to teaching methodology, and can be stifled, over-predictable and too test-oriented. Creating supplementary material for these courses ourselves means we can incorporate more eclectic approaches to content and teaching, and give our learners a glimpse of a broader world outside the borders of their own country’s approach to teaching English.

This kind of elastic gap between global and local language learning content has been taken up in the “Glocal” movement of late, but teachers who can write their own materials and apply them well in class are that all-important elastic that allows course content to narrow or broaden, and incorporate more of that absolute spice of life – variety.

2. Incorporating our own methodological concerns into our teaching approach

This is linked somewhat to the point above, but approaches and methodology are certainly not always just “global” versus “local” (they can vary from teacher to teacher), and it’s important for teachers to be able to both tweak the approach represented in coursework for the direct benefit of their learners, and experiment with new approaches and techniques to break new ground and find new and better ways to teach. Writing your own supplements and materials is the best way to facilitate these factors.

By way of example, look at the approach that forms the backbone of my own (hey, had to slip a plug in here somewhere, didn’t I?) Boost! Speaking coursebook series (center), and the ways teachers might add or insert their own supplements to adapt the overall approach:

While I doubt many teachers would ever need or even want to incorporate the number of additions shown here, they do serve to show how a basic set of materials can be adapted to incorporate different aspects of teaching methodology, and almost all of them would require some sort of materials writing or activity design from the teacher concerned.

Of course, to really make the most of your methodological beliefs and favourite techniques, you would need to consider making whole units of material on your own. It can be exhausting (and often thankless) work, but the pay-offs can be enormous.

3. Materials design and teacher development

When you design your own materials, you are facilitating progression as a teacher in terms of both knowledge and professionalism.

On the knowledge front, you get a better awareness of what works and what doesn’t in a variety of different classroom settings. If you are required to use coursebooks (and let’s face it, most of us are), your own materials design skills will give you broad instincts about what, when, and how existing materials need to be adapted or added to in order to cater to the specific needs of your learners. Materials and activity design also gives you a deeper awareness of methodology and learning styles and strategies, as it involves thinking your way through learning processes and making a lot of key decisions that will have a major impact on what happens in class. If you share your materials with other teachers, you gain even broader knowledge by seeing how they may apply your materials in different ways. When they need guidance or explanation on how to apply the material (and why), it forces you to vocalize your objectives, rationales and approach – solidifying it all in your own personal knowledge framework.

For the professionalism side of things, there is no doubt that people who create their own materials look and feel like more capable teachers compared to the teachers that don’t. Materials design requires good decision-making, a willingness to experiment and learn from both successes and failures, and – well – let’s face it: a lot of extra work! Learners know when a teacher is making good stuff for them to use, and they view the teacher as being more committed, knowledgeable, and professional as a result. The teacher with his/her own materials tends to attract the attention of other teachers looking for new ideas, which in turn leads to more discussion (including constructive criticism and that noble art of making suggestions) and sharing, and I think these are two essential ingredients in professional relationships. As an academic coordinator, I was always more willing to listen to the opinions of teachers who had made some sort of effort to improve their own teaching situations with their own materials – especially when it came to major decisions about course structure, methodology, content, and assessment. Simply put (and irrespective of official teaching qualifications), to my mind these teachers were more professional and more worth listening to!

All of these factors also contribute to self-belief, which is a major sign of ongoing teacher development. Self-belief feeds confidence, independence and commitment, all of which help you to become a better teacher.

4. Improving your career opportunities

Materials design can be an important factor in determining how far you might go within the ELT field and (for that matter) whether you can make a successful transition to a related or different field altogether.

For one, the materials you make yourself become like an ongoing resume or “track record” of your development and experience as a teacher. While you can always list years or total number of hours spent teaching, it becomes a pretty dry-looking statistic without a whole lot of substance. When it comes to promotions within ELT contexts or applying for new jobs elsewhere, that folder/file/blog/site documenting all of your own materials can become extremely influential. It’s proof of what you know, what you’ve done, and what you are likely to bring to a new position.

