Tag Archives: Higher Education

Bring your own vocab’

Hi! – Thanks for reading! Apologies for being so quiet over the past few months. This first year in my new job (well, not so new anymore) has been keeping me very busy. That’s something I should reflect on in a future blog post.

For now, I just want to talk about last Friday’s conference. I attended and presented at the “Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University: Enhancing the Learning Experience through Student Engagement” conference, organised by the University of Manchester on Friday 28th June 2013.

First, I want to say a big thanks to my colleagues Catherine France, Annie Morton, Susana Lorenzo-Zamorano and Noelia Alcarazo for organising such a great and fruitful day. Also, I’m very happy that I was invited to present what I’ve been working on this past semester.

The conference (programme here) was a great opportunity to discover what colleagues around the country have been doing, to discuss the state of the language teaching sector under the new fee regime (and the tragedies it’s brought about) and on a lighter note to catch up with colleagues (and by the way, I re-iterate my congratulations to the great @AngloFLE for his new job!). I also got to meet, and briefly chat with, the very inspiring @jwyburd, whom I’d heard so much about here at Manchester.

My contribution to the day was a presentation reporting on how I used the vocabulary app Quizlet with 3 of my classes during this past semester. I’ve expressed my love for Quizlet in a previous post, and if you’re a language teacher, I really recommend you give it a go.

Anyway, if you’re interested, I suggest you have a look at my abstract and check the slides below.

Thanks again for reading!

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Upcoming presentation – HE staff engagement with digital tech

Hello,

Just got news from the LLAS that my presentation proposal for the Edinburgh conference has been accepted. Couldn’t be happier! Now I’ve got to start collecting that data.

The conference is organised by the Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (LLAS) and is entitled ‘Language Futures: Languages in Higher Education conference 2012‘. It will take place in the John McIntyre Conference Centre, Edinburgh on 5th and 6th July 2012.

Abstract:

A review of staff engagement with digital technologies on an undergraduate language programme

It is often unsurprising to notice a mismatch between theory and practice when it comes to implementation of digital technologies in education.

This presentation presents the results of a review of staff engagement with digital technologies on an undergraduate language programme in a British higher education institution. It is based on a series of interviews aiming at highlighting issues such as barriers to technology uptake, perceptions of usefulness, and discussing incentives and constraints with regards to policy and curriculum.

Looking at technologies such as virtual learning environments, interactive whiteboards and social media, this study concludes by suggesting elements contributing to the design of a Digital Literacy strategy for languages in higher education.

Using Social Media for Peer-feedback in a Translation class: a case study

Two weeks ago, at the 7th LLAS e-learning symposium in Southampton (#LLASelearn12), I gave a presentation entitled “Using Social Media for Peer-feedback in a Translation class: a case study“. I presented the preliminary results of a study I have been conducting in one of my final year undergraduate translation classes, where I used a social online platform (based on Ning) to get my students to discuss their work before and after class.

My talk focused on two main points: the set-up of the platform and the rationale behind it (why I didn’t use Moodle, or Facebook) and the early feedback I received from my students in terms of usefulness of the task.

Watch the presentation on video.

You will also find a copy of my slides on SlideShare.

Feel free to comment!