I’m really excited about this news. It’s the reason I created this site and the blog.

I will be teaching a course through iTDi (International Teacher Development Institute) under their Great Minds program (the great minds are not mine, but of the people we talk about in the course). It runs Sunday nights (8pm Japan Time, UTC 11am) in February and March 2023. Here are the details.

Edge of CALL: Tech for language learning and teaching

Are you wary of new technology in language teaching and learning? Do you wonder which tech you should pay attention to, and which to ignore? Can you harvest new ideas, filter, adapt, and adopt new tech to save you time and energy? Are you looking for a process to integrate new tech into your teaching and learning?

This course starts with a look at ourselves, our attitudes, and what we need new tech for. We build a personal process of collecting the right kinds of information, in the right quantities. We look at determining factors for decisions about what to adopt and what to ignore. Finding the right people and sources is key to developing your own community of practice. After all this, we work on the actual adoption; deciding how, when, how much, and at what pace that should happen. 

We also look at some edge cases in tech. We decide how to prepare for any oncoming trends that can change the way we teach. This will prepare you to be comfortable with being a tech leader in your school or community. It will put you at the leading edge without the cost of being on the bleeding edge.

Details: Your Coordinator Kevin Ryan is ironing out the details as the course approaches. The course will include: 

• Adoption processes like SAMR, TPACK, SDCE, and RAT
• Edge cases in Tech: 1) Automated Writing Evaluation, 2) Machine Translation, 3) Best-of Tech Lists, 4) Using AI to facilitate peer assessment, 5) Blockchain, 6) Teaching as a design science, and 7) Virtual Reality (aka XR, AR, VR). 

We do not assume any prior knowledge in these areas. These topics can and may change as the course approaches. See Kevin’s blog (edgeofcall.net) for the ongoing prep process and more details about the course. Make a comment or suggestion.

We use a selection of book excerpts, articles, video lectures/interviews, a mini-course, sample applications, and guest experts. We make a strong effort to ensure core materials are freely available and mostly free. This flexibility allows us to change a topic if you suggest another of more importance.