Secondly, if you begin to progress into academic management or curriculum design roles, your own “stash” of ELT materials can become really useful. In addition to having a lot of material that can become incorporated into the curriculum immediately, you will have material to help or inspire less experienced teachers, and you will have the confidence and capacity to create whatever is needed for the school and its programs. It’s also a sure way to earn some important initial respect and confidence from a new teaching team you may be in charge of (and it can help offset the later shock when you turn out to be an authoritarian slave-driver or else that poor thankless sod that has to pass on nasty announcements to the team from upper management.:-)

Next, other career and money-earning opportunities open to the teacher who can create good teaching/learning materials. Once you have a big enough stash of tried-and-true good quality materials, you might consider selling them directly online (or selling access to them online through subscriptions). It’s also a great way to attract the attention of commercial publishers – in addition to the “track record” I described above, if/when you actually land a publishing contract your ELT materials experience will help you manage the actual process of writing and decision-making about different kinds of activities and levels. These two opportunities certainly ended up working for me personally: over several years of ELT materials creation I managed to build up enough material to launch and develop a very successful online teacher resource site (oh, there’s another plug opportunity) – www.EnglishRaven.com – and the material on that site in turn helped me win a major publishing contract with Pearson Longman (any more plugs here and I’ll be at risk of becoming a plumber or something), resulting in the Boost! Integrated Skills Series. It may not pan out like that for all materials writers, and of course shouldn’t always be a primary goal for writing your stuff, but these can be nice options to potentially explore.

Beyond those considerations, professional materials design experience has cross-application to different fields of work if you ever decide to go beyond or outside ELT. In addition to the computer and Internet skills that you may have picked up along the way, you’ll be in the box seat if you ever need to produce things like presentation or training materials (just to name a couple). And remember, if you can write material that is accessible and clear to second/foreign language learners, there’s a good chance you can produce beautifully clear directions and explanations for 1st language contexts as well, and this is a skill that is often highly regarded in many different fields of work.

Jason’s Top Ten Tips for Budding ELT Materials Writers

1. If you don’t have great computer skills, be patient but definitely stick at it. When I started making ELT materials, I barely knew how email worked and I struggled to make a presentable resume in Microsoft Word. Learning how to use the applications effectively was all part of the process – it took time and a lot of patience!

2. Start with simple supplements to go with existing coursebooks (they are usually quick and manageable to produce, and may be relevant to many other teachers in your immediate teaching context), then upgrade to chapters or units of your own, and then later perhaps even whole textbooks!

3. It’s a good idea to learn how to write test materials, especially your own versions of parts of major tests like the Cambridge ESOL test suite, TOEFL, TOEIC, etc. – you will get great insights on how your own learning materials correlate to major tests and test task types (and this is very important to many schools and certainly to publishers).

4. Always write your name or site or business somewhere in a header or footer, and learn how to convert your files to PDF (to maintain your authorship of the materials you make).

5. Make good presentation a priority, as first impressions really do count and the levels of care and attention you put into paper-based material is often reciprocated in the response to it by learners, other teachers, schools or publishers.

6. Be willing to share your material and consider 3 levels or layers of materials sharing (in-house with other teachers at the same school, at conferences or training seminars, and over the Internet through blogs or websites) – it will bring you broader feedback but also broader recognition.

7. Consider making supplementary materials or even textbooks for your school or department without expecting extra payment – you may be missing out on an effective writing apprenticeship if you try to make it about money right from the start.

8. Store your best materials in an organised way in both print form and online somewhere, for easy retrieval but also for effective presentation to prospective employers or publishers.

9. Don’t get your hopes up in terms of having your work published by a major publishing company (they very rarely take on outside proposals these days), but use your existing materials to catch publishers’ attention (through Internet or conferences), as they may then approach you to help write something they’ve already planned or are looking to develop.

10. Write materials for the love of it, not because you hope it will earn you a lot of money. Very few ELT writers are rich in monetary terms, but all ELT writers (at every level of experience or exposure) are richer for what they bring to their learners and own sense of professionalism.

***

Jason Renshaw has taught English for more than 17 years in countries on three different continents. He is the author of the acclaimed Boost! Longman Integrated Skills Series, and is the founder/webmaster of the well-known teacher resource website www.EnglishRaven.com. He has also developed considerable specialization in materials design and test preparation for TOEFL, TOEIC and IELTS. Currently, Jason lives in Australia and works from his home near the beach as a freelance ELT materials writer and tutor for his own online school: www.English-iTutor.com.

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… or Something Else or Elsewhere

I’ve published well over a hundred TEFL articles on sites like Humanising Language Teaching, Onestopenglish, Developing Teachers, TEFL.net, and in magazines like English Teaching Professional and Modern English Teacher, plus several hundred book reviews and worksheets, including my latest review in ELT Journal in October- something that I long thought was beyond me but turned out to be a surprisingly easy and pleasant experience. Might even be ready to try for “third time lucky” with ITESLJ next!

