Target group Teachers, teacher trainers & course providers
Number of participants Max. 20
Number of sessions 2
Session duration 3 hours
Syllabus Online manuals & videotutorials
Tutors Geert Bonamie
Objectives Provide technical knowledge and skills about applications relevant to the implementation of various applications such as Wordpress and Google Sites. Provide general knowledge about the use of these for blended learning activities. Raise awareness about pedagogical and methodological skills and differences vis-a-vis traditional teaching methods to effectively implement blended learning activities in the classroom. Raise awareness on the need for a new "digital pedagogy" that will cater to IT-savvy students who are digital-natives.

Participants should have a decent command of Windows, and be familiar with Internet Explorer or Firefox and general Windows file management.

This is a "learning by doing" and "learning while doing" workshop. There are no real lectures; instead the instructions and tutorials are delivered in a step by step fashion, and participants will be invited to gradually explore the new media applications on the web. Following the educational principles of social constructivism, participants will be actively involved and will develop – alone or in small groups – activities for direct use in their lessons, using the full potential of these various web 2.0 applications.

Session 1 Blogging with Wordpress

In this first session you'll learn how to create a Wordpress blog. As the actual act of creating a blog only takes a few minutes, we'll then go on to explore some of the more important settings. Then, it's time for what blogging is all about, really: writing posts. You'll learn how to work with tags and categories. After this first session you will have done or seen everything that is necessary in order to maintain your own blog.

Session 2 Fantastic wikis with Google Sites

Anything that has the label Google on it turns to gold -or almost anything (Google Wave, remember?). It is hardly a secret that Google is a vast imperium with many applications -most of you will be familiar with Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, all applications which have been with us for many years. One of the more recent additions, however, is Google Sites, which is basically what Google think a wiki should be like. Feel like. Look like. In this session you will learn how to create a Google Site and how to set it up properly for classroom use. Then we will dive in and start creating our own wiki, inserting pages using the available templates with specific attention to List pages, as they are so impressive and powerful. Once you have mastered basics such as adding pages, linking to pages/websites, inserting videos and so on, you will start to create language material, ready for you to use in your classroom.

Participants get access to the online course material. They are also entitled to one month of full follow-up support via the trouble ticket system.

If you want more information on the content of this workshop, or if you would like to organize this workshop at your school, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Also, please note that this is not a crash computer course for beginners, but a course that combines technology and pedagogy: it aims to address language teachers who already know how to use the computer, and want to learn how to use these tools to improve their language teaching. Participants should have a decent command of Windows, and be familiar with Internet Explorer or Firefox and general Windows file management. Due to the limited amount of time during the course, tutors will not be able to help participants lacking these general basic computer skills.

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