Technology and English Language Teaching: Telepresence Technology

Paul Woods Regional English Language Advisor,

The British Council, Argentina

Cartagena Policy Dialogue 31 September – 1 October 2012

Pace of change….

We are living in exponential times In 2 years time there will be early adopters using devices

for teaching and learning that we don’t even know about yet

In 10 years time handheld devices will largely have replaced books

“Teachers will not be replaced by technology, but teachers who don’t use technology will be replaced by those who do” ~Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach~ 

The next generation will demand teachers who use methods they know and understand. This inevitably involves teaching with technology.

The Classroom of the Future

Teachers use a portable work station

All students have portable work stations (XO Laptops).

All schools have a high band width internet connection.

XO laptops in a Uruguayan Primary School

Virtual Classrooms

http://www.examspeak.com/# Clip

Robot Teachers in Korea

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/my-teacher-is-an-avatar/

Robot teacher clip

“This is Uruguay's problem: 40% of children who attend public schools come from the poorest fifth rung of society. And out of this fifth, just 3% makes it to college. Through Plan CEIBAL we decided to take a chance on making a change and to find a way out of this crisis we live in.”

Miguel Brechner, Plan Ceibal

Ceibal en Ingles• Every child has a laptop• Tele-presence

technology • Remote teachers

Colombia and Argentina • RT 1 hr per week• CT 2 x 45 minutes per

week• Proof of concept phase • Progressive expansion

2-way video & audio

Joint lesson planning

Students with Classroom

laptops

Local classroom:• TV screen showing

remote teacher• Lesson materials shown

via Webex

Joint lesson planning

Local class teacher

managing activity

Remote teacher using video-

phone

Uruguay – Remote Teaching using OLPC

Remote teacher

Learning Manage-ment System

British

Council

Materials

Lesson

Plans

Visual Aids

Worksheets

We intend to show that, with sufficient support, appropriate training for classroom teachers and appropriate materials for the pupils, learners will be highly motivated, develop autonomy and achieve measurable results through lessons delivered via tele-presence technology and 1 to 1 laptops, supported by classroom teachers with only a very limited knowledge of English.

Using the language

The Ceibal Project

What have we learnt so far?• Teachers need to be trained adequately,

both in how to maximise use of the software on the laptops and how to manage a class where the pupils have laptops, for example, encouraging students to create their own simple blogs

• Materials need to be mapped to or created for the local syllabus

• Not everything can be done on the laptops – young learners need to touch, feel, handle, move round the room, do things actively with other children

• Testing should test what the students have been taught!

Thank you for listening!

Paul.woods@britishcouncil.org.ar