The secret of my “success” in getting published is… willingness! That’s right, websites and magazines are crying out for content of all kinds and all you need to do get an article (or a hundred articles), book review, teaching tip or photocopiable worksheet on teaching English published is to get them down on paper and send them off. If you don’t believe me, here are some things you probably thought you’d need that you most certainly do not:

You don’t need to:

Write in “house style”

A few publications do have some rules, but they’ll generally give you a chance to redo it or edit it their way for you. Alternatively, you can just send it to someone else who wants it your way

Write a lot

The internationally famous IATEFL magazine Voices is presently calling for pieces of 400 to 800 words of length, which is little more than the length of a lesson plan

Give lots of references

Again, some magazines and a website or two do ask for this (or at least assume you’ll write this way), but you can easily add them by reading a book or two on the topic and some recent TEFL magazines. Alternatively, you can just send the article to one of the places that don’t need them

Be an expert

There will almost certainly lots of people reading that have little or no experience of the kind of teaching you are doing, and even those with more experience than you will be interested to see another perspective on it, to see what they have been thinking written down or even to take disagreeing with you as a prompt to get their own thoughts on the matter together. Even if you write about things that didn’t work especially well, some of the people writing will be able to make them work better or use your article to help them come up with their own ideas

Be definitive or scientific

The present fashion in TEFL articles even by the “experts” is to admit how little we know about how students learn and so how we should teach, especially when we take into account what different circumstances English is taught in, and so to talk through options rather than give answers. Going together with this has been an acceptance of teaching as more of an art than a science. There is therefore an acceptance of what has always been true in teaching, that talking people through your struggles to understand or cope can be at least as valuable as telling people what you think they should do.

Be especially original

Collections of well known activities or summaries of research and what other books say are always welcome, if only to remind teachers of activities that they had forgotten about or to find all the information in one place. Often seen articles that take little if any inspiration include Variations on…, A Re-examination of… and attempts to revive reviled or almost forgotten techniques like dictation or (in the most recent Modern English Teacher) reading aloud.

Produce impeccable work

Editors like editing! Ones who find time constraints stop them doing that as much as they would like are more than happy to send some tips for how to rewrite something.

Be a native speaker

The vast majority of the English teachers in the world are non-native English speakers, and yet most of the time they are being told how to teach by native speakers, often ones without much experience of learning languages! Not only are most teachers interested in hearing from non native speaking teachers who are in their situation, many native speakers are interested in learning about how others see the profession. If you are worried about making English grammar mistakes in your writing, see above.

Know who you are writing for

While knowing that you are writing something for English Teaching Professional and what kinds of teachers read it could help you write something suitable for them, it is probably better just to write what you want how you want and then see which place that article matches best. You can then do whatever rewriting is needed to make it really match, or just send it off how it is and the editors will tell what needs doing (if anything).

Wait forever

Some of the more academic magazines/ journals do seem to publish reviews of books two or three years after they come out and so I guess they probably would make you wait a while, especially as these are the kinds of publications that universities want their professors to get published in. With more practical TEFL magazines like ETP and MET, you sometimes have to wait a while but it depends on which section you have written for and you could ask the editor which section they most need content for. On the internet, on the other hand, you could submit it today and have it up by next week.

Be famous

In fact, the type of writer editors are most looking for is “the next big thing” rather than “the last big thing”

How to do it

If I’ve persuaded you to give it a go, here are the details on how to write for some of the publications that are desperately waiting for you, in approximate order of how easy they are to write for:

UsingEnglish.com

TEFL.net

ETP (English Teaching Professional magazine)

Developingteachers.com

MET (Modern English Teacher magazine)

IATEFL Voices

HLTmag (Humanising Language Teaching magazine)

ELTJ (ELT Journal)

ITESLJ (Internet TESOL Journal)

TESL-EJ

Other options

If you don’t feel ready to write an article yet, here are some even easier ways of getting published:

Blogging

You can develop your ideas there until you reach a point where you’d like to write about it in more detail or more systematically.

