Victoria Boobyer joined us to discuss a wide range of helpful tips and techniques for making the most from using tablets and ebooks in the classroom and beyond. Victoria is a freelance writer, trainer and E-Moderator and also acts as the ICT & Social Media consultant for a number of ELT institutions.
Victoria began the webinar by outlining the key topics, including ‘Getting To Know Your Device (‘GTKYD’), app activities, and ebook coursebooks, with a particular focus on our own face2face ebook. She highlighted the importance of ensuring that you purchase the most appropriate device for your needs, together with considering which apps to purchase, and how to manage these in order for your tablet to work to its optimal performance.
Victoria then focused on the practical aspects of tablet management in a classroom setting, explaining the importance of creating an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), negotiated between the teacher and the class. This can be helpful in enabling teachers to minimize distraction in the classroom, and maintain focused learning. She also covered the exciting idea of encouraging teachers to think more widely, to enable students to research their environment in a supervised teaching setting. Examples of this included interviewing family members, or taking videos and photos in their local town, using tablet devices.
Victoria also posed the questions ‘How do we work towards a positive outcome from teaching with tablets?’ and ‘How does it benefit the learning experience?’ both of which highlighted the importance for teachers to fully understand the scope of the technology which they use in the classroom, and how to share ideas between learners. This section of the webinar also focused on ebook interaction, where ease of navigation is key when getting to know the book, and to how best appreciate the learning content on a tablet device.
Want to hear more? Click the play button on the video below to watch the full webinar. For more information on face2face please visit our webpage.