Last Saturday saw the QLS conference, held in Athens. It was great to go back to Greece after so many years – I was a tourist on the mainland over 20 years ago.
I was startled at the title: ‘Hi Tech, bye teacher?” Luckily, the next line was reassuring: “Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer deserves to be”, so I felt much better.
It was good to meet George Drivas who had kindly sent me a copy of his book: Education, Learning, Training in a Digital Society. George opened the conference with a talk based on his book; it was a good start to the day.
My own session provided 40 practical ideas for using technology in the classroom, although I actually only managed 36! For a graphics-lite version of my talk, please click here:
I enjoyed the whole day, including the talk by Anne Leventeris, from Burlington Books. She was showing us activities based on published digital materials, using a SMART board, and it was greta to see the IWB used confidently and competently.
The most spectacular moment of the day was actually realising where I was. We went up to the 8th floor for a wonderful view across Athens, taking in the Acropolis crowned by Parthenon.
We sped up to Patras to arrive at carnival time!
It was good to be in the streets and see everyone enjoying themselves despite the challenging economic climate. TESOL Greece sure know how to provide a fab meal.
Sunday saw TESOL Greece, Patras. The event was live streamed. It was a wonderful day, with great presentations on Art and language teaching, psychology and being popular with students, and materials from Heinle National Geographic (I hope I got that right!).
For a graphics-lite PPT version of my talk on technology, please click here:
For a Handout with some key references, please click here:
A great trip. Thanks to everyone. I do hope to return to Greece again.