WordPress.com

EnglishClub EFL blogs

Edublogs

Blog guest pieces

TEFLtastic

EFL Geek

Book reviews

TEFL.net

TESL-EJ

Lesson plans

Onestopenglish.com Lesson Share competition

Worksheets

ESL printables

Warmer and game ideas

TEFL.net Ideas page

Dave’s ESL Café Idea Cookbook

TEFL news articles

EL Gazette

Other articles by me on getting published:

15 easy ways to write a TEFL article or workshop

Places to start getting published

Alex Case, TEFL.net Reviews Editor and writer of TEFLtastic blog.

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A call for presenters to PREsent your TOpic with 10 slides auto-advancing every 20 seconds (total of 3min 20sec) went out to experienced ESL and EFL presenters, language learning experts and language learning technologists a mere six weeks ago. How did this speedy presentation technique came about? Why so short and who is invited to present?

Inspired by Pecha Kucha (20×20)

Pecha Kucha was the first of these speedy presentation techniques and it originated in Japan in 2003 by Klein/ Dytham, an architect couple who at that time faced the challenge that there were very few venues or events available to present their architectural work.

With 8 to 14 presentations per evening, Pecha Kucha nights quickly became known to be lively, trendy and excitable shows of artists and photographers, outsiders and insiders, journalists and scientists and abounded with crispy information nuggets. Turning hugely popular and viral and without a dime spent on advertisement, Pecha Kucha nights are now held in nearly 100 countries around the globe as a beloved speedy presentation format, proving to be the ideal recipe to combat bullet points.

A great example of such a lively event is the recording of the Pecha Kucha night at IATEFL in Cardiff this year with a series of fabulous presentations. The most fascinating one of all is the first one with not only 20 slides, not only 20 seconds per slide but even 20 presenters (!) by Second Life tenants of EduNation, organised by Gavin Dudeney. Hats off for this performance. So much fun to watch.

Adapted by Ignite (20×15)

Web technology publisher Tim O’Reilly (who coined the expression Web 2.0) got equally excited only to find that the very format is patented. Imagine this, how can one patent ’20 slides auto-advancing every 20 seconds’? Not only copyright protected but even patented. Hence O’Reilly thought to adapt this format to 20 slides auto-advancing every 15 seconds and called for presenters to present in a mere 5min. Challenging indeed.

They called it Ignite and ignite it did in 2006. On the Ignite YouTube channel we can enjoy the first recorded live presentations. Equally fast, Ignite events spread around the globe.

An Ignite highlight is this fabulous presentation of a research project by Molly Write Steenson into Paris’ tube system to deliver mail from around turn of the 19th/20th century. What an example of great informational value, ‘Ancient Twitter’ in 5min. Enjoy.

But if this isn’t short enough, why Presto 10×20?

Pecha Kucha consists of 20 slides and Presto 10×20 is simply half the amount of slides – not half the amount of time per slide. (We tried that too, and this truly is too fast).

In fact, many of us tried Pecha Kucha presentations and here is a fabulous set of 10 Pecha Kuchas at the WIACO Conference in May 2009. Wonderfully colorful, great content, fun to watch. Personally I believe that this format is still the best for live conference presentations.

What all of us found out in the process though, that a Pecha Kucha presentation is really, really hard to do. In fact, it is so difficult that even experienced speakers struggled.

My own first Pecha Kucha took me more than 6 hours to rehearse and in the end I was so nerve-wrecked that I even wrote down the whole presentation only to read it off the script. And I am never write down my speeches.

We also wanted to create a great free-speaking presentation exercise for our language learners and not kill them in the process.

Hence, the Presto 10×20 format kind of lent itself and it even holds a great plus: Presto 10×20 is great for recordings and ideal for YouTube.

The advantages of recordings are..

• our language learners can listen to themselves (an exercise every presenter should do too)
• the viewers can stop and start the presentation whenever they like and look at the slides in detail
• it can be edited and whilst it can not be cut because of the timing, the ‘hums and haws’ can always be silenced
• it can be redone until the presenter gets it right
• no audience, no stress, no stage fright
• great feed-back from peer
• great insight analysis by YouTube as to the whereabouts of the viewers and how they found out about this video

One question still remains. Is Presto 10×20 not too short?

Judge for yourself and let us know what you think when you see the first two Presto presentations by W’ and Burcu herself.

The first two courageous ones

Wlodzimierz Sobkowiak was the first. Wlodzimierz, known as W’ in real life or Wlodek in Second Life, gave this fabulous presentation about Phonetic affordance of Second Life for EFL.

And Burcu was the second courageous test driver with her well-rehearsed presentation about her work with class blogs, a presentation that fetched more then 110 views in a mere 10 days on our channel.

