Engaging students must surely be the most talked about subject in ELT these days. Everywhere I go and there are teachers around, I hear complaints of how students won't get involved, that they couldn't care less and that standards are dropping. This, does seem to be the case and it is all very sad. However, one little flicker of hope has been lit in my class, and it involves this marvellous platform, the internet, and in my opinion, the best LMS/PLN site currently on the web 2.0. May I introduce you to EDMODO . I have been using this every day this year and I am now starting to see the effect on the students and their engagement with the course. It is not 100% of the students, but out of 22 I can safely claim that 18 use it daily and interact, with the other 4 opening the site for important information. I have made three videos below that explain what it looks like, how it works and for the me the best video is where I show the students interacting and engaging in the course materials and sharing ideas and helping one another ALL IN ENGLISH. There isn't a Turkish word in sight and this must surely be a first! for a Hazırlık class. So, no more waffling, here are the videos, and I hope they can encourage you to try it out</object>
warmly, affectionately and edmodo.comly
DavidM