IATEFL LAMSIG & LONDOSA proudly present:
Developing Managers in the Digital Age
Friday 28th November
5.45pm - 6.35pm Plenary
Noah's Ark: Planning for Mobile
Nicky Hockly
Teachers and learners are increasingly interested in using handheld devices in the classroom. But
how can schools ensure that mobile device use is effective, and - most importantly - that it supports
learning? This plenary considers how managers and directors can ensure the efficient, costeffective and principled deployment of mobile devices in their institutions.
I examine the technical, pedagogical and logistical choices and challenges facing institutions
wishing to adopt a policy of mobile device use. I also outline a 10-step implementation plan for the
effective, institution-wide deployment of mobile devices; this plan will be of interest to teachers and
teacher trainers, as well as to managers and Directors of Studies, as it provides support and
guidance for all stakeholders interested in the use of principled use of mobile devices to support
learning.
Even if your school has not yet considered the impact of mobile devices, the continued growth of
this area means that at some point you will have to. In the words of Richard Cushing: "Always plan
ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark".
Nicky is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E (www.theconsultants-e.com), an awardwinning online training and development organisation. She has worked in the field of ELT
since 1987, as a teacher, teacher trainer and consultant. She is an international plenary
speaker, and gives seminars, in-service workshops and teacher training courses for practising
language teachers all over the world.
Nicky writes extensively on educational technology, and has a regular column in English
Teaching Professional Magazine and in the English Language Teaching Journal (ELTJ), on
technology for teachers. She has co-written several prize-winning methodology books on the application of
new technologies to language teaching, most recently a book on mobile learning - Going Mobile (2014).
Nicky lives in Barcelona, Spain, and prides herself on being a technophobe turned technophile.
6.40pm - 7.25pm Elective Sessions
1A Digital Education
Dan Roe (Pearson)
Can the quality of teaching, student satisfaction and business performance be improved through
the use of digital resources both in and out of class?
ELT Publishers are focusing more and more on digital resources, but do we really understand the
impact that they have on the academic and commercial aspects of language schools? This talk
will explore what is known (within ELT and also related academic worlds) and also what isn't known,
to hopefully open up a wider discussion between publishers and customers about our common
goals of improving learner outcomes and how teaching resources can play a positive role in
supporting both the teaching and the business of ELT.
Dan has spent the past 15 years in both Publishing and Educational companies, and has
focused on digital and online businesses that have served the science, medical, higher
education and ELT markets. Dan currently leads Pearson's Adult and Assessment ELT global
portfolio with strategic responsibility for the business. Prior to working at Pearson, Dan was the
head of Kaplan Open Learning, a business that partnered with UK Universities to extend their
teaching of degrees online across the world.
1B Cultivating a Community of Practice
Geoff Hardy Gould
A community of practice is a group with a shared passion who learn together by interacting
regularly. In this talk I’ll describe the journey one large multi-school organisation has undertaken to
build a community of practice among its teachers and academic managers using on-line and
face to face activities. I’ll explore the concept and outline what we did and what we’ve learnt
from the process.
Geoff has been Director of Education at OISE since 2007. Previously he worked for Regent
Language Training as Academic Manager, Principal and Managing Director. He founded Sussex
DOSA, has an MBA and is interested in course design, coaching and enhancing student
outcomes.
1C Online Tools for Busy Managers
Victoria Boobyer
There is a plethora of information online, at conferences and in ELT publications regarding the best
Edtech tools to help teachers work more effectively and efficiently. Relatively little of this
information and advice, however, is immediately relevant to managers in our field. This session will
look at a limited number of online tools, such as Google Drive, and bookmarking tools, such as
Diigo, and how they could be useful in an academic management context.
Victoria began her EFL teaching career in Greece and then moved on to Korea and
Vietnam before returning to the UK in 2010. She became the Academic Manager of a
private language school in Bournemouth and implemented and developed an extremely
successful programme of complementary handheld learning utilising class sets of iPads.
Since then she has become a freelance writer and online teacher trainer. She tutors on
the IH Certificate in Management course and The Consultants-E's Cert ICT and EModeration courses and is on IATEFL's Membership Committee.