How many views did you get, Burcu on your own blog post?

W’ and Burcu did a fabulous job and yet they are English teachers and experienced presenters.

Can you see your language learners try this out? This week, one of our new trainees of the LANCELOT course, Sylvia who teaches at International House in Mexico will try to create a Presto10x20 with her nephew who sells Xango.

We are all excited. Are you?

Heike Philp is founder and managing director of LANCELOT School GmbH, an accredited training center for language trainers in the use of state-of-the-art virtual classroom technology. With over 20 years in education and several years of teaching German in Japan and the UK, Heike took on the live online challenge by starting a virtual language school and her experience subsequently led her to co-initiate the European funded LANCELOT project. The LANCELOT project (www.lancelot.at) saw 23 partners in 8 countries jointly developing a train-the-trainer course for language teachers. Heike’s enthusiasm for synchronous Internet communication also led her to co-initiate yet another European funded project: AVALON. AVALON stands for Access to Virtual and Action Learning live Online and is about language learning in Second Life and started in January 2009 with a consortium of 26 European partners, 11 of which are Universities.

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Stage 1: Newbie

I believe Twitter works in stages that interlock, which is shown in the above image. I joined Twitter in April 2009 when my little sister asked me if Twitter was useful for educators. I had to investigate, so I joined and added some educators I knew and all the educators in my field on the Twitter for Teachers wiki.

Stage 2: Reporter

However, my Twitter adventure actually began on May 17, 2009. I was at a poetry reading hosted by my colleague and friend, Karenne Sylvester, who pointed out that she never saw me on Twitter. At the time, I did not understand how to use Twitter and posting updates about my life made me feel silly!

However, at this point a light bulb went off in my head as I realized I could tweet about the fascinating projects other educators were doing. Immediately, I went home and tweeted about the poetry event. Additionally, I began clicking the links of the people I was following, leaving comments on blogs, and tweeting their blogs. These helped me establish relationships and make connections with other progressive minded educators.

Stage 3: Subject Matter Expert

So what do you tweet about if you are not tweeting about others?

We cannot always tweet about others. Part of the Twitter experience is also establishing your self within the educational community. For me, this question really helped me to make connections on Twitter. I began to reflect on what I could offer my Personal Learning Network (PLN) and what impression I wanted them to have of me. I changed my Twitter profile background and began tweeting links I collected over the years that helped me plan lessons or helped me with my Master’s thesis on closing the achievement gap of English Language Learners through Web 2.0 technology.

Immediately, I started a blog, because I wanted to investigate the various educational tools provided by my PLN. Moreover, I felt I had put several hours into gaining experience and researching these two fields that I did consider myself a subject matter expert in these fields. What does your education and experience make you a subject matter expert in? Tweet links or ideas related to this subject that you find through your Google reader or through Google alerts.

Stage 4: Involvement

This stage is the most important and must be the foundation of the other stages. Involve yourself with the people you connect with by retweeting their links, answering their questions, starting discussions with them, creating links to their blogs from your blog, joining their projects, or joining their networks. If an educator is rude enough not to respond to your conversation attempts, please try again with another educator who will respond. I apologize for their bad Twitter manners.

Below is a graph of the projects I have been involved in since I began really using Twitter three months ago. Moreover, this graph shows the possibilities that await you if you join Twitter and really use this social forum to establish relationships with progressive minded educators.

I recommend the following links for getting started on Twitter:

Get a free Twitter mentor

This slide show will help you with the basics

Review my Youtube Channel with several Twitter tutorials,

Visit my previous Twitter posts by clicking here.

Shelly, a native Texan, is an English language instructor and curriculum writer in Germany. Additionally, she has taught the Twitter for Beginners and Managing Twitter online courses series for Edufire.

Visit her blog at http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/

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A Whole New World

There are many ways of meeting up with people and sharing your skills and knowledge these days: you can opt for the traditional face-to-face model with all its advantages of food, wine, good company and stimulating conversation or you can (more often than not, for many reasons) do it online.

