5th Virtual Round Table Conference
April 30, 2012 By Tara Benwell
The Virtual Round Table is an annual web conference related to language learning with technologies. The conference is organized by a small group of English language teachers and is free for all attendees and speakers. The event, which takes place in Adobe Connect, attracts a global audience and provides quality professional development and invaluable networking.
Last year the conference was nominated for an ELTon. The ELTons are awards that recognize innovative resources related to English language teaching. Speakers use webcams, slide presentations, screen sharing, and chat to interact with the attendees. At the VRT (#vrtwebcon on twitter) you will find many similarities to a face-to-face conference, including pecha kuchas, symposiums, parallel sessions, and keynotes. When technology fails, as it often does in a traditional conferences and classrooms, speakers (English language teachers) are challenged to carry on. The moderators and organizers did an excellent job of making everyone feel at ease.
Teachers who are considering submitting a speaking proposal for an international conference such as TESOL or IATEFL may want to consider presenting at a web conference first.
Recordings
I attended live sessions throughout the weekend, but missed many due to parallel sessions and time zone conflicts. Thankfully I’ve been able to watch many of the recorded sessions. Viewers should note that the timing is not always perfect in these recordings. The slides may not match with the speaker’s voice, and at times, speakers may seem to speak over each other. While the recordings are not perfect, they are still a great way to find new tools, tips, and resources that you can use in the classroom.
Recommended Presentations
If you only have time for a few, here are some sessions from this year’s conference that I highly recommend.
Joe McVeigh: Improving Your Virtual Presentation Skills (Fantastic tips I’ll be using next time I present online.)
Joe McVeigh
@JoeMcVeigh
Improving your virtual presentation skills
As educators, we are supposed to be the experts on helping others learn. Yet a surprising number of the presentations we deliver or attend (both virtual and F2F) are not as effective as they might be in engaging the attention of the participants. In this interactive presentation, I’ll share insights into how we can share information more effectively. This talk is based on numerous observations of webinars and draws on the work of presentation expert Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen, and the work of brain scientist John Medina. We’ll look at four aspects of presenting: developing participant interaction, keeping the audience engaged, making more effective visuals, and a few technical production tips.
Bio
JOE McVEIGH is a specialist in English language teaching. He has taught at universities in the U.S. including Caltech,the University of Southern California, and Middlebury College. He has lived and worked in countries including the UK, China, India, Chile, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia. He has taught students from more than 50 countries. His co-authored books include the Q: Skills for Success series from OUP and Tips for Teaching Culture from Pearson. He also consults for organizations, trains teachers, speaks at conference, edits ELT books, and maintains a website at www.joemcveigh.org. He lives and works in Middlebury, Vermont, U.S.A.
Symposium: Building your PLN (Learn all about #ELT Chat – an ELTons nominee for 2012)
SYMPOSIUM - Build your Personal Learning Network PLN by using twitter hashtags
By stevenherder on April 21, 2012
Friday, 20 April 2012 - 8pm GMT| 5am Tokyo (Saturday) | 1pm LA
Recording: http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/p4orj0ek971/ (1h20min)
SYMPOSIUM
Build your Personal Learning Network PLN by using twitter hashtags
Moderator - Berni Wall
Shelly Terrell - @shellterrell / #edchat founder / 21387 followers
Shelly Sanchez Terrell is a teacher trainer, author, and international speaker. She is the host of American TESOL’s Free Friday Webinars and the Social Media Community Manager for The Consultants-E. She has co-founded and organized the acclaimed educational projects, Edchat, the Elton nominated ELTChat, The Reform Symposium E-Conference and the ELTON nominated Virtual Round Table language and technology conference. Her prolific presence in the educator community through social media has been recognized by several notable entities, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. Visit her award winning blog, Teacher Reboot Camp, for resources for effective technology integration. Keep an eye out for her book, The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators published by Eye on Education. Find her on Twitter, @ShellTerrell. She has taught toddlers to adults English in various countries including the US, Germany, and Greece.
