Yearly Archives: 2015

I sometimes feel like a second-class citizen being an Android user in education – especially higher education. Apple completely dominate the market and whenever I go to a presentation or app meet-up on mobile devices, at some point I have to meekly raise my hand and ask “Is that available […]

Android Academicals

24 Dec, 2015 in android / ios tagged android / apple / apps / goolge / ios by David Read

Three years ago, at a British Council seminar in London Michael Rundell, editor in chief at Macmillan Dictionaries, posed the question “Who needs dictionaries?” Certainly the idea of paying for a dictionary is something that is rapidly looking outdated, as there is a wide range of free dictionaries available on […]

Death of the dictionary?

30 Nov, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged dictionary by Jonathan Smith

At the recent BALEAP PIM Conference in Sheffield, I talked about a new online course on Learning Technologies in EAP we’re planning to run at our centre next year. It will be a training course for teachers and the goal is to provide them with a solid basis in the […]

Learning Technologies in EAP online course

23 Nov, 2015 in EAP tagged course / eap / online / Puentedura / SAMR / tools / TPACK by David Read

I recently experimented with QR codes on one of the pre-sessional courses I work on. The aim of the experiment was to see if I could create opportunities for and encourage more self-study outside of contact time but while students were still in the building. Two of the basic principles […]

Using QR codes to promote self-study

17 Nov, 2015 in tech tool tagged mobile / QR codes by Hazel McAllister

The recording of the Learning Technologies in EAP webinar can now be accessed here. There were a few technical issues at various points, so feel free to skip over those, but overall it went off successfully and there were some excellent presentations. I’d like to thank everyone who attended and […]

Recording of Learning Technologies in EAP webinar

12 Nov, 2015 in webinar tagged powerpoint / quizlet / recording / socrative / webinar by David Read

The Learning Technologies in EAP Group is an informal association of English for Academic Purposes tutors that are interested in or have special responsibilities for developing the use of technology among teachers and students. Our goal is to share ideas and promote best practices in the use of technology in […]

Webinar: Learning Technologies in EAP, Wed 11th November, 17:30-18:45

5 Nov, 2015 in webinar by David Read

What is it? It’s difficult to describe what the Swivl is so perhaps easier to show you what it is, how it works and what you can do with it in the classroom. Watch this video where I go through the basic features. If you didn’t watch the video, […]

Tools for Learning Technologists: The Swivl

30 Oct, 2015 in tech tool tagged cpd / peer observation / swivl / video by David Read

photo credit: Ed Yourdon via photopin cc As a middle-aged man teaching EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and technology (sometimes) to students half my age I do wonder about the term ‘digital native’ and how it absolves me of a lot of responsibility. My students seem so at ease with […]

Digital literacies for EAP students: who’s responsible?

24 Oct, 2015 in digital literacies / digital natives. / EAP / responsibility / technology / training / university by David Read

Digital Storytelling is the creation of personal or factual narratives using a range of multi-media and using some form of online webtool or app to make it available for people to read and interact with. So, for example, a student might create a slideshow of a recent trip he/she’s been on and then record audio to describe the photos. Or they might detail a recent news event by pulling together youtube videos, tweets, web articles and then connecting them or explaining them with their own text.

Digital Storytelling in EAP

24 Oct, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged digital storytelling / google slides / padlet / storify by David Read

I’ve just created a list of mobile apps that are useful for EAP students to to develop both their English and academic skills, feel free to share it among your own students and teachers: Mobile apps for language learning If anyone would like to add to the list, you can, […]

List of mobile apps for EAP students

5 Aug, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged android / apps / ios / listly by David Read

If you asked me what one tool I couldn’t live without in my job as a learning technologist, there’s an easy answer – Snagit by Techsmith. Snagit is a software programme designed to to help you do two things: take screenshots of your computer screen and annotate/edit them to insert […]

Tools for Learning Technologists: Snagit

26 Jul, 2015 in tech tool tagged camtasia / guides / screencasting / screenshots / snagit / techsmith by David Read

Quizlet is a very popular website for creating flashcards for self or class study. To see what it can do, go to this page where I created a list of academic English terms. Along the top you can click on flashcards (1) to see the vocab cards (click on the […]

EAP Tech Tool of the Week: Quizlet

24 Jul, 2015 in tech tool tagged flashcards / quizlet / revision / vocabulary by David Read

This is the first in a weekly series of useful websites, apps and devices that could be used in the EAP classroom to engage and interest students. They will be as practical as possible, focussing on the practical steps of how to use them as well as some suggestions for […]

EAP Tech Tool of the Week: Socrative

15 Jul, 2015 in tech tool tagged apps / quizzes / review / socrative by David Read

What is a Google Doc and why might we want to use it in the EAP classroom? Before getting onto the practical applications, let’s first clarify what a Google Doc actually is. This isn’t meant to be patronising for those who already know, rather an acknowledgement that not everyone has […]

7 Ways to use Google Docs in the EAP Classroom

5 Jul, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged Google Docs by David Read

There is a plethora of technological tools for students to assist the use of an additional language is many contexts. There are also myriad sites devoted to the discussion of use, development and exploitation of these tools, whether this is in EAP or beyond- and many of these are excellent. […]

What is the future of Google Translate and EAP?

1 Jul, 2015 in Uncategorized by Mike Groves

What kind of work does a learning technologist do in EAP? This is a job title that’s only come into existence in the last few years so there’s naturally some confusion about what it involves. For me at least it often involves explaining that I don’t know how to fix […]

What does an EAP learning technologist actually do?

28 Jun, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged eap / learning technologist / pre-sessional / summer school by David Read

I think our field is generally fairly poorly served on the internet, there are not a huge number of sites dedicated to EAP or developing the types of skills EAP students need. However, there are a few out there worthy of consideration and which I feel confident recommending to my […]

What are your favourite EAP websites?

20 Jun, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged academic phrasebank / AWL / flax / websites by David Read

Mendeley is probably the most user-friendly reference and article management software out there, but for a long time you could only use the mobile app on iOS. However, you can now access your Mendeley library on your android phone or tablet here. You can’t really manage references from the […]

Mendeley on Android

20 Jun, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged android / apps / mendeley / reference management by David Read

At the recent BALEAP conference there were a number of sessions exploring the use of corpora and concordance tools with students in class. I have used a few of these in the past myself, such as Lex Tutor and COCA, with my own groups but I’ve never been entirely satisfied […]

Helping EAP students develop better vocabulary learning habits

24 May, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged eap / evernote / flax / vocabulary by David Read

My students live obsessively on their mobile phones and tablets, sometimes too much so and most of us have had that mental debate about whether to let them use their phones in class. Given an idle moment in a lesson, most students will find some surreptitious way to check their […]

cross-platform productivity apps for EAP students

31 Mar, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged android / apps / eap / evernote / google drive / ios / mendeley / note-taking / onenote / quizlet / reference management / simplenote / todoist / trello by David Read