The choice of tools there varies, of course – from the quick fire Twitter model to the more considered discussion forum with all its advantages of encouraging deeper critical thinking. But for a real social experience, why not try Second Life? Gavin Dudeney investigates…

Second Life (SL), is a three-dimensional online synchronous environment, otherwise known as a Multi-User Virtual Environment, or MUVE. Think of a video game, where you can take on a three-dimensional character (or avatar) and visit an entire “world”, populated by real people who are accessing SL from their own computers all around the globe.
Founded in 2003 by Philip Rosedale, a pioneering web developer with the California-based company Real Networks, SL is a virtual world that currently has more than 15 million members, each with their own avatar, a “cartoon” representation of their real self.
The SL world has parks, shops, schools, museums, islands and beaches all designed and maintained by the residents. It is also supported by an economy fuelled by “Linden dollars (L$)” – if you want to look good in SL, then you’ll need to buy virtual clothes, designed by one of your fellow residents. You can buy virtual land, build a house (or have an SL architect design one for you) and fill it up with virtual furniture.
Harvard University are running classes there, and so are Trinity College Dublin. Suzanne Vega and U2 have performed there, and Kurt Vonnegut talks about his writings ‘in-world’. You can take a class in creative writing or Tibetan, learn how to run a business or become a video director, all from the comfort of your own home.
It is this versatility that is prompting people to move from more traditional networked communication tools, such as Microsoft Messenger or Skype (and expensive time-bound options such as videoconferencing), to a place where they can (quite literally) invite their friends round to ‘their place’. And this new means of communication is also attracting the attention of educators and language teachers who want a more visually-rich and stimulating environment in which to get together and talk, share, discover and invent.
Recent gatherings I’ve attended have included a chat by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings on their ‘Teaching Unplugged’ book, a visit to Dennis Newson’s ‘DOGME garden’ and the regular SLexperiments Friday afternoon meetings where teachers worldwide get together to chat and swap experiences – sometimes about SL, but more often than not about pedagogy and approaches to teaching.
And, as manager of the three EduNation islands, I’m also responsible for running training and development events including the annual SLanguages Conference (now in its fourth year) and the successful ‘A Coffee With…’ series that has featured (among others) Scott Thornbury, Jeremy Harmer, Pete Sharma and Leon Cych this year.
These are warm, cosy meetings and have the advantage of allowing teachers worldwide to come together and share best practice without the expense of flights, hotels and everything else that accompanies a visit to a more traditional conference-style event.

Perhaps one of the most significant differences between a MUVE and other online communication tools is the opportunity it gives to incorporate non-verbal forms of communication. SL meet-ups can often appear more ‘real’ and warm – one has more of a sense of the person behind the text or voice – enhanced by the clothing they have chosen and how they behave, where they choose to sit and how they communicate (in  both spoken and written forms).
And, of course, you’re not staring at a dull chat page of scrolling text or avoiding eye contact in a video-conferencing application – in SL everything is in glorious Technicolour with movement, animation and a sense of space. You can even take your meeting off to virtual Paris, Rome or London – just for a bit of variety. Or, as we did on Friday, sit in a beautiful garden and use the flowers and trees for peaceful inspiration.
SL is particularly adept, too, at handling media, supporting a variety of audio and video formats. One can listen to podcasts, watch videos view images and webpages from a variety of sources. This can be done as a group, so allowing for follow-up discussion, and is a good way to incorporate slightly more formal training or development opportunities into the repertoire
Groups can also get together to watch PowerPoint presentations, with audio commentary by the presenter. Users can communicate among each other using public text chat (which everyone can read), private instant messaging, or even voice chat. All these tools offer a rich environment for teachers looking to meet up and share knowledge.
In short, SL is somewhere between the lively nature of Twitter (which often hampers longer, in-depth discussions due to the 140-character limit) and the more austere discussion forum (which, whilst promoting deeper critical thinking, is often hard-pressed to promote the more social side of sharing and learning).
SL’s strength lies in the ‘recognisable’ environment, the shared space, the sense of community, and – perhaps most importantly – the notion of ‘presence’. For me it’s the closest thing to actually sitting in a room with teachers and chewing the fat, and feels exactly like it does when I get together with fellow professionals in the bar at a conference and we put the world to rights. The only real difference, sadly, is that the beer in SL is virtual too!

To find out what you’ve been missing, check out the SLanguages Archive and see if it’s time you got a MUVE on…

Gavin is co-director of The Consultants-E and owner of three islands in Second Life. One day he hopes to own one in real life too! Check out his blog at http://slife.dudeney.com

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Why Leave a Comment on ELT Blogs?

