Learning2gether Episode 390

Though Learning2gether had nothing to do with its presentation or organization, Learning2gether monitored the IATEFL conference via its live feed when it opened in Brighton shortly after the conclusion of the annual TESOL conference, this year in Chicago. Learning2gether announced the event at its wiki, IATEFL Brighton 2018 streams live presentations – April 10 through April 13 (in its upcoming events at
http://tinyurl.com/learning2gether

IATEFL has embraced sharing its most recent conferences by streaming many of its plenaries and concurrent sessions live since 2011, and archiving them for anyone to view, online without having to be an IATEFL member. Previously the archives were left online temporarily or more permanently to paid members, but recently they started webcasting most of the conference and left the archive up online, free for anyone with the link, and they appear to have gone back and done the same with the entire archive.

KUDOS to IATEFL!

The 2018 IATEFL in Brighton was similarly archived. To replay it, simply visit https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/events/IATEFL-Online/2018

I found the previous archives simply by substituting years in the URL. I went back to 2010 before I got no hits.  Just click on a session, and play its recording (for free, no need to log in):

• https://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/sessions/2011
• https://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/sessions/2012
• https://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/sessions/2013
• https://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/sessions/2014
• https://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2015/sessions
• http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2016/sessions
• https://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2017/sessions

Here is my view Apr 19, 2018 of the website with plenaries and “several sessions” available for viewing online, for free, by anyone with the link

These presentations cover a wide spectrum of pedagogical issues in teaching in foreign language contexts, whereas the TESOL CALL-IS webcasts (see previous post in this blog) focus on technology in language teaching.

In contrast, as noted at the end of my last year’s blog post on the 2017 IATEFL conference, https://learning2gether.net/2017/04/07/learning2gether-with-iatefl-2017-glasgow/, TESOL records many of its presentations and offers them for sale. The link given at the end of that post, http://tesol.sclivelearningcenter.com/index.aspx?PID=8529, still works, and offers recordings of selected sessions from TESOL 2018 for $149 US dollars.

In April 2016, after enjoying sessions from the 2016 IATEFL conference online that year, I posted in my blog my answer to the question, Can a paradigm shift in conference business models reverse declining attendance at face to face conferences?
http://advanceducation.blogspot.ae/2016/04/can-paradigm-shift-in-conference.html

Ostensibly, the post was triggered by a question in the 2016 TESOL conference attendee survey: If you have any suggestions or comments regarding how we could improve the convention and/or English Language Expo, please enter them in the box below.

In the box, I duly typed …

You could follow the IATEFL model of webcasting plenary addresses and certain sessions, and sponsor a series of interviews during the event via an online web site updated throughout the event; e.g. http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2016/live-schedule.

Going IATEFL one better, recordings should all go to a permanent online archive openly accessible to all, not just TESOL members. Counter-intuitively to some, this would not prevent members from attending or paying dues to any significant degree, but through the appreciation of those who could not attend, it would stimulate growth since it would create an aura of rock star English teachers and give non or lapsed members an incentive of great value this day and age to come and join in such a forward-thinking organization, and to attend conferences where they felt they ‘knew’ some of the people they would meet there thanks to their online presence, and would want to connect with them both online and personally.

According to TESOL member stats https://www.tesol.org/about-tesol/membership/membership-statistics a quick glance shows a slight decline in membership over the past few years (13,000 down to 11,000 in Jan 2013 thru Jan this year). Perhaps a paradigm shift on the business model is in order.

By creating a conference archive and making it freely available as a gift to the profession, TESOL would benefit from the appreciation of potential members who would want to associate with an organization that was seen to be uplifting the profession by sharing openly.

My suggestion was ignored 😦

There’s more at that post, and also at my recap of the 2017 IATEFL conference here:
https://learning2gether.net/2017/04/07/learning2gether-with-iatefl-2017-glasgow/

The link above still shows membership in TESOL over the past decade and more. Pegging on March figures (the last currently available on the site, March 2017) and going backwards to 2003 (the earliest available) we find

in March 2017 12,176 members, and in March of each year …
2016 – 11,421
2015 – 11,978
2014 – 13,064
2013 – 12,355
2012 – 12,681
2011 – 11,957
2010 – 12,109
2009 – 12,782
2008 – 14,027
2007 – 14,301
2006 – 13,683
2005 – 14,241
2004 – 13,582
2003 – 14,806

So we do find a decline in membership numbers over the past decade, and most likely a decline in attendance at TESOL conferences. I have been to most TESOL conferences this century, and into the last as well. Many of my colleagues declined to attend this year, mainly for economic reasons (no funding, registration at the conference can top $500) and though the experience is always worthwhile for me personally, the network is diminishing.

