Coaching connected learning across borders

While making a website documenting an Intensive two week programme with 35 student participants from Poland, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, the UK, the Czech Republic and Lithuania, I and my 6 students suddenly noticed that on the website we had been building for three days there were no images of women except in group photos. Perhaps…

I have been exploring the use of SCVNGR to make a location-based treasure hunt using mobile phones. We have now got to the stage where the 6 way points are ready and I went out with the class and their teacher to test the route just over a week or so ago. Being out and…

Do you own a micro-enterprise (9 employees or less)? Could you use some help? If so, I would appreciate your help in finding out what would be important when deciding whether or not to take on a foreign intern. Maybe you have never considered it, in which case I would be interested to know why…

Over the past week I’ve been talking to a European company about being an online teacher of English. Everything seemed to be going well. They liked me. They wanted me on their books. These people seemed professional and fair. The internet is bristling with online language teaching sites. Most of them seem to be thinly…

The digital handshake is a critical point in any online interaction. Handled well, it will lead to successful and rich communication. Handled badly, it will take a long time to recover and get group process on track. I am thankful to Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay for this evocative name for a vital part of…

The pilot problem is that you work very hard to develop and test an idea but once the pilot is over you are then faced with the problem of promoting adoption. In European projects where I do a lot of work, there is great emphasis on valorisation to use the rather inelegant name that the…

In relation to the PLP  Connected Coaching course I now need to address the self-assessment rubric in a bit more detail. The strength-based approach means that I should concentrate on strengths rather than deficiencies and while I don’t feel that I am unduly modest, I must admit that I am not entirely comfortable when applying…

When you are a course facilitator it is always salutary to go to the other side of the table once in a while. Some of my work involves being a tutor for The Consultants-E, mostly on very intensive 20 week courses. It can be quite difficult for working adults to sustain that level of commitment…

Teaching as a design science Do you see yourself as a designer?  According to Diana Laurillard, that’s exactly how teachers should be seeing themselves and she had a proposal for systemizing the process of engineering learning experiences. Diana Laurillard’s IATEFL 2012 plenary was making the case for the collation of proven pedagogical patterns across all…

After years of using Audacity as my main audio editor I am now trying out the Hindenburg editor to see if I can improve the quality of the sound in the Absolutely Intercultural shows for which I am responsible. I have always felt that I was not getting the high quality I needed and could…