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Learning Styles are dead! Long live Learning Styles!

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"The biggest problem with educational myths is that people who believe in them will often be able to find enough evidence in their day-to-day practice to support their beliefs. The reason for this is simple. It is like when you buy a new car: suddenly you see the same make of car everywhere you go, often in the same model and color. But these cars were on the road before you bought yours; it is just that you did not notice them until now. In the same way, we are quick to recognize 'indications' for the ideas we believe in. The experiences that don't support our case we simply ignore, unconsciously or not." (De Bruyckere, Kirschner & Hulshof (2015) Urban Myths about Learning and Education ) I am enjoying reading this book on Urban myths in education, and see that Learning Styles is one of the first urban myth tackled in the book. As Russell Mayne pointed out in this ELTJam article , there is something about Learning Styles which means it just refus

Digital Game-Based Language Learning

At the recent excellent BRAZ TESOL Technology Seminar , I had two opportunities to give a 2 hour mini-course on digital game-based language learning. The slides I used for the basis of this can be found below. BRAZ TESOL Mini Course DGBLL from Graham Stanley

Remote Teaching - BRAZ TESOL Technology Seminar - July 2015

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I was very pleased to be invited to the BRAZ TESOL Technology seminar in Sao Paolo a week or so ago.  photo taken by BRAZ TESOL photographer The invitation to give a plenary on the Plan Ceibal English project allowed me to update and expand on what I'd spoken about previously, and having an hour meant I could go into more detail than I have usually done with this type of presentation. I am convinced that what the British Council have developed in partnership with Plan Ceibal, the remote teaching of English and follow-up facilitation of lessons by classroom teachers, is an interesting offer for organisations in other countries. There does seem to have been an increase in interest recently, especially now that the project is maturing and we have been able to show it is working well. Who knows, perhaps the next country to become involved could be Brazil?  The slides for this plenary can be found below. Remote Teaching - BRAZ TESOL July 2015 from Graham Stanley

Gamifying the ELT course book - VenTESOL 2015

Webinar given as part of the VenTESOL conference in Venezuela - 30th May 2015 Gstanley Gamifying the ELT Course Book from Graham Stanley

IATEFL 2015: Engagement principles and practice in classroom learning, language and technology

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Sunday's plenary at the IATEFL conference in Manchester was by Joy Egbert ,  A still-common issue with technology use in language learning is an overly-strong focus on the digital tools and a relatively weak emphasis on actual learning. This technocentric approach may arise, in part, from a lack of clear theoretical grounding for classroom technology use. While it's unclear whether atheoretical uses of technology actually provide barriers to learning, it is clear from the research that principled uses can lead to student achievement. But which principles should language educators use to guide their planning? This plenary proposes that principles of task engagement, as part of an educator's overall understanding of second language learning, can serve both educators and learners well in technology enhanced environments. Task engagement -- which includes principles of authenticity, connection, interaction, feedback and challenge/skills balance -- supports current popular tr

Plan Ceibal English: invitation to join feedback session for forthcoming book chapter

Plan Ceibal English: Remote teaching of primary school children in Uruguay through videoconferencing An invitation to join a session on  Academia.edu. JOIN MY FEEDBACK SESSION ON "PLAN CEIBAL ENGLISH: REMOTE TEACHING OF PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN URUGUAY THROUGH VIDEOCONFERENCING" https://www.academia.edu/s/e3dec8b2da Read more about the project here