Addendum: The link to membership stats above is 404 as of now (March, 2021) and I’m unable to find current stats on TESOL’s web site, but they indicated a grand total in 2018 of 10,112 members, as per https://www.tesol.org/docs/default-source/membership/1-monthly-membership-stats-for-public-revised4fc48f42f2fd6d058c49ff00004ecf9b.pdf?sfvrsn=4239e2dc_0

This Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESOL_International_Association cites the same figure for 2018, and I am unable to find more current information in March 2021. I’ll update here if I find it

I’m not able to find annual stats for IATEFL, but its web site claims over 4,000 members at present. It would be interesting to see if that is a growing, diminishing, or as with TESOL a fairly steady number over the past decade.

Photo credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/225461525074735114/

IATEFL, in contrast to TESOL, is catering to a smaller audience perhaps but producing rock stars.

Here is an example interaction

In this post, Josh Underwood put out on the #IATEFL2018 hash tag an announcement of his poster session,
https://twitter.com/joshuau/status/984401305090363393

Graham Stanley picked it up, which is what called my attention to it
https://twitter.com/grahamstanley/status/985613647035682816

And the “poster” itself takes that concept into the next level. View it online here:
https://sites.google.com/view/joshua-underwood

It’s a poster that is not only online in static form, but also in a video that shows Josh Underwood presenting what we might have seen him do at the conference, and he shares it here, for free, and for the good of our profession:

And this has to be the shape of blended conferences going forward. My next conference (after WorldCALL in Chile this November) might just be an IATEFL one.

Meanwhile

This just in from TESOL, in my email

Scooped It

This post reflects on a critical difference between two recent major international conferences, IATEFL in Brighton and TESOL in Chicago. I attended both, the one in Chicago, physically in the windy city, and the one in Brighton, virtually. I spent thousands of dollars from my teacher’s salary to attend the former, and nothing to attend the latter. However, the profit may accrue to IATEFL, the one I might be more likely to support on a sustained basis, considering that it’s more in line with a teacher’s desire to share good work without charging those who can ill afford it for every aspect of it (analogous to the mindset driving medical care in America vs that in UK).

Earlier events

Mar 27-30 TESOL Convention Chicago Illinois

https://learning2gether.net/2018/03/30/learning2gether-with-call-is-webcasting-from-tesol-chicago-2018/

Wed Mar 28 1500 UTC Preparing Teachers to Engage Learners with EVO Minecraft MOOC

https://learning2gether.net/2018/03/28/tesol-2018-chicago-preparing-teachers-to-engage-learners-with-evo-minecraft-mooc/

Wed Mar 28 1530 UTC Best of EVO online event from TESOL Chicago

https://learning2gether.net/2018/03/28/the-best-of-evo-at-tesol-chicago-2018/

Tue Apr 10 0030 UTC – VSTE VE PLN meeting on lesson ideas for using Minecraft in school settings

Our next VSTE VE PLN meeting is in Minecraft! You are receiving this email because you are whitelisted in VSTE Place, the Virginia Society for Technology in Education’s Minecraft server. Please let me know if you wish to be removed. It is not my intention to spam you.

On April 9th we will tour lesson ideas for using Minecraft in school settings. Please build, between NOW and 8:30 PM on April 9th something you would have your students build. My suggestion is something the curriculum has as a diagram that students could instead build in 3D in Minecraft. ​

Here is what I (Vance) found when I went there:

There are building spaces set up for you at /warp schoolwork already. (Just type that into chat and you will get there.) If you need more space add it nearby. Please post signs that give your Minecraft name, project name, and grade level. Feel free to build more than one project.

We will leave this up as an exhibit for teachers new to Minecraft.

Tue April 10 1100 UTC – Globinar with John Traxler – Digital literacy and mobile learning wrt migrant education

Date: Oct 10, 2018 13.00h – 13.45h CEST

Access Link: https://webconf.vc.dfn.de/traxler

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter-classic.html

You won’t have to enroll, but there won’t be certificates either.

I’ll insist nevertheless on participants entering their FULL names (first name PLUS last name).

This presentation is made possible by Ton Koenraad (TELLConsult – Technology Enhanced LifeLong Learning, http://www.tellconsult.eu/ ) in an attempt to open Prof Traxler’s content to a larger audience,

Have a look at our full webinar schedule here:

http://www.lpm.uni-sb.de/typo3/index.php?id=1258

or alternatively at: http://globinars.blogspot.de/

Registration: http://lpm.lpm.uni-sb.de/Webinar/index2.php

E4.512-3978: StudentQuiz – Putting students into the Moodle driver’s seat

17.05.2018

Frank Koch / Host: Mary Cooch

Access Link : https://webconf.vc.dfn.de/studentquiz/

E4.512-3778 : Free audiovisual web tools for teaching

24. 05. 2018 | 19:00h – 20:30h CET

Zoé Gallou & Theodora Gkeniou

Acces link: https://webconf.vc.dfn.de/freetools/

E4.512-4378: Moodlebox for teachers

19.06.2018 | 19:00h – 20:30h CEST

Nicolas Martignoni & Mélanie Auriel

Access link: https://webconf.vc.dfn.de/forteachers