7.30pm Drinks Reception
Sponsored by Pearson
Saturday 29th November
9.30am - 10.15am Plenary
Developing Managers in the Digital Age
Fiona Thomas
Language Teaching Organisation (LTO) managers come in all different shapes and sizes, but
developing LTO managers all have something in common: we all aspire to become better
managers.
From the perspective of a developing manager whose context is very much in the digital age, we
will look critically at what we currently do as managers; question how well we are doing it; ask what
kind of manager we aspire to be; reflect on what areas we want to develop; think about what role
technology can and should play in our work and development; and explore other ways we can
achieve our goals.
Fiona is a teacher, teacher trainer and manager based in Barcelona. She moved into
managing an online language school in 2001 when she left her job as Director of Studies at a
traditional language school to become Director of Education for Net Languages. She has cowritten with Andy Hockley "Managing Education in the Digital Age" (The Round 2014) and
blogs at http://fionacthomas.wordpress.com.
10.25am - 11.10am Plenary
Digital Literacies
Nik Peachey
Digital literacy has become something of a buzzword recently in the world of education, but what
are digital literacies and what place do they have in the English language classroom?
In this session we will be looking at some attempts to define digital literacies and see how and why
we should be supporting and developing these as our students learn English. We will also look at
some simple tools and techniques that we can apply both inside the classroom and around the
school to make the learning environment more digitally friendly.
Nik has been involved in education since 1990 and has worked all over the world as a
language teacher, teacher trainer, technology trainer and educational technology
consultant. He is an award winning course designer and materials writer and has been
involved in major training consultancies and projects for ELT schools, organisations,
publishers and education ministries around the world including companies like British
Council, BBC, Open University, International House, Google and many more. He is best
known for my free blogs, which have attracted more than 2 million page views. These include 'QuickShout'
and 'Learning Technology'. In 2009 I published a free e-book 'Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers' which has been read
by more than 180k teachers worldwide. Nik is now Head of Learning at EnglishUp http://englishup.com a
cutting edge online English language learning business. EnglishUp is a Macmillan Education and Holtzbrinck
Group company venture and resides within the Digital Education Unit, which incubates and invests globally in
exciting ventures focused on making learning fun and more effective.
11.10am - 11.40am Coffee Break
11.40am - 12.20pm Elective Sessions
2A Technology in the Classroom – a Teacher’s Perspective
Jacqui Davis-Bowen
2B Interactive Workshop: Creating a Digitally-friendly Environment
Nik Peachey
Using technology with students can be challenging and stressful for teachers. In order to get the
best from our investments in technology and training we need to ensure we provide a technology
friendly environment not only in the classroom but in the school as a whole. In this workshop we will
explore tools and practices for making the learning process and environment more technology
friendly.
(See bio for Nik above)
2C Don’t give up! The tech does work!
Rachael Fionda
Rolling out a new technology framework for teaching can and should take time. After feeling like
almost giving up, Swan ELT is starting to see the fruits of our labour with teachers and students
embracing our ICT for both in and after class learning. Our framework is made up of smartboard
use combined with Edmodo, and underpins our homework procedures as well as supporting the
learning processes and elements of our curriculum during lessons. While we planned a roll-out of 2
phases - Phase 1: Creation of Framework, Phase 2: Development and Refining Framework and
Phase 3: Implementing Use with Teachers and Students - the three phases, in fact, overlapped. We
have ended up with a streamlined approach to using ICT naturally in the classroom, with all parties
enjoying it.
Rachael is from Middlesbrough and now lives in Dublin, with Leeds, Italy, Germany and
Austria as stops on the way (she was either a teacher or a lecturer in those places –
always connected to EFL somehow). She came to Dublin to undertake a PhD in
Applied Linguistics and now works at a great school as Director of Studies. She’s
been attending IATEFL events for almost 10 years and presents as often as she can. She
writes a blog called SwanDOS, and is interested in management psychology, Learner
Autonomy, motivation and online learning.
