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Reflections on ten years of blogging - part two

"When thinking about technology and society there is a natural tendency to look forwards rather than backwards. Like in many other areas of life, it is often more compelling to anticipate what is about to happen with technology than attempt to make sense of what has already happened."       Neil Selwyn, Education and Technology: Key Issues and Debates , 2011 Following on from part one of my reflections in my tenth year of blogging , here are ten observations about blogging in ELT . The last post concentrated on some of my recollections from the time when I started blogging. This post is about conclusions I've come to about blogging with English language students. Back in 2005, I remember telling someone that I was facilitating a 6-week online course on blogging for ELT , and he was surprised that anyone could spend so much time just on blogging, but, there's a lot to blogging with learners, and unless you think carefully about it, then your blogging project is not

Is this a golden age of innovation?

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I've just been reading about the Innovation in Education conference in the UK , where the closing session asked the question ' Is this a "golden" time of curriculum innovation? ' One of the first responses was another question: ' Why are children being taught the way they were 200 years ago - all too often in rows of desks, in large groups in large schools - when advances in technology offer far more stimulating and exciting alternatives? ' Social Think Tank - Dell in Education http://www.flickr.com/photos/dellphotos/7450724500 It's great these conversations are taking place, and I do think we are now in the middle of a shift that seems to be happening from both the top-down and bottom-up in education. Thinking back to when I started this blog, I remember wondering why there weren't that many educators embracing new media and other exciting developments taking place online. Things have definitely changed, though - as the T

Reflections on ten years blogging - part one

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From  http://www.educatorstechnology.com Just realised, thanks to Vicky Loras celebrating her third year blogging that I've now started my tenth year as a blogger, and my tenth year using this blog for blogging. Here are ten of my blogging memories from back when I started: 1. My introduction to blogging . My good friend, David White , who's not a teacher , introduced me to Blogger, thinking it was something I'd be interested in, and I set one up early in 2003, but I didn't see the point of it then, so after creating a blog and posting once, I abandoned this. I'd love to recover the account and see what I wrote then, but I now can't remember what email I used to set it up. 2. Blogging with students.   9th July, 2003 . Teaching a summer course with two groups at the Young Learner Centre, British Council, Barcelona, I'd asked for regular computer room slots as I was keen to try out a new British Council learner community ( Global Village ), getting