Department Innovations in Using Technology in the Classroom

CATEGORIES: Department News

These events show that the Department of English’s expertise is sought after to deliver training on how to use technology in the classroom.

Webinar

The U.S. Dept. of State asked Volker Hegelheimer to do the webinar Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom in part to highlight the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) we are currently teaching.  During this session, Volker provided an overview of the use of technology in the English language classroom and shared information to help equip participants with a toolkit for exploring technologies that would help teach essential language skills. The webinar was attended by more than 1,000 participants worldwide.

MOOC

Haeyun Jin and Fatemeh Bordbariavidi started teaching a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom on February 10, 2020.  It was supposed to last until early May but due to the Covid-19 situation, the U.S. Dept. of State has asked us to extend the end date because many language teachers across the globe don’t have access to hands-on and face-to-face professional development opportunities.  They felt that extending our MOOC would be the right step to take, and we are fortunate to be able to do that. The MOOC now runs until July 27, 2020. More information about the course is available at https://www.canvas.net/browse/fhi-pd/courses/using-ed-tech-in-el-classroom.  As of today, the course has enrolled 7,943 participants.  We had a write-up of a similar MOOC in the LAS News at https://news.las.iastate.edu/2018/06/07/applied-linguistics-mooc-has-worldwide-impact/. The course we are teaching now has undergone a major transformation; it has been updated and designed to require less instructor support.  This has been a rewarding experience and has enabled ISU and the Department of English to provide timely training.