Blended learning with Business Spotlight

This Saturday, 20 February, Deborah Capras and I will be in Frankfurt, giving a hands-on workshop at a one-day business English conference sponsored by Cambridge ESOL and Business Spotlight.

The topic of our workshop is blended learning and we'll be sharing our experiences of teaching and learning using technology. There is no escaping the fact that technology is playing an ever more important role, not only in the way we learn, but also in our lives in general. Well over half of the world's population owns a mobile phone, and the majority of people in the business world have access to at least one computer nowadays. As a result, we are more networked to more people than ever before. If you're not on Facebook yourself by now, chances are you'll know someone who is.

Social media and Web 2.0 have become buzzwords in recent years. And with this new media and new technology comes a whole load of new vocabulary. You may already be regular users of YouTube and Wikipedia, but how familiar are you with platforms such as Moodle, Ning, flickr, Twitter, Blogger and Second Life? Do you skype? Do you have a class wiki? Have you thought about how you can incorporate such social media platforms into your teaching to make the learning process more effective? In Saturday's workshop we will show participants how they can develop a whole course around the print, audio and, in particular, the online components of Business Spotlight.

There is a saying that technology will not replace teachers, but teachers who use technology will replace those who don't. I'm not sure I fully agree with this, but I don't intend to be the one to find out to my disadvantage. I use technology for teaching only when I think it adds some pedagogical or other benefit to the learning process. I have used audio and video files as well as the Internet for many years and have recently been experimenting with the social media platform Ning with both my group and one-to-one courses. The results so far have been encouraging.

Whether you're a technophobe or a technophile, there is always something more to learn in this continuously-developing area. So check out what's out there, attend workshops, talk to other teachers and above all, don't be afraid to ask others for advice; most people are more than willing to help.

If you have any questions regarding teaching with technology, or any feedback you'd like to leave on this topic, I'd love to read your comments.