2D Managing Online Training for Managers: A Journey
Lou McLaughlin
Managing online training for students or teachers whether in a blended learning format or fully
online brings its own set of difficulties and considerations. If we add managing managers to this, it
can become even more of a challenge. This talk outlines the development, set up and running of a
complete online management course. It highlights the challenges that were faced and (mostly)
overcome from the point of view of both the online trainer and the online trainee managers,
providing an insight into online courses from an ELT manager’s viewpoint.
Lou has been working in the ELT sector as a teacher trainer, DOS and Director for nearly
twenty years. She has worked abroad in Turkey, Spain, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan and China
in the ELT sector. She holds a DELTA, MA in ELT and PhD in Applied Linguistics. Her main
areas of interest are teacher cognition, young learner teaching/training and
management as well as online training. Lou is the network coordinator for the IATEFL
YLTSIG and is also the president of ELT Ireland.
12.25pm - 1.10pm Plenary
Taking tablets in school, a remedy for everyone?
Shaun Wilden
As tablet use becomes more widespread in ELT, Managers and key Stakeholders are keen to get
them into their schools as soon as possible. But how do teachers feel about this? They are facing a
new classroom dynamic that they weren’t necessarily trained for. Changes in classroom tools bring
new challenges and worries. In this talk, I’ll draw upon research and surveys I did with teachers over
the last year. Exploring common myths they came up with about using tablets from balancing
different media to students being distracted. During the talk we’ll discuss the validity of these myths,
suggesting some solutions.
Shaun has been involved in English language teaching for over twenty years. He is
currently the International House World Organisation Teacher Training Coordinator but
is also freelance teacher trainer and materials writer. He is a digital consultant to both
schools and publishers and recently published a whitepaper on implementing tablets
and apps into schools. He is the joint coordinator of the IATEFL Learning Technologies
SIG, and a member of the IATEFL membership committee. In addition, he is a moderator of the social
networking #eltchat group which meets every Wednesday to discuss issues and ideas in ELT. Feel free to follow
him @shaunwilden or find out more about him at shaunwilden.co.uk
1.10pm - 2.00pm Lunch
Sponsored by Macmillan
2.15pm – 3.00pm
Open Space Break-out Groups
Attendees are invited to bring their burning issues and topics of interest with them to the
conference. Questions will be written on post-its and emerging themes will be pooled. Participants
then gather in the rooms where their question or area of interest will be discussed, one person
becoming the scribe. Results of discussions are posted on the wall at the end of the session.
3.00pm - 3.30pm Tea Break
3.30pm – 4.10pm
Open Space Break-out Groups
Attendees are invited to bring their burning issues and topics of interest with them to the
conference. Questions will be written on post-its and emerging themes will be pooled. Participants
then gather in the rooms where their question or area of interest will be discussed, one person
becoming the scribe. Results of discussions are posted on the wall at the end of the session.
4.15pm - 5.00pm Plenary
Is there an adaptive solution for you?
Philip Kerr
Adaptive learning is being touted as a game-changer – ‘the next big thing’ - in language learning
and teaching. Online and blended models of teaching / learning are continuing to grow, at the
expense of exclusively face-to-face models, and these will include more and more adaptive
features. The major publishers will also be launching new products with adaptive features in 2015.
Like it or not, adaptive learning will soon be impacting on your school and your students. But what is
it exactly (it’s actually a number of rather different things) and what might it be able to offer you
and your school?
Philip Kerr is a teacher trainer, lecturer and materials writer who is based in Vienna. Director of
studies at IH London in the 1990s, he was an early member of LONDOSA. His publications
include the coursebook series ‘Straightforward’ and ‘Inside Out’ (both with Macmillan) and
the methodology books ‘Translation and Own-Language Activities’ (Cambridge University
Press) and ‘How to Write Vocabulary Presentations and Practice’ (ELT2W). His e-book about
adaptive learning is available as a free download at http://the-round.com/ and he blogs
about technology and language education at http://adaptivelearninginelt.wordpress.com/ .
He is currently working on the development of new adaptive learning software.