Marisa Constantinides - @Marisa_C / #eltchat / 4979 followers
Marisa Constantinides, Dip.RSA, M.A. App Ling, Teacher Educator, Materials Writer, CELT Athens
A teacher, teacher educator and materials writer, Marisa Constantinides is the head of CELT Athens, established in 1993, offering teacher education courses including Cambridge CELTA and DELTA courses face-2-face and online. She has a strong presence in Social Networks, moderates #ELTchat, a weekly discussion on Twitter (recently nominated for an ELTons award in Innovation in Teaching Resources) and maintains a number of blogs (TEFL Matters, Discourse Matters, ELTchat.com, Teaching & Learning Languages). She has published materials for young learners as well as for B2 and C2 level classes.
Tyson Seburn - @seburnt / #eapchat founder / 1351 followers
Tyson has 15 years of ELT experience as instructor, director and publishing manager. He is currently an instructor in a content-driven EAP program at University of Toronto and promoter of teacher and learner development through technology via 4C (http://fourc.ca).
Bruno Andrade - @brunoelt / #breltchat founder / 1090 followers
Bruno is a webhead, who has been in the field of ELT for 10 years. He's from Brazil, based in Rio de Janeiro. He's an active blogger (www.edutechbrazil.blogspot.com) and talks about technology and education related matters. He's the co-founder of #breltchat, a Twitter and Facebook gathering for English Teachers in Brazil that provides free professional development through discussions. He is an international speaker at ELT conferences and has recently been awarded a scholarship for the IATEFL conference in Glasgow, 2012. Currently, he is working at Cultura Inglesa Rio de Janeiro as a teacher and a technology consultant.
Valéria França - @vbenevolofranca / #eltchat / 1089 followers
Valéria Benévolo França, Dip RSA, PhD in Applied Linguistics, Head of Teacher Training & Development at Cultura Inglesa S.A.
Valéria’s been working in the field of ELT for over 20 years, having mostly taught in Brazil. Over the last 6 years she has focused specifically on teacher training and CPD. In 2004 she helped set up the first blended online teacher development course at her language institution, which has continued to be developed in view of the technological changes seen in VLEs and the onset of web 2.0 tools. She has also been actively engaged in incorporating technological change in the language classroom, ensuring teachers feel comfortable, technologically confident and happy about this
She is a firm believer in the power of Social Media for teacher development and is one of the co-founders of #BRELTchat.
Fiona Mauchline - @fionamau / #elt, #eltchat / 777 followers
Not available at time of publishing
Jennifer Verschoor: Jazz up your language classes with technology (Discover some great sites!)
Jazz up your language classes with technology
by Jennifer Verschoor
By Heike Philp on April 23, 2012
Recording: (29min): http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/p8sku5yzpo4/
Jennifer Verschoor
@jenverschoor
Jazz up your language classes with technology
Join this webinar to learn how to create content-based lessons using technology to enhance students' language proficiency and cultural knowledge.You will walk away with a tool kit full of web tools, resources and more to transform the way you teach and the way your students learn language in the 21st century.
Bio
Jennifer Verschoor holds degrees as English University Professor, Bachelor in Educational Management and English Public Translator. Currently, she is studying for a Master´s degree in Virtual Environments. She is a proud Webhead and has been an on-line moderator for various TESOL sessions since 2007. She is a teacher trainer, President of ARCALL and course facilitator at ESSARP with specialization in She´s been the lucky winner of the BESIG scholarship to attend IATEFL in Glasgow in 2012.
EC’s Session: The Learning English Video Project (LEVP)
At this year’s conference, I introduced teachers to the “Learning English Video Project”. This is a unique 7-part series of documentary films about learning English in different countries around the world. The series is free to watch or download with or without subtitles, and comes with teaching and self-study materials. If you are unfamiliar with this project, you can watch the recording here. I have recently followed up with a Video Project Challenge. Please join in the fun!
Related LEVP Resources
Video Project
Interview with the Director
Making of the Project
Director’s Blog
LVEP on YouTube
Source: www.englishclub.com
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