“Blogging is just creative writing in another form – it’s all about communicating & making links”

“I blog cos I want to express myself in spaces that are not being controlled and monitored – where I can be myself”

“I get a lot of information from blogging which I’d have to search around for – I get ideas”

The above quotes were collected from students of mine (July, 2009) after Burcu asked me to write a contribution on leaving blog posts on EL blogs. I sent out an email, and this is what I got back – all my students’ ideas speak to me and are representative of how I feel too. Blogging is a new thing for me and something I got into in the last year whilst writing up my PhD and being away from my normal teaching/training heavy routine. In recent months I have done a 360º about turn on how positive I feel the experience can be. I have to admit that I used to be a bit cynical about blogging and responded to it much as I did to the idea of keeping a journal when I was a teenager – what is the point? How authentic is the process when you are just writing things that no-one is going to read? How useful is that and what does it achieve? Isn’t it all a bit self-indulgent? What I can definitely say is that actually being involved in blogging over the last year or so has really changed my perspective – not only on the process of blogging itself but on important issues in ELT that have been discussed in the blogosphere. I am about to set up my own blog which will be called “Critical Mass ELT”, after having realized I have become a serial contributor to other people’s blogs. Watch this space for more news – I am waiting for a bit of clear time to finish it. What I know is that I will really need people to contribute to my blog to make it work as it is the people and the communication that make blogging so vibrant.

I feel really honored therefore that Burcu thinks of me as someone who is in a position to comment on leaving blog post and that mine are posts she enjoys reading – given that I am such a novice compared to how active she herself is in the e-world, and how fantastic her own blogging contribution is. It made me realize that actually people do read each other’s posts and that there is real communication going on in the blogosphere that needs more careful thought than that which I used to give it in my dismissive pre-blogging days. It was really just that I didn’t understand what it had to offer. Recently someone on twitter described me as writing “mile long blog posts” so see how much I (and others) can change in relatively short spaces of time! This year I have had the pleasure of contributing to some really exciting discussions with on Critical DOGME, technology in teaching and developments in World English, and other contributors from around the globe added their thoughts to the discussions alongside me. I am also involved in blogs in areas of political and social interest that represent other parts of my life beyond ELT. Blogging knows no geographical boundaries and does not require a plane ticket to get involved. It does require computer equipment and an internet connection, but can also be done from public internet spaces if that equipment is out of people’s reach price wise.

So after Burcu’s request, I set about trying to pin down what is worthwhile about the experience, and what exactly it is that I get out of it. I would like to encourage as many EL teachers/trainers/writers to get involved in blogging as possible if you have something to say and enjoy thinking about EL teaching and learning – I think it is a valuable part of any professional development portfolio.

I think blogging offers us the chance to:

1. Contribute to important debates in equalized spaces with a range of knowledgeable people in ELT, both known and unknown. Real world conferences/events often mean rushed discussions, whereas blogs are not restricted by time and can go on as long as the contributors want.
2. Write down thoughts and feelings on issues in ELT without the immediate restrictions of formal writing that characterize written research – this for me is a very big pull as it provides the perfect balance to writing up my PhD
3. Get involved in fast paced and dynamic dialogues that might have several threads running at once – such innovative communication is a veritable feast of meaning for anyone interested in language
4. Get in touch with a wide range of opinion and perspective from classroom teachers, to teacher trainers, to researchers, to writers, to publishers – for me this is one of the biggest benefits as it enriches my understanding on different issues and widens the horizons of my thinking
5. Get involved in an ELT community! Sometimes as teachers we are diligently plugging away at our work in isolation – we need opportunities to share, discuss, debate those issues that are important in our profession – whether that be teaching ideas, thoughts about language acquisition or discussions about ideology. There is plenty of space for all kinds of topics
6. The final advantage for me is the chance to offer a critical perspective in discussion threads. Sometimes blogs stay safe with the ideas that circulate and it is important that they go outside their comfort zone from time to time. I like discussions that break new ground and really get to the heart of the matter.

Of course there are some things I don’t like about blogs which are:

1. Moderation queues – I think the best blogs are open source and allow people to contribute directly. When posts wait in a queue, the spontaneity of the discussion can be spoiled. Some blogs attached to organizations have this system which can be a bit annoying
2. Anonymous bloggers – I know all the reasons why people conceal their identities when blogging, but I still feel that it is better to let people know you are when you contribute – have the confidence to say what you want to say! But this is a subjective viewpoint and I understand people may have good reason to remain anonymous
3. Blog addiction – I have learned to pace myself and tend to focus only on one blog at a time! Otherwise blogging can be a bit addictive – everything in moderation. Each person knows their own limits on that score! Virtual dialogue is an enhancement and addition to face-to-face, not a replacement.

