Begin It Now

Whatever you can do, or think you can, begin it.
Boldness has power, magic and grace within it.
Begin It Now.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

And so I have begun. After days, literally three days of pottering around and filling my mind up with innumerable things (mostly RSS-based) and just plain unabashed procrastination (mostly on Posterous). Around midnight I sat down and the ideas that I have been structuring for weeks, based on months, based on years and a lifetime just came pouring out. I was actually stunned to discover how all those little details had been sifted and synthesised in my mind while I wasn't looking.

It is past noon now, and I have written up a third of the T42 (TESOL Teacher Training for Web 2.0) e-book, recorded and published the first two podcasts and done some updates on the T42 Hub social networking website. This leaves two thirds of the book, two more recordings (which are easier now that I’m more comfortable with the software) and five videos.

What remains then is recruiting participants for the course. I plan to do this entirely online, in the spirit of Web 2.0. By next Saturday. Mmmm. That should be interesting.

The Chinese proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. What never ceases to amaze me is how far that single step takes you.

I am including hyperlinks in this post, even though the materials are not yet complete and the T42 Hub site is not live yet. The emphasis, under the circumstances, is on the first four letters of the word “hyperlink”. It is hard to be objective about one’s own project, but I believe this one can be really valuable to TESOL teachers looking for experiential training in Web 2.0 for learning and teaching. I trust the synergetic serendipity of social networking will bring us together!

Serving T42/ Smashing through Writer's Block

My previous post introduced the planning of T42, my critical study on teachers’ experience of an online, self-access course in learning and teaching language with Web 2.0. Although the academic side of this is flowing quite well (once I strap myself to my desk and get going, that is), restructuring the original course is presenting quite a challenge.

To call a spade a spade, this is the course designer’s version of writer’s block. Come to think of it, I haven’t had writer’s block since my teens, thanks partly to my mother’s emphasis on learning strategies, and partly to the wonders of MindMapping. The course is different, though, because the components are in multimedia, most of which I have dabbled in but not mastered, the participants are unknown to me, and most paralysing of all, I would, of course, like the end result to be simply awesome. With all the breathtaking professional materials out there on the Web, this might be what scares me most.

This is an empathising experience, because I have seen how writer’s block can freeze my students up. They have to write in a second language; I have to create a course in media I haven’t mastered. Like them, I am in an uncomfortable position – yet the slight discomfort of pushing your limits is where the learning happens.

When I used to get writer’s block before a project, my mother was always the one who talked me through developing a strategy, structuring my work and devising little ways to make the end result special. Doing this over an ice cream cone or a cup of coffee didn’t hurt, either. Stepping away from the task is often the best way to get perspective. (As long as it doesn’t happen indefinitely, of course!)

This is why, being the strategic learner that I have been trained into, I am stepping back (with a strong cup of coffee), considering the structure of the project, mindmapping it and getting started. And calling my mom.

Operation T42

T42 (pronounced “tea for two”) is the working title for my online, self-access TESOL teacher training course in Web 2.0 for language learning. Which happens to be my MA dissertation focus. Quite a mouthful, right? Hence T42.

The research will track teachers’ experience of the course. It is prompted by the problem of making training in language learning with Web 2.0 accessible to TESOL teachers internationally. If the prototype course is well received, it will be tweaked and promoted to teachers individually, and TESOL institutes internationally.

The course itself is based on my earlier Teachers as Online Language Learners project. Some modifications have been made in response to the pilot study. T42 revolves around a social networking website hosted on Ning. From here, participants can access several features designed to embody and demonstrate Web 2.0 in a user-friendly way:
• a plain English, downloadable companion e-book.
• a plain English podcast of the companion e-book in audio format
• a plain English podcast of the companion e-book in video format
• five-minute Ignite presentations on core Web 2.0 applications and their uses for language learning. These are available on both YouTube and SlideShare.
• links to further Web 2.0 applications, tutorials and resources
• on-site interactive features, such as on-site blogging, chat, discussion boards and file sharing.
• projects for putting Web 2.0 to use for teachers’ professional development or learning a new language.

The MindMap pictured above shows the dissertation outline. Though the deadline looms way too close for comfort, I have been sitting on this concept for almost a year, and have been compiling a Master Annotated Bibliography to keep track of readings and developments. The main task now is to edit the writing up of the background to the study, literature review and research design, all while revving up to take the site live by Friday, 4 December 2009. There is a lot to be done, but I am thrilled to bits with the way this is unfolding.

Watch this space.

Work vs. Play: a False Dichotomy

There is work, and then there is play. Right? Well, maybe not. Being an arch workaholic, I do not necessarily see it this way. Nor, I believe, do most people who are passionate about what they do. The dichotomy polarising work and play is a false one. The true dichotomy is between ardently doing what we love – work, play, call it whatever you like – and apathy.

Since I first came across the book The Play Ethic by Pat Kane (80s pop star, no less), I have been intrigued by the concept. The sense of deriving true pleasure from work is as precious as finding value in play. Increasingly, the power of combining the two is proving its worth.

One of the playful professional delights I came across this week is the Virtual Round Table, an online conference taking place on 12-13 November. Sessions are held in three online platforms, one of which is SecondLife, (where I am sadly still stuck on orientation island, but have at least managed to get myself an electric blue Mohawk – first things first). The very idea has me thrilled to bits, and I’m looking forward to dropping into a few sessions. Hopefully there will be a chance for a quick report back. Meanwhile, the conference is promoted on a Ning networking site. I doesn’t get much more social than that!

Finally, there is of course, the small matter of my job and my studies, both of which feed off – and into – these wild pursuits. Later this week I will begin a series on the planning behind my dissertation, and share the work in progress of the virtual workshop it will track. Things will need to happen fast: there are 107 days left until submission, if I want to graduate early. And THAT is non-negotiable. (Although I think I’ll just go and resuscitate my SL avatar first…)

But if all this can be tackled in a spirit of Play Ethic – why not?

Classroom Self-Access Learning

In an earlier post I mentioned some of my classroom innovations for provoking interaction and learning. They have worked remarkably well, and not only my own students but also other students spend a lot of time hanging around my class to discuss the displays with each other and with me.

But I'll leave it to the pictures to say a thousand words this time...

A Return to the Etymology of “Education”

There are some who say the principles behind contemporary education are all wrong. I recently commented to a colleague that our question is how to educate students in a way that is appropriate to them. The colleague, though a visionary in his own right, retorted that the perception that we as teachers educate students is what is at the core of this all-pervasive wrongness. Yet the etymology of the word “educate” shows that in fact he and I agree. The wrongness is, in fact, in the warping of the word’s meaning.

As any Latin class survivor can (hopefully) confirm, the word educate is composed of the root “ducare”, meaning to lead, and the prefix “ex”, meaning out. Education, therefore, is the process of leading learners out, guiding them to explore from the strength of the storehouse that is already within them.

Seen this way, my remark paraphrases as “how do we lead students’ existing awareness out to build on it, in a way that matches their individual needs?” I do, in fact, maintain that this is one of the core questions every (good) teacher faces every day. Education is not about where the knowledge is, or where we as teachers stand, but about creating a passable route between learner and knowledge. Thus follows, as night the day, that the route needs to begin at the learner – not the knowledge or the teacher.

Though this view of education sounds simple and perhaps even simplistic, it embraces the core of time-tested as well as contemporary pedagogy. Although other aspects of the equation cannot be disregarded, if the learner is where we want results, the learner is the place to begin.