In December British Council Russia organised four days intensive face-to face course dedicated to learning technologies in ELT and carried out it successfully. The group consisted of 20 professional and active teachers and teacher trainers from 11 different cities and towns of Russia including major centres like Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Kazan.

The action plans of disseminating best practicies and theory of the course were created by the participants and we are looking forward to seeing the first results of their work soon. Here are our participants of the Digital Litercies course 2012:

• Akhrenova Natalia
• Bechina Anna
• Dorofeeva Oxana
• Dvoretskaya Ekaterina
• Gainullin Gusman
• Goldenberg Elena
• Gulyukina Polina
• Karataeva Rosa
• Kokoreva Margarita
• Kopylovskaya Maria
• Kostyukovich Irina
• Lapina Lubov
• Mamaev Mikhail
• Matveeva Elena
• Ndirowei Jonathan
• Solovyova Tatyana
• Stepanova Natalia
• Tsvetkova Anna
• Utkin Evgeniy
• Zhurukova Lucia

In the web 2.0 era, the idea of basic numeracy and literacy (‘the three Rs’) has been expanded to take in a wide range of new interactions: both interactions with content and social interactions with an increasingly global audience. In this Moscow workshop, Gavin Dudeney (Director of Technology at the Consultants-E and Chair of the IATEFL Electronic Committee) and Mark Pegrum (Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Australia) will break down the idea of ‘literacy’ in the new digital era and examine what it means in terms of both the people we teach and how we teach them.

AIM OF THE COURSE

By the end of the course participants will have a deeper understanding of the theoretical framework behind new digital literacies and will be able to apply them in an educational context in a variety of scenarios: as a teacher, teacher trainer, materials developer or policy maker. Coupled with this overview of theory and application, participants will leave with practical experience in a variety of ICT tools and gadgets, and a variety of immediately implementable teaching ideas and activities for using learning technologies in the classroom.

OVERALL COURSE OVERVIEW

Each of the four days will be divided into four sessions: in the morning we will do input, and in the afternoon more practical activities. Each day the first input session will give a large, theoretical overview of an aspect of technology, whilst the second input session will look at the practical application of an aspect. The aim is to give participants a larger picture of where technology fits into our lives whilst, at the same time, showing them how it fits into teaching, training or materials and curriculum development.

In the afternoon we will have two sessions in which participants practise using some of the tools and approaches from the morning input sessions, and share their practice and reflection with the group. Participants will also be encouraged to explore the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) aspect of technology integration in teaching through the exploration of their own devices.
The course will cover tools for working with words, images, video and audio and many others. Read full course overview here.

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS (closed)

We will select 20 participants for the course and we are looking for applications from experienced, forward looking teachers who have access to web-based technologies in their professional environments. The key criteria are interest in and ability to introduce new technologies in current workplace.  

• Please read all criteria and conditions carefully before applying for the course! Download APPLICATION FORM here.
• Please send your completed applications to Nadia Gulevich nadia.gulevich@britishcouncil.ru by November 8, 2012.
  You will be informed if you were successful by November 15, 2012.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

			a competent command of English;
			a degree in ELT, education or similar;
			minimum of 3 years of teaching experience;
			good basic IT skills (MS office, e-mail, Internet);
			initiative and enthusiasm to develop professionally;
			interest in the area of using new technologies in language teaching;
			ability to implement new technologies in language teaching;
			need and relevance of the course to personal and institutional development;
			ability to disseminate the results of the course;
			teacher training experience is desirable.

OTHER CONDITIONS

			Selected participants will need to bring their laptop or netbook to the workshop;
			Selected participants will be responsible for implementing the action plan designed during the course and reporting on it to the British Council;
			British Council will not be providing accommodation or travel to Moscow;
			The course is free of charge for the participants;
			Participants of previous intensive learning technologies workshops organised by the British Council and participants of previous summer schools are not eligible to apply.

Fore more information about the course please contact Nadia Gulevich
Tel. (495) 287 1820, e-mail: nadia.gulevich@britishcouncil.ru