28/1/2014 So you want to teach online?

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So you want to teach online? EL T
2 8 January 2 01 4 by Oxford Univ ersity Press ELT | Leav e a com m ent

Shaun Wilden, a freelance

teacher trainer and expert in
online tutoring, shares some
thoughts on his upcoming More details >>

series of webinars on
teaching students online. S E ARCH TH I S B LOG

Register here if you’d like to

join him online.
SEA RCH
Over the last few years,
language teachers have had
FO LLOW TH I S
to come to terms with a BL OG V I A EMAI L
technological shift in the way
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they teach. Though VLEs to follow this blog and
(Virtual Learing receive notifications of
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Environments) have been
used in education for many
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years, it is only over the last
few that they have become part and parcel of teachers’ working lives as
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28/1/2014 So you want to teach online? | Oxford University Press

either they, their school, or the material they use have found their way TW I TTE R

online. Be it setting homework via edmodo, using Facebook to extend the So you want to teach
classroom or using online workbooks to complement courses, language online? oxelt.gl/1fjsInu by
@Shaunwilden #elearning
teaching is more blended than ever before. #edtech 28 minutes ago
We're hiring! We're
Being thrust into this asynchronous world of teaching can be quite
looking for an
daunting for those of us that were trained for the face-to-face classroom. experienced Managing
We are used to standing in front of a group of learners, setting tasks that Editor to work on #ELT
grammar materials for
get our learners to communicate while we monitor, react, guide and learners oxelt.gl/1d5FRLX
prod. We are skilled in the art of classroom management, noticing when 48 minutes ago

a student is off track, reading body language to gauge if a student is RT @sophie_orourke:

Lovely article Kenna
struggling and knowing when a task is finished and how to wrap it up. We Bourke @oupeltglobal on
are comfortable working face to face, knowing our training and importance of reading &
has reminded me how
experience has given us the skills to handle most things that school life
much I loved #RoaldDahl
throws at us. too ht… 2 hours ago

While the popularity of social networking has implicitly helped us come to Follow @OUPELTGlobal

terms with asynchronous communication, a tweeted conversation or

discussion of the latest cat photo on Facebook hardly counts as LI KE U S O N
adequate training for dealing with students online. Is it a given that a FA CEBO OK

skilled classroom teacher will automatically make the transition to the

Oxford University Press
online environment?
Me gusta Te gusta esto.

As with many of the technological changes that come to schools,

A ti y 71 356 personas más les gusta
blended learning is often introduced at the behest of the stakeholders, University Press - ELT.

sometimes with little thought given to how the change is going to affect
teachers and impact on their working routine. Likewise, they often
presume this is what the students want and assume that students will
jump into asynchronous learnin,g embracing in-task discussions with the
same gay abandon they show when updating a social network status.
However, in reality an online forum is, for many, a far more stressful
entity than the physical classroom. If you have ever joined Twitter, think
about how long it took you to craft your first tweet and the angst of getting
it right. Will anyone read it? What does it say about me? Is my language
correct? Do I have anything to say? These are all questions that tend to
go through your mind. There is something about the written word that
increases the stress – perhaps the permanency compared to the
Plug-in social de Facebook
ephemeral nature of something said.

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28/1/2014 So you want to teach online? | Oxford University Press

Having trained teachers to work online for the last eight or so years, I’m
RE CENT P O S TS
all too familiar with all these issues and the nervousness teachers feel
when venturing into the online teaching environment. Even the most So you want to
teach online?
confident teacher can feel trepidation when taking their teaching into the
Don’t gobblefunk
asynchronous world. How do I set my class up? How do we around with words!
communicate? How do I motivate them? How do I stop certain students Get your students
dominating? When do I need to give feedback? Are questions I regularly ready for
Trinity success!
get asked.
Making Good Tests
Now, you may be forgiven for thinking that starting to blend your teaching #EFLproblems –
Teaching the over 50s
is a bit of a minefield. It isn’t. Getting started is easy; being effective is
more of a challenge. So to help you get acquainted with the
CA TEGO RI E S
asynchronous world, we’re running a series of workshops over February
and March. If you want to learn about the skills and being an effective Adults / Young Adults
(144)
teacher, join me over three webinars when we’ll discuss everything from
Applied Linguistics (18)
netiquette to making sure students join in and not lurk.
Business & English for
To find out more about tutoring online, join Shaun’s forthcoming webinars: Specific Purposes (79)
CLIL (8)
Online tutoring part 1: what does it offer teachers and students? Cultural Studies (23)
4th February 2014 Dictionaries & Reference
(17)
Online tutoring part 2: the challenges and benefits Exams & Testing (19)
26th February 2014 Graded Readers (26)
Grammar & Vocabulary
Online tutoring part 3: getting the most out of your students
(60)
26th March 2014
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Categories: Multim edia & Digital, Professional Dev elopm ent | Tags: Asy nchronous
learning, Blended Learning, elearning, Online learning, Online m aterials, Online
BL OGRO LL
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