VII Conference EOI. Madrid 2011

 http://centenariodelaeoi.blogspot.com/ 

 

David Crystal was one of the speakers at the conference

John Cleese on Creativity

British actor John Cleese is best known for his comedic talent, which makes his intellectual insights on the origin of creativity particularly fascinating. “We get our ideas from what I’m going to call for a moment our unconscious — the part of our mind that goes on working, for example, when we’re asleep. So what I’m saying is that if you get into the right mood, then your mode of thinking will become much more creative. But if you’re racing around all day, ticking things off a list, looking at your watch, making phone calls and generally just keeping all the balls in the air, you are not going to have any creative ideas.” ~ John Cleese Cleese advocates creating an “oasis” amidst the daily stress where the nervous creature that is your creative mind can safely come out and play, with the oasis being guarded by boundaries of space and boundaries of time. Another interesting point Cleese makes is that knowing you are good at something requires precisely the same skills you need to be good at it, so people who are horrible at something tend to have no idea they are horrible at all.

What kind of vocabulary do advanced students need to learn?

Does vocabulary teaching need to be very different at advanced level? Is a topic-based approach still viable? Which idioms should we teach? How important is figurative use of language? These and other issues will be discussed in the session, which will also provide a range of vocabulary materials from Oxford Word Skills for use with advanced learners.

C Level Conference

The MEC organised a conference in Segovia about The C levels.
You can listen to some of the talks of the conference if you follow this link:
http://www.eeooiinet.com/n_eeooiinet/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=115&Itemid=1
The highlight was Angeles Ortega's talk:
http://fcastro.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-09-21T14_20_22-07_00

English and its Evolution

A little something for the language buffs among us. The Structure of English Words taught by Professor Will Leben (iTunes) is another Stanford course. Thanks to historical, cultural, and linguistic factors, English has by far the world’s largest vocabulary—leading many of us to have greater than average difficulty with words, and some of us to have greater than average curiosity about words.
To find out more you may want to read this post on Open Culture.

A Social Network for students (and teachers)

I have just created a social network so that we can all keep in touch. Please become a member and share with us your experiences and anything of interest that you find on the web. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
http://eoistudents.ning.com/

New Technologies and Language Interaction

Larry Lessing in his talk Laws that Choke Creativity reflects on the interactive use of the New Technologies. One of the methodological implications of the world language curriculum is interaction. Indeed, languages are not learnt just passively listening and reading but being active participants in everyday interaction with others.

80+ Videos for Tech & Media Literacy

Here you have a link to Alec Couro's blog and videos related to the use of New Tech in the classroom.

http://www.openculture.com/2009/05/80_videos_for_tech_media_literacy.html

A Vision of Students Today

A short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.



"21st Century Learning Matters" provides an introduction and conversation starter for considering the transformations needed in education.

Las Palmas Conference 2009

 Las Palmas EOI Conference

The Importance of Contextualization and of Authentic Tasks

What we need to learn and what we are able to do with what we know

Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

After the big success of the TED talk, TED asked Sir Ken Robinson 10 questions and they published them on their blog.

Now, with the latest RSA video, Sir Ken returns to delve deeper into this basic question. He asks, Why do schools kill creativity? And why is this problem built into the modern educational system? And how can we bring a “paradigm” shift – one that will let schools foster creativity at long last?

Below you can watch an interview with Sir Ken Robinson on Q TV



Finally, at The Blue School you can see how they "cultivate creative, joyful and compassionate inquirers who use courageous and innovative thinking to build a harmonious and sustainable world".. Would you like to work there?

Dalai Lama: "If your life is easy, your creativity may remain asleep. With more challenges, creativity becomes active"