I’d like to finish off with a few tips about blogging that have really helped me. First join www.twitter.com – that’s where I get most of the info on good blog posts and new entries. Twitter is micro-blogging so it’s a good start! Make a note of the blogs that you like and revisit them often (in most cases you can also arrange to get an email roll when new entries are made so you can decide when to contribute). When you are ready to add into an interesting discussion, start with something small. I always write my posts in word first and then paste them in so I have a chance to consider important things like tone, style and clarity which often get overlooked in quick postings. Once you feel confident, the blogosphere is your oyster! Support bloggers by making those who take the initiative to set up their own blog feel proud of their work – in my experience people are thrilled to get contributors and to know that the effort they put in was worth it. Everyone has something worthwhile to say – and everyone has the right to be heard.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this short article – why not blog them back to me!

Sara Hannam is the Director of the English Unit at City College, Thessaloniki, Greece. Sara was the Associates’ Representative for IATEFL from 2006-9, and Vice-President of TESOL Northern Greece from 2003-5. Sara has a BA, MEd, CELTA, DELTA and is currently completing her PhD with the School of Education, University of Sheffield, UK. Sara is also involved in EL teacher development at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In her spare time, Sara likes to blog, twitter, listen to music, dance, spend time with family and friends and is the co-founder of the Campaign for Birth Choices in Greece www.birthchoices.gr

Twitter: @sjhannam
Email: hannam@city.academic.gr

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Six Tips On Starting Your Own Blog For Fellow Teachers

1. Read what’s out there
Before venturing into the blogosphere yourself, it’s probably a good idea to check out what is already out there. There are more and more blogs being started by teachers for teachers and lots of really good stuff out there already. This isn’t meant to put you off, but you’ll pick up ideas and be better informed in the long run.
Start leaving comments on blogs you like too. This will begin the relationship with the other blogger, who will be more inclined to lend a helping hand or post a nice comment on your blog when you launch it.

2. Think of your angle
There are lots of reasons people blog, and no one reason is better than the other. However, people are more likely to visit and remember your blog if there is an angle, a certain hook to it. A few years ago, your hook could have simply been “An English teacher’s reflections” or “Thoughts on the English language” as there were not many of us out here in the blogosphere. That’s changing now. People are more likely to be drawn to something specific in your teaching context (e.g. the challenges of teaching senior learners, teaching English in a small town in North Korea) or about language (e.g. a blog about idioms, or new words, or typical errors). Your angle needn’t depend on words. You could use mainly images, or video, or sound effects even in your blog. Think outside the box!

That being said, if you write with a distinctive voice then people will come to see whatever you’ve written just for the pleasure of reading it.

3. Be passionate about it
Um, this is actually an addendum onto tip 2 above. Whatever angle or topic you choose, make sure you feel strongly enough to talk about it for some time. So I guess that means specific, but not too specific. It also appears to be that the posts you feel most strongly about will attract the most hits. Such is the blogosphere.

4. Choose a good platform
Again, this is an area where things have moved on quite a lot. There are many good blog hosts now. I personally love WordPress, but Edublogs and Blogger are two other popular platforms. All will be pretty similar in terms of service and extras (statistics tracking, widgets etc). My advice would be to look at who is hosting the blogs you think are best-looking and go with them.

5. Prepare a whole bunch of content on your computer
I’ve read all kinds of advice about how much and how often you should blog. Basically it seemed to boil down to anywhere between one and many times a week. If you blog very infrequently then nobody will read it. And it’s easy to get “caught out” without any content. So the first thing I would do is prepare a whole bunch of backup stuff to post when you are in a rush.

6. Have fun
Don’t get too stressed by the whole thing. If someone leaves a nasty comment on your blog, don’t feel bad about deleting it and remember that he/she is a minority. If you get tired of blogging, drop it for awhile. Or ask for a guest to post something. The act of sharing though is a really strong motivator, especially when people share back. That’s really what this is all about for most bloggers. You get to meet new people, make new friends and learn a lot about the global nature of our field. Enjoy.

Lindsay Clandfield is a Canadian based in Spain. He is a teacher, teacher trainer and author of coursebooks and books for teachers. He is also a relative newcomer to the world of blogging – you can find him at www.sixthings.net

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