That'SLife

There comes a time when you have to admit you were wrong, or perhaps misguided, or simply that you were a little bit ‘out of time’, or perhaps – better said – that somebody let you down and maybe it wasn’t your fault. And this is one of those times, because it’s goodbye to Second [...]

I read two types of books, I think: the trash detective, and its ilk, novels that keep me from dying of boredom and discomfort on long plane journeys (note to KLM: your Business Class on the way to Bangkok was acceptable, but your long haul economy return was quite the worst I’ve experienced in some [...]

Before I go on holiday, I’d like to just summarise a spate of recent postings on why PowerPoint is a bad tool for speakers to use at conferences, just so that everyone understands just how evil this so-called ‘presentation tool’ can be. Here they are then – ten definitive reasons not to use PowerPoint as [...]

I’m off here for a week to stare at cliffs and eat puffin stew. Feel free to drop round my apartment and take whatever you can find…

Thanks to Howard Vickers at Avatar Languages, the SLanguages 2009 archive is now up on the official SLanguages site at: http://www.slanguages.net/archive.php. Many thanks to all those present who contributed audio and/or video files to the archive.

“When you really embrace technology and don’t just bolt it on to what you’ve got, you get extraordinary results” “(schools should be) not the sole provider of information, but the broker of learning from a variety of sources” “the challenge is how effectively we keep up with the way young people use technology” “(…) schools [...]

Reminds me of something. Can’t say what….

Why on earth isn’t this child drawing and colouring in, playing outside or collecting stamps? And how can he maintain his dignity and lust for life in such circumstances? I demand immediate action from social services to save this poor mite…

I thought it was about time I looked at this question from a more positive angle, so here it is. I’m going to take some things as a given (including the fact that I understand that many people do not have access to the technologies I’m describing), at least in my world… 1) Many millions [...]

On the way back from METU in Ankara I got to thinking more about the attitude some teachers have towards technology, their insistence that it doesn’t bring anything valuable to the classroom, that their learners don’t want to use it, that it’s a waste of valuable class time, that research just doesn’t point to any [...]

Right, here’s a little call to SL educators. On a list of which I am a member, and on which the subject of SL in education has come up recently, the following remarks by someone who, shall we say, is less than sympathetic to SL have led me to issue this challenge to educators working [...]

Right, well…. twenty-four hours down the line and SLanguages 2009 has come to an end. Thirty-nine sessions including seminars, presentations, scripting workshops, sample classes and field trips over the duration of the event, 359 unique avatar visitors and a high point of 91 concurrent on Friday evening. I’d like to thank all the speakers who [...]

The latest Wordle of my tweets. IATEFL right up there immediately after the conference [ http://tweetstats.com/graphs/dudeneyge#tcloud ]