Online teaching and learning communities: materials and beyond

1. Online teaching and learning communities: materials and beyond Eric Baber Educational Technologist eric@ericbaber.com

2. Overview • Introduction • Community tools • Types of online materials • Online communities, resources and providers • Challenges

4. Community tools • Email discussion lists • Web-based discussion forums • Blogs • Wikis

9. Types of online materials • Text (Word, .pdf) • Audio (streaming, podcasts) • Video (streaming, vodcasts) • Activities

10. Text • Lesson plans • Worksheets (grammar, vocabulary, skills-based…) • Webquests • Role plays • … anything you can find in printed form

11. Audio & Video • Interviews • Discussions • Debates • News • Topic-based programmes • Teaching/learning tips • Adverts • YouTube/Google videos

12. Activities • Quizzes • Matching activities • Jumbled words • Cloze activities

13. Online communities, resources and providers • Quia.com • BBC Learning English • British Council Teaching English • english360.com • Cambridge University Press

14. Quia.com • www.quia.com • Hundreds of activities to choose from – mostly online-only • Authoring tools that allow you to create your own activities • Student tracking facilities • No social networking facilities though

15. BBC Learning English • For learners and teachers • www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish • www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/teachingenglish • Lesson plans, quizzes, peer-to-peer discussions, blogs • The Flatmates soap-opera. Audio files, text, worksheets for use in class

19. British Council Teaching English • http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk • Methodology articles • Lesson plans • Activities • Moderated comments and Questions & Answers

20. english360.com • Platform for teachers to produce materials for use with learners • Teachers can put together “projects” (learning paths) for their learners • Teachers can use each others’ materials for their own students. Materials authors receive payment

21. english360.com • Can incorporate text, images, audio, video, quizzes & range of activities • Courses can be public or private • Courses currently available include Sales & Negotiation and Business Presentations in English • Range of social networking tools (internal e-mail, forums, blogs…)

22. Cambridge University Press • www.cambridge.org/elt/resources • Good range of worksheets, infoquests, articles, podcasts, wordlists and activities • Largely materials that supplement coursebooks, but can be used on their own • New website specifically for professional English: www.cambridge.org/elt/pro

31. Other providers and sites • www.tes.co.uk/resources (cross-discipline) • www.teachingideas.co.uk (Primary) • www.eleaston.com (index of websites dealing with ELT)

32. Challenges • Finding good quality materials • Finding materials for your teaching situation • Balance between bottom-up/free-for-all and moderated content (example)

34. Challenges • Finding good quality materials • Finding materials for your teaching situation • Balance between bottom-up/free-for-all and moderated content (example) • Finding one site that does it all: social networking, professional materials, materials-sharing…

35. Thank you for attending! Eric Baber www.cambridge.org/elt/pro www.cambridge.org/elt/resources